TopMax  from EEtools is the programmer used in my hardware developments with microcontrollers. This programmer now supports new and appreciated dsPIC, dsPIC30xx microcontrollers from Microchip, since it's MaxLoader 2.3t software revision (11/21/2006).

This programmer uses LPT printer port to program. The TopMax II  now suports USB 2.0 instead LPT port. Nowadays It's very usual to find computers without LPT port like most laptops. This could be a big problem but with a PCMCIA parallel port card you can program with TopMax without problem.

There are some PCMCIA parallel pot cards in the market like Quateck SP-100, Trans PC Card, CardBus PC Card. I've got last one because is the cheapest I've found, works fine and I can buy  it in my city, Barcelona. It supports Windows 2000, XP and 2003.

To configure to work with TopMax go to Device manager from System at control panel. Select driver with mouse right button and go to Properties menu.



Select Port config tab and chose Never use interrupt and select Enable Plug and Play detect.



Then select tab resources and look for adresses pcmcia LPT port maps to memory.



Open MaxLoader and select Config and Config options menu and select tab port. Select custom port adress option and insert adress you see at previous screen.



Then press Ok, close MaxLoader, open again and you'll see that program has connected to TopMax, and now you can loose of your view the message Can not find programming module (TopMax). You are in Demo Mode!. Enjoy it as me when I was able to config it successfully.



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