I am currently learning about using PIC18F4550 for my project. Is there any way that I can load the program into the PIC without using ICSP or PICKit? At the first time of using the PIC, can we use USB to load the program into the PIC?
asked Aug 8, 2017 at 14:54
Wan Shahmisufi Wan Jamaludin
651 gold badge4 silver badges12 bronze badges
-
You need some hardware to program the PIC. Velleman sells a cheap kit, which connects to the serial port. It's very practical, as it can program many different kinds of PICs. The one drawback is that it is really slow when using a USB to serial cable. But if you have a PC with a real serial port, it works quite well.Michaël Roy– Michaël Roy2017-08-11 12:23:37 +00:00Commented Aug 11, 2017 at 12:23
-
A few months ago, I needed to program some PICs (12F675 and 16F819) and decided to create my own programmer using a few components, an Arduino Uno and C++ software. See my project hereNelson– Nelson2024-07-19 14:30:02 +00:00Commented Jul 19, 2024 at 14:30
Add a comment
|
2 Answers
I had this question myself,
To program a PIC, many devices can be used. Microchips website gives couple of options . However, The PICKit can program and also do hardware debugging for PIC controllers. There is ICD3 which gives access to more in-depth analysis. There are many more third-party programmers for the PIC controller.
One of these programmers are needed for programming a PIC for the first time. your PIC can be initially programmed with bootloader code. Once you load bootloader you no longer need any programmer. You can send your Hex files over USB or UART and PIC will program itself with this new hex Code. ezbl from microchip has way to do it with USB but it only works with PIC24/dsPIC33
Microchip has very good documentation on bootloader AN851.
2 Comments
Mathieu L.
Perhaps the only thing I'd add is that some vendors sell development kits that come with a pre-programmed PIC. Someone still used a hardware programmer to get a boat loader on there in the first place but as far as the end user is concerned, he programs it without extra hardware.
Michaël Roy
I could never get the PICKit, not the ICD3 to work reliably for debugging PICs in situ. They always ended up not working in debug mode before the end of the project...:( Programming with them works like a charm, though.
You can try the simple PIC programmer found on this page. It works with PICpgm, which is freeware. I've used this software before and it should work great with the 4550.
