Nuts and Volts - January 2008

once, and verifies it three times. Overkill, but I get the messages I want.

That’s it. Follow these steps and you should have your PICkit 2 running within MicroCode Studio, with the PICBASIC PRO compiler, and have a one-click, compile and program solution . . . or will you? If everything is perfect, then you will. However, there are always a few gotchas when trying to do something new like this.

NOTHING’S PERFECT

If, for some reason, the PICkit 2 command-line interface has a problem, then an error message will appear. However, the window will close so fast that you won’t see it. I haven’t figured out a way to add a delay to the error messages since they are displayed automatically. This is one of the shortcomings to the way the command-line program is written.

If you see the DOS command-line window open and then close quickly, assume you have an error. To view it, you have to open the command line yourself and run the pk2cmd.exe file from the DOS command line (if you know how to do that). Only then can you see what the error is. The next step is figuring out what the error(s) mean(s). Here are a few tips you’ll need to make sure you are successful in getting this to work.

Make sure your PICkit 2 has firmware level V2.10.00 or later, otherwise it won’t work with the command-line option. This is stated in the README file. You can update the firmware through the command line interface, but I find it easier to use the GUI interface that comes with your PICkit 2.

Make sure your board with the PIC installed is powered separately from the PICkit 2 if you want it to run after programming. Even though the PICkit 2 can power a circuit after the chip has been programmed, the command-line option doesn’t support that feature. The PICkit 2 under command line control will only power the board during the programming operation.

Once you have successfully programmed and verified your PIC, and have seen the success messages in the DOS command line window, you will see the DOS window close but your program will not run in your circuit. This is because the PICkit 2 is holding the reset or MCLR pin low, keeping the PIC in reset mode. You have to disconnect the PICkit 2 from the circuit to release the MCLR line, and then your program should start to run. You can easily add a program/run switch to the MCLR pin on your circuit to make this easier.

I’m sure the command-line interface will get updated to correct a lot of these quirks, as this is only version 1.00. I’m also told that the source code may be made public, so all of you great PC programmers out there may be able to do a lot to improve this command-line interface. As it stands, it can easily be placed in a batch file for automatic programming if you have several prototypes to build. The options are endless for this great addition to the PICkit 2.

GETTING STARTED WITH PICs

CONCLUSION

As you can see, the PICkit 2 just gets better and better. Now, the ability to use this with a third-party IDE such as MicroCode Studio opens up a whole new arena for the PICkit 2. This won’t give you the DEBUG support that the PICkit 2 offers. That requires you to run the PICkit 2 from the Microchip MPLAB IDE but, for many beginners, all they want is an easy path to write a program and one click compile and program, so this is a great USB option to do this for a really low cost.

There are other USB PIC MCU programmers that have a command-line interface, but I still like to use the PICkit 2 programmer because of the low cost and simple six-pin interface. It’s easier to build that six-pin interface on a circuit board or even a bread board. I have been searching the web for a DOS version ever since I first started using the PICkit 2. Hats off to the team at Microchip who made this happen. This adds another step to making it easier for beginners to get started programming Microchip microcontrollers. As usual, email me your comments and questions. I look forward to hearing about how well this worked for you. See you next month. NV