PICKit 2Plus is stable. When Mr. Roper decides to stop adding features, and, I stop adding more parts... we can lock the build down. But, we have been using in anger and it stable. Download is avaialble.
PICKit 3Plus
I can move the code from the PICKit 2Plus across from PICKit 2Plus next week . I have an early version PICKit 3Plus.
@Moto Geek. What chip can you not program currently?
PICKit Plus Command Line
This supports Pk2 and Pk3 this is also making progress. Look for more news on this soon.
Next release of Great Cow BASIC
Hot news. Only a few days away from asking for testers. We have a huge number of improvements in the release. Mr. Roper was the first user to install the new package yesterday. I think he likes the new stuff.
I will not include PICKit 2Plus, PICKit 3Plus or PICKit Plus Command Line in the release as these need to be on independent release schedules. However, I would expect to remove PICKit 2 Old GUI and PICKit 3 Old GUI and the old PK2 Command line utility from the release after next as these packages will have superceded by the PICKit 2Plus, PICKit 3Plus or PICKit Plus Command Line utility.
Exciting times.
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I have not really used the pickit3 standalone programmer with GCB. I had downloaded mplab from microchip before I knew about GCB, so I have always used the IPE pusher thing and its always worked for me no matter what chips I am using. In fact, I never really knew about the gui until recently. The reason for my excitement level on the pickit3plus is that I am trying to show others (arduino fans) how cool this whole thing is and having not to download and fiddle with mplab for a beginner is the "icing on the cake" for this endevor.
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PICKit 2PLus. Added 18fxK40 but the parts are not completing tests correctly. I have requested parts from Microchip - will be simple to resolve. But, meanwhile these parts do not program correctly. This is only an issue in PICKit 2Plus. Great Cow BASIC works a treat!
PICKit Plus Command Line: More capabilities have been added. Testing is continuing. Integration testing with the new IDE has been completed. Quality of solution prevents a general test release to users.
PICKit 3Plus: Basic capabilities have been addded. I need more time to complete this application. Hopefully, this week I will get a release out.
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I see mega328p is in chip data. Without the bootloader and usb to arduino pcb, how would I program it? pickit2 or pickit3 ? using standard gcb ide prog tools.
edit it's like a pic using d0 d1 and resistors stuff. Then a xtal to run...Sorry motogeek, I think arduino easy to prog with gcb, no hardware needed. sorry off topic
Last edit: stan cartwright 2018-05-01
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You see a chip file for the mega328p... there are 1000s in the same folder.
You can program a mega328p and many others using a Pickit 2 programmer. The software to use is AVRRDUDE. You would only do this to recover a damaged bootloader or to replace the bootloader with an alternative. You can use the standard Great Cow BASIC programming tools as you have AVRRDUDES installed.
The rest of the post is meaningless.. I am sure @Motogeek will understand.
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"New Life for an old Board"
With Evan putting many hours into reinvigorating the much loved PICKit2 application and its younger sibling, PICKit3, I thought this may be a good time to also look at the venerable Low Pin Count Demo Board that was originally available with those programmers.
The boards are old now, and becoming hard to find, but Great Cow Basic has lots of demo and tutorial files, for several devices, that are written specifically for these Boards.
What many people did not realise, when they bought the initial PICKit, and got the free board, was that the LPC Demo Board was the most cost effective and versatile PIC development board on the market at the time. It has been superseded now by the Curiosity board, but with PICKit2+ and PICKit3+ the good old LPC Demo Board can hold its own even against the Curiosity Board.
The Pinout of the 20 PIN socket is such that it can accomodate not only 20 Pin devices but 14 Pin and 8 Pin devices too. Those devices can be PIC12, PIC16 or PIC18 giving us a card no bigger than a credit card that can accommodate the vast majority of Microchip’s ever expanding range of 8 Bit Microcontrollers.
The enhancements that Evan has made in creating the Plus versions of the PICKit Software makes them even more useful now as even the latest PIC16F18xxx / PIC16F17xxx series of Enhanced Core devices with, Intelligent Analog and Core Independent Peripherals, are fully supported. In fact with the combination of the PICKit+ Programer software, the PPS Tool and Great Cow Basic your trusty old PICKit Programer and Low Pin Count Demo Board can handle many more leading edge devices than any of the commercial BASIC compilers, and even some flavors of C, all without having to replace your existing hardware or install cumbersome development environments.
