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Help me choose between PICKit2 and ICD2

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noptical

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icd2 vs pickit2

Hello everyone!

I need to buy a programmer/debugger for PICs ASAP and I'm having a huge dillema. I still can't really understand what's the big difference between ICD2 and PICKit 2 besides the huge difference in price of course.
Anyone can explain me please?
I've been reading posts from various forums but still haven't come to a conclusion.
1) I read somewhere that pickit2 cannot program low voltage pics (the ones with the "L" in their names?). Is this true?
2) I also read that pickit2 cannot debug as many pics as icd2 can and it also requires some extra module? Debugging is very important for me so if icd2 is much more superior than pickit2 in this department, I'll most likely get icd2.
3) Some people claim that pickit2 is a much better programmer than icd2. Why is that?
4) I see that both pickit2 and icd2 clones are much cheaper than their original counterparts, plus some have extra features. Are those clones as good as the originals? What shortcomings do they usually have compared to their original counterparts?
I've found these on ebay:
---- a) **broken link removed**
---- b) **broken link removed**
---- c) **broken link removed**
Anyone tried any of those?
---- d) **broken link removed**
I'm just wondering if these clones are really compatible with mplab software and if they support the firmware updates that microchip releases for their own programmers/debuggers.


Damn, post turned out bigger than I expected :p Thanks for reading it :D



... and thanks for your help :)
 

icd2.5

1. false - pickit can program low voltage chips without problems.
2. true - pickit2 cannot debug pic24, dspic30 and dspic33. icd2 also allows more breakpoints.
3. pickit2 is usually just enough for someone interested in 8-bit PICs. it's not better, it's just more suitable for most of people.
4. clones are also good [;

0x41 0x56 0x45!!
 

pickit2 vs icd2

noptical said:
Hello everyone!

I need to buy a programmer/debugger for PICs ASAP and I'm having a huge dillema. I still can't really understand what's the big difference between ICD2 and PICKit 2 besides the huge difference in price of course.
Anyone can explain me please?

4) I see that both pickit2 and icd2 clones are much cheaper than their original counterparts, plus some have extra features. Are those clones as good as the originals? What shortcomings do they usually have compared to their original counterparts?
I've found these on ebay:


... and thanks for your help :)



Make your own, it's relatively easy. The ones I built for breadboard are quite fine, I've had no reason to even bother making a board.

Moved and had other things going on, upgrading computers, etc, only now really setting all of my development environment back up. But getting there, shortly I will reactivate this thread. I think I'm going to redo the guide as a video and put it on youtube. Lay your components out in order, follow along the video, and in 5 or 10 minutes have an ICD2. Took hours the first one, since I had to follow the schematic to build. Even with just this picture guide it's much faster, since you can just plug things in where shown instead of follow the schematic to which part and which pin etc etc.

I'll be updating things a little better shortly besides just that, when I posted the guide was during the move and too many things piled up to get back on it.

Note there are links in the 2nd or 3rd post, not just the first. Sample the two PICs and order a couple breadboards, I should have things a bit better by the time they get here.

Alan
 

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