Programming 8-bit PIC Microcontrollers in C

1.6. PIC16 Program and Debug

• Programming the chip

• In-circuit debugging

• Design package

Once the compiler has produced the hex file, it can be downloaded to the target application board. However, it is generally preferable to test it first by software simulation. This means running the program in a virtual MCU to test its logical function. This can be done within MPLAB (tabular output) or using a third party debugging tool such as Proteus VSM (graphical output). More details on simulation are provided in Appendix C, and VSM interactive simulation is referred to throughout the text to provide circuit schematics and debugging facilities.

Programming

A low-cost programmer available at the time of writing is the Microchip PICkit2 programmer (Figure ...