On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 7:42 PM, Alan B. Pearce <
A.B.Pearce@...> wrote:
> >Is there another open source programmer around? or better one with USB
> >support?
>
> Well Olin recently made his USB programmer source open for download, so if
> there is a specific requirement you have, then that would be eminently
> hackable.
>
Olin's programmer does not really belong to open source because of the
license limit. It is also not easy to hack as well. EasyProg's source
codes have been available for years and nobody has even write the
host software for it under Linux. The EmbedInc programming specification
is also available long ago and only one very old attempt was made to use
it with Wisp628 (
http://www.philpem.me.uk/elec/pic/easyisp/).
PICkit 2's source codes are open as well. But it is not open source
either as the license limits the usages to Microchip product.
And hacking a programmer is actually difficult for PICs. Even though
PICkit 2's source codes are available, it is not really that easy to
understand it thanks to the complexity of Microchip programming
specifications. So far none of the alternative "open source" PIC
programmers can beat PICkit 2 with its host software (the console
version pk2cmd has been ported to Linux by Jeff Post).
http://forum.microchip.com/tm.aspx?m=331582Even with the PICkit 2 source codes, the attempt to write a
pure GPLed host software has not been achieved Jeff Post's
pk2 and Nicolas Hadacek's piklab).
There are many open source programmers. But very few aims to be
an universal one. Avrdude is targeting for Atmel MCUs. Open_OCD
are mainly targeting ARM based MCUs.
Xiaofan
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