Rather than worrying about buying a PICKit 4 and a development board you could be having fun learning new devices and peripherals, with the hardware you already have, by working your way through the “C:\GCB@Syn\GreatCowBasic\Demos\Vendor Boards\Microchip - Low Pin Count Demo Board” folder that can be found with the "View Demos" button on the GCBASIC Tool bar. So if you have an old Low Pin Count development Board in the bottom of your draw or parts bin, fish it out, dust it down and put it to use exploring Microchips newest devices.
For those of you who were unfortunate enough to miss out, fear not, we won't leave you behind.
Here are two versions of the LPC Demo board That I call LPC BreadBoard, that are 100% compatible with all of the demos too.
In future articles I will cover Pimping the Low PIN Count Demo Boards to make them even more useful. Show the Design and Construction of a Stripboard Advanced Low Pin Count Demo Board that you can build with bits from your parts bin.
A companion Board based on the MCP2221a (I2C/USART to USB Bridge) and I will even explore and Pimp the capabilities of the 28 Pin Demo Board, its Breadboard and it’s stripboard equivalents to rival even the Curiosity High Pin Count board.
All thanks to PICKit+, and Microchip’s continued supply of DIP packaged devices, the hobby and educational side of Microcontrollers has never looked brighter, whilst the entry level costs in time and cash has never been lower.
Let’s spread the word and start a revolution of people learning and creating with Great Cow BASIC.
Cheers
Chris
p.s. For those who requested the 28Pin Demo Board, here is a taster for you to get started on.
Last edit: Chris Roper 2018-05-02
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Just to prove it could be done.
A fully functional Low Pin Count Circuit on a Tiny Breadboard.
It works perfectly with 8 and 14 Pin devices, the only limitation is that 20 Pin devices won't fit.
Now no one has any excuse for NOT trying the demos :)
Last edit: Chris Roper 2018-05-03
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Awesome Chris!!!! I am with you on spreading the word. Once the PicKit3+ comes out, I will be showing quite a few arduinoites how cool GCB really is. I am working on a video for a project I did using GCB that I hope to finish soon and put up on youtube to help spread the word. Very exciting times (for geeks, anyway).
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That is a clone. There are many different versions out there since Microchip open sourced the design. I built my own and simplified the design to remove the EEPROM for programming on the go. I also fixed mine to a 5v only programmer to reduce the circuitry. I share all the details on my website if anybody is interested. http://www.elproducts.com/build-your-own-pickit-2.html
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The PICKit2 Hardware and software were placed in the public domain.
I have the .hex File and schematics if anyone in the forum wishes to make one.
Not all of the clones included all of the features of the original PICKit2 but as long as the programming side is the same and they have the same firmware then they should work with PK2+ software.
Is that yours Stan?
If so we should try it and see.
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Yes Chris, it's mine. I use it with gcb. I bought it for <£5 when I discovered GCB, along with the zif socket. Then I vero'd a board and found out about icsp...so the zif is redundant but the socket could be used to make a dev board..maybe.
While waiting for it to arrive a uno arrived first so although my intentions were to use the pics I had, I used the uno first...which didn't need any hardware blah,blah,blah etc. :)
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Two mentions - first, a mega328p bootloader is 5k..I think. so using pickit to save that is a thought.
second, a uno nano board is neat for connecting to so could it be icsp like my pic boards?
ie connect pk2 to a uno, which uno pins and program the 328 in circuit.
Is that a silly idea? 5k is a lot of program when not a lot to start with.
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1/2 of the second question would be to use the AVRISP mkii for ICSP, which would hook up to the 6 pin header on the nano, uno, ormega boards, that's what I do. You still have to open up AVR Studio to set the fuses and program though. I don't think you can buy them from Atmel/MCHP anymore, have to go with a clone.
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kent, I found this https://hackaday.io/project/7061-microchips-pickit-2-as-an-atmel-stk500-programmer
The uno bootloader is 2k (but can be 1.5k). That's a lot compared to tiny bootloader.
Microchip make avr ?? Where's the support.
I don't want to remove the 328 from the uno board. Clones have a smd as do nanos.
I just want to flash uno/nano without bootloader..not urgent.
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anobium-The intention WAS to use a pickit2 connected to a uno or nano BOARD through the connections necessary and flash a hex file not like I do to a pic from gcb but like using pickit2 ide.
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An update.
PICKit 2Plus
PICKit 2Plus is stable. When Mr. Roper decides to stop adding features, and, I stop adding more parts... we can lock the build down. But, we have been using in anger and it stable. Download is avaialble.
PICKit 3Plus
I can move the code from the PICKit 2Plus across from PICKit 2Plus next week . I have an early version PICKit 3Plus.
@Moto Geek. What chip can you not program currently?
