PIC Burner

Tonight I made a parallel port PIC programmer from the MIDIbox PIC Burner schematic. Except I left off the power supply (I’ll use my benchtop one (photo gallery retired)) and added a DIP18 socket for the PIC16F88.

I’m able to switch V_PP, V_DD, Data, and Clock on and off with the proper voltages coming out of them. Unfortunately the software isn’t recognizing the programmer nor is it able to identify which PIC has been inserted in it. Ah well, I think it’s a matter of parallel port settings, which I’ll mess with another night.

Oh, and I had to etch two PCBs for it, because I screwed up the first one. I also learned what was most wrong with the PCB for the Casio SK-1 MIDI Modification which I screwed up. I think I didn’t let the photoresist ‘develop’ for long enough. I’ve found that with a fairly warm lye solution (the bottle had been soaking in hot tap water for half an hour) it takes about 1:30. With a room temp / cold solution after 12 minutes things still aren’t right. And when a contrast-y image appears, there is still some photoresist left in some points, which makes for an unclean etch.

At least now I know. Now I can go to bed and stuff. Oh, but only after I wash the lead off of my hands.