As stated in the title, I am new to PICs and want to program them in BASIC so I am looking at Swordfish (18F series) and / or MikroBasic for PIC. However, I ordered some samples from Microchip to start with being:

PIC18F4520-I/P
PIC18F4550-I/P
PIC18F2550-I/SP
PIC16LF84A-04I/P

Two of them I beleive are USB based and the 16F84A is more of an older classic.

Anyway, can someone point me to a pic programmer that I can layout on a solderless breadboard (hopefully 5v compliant - e.g. not need 12v or anything higher than 5v).

Thanks.

PS: I have been working with Parallax SX-28 microcontrollers over the last 2 years but never really used PICs before but they should be similar.

 

you're about to be lightly toasted [as opposed to flamed] for ordering a 16F84 as you will be told it's obsolete. [lots of good web examples though]
for the basic software have a look at oshonsoft's basic/assembler/simulator package http://www.oshonsoft.com/pic18.html
most parallel port programmers use more than 5v for vpp generation, serial port ones are able to get vpp from the port. i've seen a couple of parallel port ones which generate vpp from 5v supply with extra components. you'll need to check programmer hardware/software compatibility with the chips ordered, different vpp/algorithms.

 

Then you'll be happy to know the 16F84A requires a HV programmer (about 13V)

Just google JDM programmer for hundreds of PIC programmer schematics. They can be difficult to get running on modern computers though.

Here's one that's about as simple as they get.
http://home.vrweb.de/~lotharstolz/stolz.de.be/lvpc/index.html

__________________
Bill
Smart Kits build Smart People
http://www.blueroomelectronics.com

 

I modified this circuit and replaced the IC socket with a 5-pin header that I plug into my PCBs for programming. I covers most of the PIC16F series. Don't know much about the 18F series though

 

That is the classic JDM style programmer. Only real problem is it depends on a proper serial port for the VPP, almost all USB based RS232 adapters don't put out +/- 12V it needs.

Of course our moderator & PIC guru Nigel Goodwin has his WinPicProg version but it requires a 12V to 18V supply. And of course excellent and working tutorials for midrange PICs can be found on his site http://www.winpicprog.co.uk/

I noticed a 18F2550 on your list of PICs, you might want to try your hand at building your own PICkit 2 clone, you can use a simple LVP programmer to get the bootloader on it.

It's actually a simple to build 5V USB powered programmer / debugger, see the Junebug thread in the Microcontroller section. I handwired my prototype and it works fine, far superior to any JDM or NOPPP programmer and MPLAB supports it! I've posted a simplified schematic, no 3.3V support to keep it really simple and inexpensive.
(Very fast little beastie)

__________________
Bill
Smart Kits build Smart People
http://www.blueroomelectronics.com

 

If you want to use the USB features of those chips, you'll notice that the USB example code from MicroChip is in C. MicroChip provides a free C compiler for these chips also. Another thing you may notice is that a lot of the free programmers, such as Nigels, don't support the 18F2550 etc. They are great for starting out and work well with the simpler chips such as the 16F628 and the 16F877, etc. I built the P16PRO40, documented on Nigel's site, on a breadboard when I started out. It never left the breadboard until I got an ICD2.
You'll need to build an ICD2 clone such as the Inchworm by BlueRoom when you want to use the more exotic chips such as the 18F2550. An ICD2 will support ALL PICs.

__________________
--- The days of the digital watch are numbered. ---

 

oshonsoft's parallel port pic18 programming software programs all three of your 18F pics on a p16pro40, i've used it successfully with the 18F2550 and the 18F4550.
obviously you ultimately want to upgrade to an icd2 clone [inchworm+] but for now a simple 'tate' style programmer is easy to build and can be used by most free programmer software. good software includes winpicprog [see mr. goodwin] , icprog [has been a little temperemental for me], oshonsoft's pic16 and pic18 programmers . i use all three, dependant on chip model compatibility, but now immediately program with 'tinybootloader' which makes all subsequent programming so simple.