PICKit Plus Command Line
This supports Pk2 and Pk3 this is also making progress. Look for more news on this soon.
Next release of Great Cow BASIC
Hot news. Only a few days away from asking for testers. We have a huge number of improvements in the release. Mr. Roper was the first user to install the new package yesterday. I think he likes the new stuff.
I will not include PICKit 2Plus, PICKit 3Plus or PICKit Plus Command Line in the release as these need to be on independent release schedules. However, I would expect to remove PICKit 2 Old GUI and PICKit 3 Old GUI and the old PK2 Command line utility from the release after next as these packages will have superceded by the PICKit 2Plus, PICKit 3Plus or PICKit Plus Command Line utility.
Exciting times.
I have not really used the pickit3 standalone programmer with GCB. I had downloaded mplab from microchip before I knew about GCB, so I have always used the IPE pusher thing and its always worked for me no matter what chips I am using. In fact, I never really knew about the gui until recently. The reason for my excitement level on the pickit3plus is that I am trying to show others (arduino fans) how cool this whole thing is and having not to download and fiddle with mplab for a beginner is the "icing on the cake" for this endevor.
What an exciting prospect, I can test Pickit2 or 3/Factory release or clone, with most chips. Please put me on the list...
R.
Sent to you.
Update
PICKit 2PLus. Added 18fxK40 but the parts are not completing tests correctly. I have requested parts from Microchip - will be simple to resolve. But, meanwhile these parts do not program correctly. This is only an issue in PICKit 2Plus. Great Cow BASIC works a treat!
PICKit Plus Command Line: More capabilities have been added. Testing is continuing. Integration testing with the new IDE has been completed. Quality of solution prevents a general test release to users.
PICKit 3Plus: Basic capabilities have been addded. I need more time to complete this application. Hopefully, this week I will get a release out.
I see mega328p is in chip data. Without the bootloader and usb to arduino pcb, how would I program it? pickit2 or pickit3 ? using standard gcb ide prog tools.
edit it's like a pic using d0 d1 and resistors stuff. Then a xtal to run...Sorry motogeek, I think arduino easy to prog with gcb, no hardware needed. sorry off topic
Last edit: stan cartwright 2018-05-01
You see a chip file for the mega328p... there are 1000s in the same folder.
You can program a mega328p and many others using a Pickit 2 programmer. The software to use is AVRRDUDE. You would only do this to recover a damaged bootloader or to replace the bootloader with an alternative. You can use the standard Great Cow BASIC programming tools as you have AVRRDUDES installed.
The rest of the post is meaningless.. I am sure @Motogeek will understand.
"New Life for an old Board"
With Evan putting many hours into reinvigorating the much loved PICKit2 application and its younger sibling, PICKit3, I thought this may be a good time to also look at the venerable Low Pin Count Demo Board that was originally available with those programmers.
The boards are old now, and becoming hard to find, but Great Cow Basic has lots of demo and tutorial files, for several devices, that are written specifically for these Boards.
What many people did not realise, when they bought the initial PICKit, and got the free board, was that the LPC Demo Board was the most cost effective and versatile PIC development board on the market at the time. It has been superseded now by the Curiosity board, but with PICKit2+ and PICKit3+ the good old LPC Demo Board can hold its own even against the Curiosity Board.
The Pinout of the 20 PIN socket is such that it can accomodate not only 20 Pin devices but 14 Pin and 8 Pin devices too. Those devices can be PIC12, PIC16 or PIC18 giving us a card no bigger than a credit card that can accommodate the vast majority of Microchip’s ever expanding range of 8 Bit Microcontrollers.
The enhancements that Evan has made in creating the Plus versions of the PICKit Software makes them even more useful now as even the latest PIC16F18xxx / PIC16F17xxx series of Enhanced Core devices with, Intelligent Analog and Core Independent Peripherals, are fully supported. In fact with the combination of the PICKit+ Programer software, the PPS Tool and Great Cow Basic your trusty old PICKit Programer and Low Pin Count Demo Board can handle many more leading edge devices than any of the commercial BASIC compilers, and even some flavors of C, all without having to replace your existing hardware or install cumbersome development environments.
Rather than worrying about buying a PICKit 4 and a development board you could be having fun learning new devices and peripherals, with the hardware you already have, by working your way through the “C:\GCB@Syn\GreatCowBasic\Demos\Vendor Boards\Microchip - Low Pin Count Demo Board” folder that can be found with the "View Demos" button on the GCBASIC Tool bar. So if you have an old Low Pin Count development Board in the bottom of your draw or parts bin, fish it out, dust it down and put it to use exploring Microchips newest devices.
