PIC programmers? More generic programmer? Port?

[Chuck Guzis]

On 3/3/21 10:47 AM, Dennis Boone via cctalk wrote:
>  > Any gotchas with the PICKit-3 clones out there? I have the feeling
>  > that sticking with PIC would be better than trying to port to
>  > Arduino, and imagine that as things continue to age there will be
>  > more applications for interfaces. Any better but still cheapish
>  > alternatives for programming?
> 
> IIRC the PK-3 doesn't get any new device support at this point.
> Existing stuff continues to work.  Depending on the nature of the
> devices you might want to use in the future, it might be worth
> considering a PK-4.

I've used a PK-2 on PIC32MX devices.  I used MPLAB for a time, but
OpenOCD also supports it.   After all, it's JTAG, sort of.

What chips specifically?  On the PIC12 through PIC18 devices, I used the
JDM cheapie with PonyProg.   Of course, you need a real serial port--I
don't know of a USB one will work.

Personally, you might find it more interesting to go with some of the
STM32 ARM Cortex MCUs.  Many are 5V tolerant and will probably be around
for a long time.   There's even an Arduino suite or two for the low-end
ones.

--Chuck