The only difficulty in the assembly is the FTDI circuit thatĬonverts USB to RS232, since it is an SMD component with a 32-pin 0.8mm LQFP package. Luckily, on the internet it is possible to find some schematics for ICD2 clones, with similar features. The cost of the ICD2, while not being so high if compared to other similar tools on the market, can be a bit too much for a simple hobbyist.

The ICD2 as a programmer, while the support for the debugging is yet in an early stage.

The IDE used for the previous mentioned project, Piklab, is fully capable of using Windows operating systems and closed source), an USB cable and an ICD cable. The ICD2 is on sale at Microchip website for about 121€ (), together with a manual, the MPLAB development software (free, available only for the The MCU is reacting to the signals as it is supposed to or not. This means to be able to check not only that the software is managing the I/Os in the right way, but also wether the circuit around The ICD acronym means In-Circuit Debugger, and in fact this device allows, in addition to simple programming, the execution (for the compatible MCUs) More complex circuits are needed, like the ICD manufactured by Microchip itself. If instead removing the MCU from its circuit is inconvenient or impossible, or you need to debug both the software and the hardware together, (even less than 10) it is possible to build a simple serial or parallel programmer. If you can settle for programming an MCU by removing it from its circuit and putting it on the programmer socket, with a few euros There are a lot of designs available on the internet, and also a lot of The basic instrument needed to use PIC MCUs is a programmer. The target was to have an economic programmer/debugger for Microchip PIC MCU series, as part of an educational project called

This circuit has been adapted from Lothar Stolz design.

Jumper to power the electronics under debug via the USB 5V.

USB In Circuit Debugger for Microchip MCUs, compatible with serial ICD2 All the material present in this page, if not otherwise specified, is covered by the Creative Commons Attribution-Non commercial-ShareAlike license

Mplab icd 2 driver windows 10