gnupic: DIY USB programmer ?
Subject:
Re: DIY USB programmer ?
From:
David Willmore ####@####.####
Date:
14 Jan 2005 18:03:47 +0000
Message-Id: <200501141803.j0EI3gsF016409@localhost.localdomain>
> Actually I've already talked to Alain today. I sent him a preliminary spec
> of what the new port interface would have to so. It's serport with a
> handful of modifications.
For the 'bootstrap' serial programmer? Excellent!
> I know it's not Windows folks natural interface. I never realized how
> strongly the point and click paradigm is ingrained into Windows folks until
> I saw one of my students recently trying to point and click on a BIOS screen!
Oh, oh, ouch, that made my brain hurt. I think I got a brain cramp...
> While there are some options (wxWindows, pdcurses with mouse support) I'm
> just not too sure I want to tackle another GUI.
Same here. "In the beginning was the command line." And that's plenty good
to get the job done.
> > If we get a taker for a windows port, that would be *invaluable* information.
> > >From watching the PIC-EL folk try to do the ELMER-160 lessons on windows,
> > using FPP, I expect it to be very useful to get right.
>
> What kinds of problems did you see?
This is second hand as I didn't try to use windows for it--I was the 'how to
do it with linux' guy for the project. But, they had a great deal of trouble
getting FPP to be able to access the serial port hardware so that they could
manipulate the PIC-EL programmer hardware to program the 16F84A on the board.
There was a lot of attempts to use USB->RS232 adapters and most of those
attempts were unfruitful. I think there was one brand of adapter reputed to
work. The bootstrap programmer would have been perfect for that project.
> > It's sometimes sad to retire useful code, but sometimes it's easier for
> > everyone--once it's been outgrown. Maybe we need to have a little memorial.
>
> Actually Brian is still working on it as far as I know. I posted a couple of
> items to his picprg forum maybe a year ago.
Hmm, I sent him some updates and I never heard back. Maybe they got caught
in a spam filter or something, but I took the lack of a reply to be an indication
that picprog was dead. I had pretty much moved to Pikdev at the time, so I
didn't push the matter.
Cheers,
David
