On Wed, 21 May 2003, Ty Sarna wrote:

> Well, PIC programmers aren't that expensive.  You can get a minimal
> programming setup for under $60.  www.phanderson.com has them, or a
> "deluxe" setup including a 16F877 and a bunch of stuff to play with
> (buttons, LEDs, an LCD, etc) for $125.

A minimal PIC programmer shouldn't cost you more than a few dollars if you
build it yourself. I use a setup where the main cost is the parallel port
connector, running off a 12V supply (readily available inside your PC). It
consists of a 5V regulator, 2 transistors, an LED for show, and a small
number of resistors. I use it to program a 16F84A, but there's no reason
it shouldn't work with other PICs in the range.

Also, for the application in question, cost savings could be made in
hardware by using a cheaper PIC and implementing a software UART. There
are many implementations of this scattered around the web, varying in
quality between simple UARTs and implementations which are highly tolerant
to noise and frequency drift.

-- 
Gillette - the best a man can forget