I2C programming the External Eeprom

ice-nine · Post by **ice-nine** » Thu May 24, 2012 9:32 am

Hi, I have built a few FV-1 projects but on my latest build I need to be able to program the external Eeprom using I2C without removing it from the PCB. I have built a header onto the pcb with all the connections needed to do this and I purchased a Pickit3 which I assumed would do the job of programming the Eeprom but it doesn't support this at all.
Is there a way to do this either by building my own programmer or buying a ready made one. Does anyone know of a programmer that will do this.
My intention in the long run is to be able to write some code to go on a smartcard so that when inserted into the slot will write the hex directly to the eeprom. Any advice here would be appreciated.

slacker · Post by **slacker** » Thu May 24, 2012 11:28 am

PICkit 2 can do it, that's what I use. There's various parallel and serial port eeprom programmers you can build, they look fairly simple, but I've not tried any of them.

Is the PiCkit3 supposed to be able to program eeproms? I've had a look but I can't find a definitive answer, the user guide and the docs for the stand alone programming app suggest that it can, but that's all I've found.

ice-nine · Post by **ice-nine** » Thu May 24, 2012 2:45 pm

Thanks Slacker, I had read that the pickit2 can program Eeproms but I bought the pickit3 thinking the newer version would have more capabilities. Wrong the pickit 3 is a more expensive version which cant do some of the things the 2 can do.

I asked at the microchip website and was told that the 24lc32 chip isn't meant to be programmed using I2C (yeah right) crap customer care there. It looks like I may have to buy the pickit2 as well just to do eeproms, or build my own.