El Cheapo PICmicro Programmer

This project was begun as a response to the need for a simple and inexpensive PIC16F84 Programmer. The circuit shown here can be built in an hour or so using parts that are commonly available. The software that runs the programmer is written to copy a .hex file into the PICMicro directly with very few options. In terms of speed, the programming operation takes two or three times longer than the fastest programming algorithms out there, but it is very reliable.