On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 04:51:33PM -0500, Peter Johansson wrote: > On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 3:20 PM, Byron Jeff = wrote: >=20 > > The project died because virtually no modern machine comes with a paral= lel > > or serial port anymore. >=20 > It's always handy to keep a few old laptops on hand for this very reason. I'm not sure it's worth it because then that's another whole machine whose software you need to manage. Not to mention that old laptops have battery issues, and you have to keep track of the power supply. A simple code dumper can be put together with a handful of discrete parts (7 resistors, 3 zener diodes, 3 jellybean NPN transistors) and a USB/serial interface that will dump a bootloader onto a part in nothing flat. So if you are a bootloader person (as I am), there's little reason to keep an entire old laptop, when a handful of junkbox parts can do the job. Honestly, the toughest part to locate is an easy to interface female DB9. In the old days, one could scrounge one connected to a IDC flat ribbon cable off one of the back plates of an old PC. But they don't exist anymore. Currently I use a Cisco serial console cable (female DB9 to RJ45) and either cut off the RJ45 end or use a RJ45 coupler and an ethernet pigtail. BAJ >=20 > -p. > --=20 > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist --=20 Byron A. Jeff Department Chair: IT/CS/CNET College of Information and Mathematical Sciences Clayton State University http://cims.clayton.edu/bjeff --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .