PIC Microcontroller Programmers

The CUMP Communitary Universal Microcontroller Programmer is in need of someone to restart development.

Check the local auctions for good deals on used equipment

Also:

Microchip Picstart+ The official oldstyle programmer.
- http://www.cosmodog.com/pic/ (cached 20010402083839) picp - open source (free) command line interface for the PICStart+ (read: It writes out the MPLAB commands to cause the PICStart+ to work Its Open Source. If you want to make a programmer MPLAB compatable you would.... BING!)
Microchip ICD the In System Programmer and In Circuit Debugger for the '8xx series
http://www.new-elect.com/ Jim Roberts - Newfound Electronics - PICSTART PLUS - MPLAB compatible programmers. Also, conversion kits for most other programmers to allow them to be used directly with MPLAB
- WARP-13 programmer for all 12C, 14C, 16C5x,16CXX PICs, MPLAB compatible, some ISP , win32.
- PRIME-17 programmer for all PICs MPLAB compatible, ISP
http://www.bubblesoftonline.com/demo/ROMzap.html Tony Nixons free ROMZap bootloader for 16F87x [Ed: It Rocks!] can program the boot code with a "less than $5" circuit and the rapid load your code into the chip after that. It can also sort of do a polling ICD-like code and register watch. And it can display A/D readings on a Windows DVM and generate code.

http://www.bubblesoftonline.com/pocket/pocket.html HOT! Tony Nixons Pocket Programmer. The Pocket Programmer is a stand alone programmer that can program most of the PICmicro®MCU range of microprocessors. (12C6xx, 16Cxxx, 16Fxxx, 18Cxxx) It works from a single 18VDC supply or with 2 X 9 volt batteries. Combine this with 64K of on board EEPROM which can store upto 32 HEX files and you have a truely portable programmer. Here is the schmatic from the pdf file as a huge gif or png. The source code for this programmer is open so that the user can customize it for their own purposes or read it to learn how a PIC can program a PIC. Customise the software yourself if you like. PLEASE consider sharing your modifications... Features:

Comes with source code
Stand alone - needs no PC to program devices {ed: the download format is documented and simple so support for many operating systems should be forthcomming Brandon Fosdick is starting a Linux version of the GUI at http://terrandev.com/~bfoz/pocket/}
Battery or plug pak operated
Stores up to 32 programs
In Circuit Serial Programming (ICSP) port
Verifies programs with user programmable 2V - 6V supply
In built code dissassembler displays code in mnemonic format
Code can be modified before programming
Can program via bootloader software
Simple menu driven commands
PC Interface for transferring files
Customizable chip data {ed: I hope people who add to the chip data files will share with others}

Tony's pocket programmer kit is available for immediate shipment in the US through this site for $65.00 (+ s&h + tax in CA)

California Residents:

Others:

The kit does have a few SMT components, but the pads have been made oversized and so it is not as hard as you might think. Should take about 2 hours to put together. The assembly instructions in pdf format (cached 20010523135942) and CSS HTML 20010904105856 and everything else is installed by the Win32 specific install program in the download .zip file (cached 20010523135942)

David Tait's PIC Archive. ISP See also:
- http://www.picwiser.com/ modified for 16F877
- http://www.dontronics.com/p16pro.html commercial software supporting many PICs on the Tait hardware
http://www.lpilsley.co.uk/ Nigel Goodwin dos, win16 and win32, 16C84, 16F84, 16F627-628 and '877 software for use with Tait and Dontronics programmers. Source code. Includes dissassembler.
NOPPP (NO Parts PIC Programmer) uses PC Parallel port (well... some parts: 8 resistors, 2 caps, 2 diodes and a transistor)
- http://rcg.homepage.com/noppp9x.htm for windows 9x
- http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/noppp/ for DOS
- http://www.uni-saarland.de/~c.fuetterer/cf/pic.html for Linux
- http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/ sells a kit called picpro for about $60.
Myke Predko's ElCheapo Pic Programmer 12c5xx, 16C505 16F84 16C73 16C74 Raphael P Jacquot says:
el cheapo pic programmer is now there
http://www.elproducts.com/articles.htm Quick and Dirty programmer from December 1998 Nuts & Volts: Programs 16F84 from Serial PC Port
Alice Campbell says:
I found the QANDD programmer quit eating my F84s when i put a blocking diode between the 5volt rail and the MCLR pin. there may be a path for 13 volts to sneak up to the 5v rail via the MCLR pullup. 13 volts is too much for any other pin than MCLR.

