Pickit4 retardness

[Fanie]

A frustration for me using the Pickit4 is that it will not connect if it is not plugged into a pic.
I can hence not transfer a file to be programmed with the Programmer-To-Go option.

Once you have connected it to the specific pic and it has connected then it remains connected.

So if I have to program a specific pic remotely, I have to first find one here to connect to before I can use it.

Is there a way around this ?

[Stephen Moss]

As I recall there is an SD card slot in the PicKit 4, so if you have a SD card reader/writer can you not just transfer the file to the SD card then plug the SD card into the the PicKit 4?
When I first came out I thought that was the whole point of having the SD card slot rather then loading the hex file to internal Flash memory, i.e. if you were out in the field as a service engineer you could just plug in the relevant SD card for whatever it is you are updating at the time (if there is no way of selecting one of several files on the card).

[Fanie]

Unfortunately no, the programmer-to-go creates a subdirectory PIC16F684_ptg (in my case) and inside is 18 files.
I used an empty sd card.

What is interesting is that previously there was also a subdirectory created for another micro PIC18F45K20_ptg and I suspect you can program either micro's since it can probably recognize the specific pic and select the program for it.  Have not tested this.

So you can program a programmer-to-go SD, one for each program.
To start you still have to connect to a board using that micro