pickit 3 parts

[Kappa2006]

I've decided to bite the bullet and purchase everything I need to program pic's myself.  I have a PICkit 3 Debug Express kit in my cart from microchips, and a ICSP20A adapter from ebay (for my mr16 chip).  Is there anything else I will need?  Is there a how to document on how to use this programmer?  thanks a lot.

Brian

[chrisatpsu]

if you get it from J1SYS on ebay, he includes documentation.

do you have any other pieces of hardware that doesn't have the 6pin header for the pickit?
ssr4, freestyle, usb dongle?

[chrisatpsu]

also, if you get from J1SYS, there are quick links in the wiki to point to what jumper settings to use for each chip.

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[t0cableguy]

for any of those boards you can skip the adapters with a little diy
Get a breadboard, some wire, the cap and/or resistor sizes noted in the wiki for the quick and dirty icsp. I programmed my usb dongle with that and it worked out great. you will only save a few bucks unless you already have a breadboard on hand, but yet again... diy is the ticket!

[chrisatpsu]

as i'm all for diy...   when it comes to troubleshooting, i'd rather have an adapter board, and not worry about whether i made the right connections to the right pic.

[hicksjo]

I am with t0cable on this ...
I have an adapter board and have used it with jumpers as designed ... But also used it for different size pic and removed all header jumpers and placed my own jumper wires to pins ... Have also used straight breadboard with wire jumpers and capacitor

Adapter board is very convenient, but reassuring to know you can successfully work without it

Part of DIY is learning and the sense of accomplishment ... Both are greater without the adapter ... Obviously so is the risk, but we all knew that going in

[hicksjo]

pickit 3 in-circuit debugger is correct ... express kit not necessary, just need the pickit3 itself
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then an interface board ... lots of ways to skin this cat (sorry if any cat lovers) ... I list 3 options
either:
1 - breadboard + jumper wires + 0.1microfarad capacitor, set up as shown
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or

2 - j1sys board ICSP20A with L jumpers on
reference
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or

3 - j1sys board ICSP28A with no jumpers, but manually jumper to get same connections as breadboard setup

Option 3 (and later on 1 when I temporarily lost my adapter board - long story) is actually what I have done.  I got the ICSP28A because it is large enough to program all the 28 pin PICs that are used throughout the equipment, including the DONGLE PIC that does not have an ICSP header on the dongle board itself ... you can manually set jumpers with wires to program smaller chips (like the MR16 or SSR4) without buying another adapter board

[chrisatpsu]

so when you're at crunch time (like now)  and you need to program, a pic fast to get it back out there, and you want to stop and take more work looking up which pins need hooked up, then spend the time routing your jumper wires on a breadboard, when you can just pull an adapter board that's already set up to just plug your chip in, and go?

breadboard is fine for for January through August.

but the adapter boards are fine all year around. and compared to how much we spend on lights, they're inexpensive.

[t0cableguy]

I wired up my adapter in less than 20 minutes. If your audience is paying or you have sponsors that pull funding when things go down I can understand paying the 40 bucks for all the adapters for all the chip sizes. But if you run your show for free people can wait 20 minutes more for your show to get running again. Besides... the average person will call it a night if something goes that wrong, especially since chances are problems will occur in the rain.

[chrisatpsu]

right, but the point I was just trying to make is that a lot of people want this time of the year to go more smoothly, and not have to worry about one more thing.

One thing that helps is most of the current stuff uses the same pic. There's always room for error, when setting up the wires for the pins (5 wires to hook up on a 28pin PIC) with the possibility of messing something up.

Often, we're already in the wrong state of mind to do repairs (frustrated) which can lead to the likelihood of making a mistake.

Most of us that do this, only do this type of work for the show equipment, so the jumpers wouldn't need changing once they're set, so you know when you pick it up again, that's it's ready to go.

[rrowan]

Guys does this conversation really need to continue?

Just agree to disagree

Thanks

Rick R.

[Rainlover]

I need and use the adapters. I am not electronic savvy enough to use a breadboard, resistors, capacitors and jumper wires. I am barely smart enough to figure out the jumpers on my adapters.

John

[tbone321]

What's an adapter?     

[typoagain]

I bought the adapters.

If I am debugging and problem, I want eliminate problems without more creating possible places for errors.

The way things go for me, I would just wire up the breadboard wrong and then REALLY have a hard time finding the problem I had in the first place!

[t0cableguy]

Rick, you are right. Its a personal preference. I  chrisatpsu's opinion and I will admit I do want the adapters.

     I still look at the adapters every now and then and think about what my wife would say.... DID YOU REALLY NEED THAT? if my answer is no I don't buy it. If the answer is yes my answer is "kiss my grits honey, I'm buying it" That's my justification system.

     I personally don't need them, but if you don't feel comfortable wiring a breadboard up to program your pic by all means buy the adapters. They are nice, and they will prevent you from breaking legs off of chips, and they will program your pics correctly when you set the jumpers correctly. If you have the money buy them.
     
      I was just mentioning that there is a DIY solution in the wiki and it does work and it will save you a WEE bit of cash, a little more if you have a breadboard kit already. If you are programming pic's like there is no tomorrow you might save money because you wont be breaking any chips unnecessarily.