PicKit2 Debug Express

Around the space, we have been using the PICkit 2 Debug Express quite a bit lately.  This has allowed us to get pretty cozy with the functions of this handy little programmer and I thought I would share some of these features with you.

I’m sure you’ve read the previous tutorial ‘Programming PIC Microcontrollers in C‘, if you haven’t, you should go familiarize yourself with it now.  Continuing on from there, after we have a successful build of a led blinking we can use the PICkit 2 to program our chip via the ICSP header.

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If you’ve ever come across an OpenSource or OpenHardware project then you have probably heard of Sourcforge. I have to admit that I have know about Sorceforge and (Sub)version Control for years but I could never figure out why someone would want to use something so complex. I finally figured it out…it’s because Sourceforge and Version control is not at all complex. In fact it is actually very cool.  In order to use Sourceforge you’ll need a subversion (SVN) client. TortoiseSVN is the self proclaimed “coolest interface to (sub)version control”. This tutorial will get you up and running quickly with an existing Sourceforge project. You will be able to Checkout entire projects and have an exact copy on your local PC for editing and you will also learn how to Add files and Commit changed files (continue reading…)