For those of you who were unfortunate enough to miss out, fear not, we won't leave you behind.
Here are two versions of the LPC Demo board That I call LPC BreadBoard, that are 100% compatible with all of the demos too.
In future articles I will cover Pimping the Low PIN Count Demo Boards to make them even more useful. Show the Design and Construction of a Stripboard Advanced Low Pin Count Demo Board that you can build with bits from your parts bin.
A companion Board based on the MCP2221a (I2C/USART to USB Bridge) and I will even explore and Pimp the capabilities of the 28 Pin Demo Board, its Breadboard and it’s stripboard equivalents to rival even the Curiosity High Pin Count board.
All thanks to PICKit+, and Microchip’s continued supply of DIP packaged devices, the hobby and educational side of Microcontrollers has never looked brighter, whilst the entry level costs in time and cash has never been lower.
Let’s spread the word and start a revolution of people learning and creating with Great Cow BASIC.
Cheers
Chris
p.s. For those who requested the 28Pin Demo Board, here is a taster for you to get started on.
Last edit: Chris Roper 2018-05-02
Just to prove it could be done.
A fully functional Low Pin Count Circuit on a Tiny Breadboard.
It works perfectly with 8 and 14 Pin devices, the only limitation is that 20 Pin devices won't fit.
Now no one has any excuse for NOT trying the demos :)
Last edit: Chris Roper 2018-05-03
Awesome Chris!!!! I am with you on spreading the word. Once the PicKit3+ comes out, I will be showing quite a few arduinoites how cool GCB really is. I am working on a video for a project I did using GCB that I hope to finish soon and put up on youtube to help spread the word. Very exciting times (for geeks, anyway).
Hi Anobium,
Kindly enroll me on the PicKit2 Plus test program.
Regards,
Hanspeter.
Many thanks Anobium, got it.
Regards,
Hanspeter
Is this a fake?
That is a clone. There are many different versions out there since Microchip open sourced the design. I built my own and simplified the design to remove the EEPROM for programming on the go. I also fixed mine to a 5v only programmer to reduce the circuitry. I share all the details on my website if anybody is interested. http://www.elproducts.com/build-your-own-pickit-2.html
Not a fake as such just a clone.
The PICKit2 Hardware and software were placed in the public domain.
I have the .hex File and schematics if anyone in the forum wishes to make one.
Not all of the clones included all of the features of the original PICKit2 but as long as the programming side is the same and they have the same firmware then they should work with PK2+ software.
Is that yours Stan?
If so we should try it and see.
Yes Chris, it's mine. I use it with gcb. I bought it for <£5 when I discovered GCB, along with the zif socket. Then I vero'd a board and found out about icsp...so the zif is redundant but the socket could be used to make a dev board..maybe.
While waiting for it to arrive a uno arrived first so although my intentions were to use the pics I had, I used the uno first...which didn't need any hardware blah,blah,blah etc. :)
Two mentions - first, a mega328p bootloader is 5k..I think. so using pickit to save that is a thought.
second, a uno nano board is neat for connecting to so could it be icsp like my pic boards?
ie connect pk2 to a uno, which uno pins and program the 328 in circuit.
Is that a silly idea? 5k is a lot of program when not a lot to start with.
1/2 of the second question would be to use the AVRISP mkii for ICSP, which would hook up to the 6 pin header on the nano, uno, ormega boards, that's what I do. You still have to open up AVR Studio to set the fuses and program though. I don't think you can buy them from Atmel/MCHP anymore, have to go with a clone.
I use a PK2 and AVRDUDES. Works treat. Same connector etc.
Do you think this programmer will be supported...
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11801
If worse comes to worse, I can send you one Anobium.
I purchased one of these to start playing with the attinys, would be great for GCB (I think?).
Not seeen one. Send along and we can make it work!!
kent, I found this https://hackaday.io/project/7061-microchips-pickit-2-as-an-atmel-stk500-programmer
The uno bootloader is 2k (but can be 1.5k). That's a lot compared to tiny bootloader.
Microchip make avr ?? Where's the support.
I don't want to remove the 328 from the uno board. Clones have a smd as do nanos.
I just want to flash uno/nano without bootloader..not urgent.
USE A PICKIT 2!
NEWS. More parts added and the parts database has been improved.
Currently at application version 4.61.0.20 and Device File Version 2.63.165
anobium-The intention WAS to use a pickit2 connected to a uno or nano BOARD through the connections necessary and flash a hex file not like I do to a pic from gcb but like using pickit2 ide.