[PIC] Pickit3 clone or original?

[pjmelect]

I was thinking of buying a cheap Pickit3 clone from China on eBay. I want it to program 32MZ and 24E type chips.Would it be better to buy a genuine Picket3 at twice the price or get the clone?
Money is tight for me, my time is free.
I would like to hear from anyone with experience of these cheap clones.

 

[xpress_embedo]

PIC32MZ are very new and it might be possible that the clone will not work.
Original PicKit 3 is cheap, you must go with that.

 

[bigdogguru]

If you are a student, Microchip offers a 25% discount for academia, the only qualification is a student email address of a domain of an established school or .edu.

**broken link removed**

Also keep an eye on Microchip monthly discounts on development tools, at the moment they have a 43% discount on the PICkit 3 Debug Express combo kit, a PICkit3 and a PIC18F45K20 development board, with the discount it comes to about $42 USD.

Save up to 50% with our monthly deals on Microchip Development Tools

A common issue with clones, is the degree of how closely the clone device actually mimics the original, many of the clone PICkit 3s are nothing more than rebadged PICkit 2 clones. Many of the available clones do not support the full range of programming voltages required, which is often an issue posted in this forum. As you seem to be interested in programming and debugging some of the more recent Microchip devices, this could be a significant issue for you as well. While there are certainly some good clones available, there are more equally bad clones on the market, so buyer beware.


BigDog

 

[pic.programmer]

In the link provided by bigdogguru there ia a 43% discount for PICKit3 Currently. So, grab the offer.