Nope. Where did you get that?

Could have been an rhetorical statement buddy (you're not meant to answer it)

 

ZIF sockets get kinda useless when you're using an SOIC or QFN package.

Just FYI, 3M (and others) make sockets for may SMD chips, including QFN and SOIC: http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/...-Textool-Test-Burn-In-Sockets?N=8705116&rt=r3

John

 

Just FYI, 3M (and others) make sockets for may SMD chips, including QFN and SOIC: http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/...-Textool-Test-Burn-In-Sockets?N=8705116&rt=r3

John

Market for these might be small. OP is defeating the idea of ICSP as such.

The TOP programmers dont work on 64bit Windows. They arent professional either just entry level.
I'm using the G540 now.

What's so hard dabbling 3 or 4 wires / pins to a circuit?

 

Market for these might be small. OP is defeating the idea of ICSP as such.

The TOP programmers dont work on 64bit Windows. They arent professional either just entry level.
I'm using the G540 now.

What's so hard dabbling 3 or 4 wires / pins to a circuit?

Yes Sir. The TOP programmers are just entry level as you say. Please lead the way for us...

 

Well they are kindof professional but not officially.
A professional programmer is designed for programming many ICs all day, some have multiple slots,
often a display, and not less than $500 or so for the smallest models.

Its sometimes done at the factory side now.

 

Well they are kindof professional but not officially.

Had a look inside one? They host an multi-layered board through-hole plated with SMD components. Mass manufactured robot assembled boards. I was impressed and wrote an review on one many years back. The Windows software is horrible though. The English is even worse.

 

Had a look inside one? They host an multi-layered board through-hole plated with SMD components. Mass manufactured robot assembled boards. I was impressed and wrote an review on one many years back. The Windows software is horrible though. The English is even worse.

Actually I had

 

Something like this?

www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/pic_16c.jpg

 

Something like this?

www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/pic_16c.jpg

Anything standalone that you know of (no PC required)-- i.e. plug in an flash drive with the hex file to upload?

 

Anything standalone that you know of (no PC required)-- i.e. plug in an flash drive with the hex file to upload?

Not particulary but I could find out. I'd say these "professional" programmer may occasionally have such features, or since they cost $1000 or $2000, it could be customized.

the low cost programmers, no.

Well you can do that with a PICKIT3, store in the internal EEPROM, its called "programmer to go".

For some 100$, you can have said programmer built into a box with PSU/batteries, and ZIF socket.
Even cheaper in the US if you can find a workshop with 3D printer.

 

Not particulary but I could find out. I'd say these "professional" programmer may occasionally have such features, or since they cost $1000 or $2000, it could be customized.

Yes well I mainly deal with the cheap 16F628a and 16F877a MCUs only. I love the 18-pin 16F628a for under an dollar on eBay. Makes me dream of coming up with something to sell that will make me some money. For $2,000 I could buy two new turbochargers for my Mitsubishi GTO and have spare change to go away somewhere for the weekend and get drunk

Do you own an $2,000 professional programmer?

 

Yes well I mainly deal with the cheap 16F628a and 16F877a MCUs only. I love the 18-pin 16F628a for under an dollar on eBay. Makes me dream of coming up with something to sell that will make me some money. For $2,000 I could buy two new turbochargers for my Mitsubishi GTO and have spare change to go away somewhere for the weekend and get drunk

Do you own an $2,000 professional programmer?

Dont need these, I have a G540 and had a TOP programmer as well PICKITs.
As well other kinds I sell, USBASP, K150, STC 8051 programmers.
A byteblaster too for CPLD, and STM8 programmers.

There is no high end programmer which can do all of these.

16g628 isnt powerful, you can get the 16f1709 for almost same price. 32mhz, i think 8k instructions, and many pheripherals. I use these now + made generic PCB, making one ready for flashing is a question of minutes + dont have to look up datasheet for ICSP.

 

16g628 isnt powerful, you can get the 16f1709 for almost same price. 32mhz, i think 8k instructions, and many pheripherals. I use these now + made generic PCB, making one ready for flashing is a question of minutes + dont have to look up datasheet for ICSP.

Depends on your definition of powerful. I have made large scrolling displays and heaps of projects using the 16F628a teamed up with CMOS 4000 ICs. You can get away with it on a lot of projects. The K150 implements the 16F628a. I have personal stock inventory of 100+ pcs 16F628a.

What do you think of the 16F887a for under $2? I reckon you could do a pinball machine project or something with this.

 

Depends on your definition of powerful. I have made large scrolling displays and heaps of projects using the 16F628a teamed up with CMOS 4000 ICs. You can get away with it on a lot of projects. The K150 implements the 16F628a. I have personal stock inventory of 100+ pcs 16F628a.

What do you think of the 16F887a for under $2? I reckon you could do a pinball machine project or something with this.

