PIC K150 Programmer for Windows 11

The simple programmer to program PIC baseline controllers were originally designed around the year 2007. The original product were still listed in their website

The same product is availble from other sources. But those products comes with few issues.

The PC to programmer communication is achived by PL-2303HX IC from prolific. This IC is not supported by Windows since 2012.

When the programmer was developed in 2000, the programmer supports the OTP parts were supported and not FLASH based microcontroller. 

Now all the baseline ICs are FLASH based and OTP parts no more produced by manufacturer.

PL-2303HX DRIVER

While installing the programmer in Windows 10/11 machine, you will get a prompt saying that the driver IC is phased out and not supported. We need to update the new driver which is available from multiple source.

In the above video you will see how to install the driver for Windows 10/11

The PIC K150 programmer supports smallest Baseline controllers like PIC10F200, PIC10F202, PIC10F204, PIC10F206 etc., through ICSP port. So, we can not insert the ICs in the onboard ZIF-40 socket. and we have to use the ICSP port with an external breadboard or adapters which are readily available.

TOP VIEW with JUMPER and CONNECTOR
Bottom view with IC orientation and jumper setting

The following video shows how to set the JUMPER for PIC10F devices and program the device.

If our application are time critical, then we need to note down the OSCCAL value of the IC.  Due to very low pin counts, most of the Baseline controllers uses internal RC oscillator. Those OSCCAL values are trimmed with a seven bit value and the best value which is very close to 4MHz is written at the last location of the FLASH.

The first thing we should do while inserting a controller in PIC K150 is read the device and note down the OSCCAL value which is located at the last location of the FLASH.

If you accidentally or by mistake erase the OSCCAL value, it is difficult and pain to restore the OSCCAL value.

The following shows how to restore the OSCCAL using PICKIT2

There are many way we can restore the OSCCAL. Some are software intensive and some other requires external frequency reference or DSO, Frequency counter etc.,

FIRMWARE UPGRADE:

To upgrade the on board PIC16F628A controller, we need a blank and new PIC16F628A. We can use the same PIC K150 for updating the PIC16F628A.