ICD, ICSP and Picbasic Pro

[Rob]

Hi,

I have successfully used ICD with MCSP on a particular program I have used in the past (on a 16F877A) and found it to be invaluable - it really cut down the time to market on one of our more extensive projects!

Using Bruce's circuit, you don't need an ICD2 for this, you can program and debug the software in circuit. You need to use the correct boot loader for the PIC you are using which is found in the MCLoader of MCSP program files. This needs to be programmed into the PIC with a programmer before placing the PIC into the ciruit.

The RX and TX pins are the right pins to use for communiaction in this circuit.

In the PIC program, you must type:
DEFINE LOADER_USED 1 at the top of the program

Choose specific points of the program that you wish to debug and type:
ENABLE DEBUG before it
then after that part of the program type:
DISABLE DEBUG

You then have to use the ICD Compile and Program Button to compile the program rather than just the Compile and Program button.

The "Loader Help Topics" in the Help section of MCSP contain all the necessary information for ICD including the circuitry between the PIC and the PC - check 'em out as they're very useful.

Hope these pointers help.