The good news is that the 18F25K50 isn't that expensive. I'll order some and I'll give it a try.
9859
Bad news, I got this response from Melabs.
We tried many years ago, but failed to make the USB commands work in a useful way. In any case there is no further development planned for PBP.
...
It doesn't make any sense to me either.
rsocor01 Today, 00:03Why Microchip do such stupid things, like two sets of programming pins for low or high voltage?
Oh dear...
Ioannis
Hmm, I made it work for a flashing LED. This is weird, you need to power the 16F1454 chip with 5V. It won't get programmed if I power it with 3V. I have never seen this for a regular 16F chip.
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And check out post 4 about the epic programmer files.
(I see you have EPC in you image.)
Is there anything of value over there:
https://support.melabs.com/forum/device-programmers/u2-usb-programmer/711-16f1455-support-on-older-usb-programmer#post2077
Are you using the ZIF...
Hmm, I'm trying to make this chip work with just an LED and the chip is not cooperating. I'm getting a "Does not match target device" error. When I try to get the target information, I get a...
rsocor01 Yesterday, 04:22
Re: PIC16F1454 Connecting To USB Doesn't Work
I just hit a sweet deal. At that price, I cleaned out everything they had on hand:
Demon Today, 01:129860
These go for $3.91 / 100 at Digikey.