How to add PICkit3 to VSCode?

[trastikata]

Hello,

as the title says, is it possible to add PICkit3 and if possible some guidance how to do it would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

[Frizie]

Trastikata, I'd love to help you, as you're always ready to help, but I only have the descriptions for PICkit2 and PICkit4, and not for VSCode, but for the Positron IDE.

But I don't think PICkit3 is much different from PICkit2 and 4.
https://www.picbasic.nl/instelling_pickit2_uk.htm
and
https://www.picbasic.nl/instelling_pickit4.htm

I think Atomix can best answer how to set these parameters in VSCode.
You could also ask ChatGPT for the VSCode part 

[jaka]

If you use this command line tool:
https://github.com/jaka-fi/pk2cmd
You can use same instructions as for PICkit2

You must first update the scripting firmware with the GUI software before you can use it with the pk2cmd. And you also need to revert back to MPLAB mode with the GUI tool if you want to use the PICkit3 with MPLAB again.
https://github.com/jaka-fi/PICkitminus

Other solutions are to use IPECMD (slow) or the old pk3cmd which came with MPLAB 8.

[atomix]

I use PICkitminus. Thanks a lot for this Jaka. 

And you can configure any programmer in VSCode by simply configuring its launch settings.

[trastikata]

The in-program flashing doesn't work, says "Can't be executed ...." but PICkit minus "Auto import and write" works very well. Thank you again.

[atomix]

You must have pk2cmd.exe installed.

Watch the animation here - https://protoncompiler.com/index.php/topic,3139.msg22753.html#msg22753

[trastikata]

I found the issue, now it works thanks - I did the installation as in the picture, but had one double quotes, don't know how they appeared there...   

[trastikata]

I got it working, but often, not always, I get this error either in address 000004, 000008 or 00C000, after I click the "Program" button again, the second attempt never fails.

However with MPLAB X never had such issues, so I guess it is not a corrupted memory cell. Any ideas why it might happen?

[jaka]

This is most likely a problem with pk2cmd or the device file.

If you can share the .hex file and the used command line arguments I can have a look at the problem. However, it will happen after about two weeks as I'm quite busy currently.

Meanwhile, you could use the PICkitminus GUI software auto import hex + write device. This could narrow down whether the problem is in pk2cmd or the device file.

[trastikata]

This is most likely a problem with pk2cmd or the device file.

If you can share the .hex file and the used command line arguments I can have a look at the problem. However, it will happen after about two weeks as I'm quite busy currently.

Meanwhile, you could use the PICkitminus GUI software auto import hex + write device. This could narrow down whether the problem is in pk2cmd or the device file.

Thank you for the response jaka. I've tested the auto import + write in PICkitminus and the error doesn't appear there. So here's one file that gives me this error when using pk2cmd:

Code Select Expand

-L1 -H1 -R -J -E -M -PPIC$target-device$ -F"$hex-filename$" -B"$exe-path$"
HEX.zip

[atomix]

I had this with Pickit 3.5