I've got a number of "universal" programmers, including the old, now obsolete original UniSite programmer, which, when new, cost about $40k, not including the full set of adapters.

I had terrible experience with programmers from XELTEK, and Logical Devices, as well as not-so-bad experience with one from Tribal Microsystems, which was bought out about 10 years ago by some Asian manufacturer.

In general, I'd say, avoid, at all cost, products from Asian manufacturers. They seem to have a different cultural orientation to customers and customer service. Their priority seems to be, (1) get the buyer's money, (2) if you can't avoid it, ship the product, whether functional or not, (3) ignore the customer's questions and complaints, (4) ignore the promises made prior to sale, and (5) when pressed, close your doors or sell out to someone even less responsive to post-sales-questions/complaints.

I'd recommend you spend a little time looking for programmers on eBay. Now, this is not a recommendation to buy one, but, rather, to look at what's being "dumped" by previous buyers. This will give you a picture, though not necessarily of what's good, but of what's probably not so good, else it wouldn't be up for sale.

There are some pretty capable programmers out there, but not all of them are particularly "universal." Be sure the components you know you're going to want to program are on their list NOW.

With XELTEK, I found that their product not only didn't program or even offer the products they advertised, but, in several noteworthy cases, destroyed pretty costly components.

With BP, I found that their support was thorough and timely, and that they had clearly tested their product before shipping it to me.

With new components, however, I didn't find BP particularly quick about supporting the newer parts, in some cases even parts that were simply a second-source that used different supervoltages.

Sadly, there's not much help unless you go with one of the really premium devices.

IIRC, there's a company called ADVIN Systems that sells a pretty universal programmer, but I fear they've been sold to an Asian owner, and now have the typical Asian attitudes toward customer service. The mantra is "once you have their money, you never give it back ...", if you know what I mean.

RE