Ok, I finally found time to rebuild that Atmel programmer. I bought all new parts and 2 89C2051's, and I also spent 4 hours of work on it. I powered on the circuit and tried to read the chip ID and I got FF FF FF. I rechecked ALL of my work, and still I got FF FF FF. I tried 4 computers, all in DOS mode, and I switched through all of the LPT BIOS settings, SPP/EPP/ECP, and still got FF FF FF. I was about to strap a ton of explosives to the breadboard when I realized that the book specificly calls for BIDIRECTIONAL. I bought a $10 BIDIR card and now I get 1E 21 FF, which means perfect!

This chip truly is a "20-pin wonder"! It cut power usage, wire count, chip count, and build time off all of my projects. And most important, this proves I'm not going crazy, at least not for another 5 years.
Whats next on the small pin market?

Ben