PICkit™ 2 Starter Kit

Getting Started
Opening & Programming Lesson 1 in MPLAB® IDE

Overview

A subset of PICkit™ 2 supported PIC® Microcontroller devices may be programmed from

directly within the MPLAB® IDE. For a list of devices supported directly, see the
MPLAB® IDE Readme file for PICkit™ 2, found in C:\Program Files\Microchip\MPLAB
IDE\Readmes.

This document provides a guide to opening, assembling, and programming the first of the 12
PICkit 2 Lessons in the MPLAB IDE. The steps will also apply to working with the remaining
lessons. The lessons themselves are an introduction to programming the PIC Microcontroller
Midrange architecture and the lesson text can be found in the Low Pin Count Demo Board
User’s Guide for the Starter Kit.

Opening Lesson 1 in MPLAB IDE

1. Ensure the appropriate lessons for the Low Pin Count Demo Board have been installed. The
default install directory is C:\Pk2 Lessons\LPC Demo Board for the Starter Kit.
Note: MPLAB IDE has a limitation on path length to the assembly file. If the lessons are
installed with a path longer than the default it may cause problems building in MPLAB IDE.

2. Connect the PICkit 2 Microcontroller Programmer to the PC with the included USB cable.
Plug the 6-pin header on the demo board into the PICkit 2 ICSP™ connector.

3. Start MPLAB IDE.

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From the MPLAB IDE menu bar, select File > Open
Workspace…

A “workspace” contains information on the selected

device (set by Configure > Select Device…), the active
programmer and/or debugger, open windows and their
location, and other IDE configuration settings. The lesson
workspace should already be set up for the PIC MCU on
the included demo board.

The workspace is also associated with a “project”, which

contains the files needed to build an application (source
code, include files, linker scripts, etc.) along with
associated language (compiler) tools and build options.

The lesson projects use the MPASM™ assembler to build

the assembly source code, and only have two files: the
assembly code file (.asm) and the include file (.INC).

4. Browse into the folder for lesson 1, “Hello World” and

select the workspace file C:\Pk2 Lessons\LPC Demo Board\01 Hello
World\Hello World.mcw then click Open.

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5. The project workspace is opened. In the MPLAB IDE workspace, the project files are
displayed in the Project Window. This window is shown below on the left. On the right is
the Output Window, which displays the results from various associated tools, including the
MPASM assembler under the “Build” tab and the PICkit 2 under the “PICkit 2” tab (not yet
shown).

(Continued on next page…)

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PICkit™ 2 Starter Kit Getting Started (MPLAB)

Connecting to the PICkit 2 Microncontroller Programmer

1. Select the PICkit 2 Microcontroller

Programmer as the programming tool.

In the MPLAB IDE menu, select

Programmer > Select Programmer >
PICkit 2. (It may already be selected in
the workspace; reselecting it will not cause
a problem.)

The Output Window shows connection to

the PICkit 2 Microcontroller Programmer,
2. and that the target microcontroller (in this case a PIC16F690 on the Low Pin Count Demo
Board) was found.

If the PICkit 2 or demo board was not plugged in, connect them and select the MPLAB IDE
menu Programmer > Connect to try connecting again.

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PICkit™ 2 Starter Kit Getting Started (MPLAB)

Build and Program Lesson 1 in MPLAB IDE

1. Open the lesson assembly source code in an Editor by double-clicking on the file name
Hello World.asm in the Project Window. Project files may easily be opened this way
into an editor from the Project Window.

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2. Build the project assembly code into a hex file by

selecting menu Project > Build All.

The results of the build will display in the Output

Window under the “Build” tab. If there are no errors
it will display “BUILD SUCCEEDED”

This creates a hex file in the project directory that

contains the machine instructions for the assembled
code, as well as the PIC Microcontroller
configuration information.

The lessons set the configuration bits in the assembly

code using the assembler “__CONFIG” directive.
The bits may also be examined and changed by
selecting the menu item Configure > Configuration
Bits… Note that each time the project is built, any
changes to the configuration bits will be wiped out
by the settings after the “__CONFIG” directive in the
code.

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3. The assembled firmware is now ready to program into the PIC

Microcontroller. The PICkit 2 was already selected and connected to
as the programmer in “Connecting to the PICkit 2 Microncontroller
Programmer” Step 1. To program the demo board MCU, select
Programmer > Program.

The results of the programming operation will appear in the Output

Window. Once programming is complete, the first LED on the demo
board will light up.

In the lesson code, the PIC MCU configuration is set so the /MCLR
pin is not active. For a MCU where /MCLR is active, it would be
necessary to select Programmer > Release from Reset before the
programmed code would begin executing.

Next Steps

Now that Lesson projects can be opened and programmed, it is recommended to go through
the 12 lessons in the Low Pin Count Demo Board User’s Guide along with the
PIC16F685/687/689/690 Data Sheet (DS41262). Chapter 2 of the Demo Board User’s
Guide gives a brief overview of the Mid-range PIC microcontroller architecture, and the
lessons are covered in Chapter 3.
IMPORTANT: When programming through the MPLAB IDE and using the Low Pin Count
Demo Board, the by default the Lessons will not recognize the demo board switch as it is
connected to the digital input on the /MCLR pin, which MPLAB IDE drives on the PICkit 2
ICSP header. To allow the button to be used, select Programmer > Settings. In the dialog,
select the “Settings” tab and check ‘3-State on “Release from Reset”’ & “Run after a
successful program”.

To find out more about developing code in the MPLAB IDE, see the MPLAB IDE Quick
Start Guide included in the “Reference” section of the PICkit Starter Kit CD-ROM. The
most recent version of this document is also available on the included MPLAB IDE
CD-ROM.

Microchip’s Online Discussion Groups at forum.microchip.com are a good place to ask

questions and get information on developing with PIC MCUs. The [Development Tools] –
Programmers sub-forum is the best place for PICkit 2 related topics.

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