Matt, All of the -A parts have a slightly different programming alogirythm than the base parts. That it why the programmer would ocassionally say that the chip programmed successfully, then fail on verification. If I remember correctly, you were borrowing this programmer because you are just getting your feet wet in PICs and did not want to invest a lot of money in a programmer at this time. If you can scrounge up the parts, I would suggest building a Tait style programmer and downloading IC-Prog. I use a homemade Tait style programmer that I built 2 years ago for about 7 dollars. I have successfully programmed 12C509s, 16F84s, 16F628s, 16F877s, and 12F devices in both the plain versions and the -A versions where applicable. Mike --- In , "Matt" <mws715@y...> wrote: > I was able to install MPLAB IDE v 5.11 to a machine last night and > was able to use the out-of-date PICSTART Plus programmer I am > borrowing (would not work w/ v 6.20 because PICSTART Plus firmware is > not up to date). > > Using the setup to program a device wasn't a success, however- at > least I think. My device was a 16F877A, but the -A isn't supported > in MPLAB 5.11 so I tried to program it as a 16F877 and used the > P16F877 include file. My understanding is that doing this isn't a > problem but maybe I misunderstood. > > My code built successfully and the simulations performed just as I > had desired, but almost every time I tried to program the device, the > operation failed. I would paste my code here but I'll have to do > that later today because I don't have it in front of me. > Occassionally the device would program successfully but when I > verified the program, that failed so I guess it didn't program > afterall. The PIC does nothing in the breadboard of course. > > Any ideas what's going on here? Are my configuration bits messed up > (although I'm pretty confident that they are correct) or does this > sound like a programmer issue? Maybe there is a problem with me > programming a 16F877A as a 16F877? Hope someone can lend some > insight. I'll paste my code in later tonight. > > Thanks, > > -- > Matt

I was able to install MPLAB IDE v 5.11 to a machine last night and was able to use the out-of-date PICSTART Plus programmer I am borrowing (would not work w/ v 6.20 because PICSTART Plus firmware is not up to date). Using the setup to program a device wasn't a success, however- at least I think. My device was a 16F877A, but the -A isn't supported in MPLAB 5.11 so I tried to program it as a 16F877 and used the P16F877 include file. My understanding is that doing this isn't a problem but maybe I misunderstood. My code built successfully and the simulations performed just as I had desired, but almost every time I tried to program the device, the operation failed. I would paste my code here but I'll have to do that later today because I don't have it in front of me. Occassionally the device would program successfully but when I verified the program, that failed so I guess it didn't program afterall. The PIC does nothing in the breadboard of course. Any ideas what's going on here? Are my configuration bits messed up (although I'm pretty confident that they are correct) or does this sound like a programmer issue? Maybe there is a problem with me programming a 16F877A as a 16F877? Hope someone can lend some insight. I'll paste my code in later tonight. Thanks, -- Matt