I am thinking of purchasing the microchip PUM kit to upgrade my current PICstart plus development programmer. But my PICstart is a very old device with the letter 'R5' beside the serial no.
Do you think i could still upgrade my PICstart or do I need to purchase a new one? All i need is to flash my code into a 16F84a. Does anyone has a better suggestion than for me purchasing a new PICstart (which is very costly)?
I don't know if the update will work for yours but a good solution for an upgrade is buying or making an ICD2.
Whether you get the Microchip ICD2, a full USB clone like the one made by OLIMEX, or you put together a simple one; the ICD2 is a much better platform for microcontroller development.
The ICD2 is a debugger and a programmer. In fact, the ICD2 currently supports more devices than the PICSTART+. In addition, is is also much faster than the PICSTART+. Have a look at the ICD2 readme file included with MPLAB. It will show you all of the devices supported.
You have to remember that the ICD2 only works via ICSP (it does not have a socket) so design your projects accordingly.
I like Newfound Electronic's Warp13. Bitchin programmer. Very nice software, and it's damn fast! It also has a pinned connector already set up for ISP.
IMHO the guy knowns more about programming Microchip's parts than Microchip does.