Affordable programmer

I'm new to PIC world, and begin using WinPicProg and freePicProg with Pic16Pro40 Hw, do you know about a better, preferred sw programmer ?

Thanks in advance.

I use the Epic Plus from www.melabs.com .It was like $50 If I remember right.I've used it for 30+ different PIC part numbers with zero problems.

jmantilla said:

I'm new to PIC world, and begin using WinPicProg and freePicProg with Pic16Pro40 Hw, do you know about a better, preferred sw programmer ?

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The P16PRO40 is probably the best parallel port programmer available, and WinPicProg was the first Windows programmer software available, and is still the fastest programmer available. As an alternative you can use ICProg, which covers more PIC's, but isn't as fast.

In what way do you want a 'better' programmer?.

for 'better' I mean, better PIC models coverage, including perhaps ICSP.

in my opinion winpicprog+P16PRO40 is the best. it also has ICSP capability.

but if u want an advanced solution like an ICD, consider the PIC ICD2 clone **broken link removed**

jmantilla said:

for 'better' I mean, better PIC models coverage, including perhaps ICSP.

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If you want the best PIC range possible you need to buy the MicroChip PICStart Plus - they generally update it before they release new PIC's, no other programmer has a prayer of keeping so up to date.

Do you have a requirement for a specific PIC?, or do you just want support for dozens of PIC's you'll never use?.

However, ICSP is a totally different matter, the OziPIC on my website is a modified version of the P16PRO40 which includes better ICSP facilties. However, for any ICSP you have to design your target circuit with that in mind.

There are basically two types of programmers, the low cost ones (like the P16PRO40) which 'waggle' PC pins to program the PIC, this can be either parallel or serial port pins - these are PC programmers, the PC does the actual programmaing.

The other type are the far more more expensive ones, these connect to the serial port itself, or the USB port (although many just use a USB to serial adaptor on a serial port programmer). These use a processor on the programmer board (like the PICStart Plus does), this processor does the actual programming - the computer merely transfers the data to the processor over the serial link.