This is not the right place to suggest one or another pic programmer, there are real universe of microcontroller programmers on the market at any price.
All depends on the frequency of use. If the programmer is rarely used even a simple, serial programmer can be realized, but if this instruments is used often very probably it is better to focus on a product more evolved.
At first, just to avoid further misunderstanding, we have to say that there are several different common ways to program a microcontroller:
| Utilizzare la porta seriale del PC |
Many open projects has been realized for such a devices like (just as examples): JDM pic programmer Serial port pic programmer Another serial |
| Utilizzare la porta parallela del pc |
Even in this case there are a lot of open source schematics and projects (even in this web site) both for low and high voltage pic pogramming: |
| Utilizzare la porta USB | Very probably these programmers are the best on the market at the moment. They are faster and safer and are indicated to an extensive use of the programmers. Many of them are sold at very reasonable price (personally we use the Microchip PicKit2 and Pickit3, used even as simple logic analyzers). In the open source world there is a nice project: the USBPICPROG, very interesting, to realize by ourself such a device. USB picprogrammers must not be confused with USB to serial or to Parallel port converted pic programmers because they work in a totally different way (using a serial/parallel converter FT245). |
Most picmicros created by Microchip allow the in-circuit serial programming, a very convenient way to program the chip without remove it from the circuitry. This is a really convenient way because during the programming (of the software) phase the chip can be programmed and reprogrammed simply to che the result of the code created. Moreover the use of external picmicro programming requires the removal of the chip from the socket and, as a result, it is quite easy to damage the pins of the picmicro.
Other higher end picmicros allow the self-programming but they require a precharged bootloader in memory. Many software houses provide together they compilers the bootloader to be charged toghether schematics of the programmers. Mecanique Picbasic pro is one of this while in the open source world we can find a few bootloaders connected to the programming language in the respective web sites (JAL MicrochipC etc).
In very few words, in our humble opinion, it is not important the way to go to reach the goal, particularly for an hobbystic environment, what really matters is the final result: the programming of the microcontroller.