I've used smaller PICs for a while.
I have some 100s here, mostly baseline, new ext. midrange, 1 kind 18F, 1 kind 24F, some PIC32, some 16F USB PICs.

The 16F88x is very good for its age, and class, still have TQFP boards with 16F884 chips.

Well sure you can do scrolling with small PICs, I cramped proportional font handling into a 16F57 but its totally full, and needs external RAM.
Besides that it couldnt do anything else.

I want to add rotary encoders and a small TFT to 16F1709 (its LF actually), and see how it goes editing scrolling messages. No way you could do that with a 2K PIC.
Actually I have completed the thinking phase, now need to solder the additional parts.

Besides, extended midrange allows linear addressing mode, larger stack, is faster, and has additional instructions + many new pheripherals. It makes the old original midrange appear like Dinosaurs.
Few of them can access the FLASH by writing, if any?

 

I want to add rotary encoders and a small TFT to 16F1709 (its LF actually), and see how it goes editing scrolling messages. No way you could do that with a 2K PIC.

I have done an rotary encoder project using the 16F628a. Of course no TFT display though!

 

I have tried so hard to make money on eBay selling stuff.

At auction this:

Goes for like about AUD 30. An absolute insult and I lose money. Might as well just give it all away for nothing.

 

I have done an rotary encoder project using the 16F628a. Of course no TFT display though!

Some day I plan to produce a book for making the most out of microcontrollers in a short time.
Its inevitable the reader trusts the choices of the editor, be it they are good for some purpose, have been employed for some reasons, or simply persist as ways of using this technology.

Basically the idea was, the LED matrix should be scrolling a larger text, having a TFT somehow defeats the purpose. But it could be good for learning all these technologies together. It seems to be more appropiate for editing. Well it could display some visuals much better than a small TFT. I will see actually how it developes further.

So it wouldnt neccessarily used as scrolling message, just as a display integrated on the PCB.

I also found, assembly of the 50 LEDs takes quite a while.

I do have 16F1503 too these just have 2K, internal OSC, and a logic cell too.

 

I have tried so hard to make money on eBay selling stuff.

At auction this:

Goes for like about AUD 30. An absolute insult and I lose money. Might as well just give it all away for nothing.

I have lost 1000s with failed PCBs, some were sold off, one I didnt sell at all since its difficult to use even for myself. After that I started selling common parts, to be able to produce more PCBs and not to feel a big impact, OK to let the whole stack sit on my desk, and think how can I improve the design.

The idea started when I saw I'm capable to source components at lower prices than selling elsewhere. So, at first I sold off parts originally intended for PCB designs.

For instance a dual 3 digit LCD carrier with 2x 16F59 (TQFP), I couldnt sell it reasonably for less than $15, since it takes time to assemble + the PCB has a bug (it can be patched shifting the display + 2 small wires), and no silk screen.

Its not easy to use, a common clocking coil, but two seperate serial ports. I made a prototype, a full 6 digit LCD watch with DS1307, looks quite sleek, 3 PICs, but costs too much to be attractive for buyers.

I'm currently looking into sourcing the small LCDs for lower price, and may reconsider, but its gathering dust since late 2012. I think I paid more than $500 just for this design, got nothing back didnt market it.

WELL....

actually I found the LCD carrier board could also drive LED matrix.
I used 4 of these PCBs, with 8x 16F59, to drive 768 LEDs directly, no extra parts.
It does work, 16 brightness levels are possible in software, the PCBs do the refresh, display memory is updated via the serial ports.

But that was for my own progressing, couldnt market such a large board right now, I calculated, at least 10,000 individual work steps to solder and wire all the LEDs. Countless replacements were required since I used cheap solder which didnt flux right, and its just soldered freehand with wire pieces, so LEDs burned from the soldering. removing them took me quite a few sessions.

Its useful when making a new design, I learned many things.

 

I have tried so hard to make money on eBay selling stuff.

Goes for like about AUD 30. An absolute insult and I lose money. Might as well just give it all away for nothing.

Nice looking, but that is a tough market. What sort of support do you offer? You don't show the digital output. Is there one? Most important, what is your business plan? What do you offer that the uncounted number of suppliers in China don't offer? What will your niche be?

I suspect you have heard of SparkFun. It might be valuable for you to look at its history and business model. Here in Ohio, we have another start up, TinyCircuits (https://tiny-circuits.com/ ). I don't know how successful it is, but it is still around. I am not a stake holder in either of those businesses.

Good luck.

John

 

Did you try just to sell the parts kit, no case or transformer? I think it would sell easier.

I bought LM317 kits for reselling, reordered recently.

The shipping cost + item cost would be lower.
I found sometimes small reductions can already cause a change, or looking at it differently, buyers can be sensible to increases, and the total price.

When you dont make money or loose money, you source too expensive, that makes it hard to resell, will be much slower. When selling you must cosider 100s of small aspects, the more you get right from buyers view, the more you stand out compared to others, the more you care about questions, the more sales.