@james101 as i stated clearly in the PM there's no "firmware update to close the hack"! please stop thinking about this; is counterproductive.
As a matter of fact the so called "hack" is not a hack in the true sense, it is a simple method to (re)program the TL866 with the firmware of your choice, even with a custom one, which normally the minipro software does not allow this kind of operation.
The minipro software check the programmer type and update it with A firmware for A device and CS firmware for CS device.
My firmware updater can do more than this, it can update the CS with A firmware and viceversa.
Also for those who bricked their devices it can generate a new firmware, which in fact is nothing more than an new serial code, there's no firmware modification or patch or something else, the firmware running in the device is original, vanilla as is provided by the Autoelectric.
If you used my firmware updater then you have seen that there's a field to browse for a file called "update.dat"; for what do you think i need that file? well that file contains the two versions of the firmware in an encrypted format, which my utility decrypt and send it to the programmer at the user choice.
So please stop thinking about "hacks" and "firmware updates to close hacks" there's nothing about this because simply there's no hack to detect.
Regarding your doubt about your device all i can say is that YOUR DEVICE IS GENUINE, there are counterfeited units on the market, and the autoelectric company discovered this and beginning with minipro version 6.50 introduced a routine to detect these units because all these units were loaded with the same serial code.
I have reatached a picture with an counterfeited unit which is clearly a clone. Look closer at that pcb and compare it with any picture of the original pcb (2012/2013/2014 pcb versions) you should see big differences (tip: look at the ground plane first).
Thanks @Mikek400 for the picture.
Now how this counterfeit detection works?
well when you upgrade the firmware (at the minipro request) then that routine is invoked and if the device is found to be counterfeited then that device is deliberately bricked by overwriting the bootloader.
Normally a sane developer/programmer will implement such kind of detection by comparing the device serial code with the bad pirated one and if these two are the same then you can deliberately brick that device.
But no! the developer which implemented the detection routine in V6.50 is sucking big time (because i seen in the dissasembled code what he did! and can't believed my eyes what i have seen); he used the crc32 of the serial code and compared this crc with the crc of the bad counterfeited serial code. Basically instead of comparing two strings he compare two numbers which are crc of a two strings. He never heard about crc collisions? he use crc32 algorithm as an "unique ID" and this sucks! why? because with the minipro V6.50 many good people with genuine devices have bricked their devices! if those people had a lucky serial code to collide with that crappy crc32 detection algorithm then bam! instead of an normal firmware upgrade they got an big brick!
but fortunately there's my firmware generator who helped to repair their devices.
And because i know that the minipro developer is reading this thread: MAN YOU SUCK! of course i informed him about this bug and of course he did not responded me. So beware when a new version is out! who knows what a big surprise we have, use my firmware updater to update the firmware, is more safe.
Also i have updated my firmware updater to not generate a new firmware to collide with that buggy detection algorithm and also it will tell you if you have a lucky serial number. Use any download link here in this thread to download the new version.
Now on the ICSP not working because "there is a patch to stop my device to work with icsp because radioman hacked my firmware"
well, all i can say is that you are in the wrong side of the problem!
There are many variables in this issue.
I believe you, you have checked and rechecked the connections and are all ok.
But i don't understand why you use that enable button software? if you have the A version then it should be available!
Also in the PM you said that device ID is readed only when you put your chip in the ZIF socket but not when you read it over ICSP! well this must ring the bell! ding ding! there's no comunnication between the programmer and the target board! and this issue must throw an error with wrong device ID in the minipro software!
You have disabled the check device ID option?
Also tell us more about target board, all i know is that you have an PIC16F877A and that's all! if its not secret can we have see the schematic diagram of your target board?
Can you put an oscilloscope/logic analyzer to the icsp signals? or even an multimeter to check if you have some activity on these lines!
Also if you have another pic programmer you can try it.
And when all posibilities are checked then we can move on the programmer side.
@crx the R2 has nothing to do with his problem, that resistor is used as pull-up for the PIC18f87j50 MCLR line, don't have any rolle here.
And btw, welcome me, it's been a while since i posted here.