Real Ice and PBP

[MikeBZH]

Hi Arrati,

Sure, this works when you have at least one pin available. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

MikeBZH

[MikeBZH]

Hi everybody,

I was about raising a point about PBP and Real ICE but the search engine returned me the same question I asked 9 years ago !!! Amazing...

Well. When I developped my first product with the PIC18F2685 the question was Real Ice or PicKit 2. I selected PicKit 2 which was a good and cheap choice.

My next product is PIC18F26K22 based, again with PBP3 and MPLAB8 but PicKit 2 does not work with this PIC and PicKit 3 is an horrible tool.
Slow response time with MPLAB8, sometimes hangs and still no real time debugging capabilities which can now be ennoying for what I want to do.

Real ICE could be an interesting alternative.
Does anybody have some experience with it ?

Any feedback welcome !

MikeBZH

[Dave]

Sounds like you haven't updated your PicKit2 software for some time. It does indeed handle 18F26K22 processors. Have a look at these files:

[MikeBZH]

Hi Dave,

Thank you for your answer.

Yes, I did an upgrade recently and the 18F26K22 is now supported by my Pickit 2 but for the stand alone application only.
I can read, write, program the PIC from outside MPLAB8 but I cannot use Pickit 2 as a debugger inside MPLAB8.

Best regards
MikeBZH

[pedja089]

I have REAL ICE. I use MPLAB X. From MPLAB side it is same as if you are using PK3, except it CAN NOT power target, unless you buy additional adapter board. It is little more reliable than PK3.
It is pain to install, and you must install everything before you plug it in USB. If you plug it, and drivers are not installed then... Good luck getting it to work without system reinstall.

[tumbleweed]

I have all of them, except for the new SNAP debugger.

The REALICE isn't a real ice, and for what it costs it's not worth the money. Mine mostly sits gathering dust.
For most chips you don't get any real benefits. IMHO, if you're looking for something more powerful than a PK2/PK3 then your best bet is the ICD3.

It's faster, can supply up to 150mA for the target VDD, has a stopwatch feature for timing code execution between two breakpoints, and works with both MPLAB and MPLABX. You could buy two of them for less than a REALICE.

The newer PK4/ICD4 would force you to use MPLABX, and for the K22 I'd stick with using MPLAB 8.92.

Debugging PBP code using the ICD tools isn't all that great anyway, so I wouldn't waste a lot of money on it.

[mpgmike]

I currently own a PICkit2 knock-off, PICkit3, and ME Labs U2 programmers. Because it was so cheap, I just ordered the new Snap (under $20 US including shipping!). The Snap is supposed to work on anything in the 8- and 16-bit PIC line, as well as AVR products. I doubt you got your PICkit2 for less than the price of the new Snap.