Post by thread:[PIC:] ICD2 Report: Building Up Clone From CZ

Incidentally, ICD2 lovers: on a whim I decided to buildup the Czech ICD2 clone for a contract programmer. I bought a PCB and am now populating it. Its an RS232-only system, and while the link below's design works OK, the newest actual design is better, using a proper switching supply for VPP. Their website does NOT reflect the latest design which is incorporated into the PCB. So far, it looks great. All components are available from Mouser and Digikey, but you'll have to dig for the part numbers. The SMD small parts (Rs/Cs) are 1206 (documentation didn't say), and are mounted on the bottom of the 1-sided PCB. The switching inductors are 100uH choke (energy storage)and 10uH choke (smoothing). They are sized as RES300. I liked the fact that this clone uses a standard 6-pin MTA connector instead of the RJ12 connector. The RJ12 was a great idea, but nobody can remember the pinouts, and the manual is set to MAXimum confusion mode. I've never been a single-sided PCB fan, but the peel strength of the PCB is quite high. I always cobbleup high-useage items' solder joints to improve their lifetime, then when everything is working I coat the topside with a clear plastic coating to keep vibration from working things loose. Before soldering, coat the PCB bottom with a decent flux to ensure good solder joints, and be sure to THOROUGHLY remove all flux when everything is soldered up. Oh..., the PIC16F877 (DIP40) needs to be socketed so it can be removed to install the bootloader (In your MPLAB directory/ICD2/BL010101.hex). If you purchase PIC16F877A, you will need to get a special bootloader from http://www.mcu-cz/atm folder MCUserver/Projects/ICD2/877Aboot.hex . Purchasing the PCB only from MCU.CZ, looks like the ICD2 will cost about $40 USD in total, less if you have a full old-parts inventory. Info in English at http://www.mcu.cz/modules/news/article.php?storyid=449 --Bob Stef Mientki wrote: > Mauricio Jancic wrote: > >> Ok ok... Don't get like that... >> >> I also want an ICD... But I've managed many things with the bootloader. >> -- Replier: Most attachments rejected -------------- Bob Axtell PIC Hardware & Firmware Dev http://beam.to/baxtell 1-520-219-2363 -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList spam_OUTpiclist-unsubscribe-requestTakeThisOuTmitvma.mit.edu