Proton BASIC Community

Hi All,
What are people using on very small boards to program their PICs?

Somewhat related - if I'm running a PIC off a 3.3V regulator can I directly attach the programmer's Vdd line to the PIC's supply pin, effectively back-feeding an unpowered regulator?   I've been doing it without problems so far but I do wonder if I might be wish-boning the regulator somewhat.  The regulator is a small LDO so will likely have a Pch MOSFET and the body diode should protect the regulator from reverse voltage.

Cheers,
David

Hello David,
I provide for programming pads and use my own standard board with pogo pins on the end.

Off late you get fancy things.
On Temu.com, search for NF2073243
There are most of your press-on probes and they look very well made too.

I searched for pogo pins and see these are listed there as well, but probes IC gives more results.
These are for SMD chips, but I'm almost sure I saw for conventional IC as well.  The conventional ones clamp on both sides of the dip.

Seems more and more amateur, hobby, student use SMD, and also since breakout boards for everything is available.

As for programming from the programmer supply I doubt very much that the onboard regulator can be damaged by the 5V or 3V3 supply.    It is only the programming pin on some pics that use a higher than supply to get the pic in programming mode (the programming mood), but that has nothing to do with the supply.
In my opinion you are ok the way you do it.  I do the same and never had a problem.

If you have to you can probably 3D print something that holds the pogo pins for programming on larger IC's...

Hi Fanie,
Thanks for your reply.  I was thinking more of a SMD connector on the board, but what you've linked to there is a better approach and doesn't use any more space which is a real plus on very small boards.  I think I need to try it.  Much appreciated.

Cheers,
David

You're welcome David.

Just remember that since you're down under, it may not work if you push the probe down, you may have to push up 

David,

Tag-Connect
https://www.tag-connect.com/product/tc2030-pkt-nl-6-pin-no-legs-cable-for-microchip-pickit-3

Regards,
Gamboa