PICkit 3

I recently helped a reader of my Embedded C Books through the early stages of getting things working properly. Sometimes the little things get in the way such as a compiler that doesn't fully install or a programmer that won't connect up properly with the USB port. These are the issues I can't write a solution for so I offer all my readers email support.

But when they get a faulty tool then that is really frustrating. I recommend the MPLAB 8.30, PICkit 2 and PIC16F690 for my Beginner's Guide to Embedded C books (volume 1 and 2) but sometimes people prefer to use the latest such as MPLABX or PICKit 3. I can't argue against it but until my updated versions are released (hopefully by summer) I still recommend they stick to the tools I use in the books.

But I've recently had two people with tools issues. One had a faulty PICkit 3 and another had a board with some kind of connection issue. I couldn't fix either one and fortunately they both figured out the problem. I hate to hear of a PICKit 3 issue. 

PICkit 3 is the PICkit 2 replacement and supports all the PIC parts so I recommend anybody starting out with PICs add the PICkit 3 to their tool collection but also keep a PICkit 2 around if for nothing more than the UART tool. Having the ability to send back simple serial data to the PICKit 2 through the programming connection is really handy. I use it all the time when programming CHIPINO modules. But PICkit 3 is the low cost official programmer from Microchip so if you want to use the latest devices with all the latest features then make sure you have a PICkit 3 available. You don't need it to get started with an older device (i.e. PIC16F690) but you will need it when you want to use some of the new devices and there are a lot of great features in the new devices. I'll be writing more about them in the future.