Quote Originally Posted by gopher View Post
listen dude i already downloaded the 484 page pdf on this chip. It's alot of information to chew.
Really? I only see one small chapter in there relating to the programming pins and what to connect to and references to programming specifications....DUDE...

I have another newer piece of hardware that is reprogrammable via a serial cable.
That's great...problem is that PICs don't talk 'special RS232-TTL serial reprogramming language' unless they're programmed with a bootloader. A blank chip won't talk to anything but a programmer...which...(read on)...

so i know all i gotta do is make a board with that chip and p/s and somehow solder some really small wires to the pins on the chip, program it, then unsolder it. I think there are only 3 connections to the cpu but they pop up under the chip via thru holes so i dont know where they go. According to the pdf it looks like it might be RB5,RB6,RB7?
And Vdd and Vss and MCLR, because a blank chip won't take low voltage programming.
And yes, it is possible to hand solder some wire wrap wire directly to the pins (or via's or whatever) and run those wires to a programmer. Another problem is, what happens when the rest of the circuit tries to draw that power/signals off those pins at the same time as you're trying to program them. Might have to cut a couple of traces and solder-jumper them back together when you're done.