Post by thread:[PIC]: JDM programmers, build or buy?

We are talking of a programmer for PIC's, right ? I read this as you are starting with PIC's with "little to no electronics experience". I'd say that's a greater challenge than building the programmer ! Maybe you *should* build the programmer to build up at least *some* "electronics experience"... Jan-Erik. Iain Duncan wrote : >Hi, I'm wondering what folks think about building your first programmer if >you have little to no electronics experience. Is it just asking for >unnecessary frustration? Specifically I am thinking about building the JDM >programmer or buying the Olimex PG2C version. -- http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! email .....listservKILLspam@spam@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body

At 12:23 AM 6/24/2003 -0800, you wrote: > >Hi, I'm wondering what folks think about building your first programmer if >you have little to no electronics experience. Is it just asking for >unnecessary frustration? Specifically I am thinking about building the JDM >programmer or buying the Olimex PG2C version. Assuming you have not already decided, you might check out the Wisp628 at http://www.voti.nl/wisp628/index.html It comes in either kit form or preassembled. I bought the kit, and had no problem with building it (took about an hour). Reasonably priced and I use it with both Windows98 and Linux (Redhat 8.0). Cheers, John -- http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! email listservKILLspammitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body

Hello Iain! I started out building a few Tait style programmers, and they worked ok in Win9x. But getting them to work reliably and with reasonable speed under a NT-based OS is not trivial. Also, they are not very good at in-circuit programming. I ended up buying a kit from Wouter (http://www.voti.nl) of his Wisp628. It's a HVP programmmer with a serial interface and a nifty serial passthrough function. I absolutely love it. If you need to program PICs out of circuit, it's easy enough on a solderless breadboard. An adapter for various package sizes would also be easy to make. Oh btw, it's cheap too! Regards, Hugo (not associated with Wouters business in any way) {Original Message removed}

On Tue, Jun 24, 2003 at 09:39:28AM +0200, Jan-erik S?derholm (QAC) wrote: > We are talking of a programmer for PIC's, right ? > I read this as you are starting with PIC's with > "little to no electronics experience". I'd say that's > a greater challenge than building the programmer ! > Maybe you *should* build the programmer to build up > at least *some* "electronics experience"... Agreed. Some addtional points: * What novices often find difficult is the fact that development is an interative process. They often expect that once they connect the dots that everything will "just work". It rarely does. Once has to be systematic and patient. * Start simple. My series of trivial programmers are designed to be easy and cheap to build. CHeck them out here: http://www.finitesite.com/d3jsys BAJ -- http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! email .....listservKILLspam.....mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body

My advice if you are just starting out using Pics is not to build a JDM type programmer, it works very well on the older Pics (16f84 etc.) but does not work very well on the newer Pics such as the 16f628, 12f629 etc.. I suspect that the serial JDM2 type circuit can also damage the newer Pic chips. If you have any doubts then have a look at the IC-Prog message board which contains regular tales of woe from people struggling to get 16F628s etc working with the JDM programmer. Go for a programmer which is designed to work with the newer Pics, some of the old home build designs are not up to the job. John PB > Hi, I'm wondering what folks think about building your first programmer if > you have little to no electronics experience. Is it just asking for > unnecessary frustration? Specifically I am thinking about building the JDM > programmer or buying the Olimex PG2C version. > Thanks, > Iain Duncan -- http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! email EraseMElistservspam_OUTTakeThisOuTmitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body

I kinda agree but I also kinda don't. If someone is "just getting started" with pics, the "JDM" type programmer is a good inexpensive way to "get Started" It programs a lot of chips that can perform lots of jobs, including "learning pics". I have one, and when used for what it was intended for, it works quite well. I bought mine before I knew it was a JDM programmer. I got it from Olimex for about $6 or so. It is still quite useful in the field for a lot of jobs. I have a microchip programmer, a couple of other programmers that will program not only pics, but many other controllers, as well as eproms. The one I like the best though and the one I use for most developement is the EPIC. I have two of those, one for work, and one for the bench at home. John Brown wrote: {Quote hidden}> > My advice if you are just starting out using Pics is not to build a JDM type > programmer, it works very well on the older Pics (16f84 etc.) but does not > work very well on the newer Pics such as the 16f628, 12f629 etc.. I > suspect that the serial JDM2 type circuit can also damage the newer Pic > chips. If you have any doubts then have a look at the IC-Prog message board > which contains regular tales of woe from people struggling to get 16F628s > etc working with the JDM programmer. > Go for a programmer which is designed to work with the newer Pics, some of > the old home build designs are not up to the job. > > John PB > > > Hi, I'm wondering what folks think about building your first programmer if > > you have little to no electronics experience. Is it just asking for > > unnecessary frustration? Specifically I am thinking about building the JDM > > programmer or buying the Olimex PG2C version. > > Thanks, > > Iain Duncan > > -- > http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! > email listservspam_OUTmitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body -- http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! email @spam@listservKILLspammitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body

> It's a design by Jens Dyekjfr Madsen for a really simple programmer > powered only from the serial port. Some good detail can be found at: > > http://www.jdm.homepage.dk/newpic.htm OH! The PP2. Why didn't you SAY so... I recently translated his PCB/Schematic for this into Eagle, if anyone is interested. (this has not been tested, though. Strange how I seem to have all this time to lay things out, and so little time to actually build and test stuff. Sigh.) The design rules are actually a bit "fierce" for beginner home methods, though, IMO (ie traces between pins.) You may be better off using rats-nest or pseudo-wire-wrap... BillW -- http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! email RemoveMElistservTakeThisOuTmitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body

I have the olimex PG2C, which is the same as the PG2B but with an ICSP header.. essentially the JDM design. I picked it up on eBay for a few dollars, and am completely pleased with it. I've programmed a few 16F628 parts with no woes (maybe I'm just lucky?) under WinXP, several 16F877/877A, and a couple of 18Fxxx parts.. it's cheap, which makes it a great starting point if you are in a situation where you want to learn PICs but don't have a lot of money.. I don't want to admit to how long it took me to save up the money for a decent compiler =) The only downside is the lack of support for certain parts in ic-prog (the 16F628A and the 16F819 to be precise), but good things come to those who wait :) -Pat On Tue, 24 Jun 2003, Larry Williams wrote: {Quote hidden}> I kinda agree but I also kinda don't. If someone is "just getting > started" with pics, the "JDM" type programmer is a good inexpensive way > to "get Started" It programs a lot of chips that can perform lots of > jobs, including "learning pics". I have one, and when used for what it > was intended for, it works quite well. I bought mine before I knew it > was a JDM programmer. I got it from Olimex for about $6 or so. It is > still quite useful in the field for a lot of jobs. I have a microchip > programmer, a couple of other programmers that will program not only > pics, but many other controllers, as well as eproms. The one I like the > best though and the one I use for most developement is the EPIC. I have > two of those, one for work, and one for the bench at home. > > John Brown wrote: > > > > My advice if you are just starting out using Pics is not to build a JDM type > > programmer, it works very well on the older Pics (16f84 etc.) but does not > > work very well on the newer Pics such as the 16f628, 12f629 etc.. I > > suspect that the serial JDM2 type circuit can also damage the newer Pic > > chips. If you have any doubts then have a look at the IC-Prog message board > > which contains regular tales of woe from people struggling to get 16F628s > > etc working with the JDM programmer. > > Go for a programmer which is designed to work with the newer Pics, some of > > the old home build designs are not up to the job. > > > > John PB > > > > > Hi, I'm wondering what folks think about building your first programmer if > > > you have little to no electronics experience. Is it just asking for > > > unnecessary frustration? Specifically I am thinking about building the JDM > > > programmer or buying the Olimex PG2C version. > > > Thanks, > > > Iain Duncan > > > > -- > > http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! > > email spamBeGonelistservspamBeGonemitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body > > -- > http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! > email TakeThisOuTlistservEraseMEspam_OUTmitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body > -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList RemoveMEpiclist-unsubscribe-requestTakeThisOuTmitvma.mit.edu>