Is this an OK ICSP circuit?

Question

I recently discovered a project to program PIC18Fs with an Arduino here: https://sites.google.com/site/thehighspark/arduino-pic18f

All other ICSP PIC programmers I've seen are more complicated than just 4 resistors. This might just be because this project does not support high voltage programming. Is this an OK circuit to use to program PICs, or is it possible the programming will error out, or worse yet, the PIC burns out?

Have you read [this application note](http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/AppNotes/91016b.pdf)? — stevenvh, Oct 13 '12 at 05:45
@stevenvh Don't you too think that Microchip is great at drawing schematics? Ah, wonderful! — abdullah kahraman, Oct 25 '12 at 15:09

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 13 '12 at 13:45

Yes, that particular PIC can be programmed with the low voltage method. That requires only ordinary digital signals to be connected to MCLR, PGC, PGD, and PGM. The drawback is that low voltage programming must be enabled. Unprogrammed parts come that way from the factory, and it is impossible to disable it over the LVP interface, so you're probably fine unless you are trying to re-purpose a PIC previously programmed with the high voltage method.

As a programmer, it should work fine for the limited set of PICs that allow for LVP and are configured to allow it. My PIC programming introduction gives more background on PIC programming. This only discusses the more common and more general high voltage method, but should give you some good background nonetheless.

Is this an OK ICSP circuit?

1 Answers1