FOSS Programmer
Discussion page for feasibility of making a from scratch programmer
Existing work: Openprog
cr1901
While the TL866 is ending production, the TL866-II is still available/produced. In case TL866-II stops production and both variants become difficult to obtain easily, doing our own design has been proposed before. The short version is we have a lot of good/doable ideas for a FOSS programmer, but it would be a time commitment and would not be as cheap as a TL866. I suspect in principle an open design would attract more contributors in the long run; while Elemecca has done a great job on this front, PIC isn't exactly known to be pleasant to work with.