PicStart won't program 16F886 parts

Jimmie · Joined: 03 May 2010 Posts: 3 Location: Charlotte, NC

PCM Programmer:
I have some questions:

I have a PicStart that uses rs232... is there one that uses USB?
(or one like it?)

It seems that the PicStart I have will do 16F819's but won't do 16F886?

Is there a USB programmer that will do 16F886 chips?

Do I need to Flash burn a new version of firmware into the picstart and still use rs232 interface?
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Jimmie Does

PCM programmer · Joined: 06 Sep 2003 Posts: 21708

You shouldn't address a general question directly to me. Other people
can answer and they might want to.

Your question is about upgrading the PicStart-Plus. I believe this is
possible. They have a module to do it. Read the "sticky" posts at
the top of the Microchip PicStart-Plus forum for more information:
http://www.microchip.com/forums/tt.aspx?forumid=15

Abdulla M.A. · Joined: 28 Mar 2010 Posts: 30 Location: Baghdad, Iraq

PIC-START support PIC16F866, so you can program it.
addition to that, you can use Serial to USB terminal with PIC-START
programming device, I used it one year ago, everything was fine.

Abdulla
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"A scientist can discover a new star, but he cannot make one. He would have to ask an engineer to do that."
"For an optimist the glass is half full, for a pessimist it's half empty, and for an engineer is twice bigger than necessary."

Ttelmah · Joined: 11 Mar 2010 Posts: 19553

There are plenty of USB programmers around. CCS does the Mach-X for example.

You can simply attach the PicStart plus with a USB-Serial adapter cable.

To Upgrade your PicStart plus, you need to find out the version number of your PicStart. Key thing, if you open it, is what processor it has inside?. If it has a PIC17C44, then you need the 'PicStart plus flash upgrade module'. Available from MicroChip. This replaces the guts, including processor, and the unit then becomes flash upgradeable. If your unit has this processor, then it can be simply upgraded by software only. If you still have the 17C44, you _may_ be able to upgrade to support the processor you want, by getting another 17C44, and programming this with firware revision 3.11, which is the last upgrade available for the 'old' processor. I'd suspect you do need the later board for the processor you want.

Best Wishes