The Bus Pirate can program a few PIC 18FxxJxx, 24F, and dsPIC33 chips directly. Older PIC 12F/16F/18F need a 13volt supply to jolt them into programming mode. Bus Pirate v3 already has a prototype high-voltage programming adapter, 100 beta units are in production now and should be available in a month or so.
Tayken has been working on programming shield for Bus Pirate v4. The extra pins of the Bus Pirate v4 are used to control a small switching power supply. Unlike the Bus Pirate v4’s fixed 13volt booster, the v4 adapter can output 3.3-~20volts for programming a variety of chips.
This supply is only intended as a reference voltage source, it is not intended to power anything. Maximum load is typically less than 1 mA.
Via the forum.
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