HI speed programmer

[jrprogrammer]

How about having Digikey pre-program them for you?

[peterdeco1]

I don't know if this will work for ICSP but I have paralleled up to 10 DIP chips and ran a cable to my programmer socket. It programs all of them at the same time.

[Demon]

Peter, did you have verify enabled?

Robert

[peterdeco1]

Yes Robert. I use a Picstart + from Mplab. It always verifies after programming. And after paralleling the chips and programming them, they were immediately installed on the circuit boards and tested OK. I must admit that it isn't perfect. Occasionally I would find some PICs that didn't work and had to reprogram them. The easiest way to try this is to stack the chips one on top of the other so that all the pins are in parallel. Then stick the bottom chip in the programmer. If you stack say 10 PICs, and there is a loose connection between the 5th and 6th chip, then the chain is broken and the top 5 won't be programmed. Try it with a couple. It works.

[Heckler]

Here is what I use to program multiple chips... I can do one chip in about 5 sec

>drop in a new chip in the ZIF socket
>clamp the ZIF socket
>hit Enter to program
>release the ZIF lever
>drop the programmed chip into a static safe bag (I use a metalized static bag opened up on the counter and just tip the programmer over to drop the chip into the bag)

>repeat...

All in around 5 seconds

Just get yourself an appropriately sized ZIF (zero insertion force) socket and a little bit of perf board and a header strip or whatever you need for your programmer and go to town

[Tobias]

Does the PICKit2 require power from the pcb?

[Heckler]

No external power required... The PICkit2 is totally USB powered.

I can program 8, 14 and 20 pin pics with my setup.
I used the Microchip LowPinCount demo board and because the ZIF socket covered up where the header strip normally would be, I just soldered them in on the bottom side instead.

Also the PICkit2 has a PushButton on it that you can enable to initiate the program cycle (from inside the PICkit application)

or you can just hit enter to do the same thing.

There is a PICkit3 version that I do not have and can not comment on how it compares to the PICkit2 (others may be able to chime in on how they compare).
Make sure your specific PIC is supported if you are considering the PICkit 2 or 3