Put the Bluetooth peripheral in pairing mode.IPE is nice to have around for when MPLAB X decides it isn't going to play nicely. You notice the checksum in the upper right? If that's 0x3FFF and you just read your chip's memory then your chip is probably blank.
The 'blank check' button looks to see if the memory is full of 0x3FFF (blank). The verify button works unreliably for me but presumably it is supposed to tell us if the hex file was written correctly to the MCU. Make that your order and you should be OK. Load the hex, erase the chip, program the chip. So be careful.įinally, the IPE does like it if you erase the chip before you program it. Otherwise you just write back the same data back to the chip. So you have to reload the hex file after reading the chip's memory. The thing you want to be careful about is when you read a chip's memory the hex file gets replaced with the memory you just read.
I think 0x3FFF is the code for blanked out memory. If you load a hex file (click the source button and track down your hex file) you should see the memory readout at the bottom change. Now, it's a bit weird in that you have to be a little careful when you select what you want to program to the PIC MCU. Now your PICkit 3 is supplying the power and is not telling the chip to hold itself in a constant state of reset. If it is selected, unselect it by choosing 'release from reset'. Go into 'settings' menu one more time and make sure that 'hold in reset' is not selected. One last step before you can actually do anything. Ok, now get back to the main screen by choosing 'operate'. No voltage, no programming your chip will act dead with no voltage. This tells the PICkit 3 to supply your programming voltage. If you are not using an external (breadboard, etc) power source then you will likely want to select 'power target circuit from tool'. Find the 'power' button on the left and click it.
Now you see a bunch of new options, they are slightly different between releases. Next, go to the 'settings' menu at the top and choose 'advanced mode'. My experience is that this isn't important at this stage. You must connect to a target device to use PICkit 3.' If you see this don't panic. Now, it may say something like 'Target device was not found. If you get no warning that's probably OK too.
You may get a warning popup that says 5v can nuke your chip, do you want to use 5v setting? Well, check your datasheets because it's not cool to burn up your chips! Double check quickly that you have the right chip selected. The action of connecting should tell the PICkit to actually see if it can talk to the IPE as expected and thus to your chips. Anyways, make sure you have the right chip selected before proceeding. You can save time if you know the chip family by selecting 'family', it will narrow down the number of chips in the 'device' dropdown. Once you see the PICkit 3 in 'tool' dropdown then click connect.īefore you go further make sure you have selected the correct chip from the 'device' dropdown. If IPE can see your PICkit 3 it should show up automatically. There will be a connect button and just beside it a 'tool' dropdown. First, physically connect your PICkit 3 programmer (PICkit 2 won't work for some odd reason) and then start up the IPE program.
Now the warnings on how to stay out of the fire with this thing. It does duplicate some functionality of the MPLAB X program but it is a nice thing to have around.
It's pretty straightforward and is used to read/write/erase the PIC chips you have. This additional program is called the IPE, not to be confused with the IDE. There are, with the MPLAB X downloads, usually an IPE program that comes bundled. Using the IPE (Integrated Programming Environment)