RE: Learning PIC on the job

It is better to buy a programmer which is more reliable.
You are a pro now so maybe you will have no problem
with a JDM/Tait or bootloader. Actually bootloader should
be the last resort. New comers do not quite understand
how a bootloader work. They will be frustrated when they
fried some PICs before they can blink a LED.

I will recommend Wisp 628 and PICkit 1 now for beginners. 
Later I will recommend PIckit 2 after we get it to work with 
Linux.

Regards,
Xiaofan

-----Original Message-----
From: Byron A Jeff [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, August 15, 2005 9:16 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [gnupic] Learning PIC on the job


On Mon, Aug 15, 2005 at 04:44:01PM +0800, Chen Xiao Fan wrote:
> Wisp628 is a much better recomendation for programmers under 
> both Linux and Windows than JDM/Tait type.

Unfortunately you have the chicken/egg problem if you don't
have a programmer.

As I'm sure everyone well knows, I think programmers of all types
are way overrated. Personally I recommend a cheap code dumper
(like my Tait style Trivial Programmers) coupled with a bootloader
most any day. Unless one is using the ICD features, I find very
little advantage to a traditional programmer at all. BTW it
obviates the need for "moving chip from programmer to target"
as specified below.

My most successful and complete projects were implemented on a 
16F877 using Wouters WLoader and Woj's linwload.

BAJ