EPIC Programmer

[drawbar]

Does anyone here own an EPIC PIC programmer from MicroEngineering Labs?

Brian

[CLaNZeR]

Yes Brian , have got an epic amongst many others and plenty of home made ones!
The Epic one is cool because they update the software for the new chips very fast and easy enough to make up your own adapters to suit the different packages.

Regards

Sean.

[drawbar]

Sean,

Thank you for your reply. I, too have built a homemade PIC programmer. I have been programming some 16F72's successfully with software by IC-Prog and OshonSoft. But I would like to buy and program an 18F2331 and the only programmer similar to mine (other than REALLY expensive ones) that supports this chip is the EPIC programmer and software. I (sheepishly) cannot afford the 60 dollar price tag for a new one, so I am trying to find a way to adapt my programmer to work with the EPIC software. My programmer uses parallel port pins 2 and 3 for data and clock, and pins 4 and 5 to turn on the transistors for Vpp and Vdd. It also uses pin 10 to read data from the PIC. The EPIC help documentation states that their programmer also uses pin 6 for something, but I don't know what. Would you be willing to look at your programmer and give me a general description of what pins get used for what and which signals get routed through the 7407 buffer? Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Brian

[smarbaga]

the k149 pic programmer from kits r us will program the 18f2331
it does all the rest as well, i bought one for $25. us.
it uses the serial or usb port.
have not tried the serial port yet, but i have had no errors with the usb port.
there software is graficlly pleasing and simple.
something like www.kitsrus.com
as fast as you press program the thing seems to be done and verifyed

[drawbar]

Thankyou, smarbaga! I'll check into that.

Brian

[smarbaga]

here is a list of the kit149 pic programmer

12C508 16C65A 16C77 16F76 16F877
12C508A 16C65B 16C710 16F77 16F877A
12C509 16C66 16C711 16F737 18F242
12C509A 16C66A 16C712 16F747 18F248
12C671 16C67 16C716 16F767 18F252
12C672 16C620 16C745 16F777 18F258
12CE673 16C620A 16C765 16F83 18F442
12CE674 16C621 16C773 16F84 18F448
12F629 16C621A 16C774 16F84A 18F452
12F675 16C622 16C83 16F87 18F458
16C505 16C622A 16C84 16F88 18F1220
16C554 16C71 16F627 16F818 18F1320
16C558 16C71A 16F627A 16F819 18F2220
16C61 16C72 16F628 16F870 18F2320
16C62 16C72A 16F628A 16F871 18F4220
16C62A 16C73 16F630 16F872 18F4320
16C62B 16C73A 16F648A 16F873
16C63 16C73B 16F676 16F873A
16C63A 16C74 16F684 16F874 16F5x
16C64 16C74A 16F688 16F874A 10Fxxx 18F6525 6621 8525 8621
16C64A 16C74B 16F73 16F876
16C65 16C76 16F74 16F876A 12F683

http://kitsrus.com/upuc.html

i c that k149 has gone up in price to $40. us$

[Al_The_Man]

I can vouch that the Kitsrus works excellentl, and the kit comes with the SMT USB i.c. already soldered in place.
Al.

[drawbar]

Am I missing something? I don't see 18F2331 in that list.

Brian

[smarbaga]

sry drawbar.... if u are interested , ask them if they support that chip.

[CLaNZeR]

Hi Brian

Sorry for delay in replying.

The Epic comes with a little manual and has full schematic at the back, so circuit is not secret, just I cannot find the manual LOL

Looking at the programmer Pin6 just goes to Pin1 of 7407 hex buffer and out on pin2 to 2 resistors, one going to LED and other is probs a pullup resistor as 7407 is open collector. So it just for display purposes as far as I can see.

Regards

Sean.

Originally Posted by drawbar Sean, Thank you for your reply. I, too have built a homemade PIC programmer. I have been programming some 16F72's successfully with software by IC-Prog and OshonSoft. But I would like to buy and program an 18F2331 and the only programmer similar to mine (other than REALLY expensive ones) that supports this chip is the EPIC programmer and software. I (sheepishly) cannot afford the 60 dollar price tag for a new one, so I am trying to find a way to adapt my programmer to work with the EPIC software. My programmer uses parallel port pins 2 and 3 for data and clock, and pins 4 and 5 to turn on the transistors for Vpp and Vdd. It also uses pin 10 to read data from the PIC. The EPIC help documentation states that their programmer also uses pin 6 for something, but I don't know what. Would you be willing to look at your programmer and give me a general description of what pins get used for what and which signals get routed through the 7407 buffer? Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated. Brian

[drawbar]

Thankyou for the info, Sean. I ordered some 7407's and a couple 18F2331's from Jameco today. I already have all the rest of the parts for another programmer experiment. Hopefully I can manage to make this thing fly by next week.

Brian

[drawbar]

I got my parts from Jameco yesterday. Replaced my 7406 with the 7407 (7406 is a buffer/inverter, 7407 is just a buffer) and whammo! I'm programming 18F2331's. Thanks to everyone who helped me get this far.



Brian