The saga of MP2

I hope the new year finds everyone happy and well! I've decided to put news of progress with MP2 into the "blog" format, mainly because it's a lot easier to update than a web site but also because it enables comments to be added by you, the reader. So from now on, this is where it's happening.

To recap; The story so far:

The DIY Electronics/KitsRUs PIC programmers occupy the "value for money" (i.e. cheap) sector of the market for these devices. Mainly intended for the electronics hobbyist, their versatility and low price has also endeared them to many of us in the "professional" sector. They are available in kit form or ready built and connect to a PC using either traditional RS232 serial (K149) or USB (K149/150/128/182) interfaces. The externally powered variants (K149/150) can program either Flash or EEPROM devices, while the USB powered units (K128/182) can only handle Flash technology.

Overall, it's a good mix, with 4 different units to choose from. Highlights of each unit are:

K149 (versions A thru E) - RS232 and USB interfaces; 16-20V DC power supply required; Flash and EEPROM devices supported; If in doubt, this is the one to get as it does everything the others can do.

K150 - As K149 but without the RS232 interface.

K128 - A USB powered programmer; Flash devices only; no external power supply necessary

K182 - A cut down K128 without the programming socket; ICSP only; cheapest programmer for those on a really tight budget.

This description would not be complete without a mention of the upcoming K185. This is a completely different animal to the units mentioned above and is, in fact, a full-blown "production" programmer. Cost wise it's likely to be priced well out of the range of most hobbyists, but it might be worth a look if you're considering shelling out for a Pro-mate or something similar.

That's the good bit. Now there's some bad news.

The original developer of these kits decided to make himself scarce in late 2004. As far as I'm aware he can't even be reached by email. This threw the entire line of programmers into some confusion regarding support for new devices, which Microchip release with almost frightening speed. Indeed, the last "official" update for the line is dated 14th December 2004, and many devices which have become popular in the meantime are, of course, missing.

Bob Axtell took over the development in January 2005. He determined that in order to support current and future devices from Microchip, an entirely new approach to the controlling software and firmware needed to be taken. Thus was born the controversial "Protocol 19". This was originally slated for release in June/July 2005, but a number of events (including the death of Peter Crowcroft, the owner of the company) put this on hold. Every month, the release date was put back...

Eventually, in November 2005, another contributor to the DIY message board took matters into his own hands, and designed a simple programmer to handle some of the new PICs. He posted his work to the board along with some command-line software to drive it from a PC.
This got me thinking - could I perhaps update the firmware/software myself? The only constraints I imposed on myself were that 1) it had to run on existing hardware and 2)the software should be a Windows GUI resembling the existing MicroPro. A week later, I had "DonkeyProg" - a very basic MicroPro lookalike which would program 30 or so of the new style PICs. Unfortunately this software doesn't work properly for a small minority of people - I'm still not sure why. Anyway, it was only a temporary fix until the real thing appeared...

Which it didn't. By now, some of the contributors to the message board are starting to get quite ratty, their patience strained past breaking point by the delay. I (amongst others) wanted to get to the bottom of what was actually going on. The reality turned out to be something so simple I didn't know whether to laugh or cry...

Turns out that Bob was never hired to write Windows software in the first place, and has limited knowledge in this area anyway! His job was to get the firmware sorted out!
At this point I stepped in and offered to write the new Windows application, provisionally titled "MP2", with the condition that their previous insistence on having this application written using Borland Delphi was dropped. It was. The new application is written using Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 - I originally intended to use .NET but this would introduce too many problems for some users with older machines running Windows versions prior to 2000. VC6 apps should be OK right back to Win95.

So, where are we now?

As we begin 2006, MP2 is at a state where the user interface is almost as complete as it can be. This is a major milestone. I am now awaiting two things: The "final" build of Protocol 19 from Bob, and CHIPINFO.DIY script entries.
Once I have these, I can proceed to completion. I don't want to give a timeframe - much depends on what happens with other commitments I have, but it shouldn't take too much longer - weeks, not months.