If you were going to buy a commercial device to do your ICSP for PIC's, which one would you buy? Just looking around the internet, I found the Inchworm+, which looks good, as it also has a debugger. I guess it can also be upgraded with the Unicorn adding USB, and a development board. http://www.blueroomelectronics.com/index.php Mainly, I'm just concerned with programming ICSP. I already have a PicStart+, but am tired of moving the chip back and forth between the programmer and target hardware.
same here. EDIT: the inchwork is a RS232 only ICD2 clone, and the unicorn kit is a USB-serial adapter meant to work with it (but actually show up as a USB device, not just usb-serial adapter which can be finnicky) The inchworm is looking like 35-40 for the kit, I cant find any prices for the unicorn. Sparkfun sells a completed USB and serial ICD2 clone from olimex, assembled (no troubleshooting ) http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=5 its up to $106 though I got it for $99 if you just need serial, and not USB, http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=6 is and ICD2 in a db-9 to db-25 adapter hoood. pretty slick, $56, completed. I got the USB once since I didnt feel like getting a serial header for my motherboard, and so I can use it with my laptop.
I guess the unicorn isn't available yet or something... Well, the ICD2 is only $159, I thought it would be much more expensive than that. I may just go ahead and get one of those, and be done with it. I like that it's USB, instead of serial, at least, it makes it easier to connect, in my case. Thanks for the assistance. Does the ICD2 come with an ICSP cable to go to the target board? I can't seem to find out what connector I would need to interface with it, on the target board, in any of the documentation.
ICD2 or PICkit2. I don't find myself using my RealICE or ICD2 anymore. The PICkit2 does everything I need and for debugging I find it easier to fire stuff out the serial port. The ICD2 uses a 6P6C RJ11 connector.
I use the PicKit2, which you can get from RS in the UK for £25 + P&P. it does debugging, programming and everything else i need
Microchip are putting a lot of effort into the PICkit2 to make it as versatile as possible. It's definitely one of the areas in their range of development tools where they are focussing their attention - mainly because it's sold at a very attractive price. PICkit2 sales are outnumbering ICD2 sales at the moment according to one of the reps.
Hmm...well, you guys seem to be the experts, so I'll just go for the PICkit2. Seems like it should do everything I need. Thanks for the help, this is quite a community you guys have here.
The best thing to do geogecko, is to install MPLAB. When you have an idea which PICs you're likely to use select the PIC in MPLAB and it'll tell you which PICs are currently supported for programming and debugging in the current revision of MPLAB. If you're wanting to debug a large variety of PICs in the near future, the ICD2 may be better as the support is already there for 90% of the PICs available. Support for debugging with the PICkit2 is growing rapidly, but there may be some that you want to debug now that it currently supports for programming only. Though for me, as I said, I like to use the RS232 port for debugging as it allows data to be sent out in realtime without halting your target. So in short - the ICD2 is a good piece of kit, and if you have the money it can be very advantageous. If you're a beginner it's possibly the better choice as you may have problems with setting up the serial port etc. Whereas the PICkit2 is cheap, still programs a large amount of PICs and support is rapidly growing for debugging a large range of PICs. The ICD2 supports the most devices at the moment though... I guess it depends how serious you're planning to get! (and your funds available) Have fun
Sorry, I was away for the weekend. I'm looking at the PICkit 2 Debug Express kit, but am unable to determine if it comes with any type of ICSP cable. The development board looks to have a right angle header that plugs directly into the programmer. Is there a ribbon cable that I would need to buy in order to interface the programmer to my target board?
The PICkit2 doesn't need a cable, it has a built in 6-way SIL socket on it - you just need to include a SIL header on your target board.
But for smaller projects, having a 6 pin header sticking off the side of the PCB tends to take up a lot of room. I guess it's up to the designer then to create a cable to interface with a smaller connector.
Thanks for all the help everyone. I just ordered the PICkit2 Debug Express from Mouser today, and should have it tomorrow (nice living so close to Mouser!). I just got to thinking though, I ordered some 4MHz crystals to use for prototyping, I sure hope these will work well on a breadboard...the fastest crystals we used in school were 1MHz. I guess if it's close enough to the PIC, it shouldn't really matter, since that will be the highest frequency on the board.
