Need ISP circuit

[mister_e]

Everybody have their own opinions. I'm not going to contradict ANYBODY here.

Here's my 2 cents point of view.

You always got for what you pay for. This has to be true in many cases. See, JDM or else "freebies" using WinpicProg, PONY, IC-PROG or whatever else Free one. Damn all free software, single developer or so. 1 new PIC almost each days/week. They can't follow the evolution huh? Well unless it's developer is retired and do it all the time. I heard that few people MUST switch between xyz software to program a specific PIC... waste of time to me. But agreed... the software is free.. and the programmer can be built with scavenged PC, boards or whatsoever else. Cost 0$ or so.

Yes i heard some free parallel programmer work better than serial... reason is obvious... timing. JDM or else low-count part one might never ever work on XP... VISTA? Fine if you still have an old Win98, it ought to work.

What happen if you have issue? How much time you took to build your programmer? How much time you wasted to answer question why it doesn't work? How much time you waste because you wanted a solution NOW? I will assume at very **** least 3-4 hours or so. Give yourself 10$/hour (which is really ridiculous anyways) this mean you lost 30-40$ for something that doesn't really work.

For almost the same price, you buy a PICKIT 2 (or JuneBug) which is made by the one who BUILD PIC... so at least they know how to program them, they're not alone to develop the according firmware/software, and they will still be there tomorrow, next week, next year to support it + they will answer to ANY question 7/7 24/24.. how about your freebies?

As if it wasn't enough for $40 bucks, they'd dare to add EEPROMS, KeeLoq, ICD, Logic Analyser (generator... kind of), Rs232 terminal (without any need for a Max232), AND MORE it's also programmer-to-go (program your PIC without any PC).

I'd spend thousandS dollars on PIC programmer/development board 'till now. YES i NEVER used ANY freebies. My first was PICSTART (with PUM), then BK Precision 844a, then ICD-2 (used 3-4 times), then PICKIT 2, then Mikroe Dev boards (EasyPIC 4, EasyDsPIC 4) and then few others i don't remind their name for Blackfin. NONE of those had let me down 'till now... WHY because you got for what you pay for!

On the other side... PICKIT 2 is so cheap... BUT it support a wide range of their products.. from EEPROMs, Keeloq, PIC10f to PIC32... kinda attractive... way to go when you want to promote your products!