What's the cheapest way to get an In Circuit Serial Programmer for PIC16 family microcontrollers? Preferably something that will allow me to program a PIC16F628A

 

http://microcontrollershop.com/product_info.php?cPath=112_97&products_id=1843
It's an ICSP and prototyper both

Don't see others but suspect if you look for a forum you'll find one someone's figured out how to build.

 

http://microcontrollershop.com/product_info.php?cPath=112_97&products_id=1843
It's an ICSP and prototyper both

Don't see others but suspect if you look for a forum you'll find one someone's figured out how to build.

will this also allow to pull code from a chip? or is that more on the software end of MPLAB IDE

 

I would go with PICkit2 from Microchip. Maybe a little bit more expensive, but worth it in stability and compatibility.

Most programmers out there can pull the code from a chip, except when the chip is code-protected.

 

that's basically a JDM style programmer with a lot of added stuff. you can build a cheap JDM programmer, and winpic800, or icprog are free software for programming/reading pics. it will read code from the pic as long as the pic hasn't been code protected.

If you plan on using pics for more than a one time thing, I'd second the pickit2 recommendation.. It's from Microchip and is under $50 (barely).

Jdm programmer link:
http://www.janson-soft.de/pic/pic.htm
better version JDM programmer:
http://users.tpg.com.au/btkelly/jdm_b.htm

there's TONS of them out there, you can even get
a cheap one off ebay for <$10

 

thanks everyone. i'll go ahead and look into a pickit 2 also.