On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 1:18 PM, Christopher Head wrote: > How about something based on an FTDI chip? I can't say for sure because > I've never investigated myself, but I have heard that as well as > operating as USB-to-serial converters (with their much-maligned > inability to reliably order changes on different pins), they also have > some kind of library or API that one can download that allows > lower-level control over pin states. > That is actually quite possible. In fact, many simple JTAG debuggers are based on FT2232x (FT2232D or FT2232H). Many of them are just FT2232x device plus a level shifter. They support a mode called MPSSE. http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/SoftwareExamples/MPSSE.htm Projects: libftdi: http://www.intra2net.com/en/developer/libftdi/ OpenOCD: http://sourceforge.net/projects/openocd/ UrJtag: http://urjtag.sourceforge.net/ However, I do not know of any support for PICs using FTDI based JTAG programmer other than the limit support of OpenOCD PIC32 support. On the other hand, if you want to buy a ready-made FT2232x based debugger, the price is not really that cheap compared to the US$35 PICKit 2. Eg: http://www.olimex.com/dev/pricelist.html Olimex ARM-USB-TINY costs Euro 39.95. --=20 Xiaofan --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .