Hey all. I've been using a Kit149 programmer for years running Microburn software. One of them died and I'm still on my second one but it's getting worn and sometimes acts up.
Anyway I have ordered a few Pickit3 knock offs from Amazon which would work for a while then something happens to them. I don't know if the knock offs are very sensitive to being connected to my circuit at the same time but my old Kit149 usually just has a hickup and then works again after it resets but the PicKit 3 just dies.

Anyway I ordered a kit150 off of ebay. Cheap.
Man. It is using that horrible prolific usb to serial chip that Windows 10/11 hates. And even after I get a driver to work and see it at all, microburn doesn't connect to it. So that was junk.

So I thought before I searched and took a chance on something else maybe I'd ask you guys what is a good cheap programmer tool.

I see that Microchip uses pikit4 or something like that, but that thing isn't cheap and if it is sensitive and will fry easy like the pickit3's then I don't want that. But of course the pickit3 issues could be because they are knock offs.

Anyway. When I did get the pickit3 to work initially I did get it to work with Microcode studio with some setup info I found on the forums.
It just didn't last more than a few uses the few times I bought one. :-(