Roman Black advises:
- use a 47k resistor betweeen Vdd pin and MCLR pin
- use a 470 ohm resistor for 13v to MCLR
David Tait says:
The problems that people are having with the Q&D circuit seems to stem from trying to use it while the PIC is in circuit. The low value of /MCLR pullup resistor specified could (depending on what other circuitry is attached to /MCLR) pull the 5V rail out of spec. This URL has some information on using the quick-and-dirty approach in-circuit: http://www.ubasics.com/adam/pic/icp84.html
Robert Spur - Analog Design Specialists Microchip appnote AN589 C source
Steve Merchant - Nottingham University - PP84 fast software and PROG84 programmer - AN589 with clock, 12v supply and status lights
http://members.vol.at/home.floery/electronix/picprg/picprg.htm AN589 with software for Linux
Tony Nixons "The Engine" can be made to program just about anything. Software available for most 16x uC;s and the 93C56. The engine. temp at: http://210.8.30.173 normally at http://www.bubblesoftonline.com/engine.html. Source has been released.
Tony Nixons ASCII programmer. Program a 16F84 with 4 resistors, 4 diodes (1 zenor), 2 capasitors, a NAND gate and a 13v battery <GRIN>. Free software or write your own (simple). Available at: http://www.bubblesoftonline.com/projects/prog.html (cached 200003071344)
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/people/cpaame/pic/pic.htm
http://www.ebar.dtu.dk/~c888600/files/newpics.htm a "simple" serial-port programmer It programs PIC12C5XX, 12C67X, 24CXX, 16C55X, 16C61, 16C62X, 16C71, 16C71X, 16C8X, 16F8X and ISO-CARD's with ASF on DOS, WIN 3.1, WIN 95, WIN 98
http://www.xs4all.nl/~wf/wouter/pic/wisp/ WISP : Wouter's In - System Programmer for the PIC 16f84 Nice design, margining support, daisy chain WBus devices, looks like a good canidate for some firmware expansion to allow for programming other devices.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~wf/wouter/pic/wloader/index.html WLoader 16f877 application loader, occupies top 1k, bottom 7 available, application can start at 0 (addresses 0,1,2 are 'faked'), ONE I/O pin for the communication, works with WISP.
- http://home.earthlink.net/~tmcasey/rs232pic.bmp Alternate interface by Tom Casey
http://www.ise.pw.edu.pl/~wzab/linwload/linwload.html Linux version of WLoader
http://www.execpc.com/~rfarmer/ Rick Farmers PICLOADER for PIC16F87x
http://www.diversifiedengineering.net/booknboard.htm Diversified Engineerings 12Cxxx, 16Cxxx, 17Cxxx and 16F877.
http://www.isc-durant.com/nolan/article.htm simple, 2 Cap's, 3 Resistors, a transistor and an LM317 Voltage Regulator; must have a solid serial port
http://websites.ntl.com/~matthew.rowe/micros/dosgear.htm COM84: Super simple, 1 Cap, 3 Resistors, a Diode and a 78L05 Voltage Regulator, must have a solid serial port. See Stan Ockers CHEAPIC tutorial
http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/2174/prog.html 16x8? series, simple, docs in Spanish
http://home3.inet.tele.dk/frda/picasm/prog.html
http://rasi.lr.ttu.ee/~sis/mirror/robin/picpro.html (dead?)
http://www.ts.aha.ru/english/index.htm Telesystems
http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/pic/ Erics PIC page
http://robotics.com/pic.html
http://www.propic2.com The Brazillian ICD knockoff.
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Peaks/9620/ PICALL Hardware design free, software requires registration ~$45
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bay/2752/ Luc's PicItUp Tait compatible programmer and editor software
http://home3.inet.tele.dk/frda/picasm/prog.html PIC 16c84/16f84/24c16 programmer for Linux (& DOS). Programs 16c84/16f84, 16C6x/7x/923/924, 16f87x and 24c16 (and maybe 24c65/24c08?)
http://www.needhams.com/
http://www.ise.pw.edu.pl/~wzab/picprog/picprog.html - simple 16Fx84 programmer with multi voltage margining
http://www.bobblick.com/bob/projects/f84pgm/index.html
http://www.virtuaweb.com/picprog
http://www.pcug.org.au/~glennpur/electron.htm
http://members.xoom.com/mcpicprog/eindex.html fairly simple parallel port programmer for DOS that supports 16CR83; 16CR84; 16F83; 16F84; 16F84A; 16LF84A; 16F627; 16F628; 16LF627; 16LF628; 16F870; 16F871; 16F872; 16F873; 16F874; 16F876; 16F877. Page available in German.
e.builder@rotgradpsi.de says:
http://www.rotgradpsi.de/mc/picproge.html Hello, I would like to mention, that the link {HYPERLINK "http://members.xoom.com/mcpicprog/eindex.html"}http://members.xoom.com/mcpicprog/eindex.html has moved to: www.rotgradpsi.de/mc/picproge.html it is supporting now: 16F73; 16F74; 16F76; 16F77; 16C84; 16CL84; 16F83; 16F84; 16F84A; 16LF84A; 16F627; 16F628; 16LF627; 16LF628; 16F870; 16F871; 16F872; 16F873; 16F874; 16F876; 16F877 an 5V-isp-version has also been added. Regards Martin Clausen
http://www.lancos.com/prog.html or http://sourceforge.net/projects/ponyprog1/ PonyProg supports a ton of serially programmed devices including 16C84/16F84, 16F873/874/876/877 and PIC 16F84A Use the hardware at http://www.lancos.com/prog.html#hardware
http://www.helsinki.fi/~sars/ linux 16F876 programmer

Bootloaders

Q: "My Windowed part works one way usually and sometimes another, now I burned an OTP part and it behaves in the undesired of the two above."

A: You need to cover the window on /JW parts, then they'll not have memory contents affected by ambient light; I use a small piece of foil, covered by electrical tape, this is simple to clean, for erasing, and is very opaque to even IR light (Most electrical tape's transparent to IR light somewhat.) If you're doing repeated burns & erase cycles, can use a small piece of thick cardboard or something like that, you mainly want to block visible light (when indoors, which is where most of us work.)

Programming an '877 with a stripped down Tait (basically a cable) under Linux by Byron A Jeff

Can't re-program chip after code protecting the data eeprom

Can't program 16f8xx in traditional high voltage programmer?

Development Systems@ Compilers and Languages@

http://www.chipcenter.com/circuitcellar/february00/c0200dp1.htm Another Serial programmer, this one with some smarts.

Bala Chandar [Bala.Chandar at AVENTIS.COM] says:

I found one more circuit by the same author (JDM) with a few more components. That is working fine with the PIX program for programming my 16F84A PICs. It's quite fast too.

promero [promero at INSITEL.COM.CO] says:

...problem with my 17c766 circuit.
The problem wasn't located neither in the program nor in the configuration. The real problem was of the socket i was using. Apparently there is no compatibility with the ARIES 84pin PLCC socket and the cerquad of microchip, because i realized that contact was the real problem.
So be aware of this socket (mounted on the plcc to dip converetr i got) when prototyping...
Dan Michaels says:
You might check this out:
http://www.oricomtech.com/plc-adpt.htm

Archive:

Questions:

tmk@telital.dk asks: " Newfound's Firmware upgrade for Picstart 16B1 (phoflash.hex), cause their link is broken"
koenraad_verstraete@yahoo.com asks: " I'm looking for a programmer(hardware and software) for a PIC16F871"
asks:
I'm trying to get Shane Tolmie's pic programmer working for my PIC16F873. My MAX232 is level shifting properly and I'm getting approx 16Mhz out of my oscillator which has its output connected to the CLKIN on the PIC. I have +5V on pin 20, and ground on pins 8,19. I have a 10k pullup resistor between +5V and pin 1. Yet I can't get the PIC downloader by Petr Kolomaznik or any other software to recognize the hardware. I don't know what to check next??
pintonp@tin.it asks: " Is possible read a program from PIC 16C73A whitdout know the program ID ???" James Newton answers "Nope. See cracks"
corp0197@hotmail.com asks: " Does the JDM programmer Bala Chandar posted work with PIC12C508 like some other programmers do, and if so where do you connect the pins?"
mike.north@www.com asks:
Please can you supply URL / forward copy of PP84.exe? Steve Marchant (Nottingham.ac.uk) has the pascal source but I don't know Pascal and would prefer a compiled version. Search engines have failed. Thanks in anticiption.