So many option but little understanding

[mackrackit]

Personally I like the PicKit2.
http://www.microchipdirect.com/produ...words=PG164120
http://www.microchip.com/stellent/id...irects=pickit2

[PickyBiker]

Thanks Mackrackit, but why not the Pickit 3?

[mackrackit]

I am not sure the 3 is worth the extra money.
The 2, as far as I know will do everything and more than PBP. Plus it has a Serial and and other built in tools.

I am sure the 3 is good, I have four programers from Micro Chip and they all work fine.

[rmteo]

Personally I like the PicKit2.

How do you like the in-circuit debugging features of the PicKit2?

[mackrackit]

How do you like the in-circuit debugging features of the PicKit2?

Embarrassed to say that I have not used that feature.
What do you think about it?

[rmteo]

I checked out the PicKit2's debugging capabilities using MPLAB (not sure if there is a way to do it without MPLAB) and I am not impressed. Not so much with the PicKit2 (it is an excellent device programmer, as good as, if not better than anything else on the market - especially considering its price) but with MPLAB. What a mess compared to some of the other development platforms that I use.

[mackrackit]

At one time I was a fan of MPLAB, now I only use it to read HEX files when someone has a problem.

MCS is OK for quick and dirty stuff, IMHO.

Development platform.. When I am working on a "complicated" project I do it on a Linux box using gedit and BAT files to invoke PBP/MPASM.

But back to the question about programmers. I use the PicKit2 on all platforms.