pic programmer died

[whiteb]

Well, it sounds like he has flashed just the plain Minimig firmware alone, and the Pic programmer is now deceased.

Just sounds to me like he has not Put the Tiny Bootloader along with the Firmware, and now even with a deceased programmer, he cannot flash the new Firmware over via RS232.

[whiteb]

As a regular user of a minimig is a pic programmer needed?

Sorry to hijack the thread btw

Say, when new cores for the minimig are released. Is it needed then?

Yes, when the new Firmware's are released (For the pic), without the Bootloader (Tiny), you would *NEED* a programmer to update the firmware.

Thats where the Bootloader comes in, it receives new firmware via RS232, and flashes the chip automatically.

And i think that is where the Original poster has lucked out.

Of course, the PIC replacement that has been announced, can be flashed via USB 1.1