I recently bought some and noticed that they are on PIC12F629 chips, which are the same as the SuperCIC chips. However, I read the code from it, and tried copying it to another 12F629 chip and it didn't work. Are their chips locked, or is there some way to copy the code off so I don't have to spend the $4 on a $0.50 chip?
No need to, Jim has his awfully chill CIC and the code is out there for AVR and PICS. 
Which pics does it use?
not PIC, AVR: attiny13a it's about half the cost of the PIC retrousb uses.
Right, but if I want to use it with their Repropak carts I would like to be able to use a dip-8 package compatible. Back to my original question, is it possible to just copy the code from one of their 12F629 chips and use it on one of mine?
No, they're locked of course. Either buy a CIClone or convert the pinout to work with JCIC.
Does anyone have a link to the JCIC files? It appears to be missing from that thread...
Seeing as I can't find JCICs stuff, would Krizz's AVRCIC work just as well?
http://krikzz.com/pub/support/index.php?dir=everdrive-n8%2Fdevelopment
http://krikzz.com/pub/support/index.php?dir=everdrive-n8%2Fdevelopment
getafixx wrote:
is there some way to copy the code off so I don't have to spend the $4 on a $0.50 chip?
$4 is very reasonable.
The PIC only costs $0.50, but they guy who did a many thousands of dollars worth of work on reverse engineering the CIC deserves a little as well. $4 is quite a bargain considering the equipment, time and effort that went into that. Additionally, all the information gained by the de-capping and reverse engineering of the CIC was shared publicly here in the forums. If you wanted to independently write your own implementation of the algorithm and put it on a PIC12F629 you are more than welcome to - I'm guessing $4 is much easier option.
Yes, but the guy who's selling them for $4 bought the rights from the guy that did the work (kevtris). Not that there's anything wrong with that though. The person that did all the work was only indirectly supported by the purchase of the $4 CIClones. From what I've heard Kevtris shared the hex files so people could make their own as well, but that changed once retrozone bought sole rights.
There have been at least two other people who have re-designed the cic to fit on the attiny13a. Krizz's should work just as well, I believe it's for the attiny13a as well. He doesn't have the same pinout as JCIC, but Krizz's code is open so you could recompile to match the pinout if desired.
If you only want 1-2 CIC's and don't have an avr programmer then yeah, $4 each is a better option. AVR programmers are only ~$20 so it's a pretty small investment to make $0.50 CICs now that's to the guys who made their design open.
There have been at least two other people who have re-designed the cic to fit on the attiny13a. Krizz's should work just as well, I believe it's for the attiny13a as well. He doesn't have the same pinout as JCIC, but Krizz's code is open so you could recompile to match the pinout if desired.
If you only want 1-2 CIC's and don't have an avr programmer then yeah, $4 each is a better option. AVR programmers are only ~$20 so it's a pretty small investment to make $0.50 CICs now that's to the guys who made their design open.