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DIY a PIC Programmer

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sanjoy

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Im not very familiar with PIC programming. A PIC programmer is needed to burn 16f876A that used in my project. A PIC programmer is a expensive one. So I need a cheap one for one-time use. Can u pls comment on the Ckt about its possible performance. thanks all
 

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Yeah...that's almost exactly like the NoPPP programmer that I used to use. It worked but not the best way to do things.

A PICkit3 can be had for around $50 USD from MicrochipDirect.
 
That circuit should work. It fulfills the programming arrangements detailed in the datasheet (page 158, "In Circuit serial Programming") for that series of PIC devices.
 
If you want to build and debug a PIC programmer, DIY is the way to go. If you actually want to program PICs, a PICkit 3 or PICkit 2 clone is the way to go.

Many people have wasted a lot of time tying to get DIY programmers to work - few have been successful.
 
Many people have wasted a lot of time tying to get DIY programmers to work - few have been successful.

A GREAT many people have successfully built DIY programmers, far more than MicroChip ever sold back in the early years :D

However, it's serial port programmers which were the big problem, parallel port ones were far more successful.
 
I built a parallel port programmer many years ago and had many happy hours programming 16F84s with it.
However with the passage of time and needing more I/O pins without the pain of multiplexing, I moved to 16F887s and at the same time bought a PICkit2.
It somehow went against the grain to buy a replacement for an already working zero cost home made device, but as soon as I had got the feel of the PICkit2 all misgivings an reservations were forgotten.

Jon Wilder wrote:
Yeah...that's almost exactly like the NoPPP programmer that I used to use. It worked but not the best way to do things.
A PICkit3 can be had for around $50 USD from MicrochipDirect.
Which is all well and good, but how do you reconcile that advice with what you wrote in this thread:
https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/discouraging-forum-comments.143508/

JimB
 
IMHO,
if the OP has support of com port he could well try out the DL4YHF pic programmer and it was working fine for me.
Sanjoy, (if in India), can choose to take from me pickit2 that works, made from discrete components. I have been using it.
If interested , he could reach me on pm giving is email and i can send details.
Others, if interested to DIY, i can offer the artwork that made
 
Which is all well and good, but how do you reconcile that advice with what you wrote in this thread:
https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/discouraging-forum-comments.143508/

JimB

Heh...I knew someone was gonna bring this up.

In this case the OP mentioned PIC programmers being "too expensive" as part of the motivating reason to make this one. I don't consider $50 USD as "expensive" by any means. Furthermore, this programmer uses a very outdated interface that a lot of motherboards don't even have on them, and good luck trying to find PC software that works with this programmer unless you write your own.

Of course he could always just make his own PICkit 3 since both hardware and software are open source. But then he'll need a programmer to flash the 24F that goes into it...
 
Heh...I knew someone was gonna bring this up.
Sometimes we all make statements which we have to contradict a few days later. Don't you just hate it when that happens.

I don't consider $50 USD as "expensive" by any means.
Neither do I, but may be Sanjoy does.
On the other hand, sometimes you just have to put up and pay up the cost of doing business.

The offer from MVS looks like a good reasonable "local solution".

JimB
 
If the OP is dead set on doing his own outdated programmer, here's a schematic for the NoPPP programmer. It uses the parallel port though, but its what I've used before I owned any of the PICkit programmers -

http://www.dropbox.com/s/onpdt7dks9tk5km/noppp-x.gif?dl=0

Here's the recommended power supply for it -

http://www.dropbox.com/s/rszzycx447ttbjq/powersply.gif?dl=0

You can find programming software to make this programmer work here -

http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/noppp/

A side note...in the BIOS settings on your computer, the parallel port must be set up in Standard Parallel Port (SPP) mode for this programmer to work, not Enhanced Parallel Port mode (EPP).
 
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A GREAT many people have successfully built DIY programmers, far more than MicroChip ever sold back in the early years :D

However, it's serial port programmers which were the big problem, parallel port ones were far more successful.
can u pls give me a parallel port one. thanks
 
Having used PICs since the very early 90's - and a lot of different PIC programmers - my "favorite" was the Picstart Plus, a serial port programmer. Alas, it is no longer actively supported and serial ports are getting hard to find.

When replacing it I settled on the PicKit 3 (which is much faster in all ways!) but quickly found that it had problems - UNLESS I set the target supply voltage down from the default 5 volts to something like 4.0-4.5 volts, whereupon all of the problems with unreliable programming suddenly went away!

What seems to be the problem is that the Vcc is supplied by the USB line - unless you supply it externally (an available option, but a pain!) and there is no boost voltage converter for the VCC in the PicKit3. If the Vcc setting on the programmer/software is set higher than is possible after USB voltage drops, diode drop and FET I*R drop, the device's Vcc will vary during programming and there is a good chance that it will fail.

Since almost all modern PICs will program just fine at well below 5 volts, setting Vcc below the dropout threshold fixes this problem and I have had zero problems with it: I just have to remember to make sure that it is set there since the programming software doesn't always "remember" this parameter.

For programming I use the standalone PicKit programming software from Microchip rather than that built into MPLAB - and it seems to handle the "MCLR" problem just fine (which was never a problem with the Picstart!) whereas this can sometimes be a fight on some devices with MPLAB. (Some simpler programmers may not allow you to define the MCLR pin as an I/O - which is a pain if you are using an 8 pin device and really need all of the pins that you can get!)

One thing that I "lost" when I stopped using the Picstart was the "universal" socket that it had, but I found the Sure Electronics DB-UD111111 universal socket board for just $10 that works just as well - at least for 8, 14, 18, 20, 28 and 40 pin through-hole devices: Even if one "rolls" ones own programmer, $10 for this board with its ZIF sockets is hard to beat!
 
The programmer that I supplied links to above is a parallel port programmer.
 
That circuit will not work. The BC337 is an emitter follower.
You can buy a USB programmer for $10.00 posted
 
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