pk2cmd with improvement to support PICKIT2/3 and nearly all 8-bit PIC microcontrollers
NOTE: this project is not my work, it's a mirror of http://kair.us/projects/pickitminus/.
The version of pk2cmd-minus is '1.23.0', it seems the version number is updated from the version of MicroChip official 1.20 and 1.21-rc1 sources.
- Supports nearly all, if not all, 8-bit PIC microcontrollers
- Supports PICkit2 and PICkit3 programmers
- Improved auto detection of parts
- PICkit2 supports programmer-to-go also with recent MSB1st families
- Optimized programming scripts for MSB1st families to reduce write and verify times
- Improved blank section skipping for write and verify, to further reduce programming times
- GUI software works on Windows 2000, XP, 7, 10
- Command line software works on Windows XP, 7, 10, Linux and MacOS
- Retains all the good features from original Microchip PICkit2 and PICkit3 stand-alone software
(copy from http://kair.us/projects/pickitminus/)
Microchip has obsoleted the PICkit2 programmer over ten years ago. It had very easy to use and reliable stand-alone software, but Microchip stopped it's development already in 2009. Luckily, the PICkit2 has always been open source, so anyone can make modifications and improvements are share them with others. Also, dougy83 has created a device file editor which can be used to add support for new parts for the PICkit2 software. Using this editor, people have added support for new microcontroller types. However, recent PIC controllers use SPI-like programming protocol. It isn't possible to support that only by adding new scripts using the device file editor. Either the PICkit2 software or firmware must be modified.
I was recently looking a way to program PIC16F15355 using PICkit2, and came across this post by bequest333. He had modified the PICkit software to support SPI-type programming protocol, and created the required new scripts. I developed his software further, by adding support for PIC18F SPI -type chips. I also fixed the device ID bit order for these families, so now it is possible to use the last publicly available device file from PICKitPlus project. The download packages below include device file which has new parts added by me. It has support for 1066 parts (listed here), but I don't know if all of them work with my modified software. I have fixed errors in almost 100 devices already, so I am quite sure there are still many errors. If you find problems with some part, please send me an email.
I named the software PICkit2minus, or PICkit2- for short. It is based on Microchip's original PICkit2 v2.61 software. Many thanks for bequest333 for making most of the hard work to support the SPI-type PICs. Thanks also for PICKitPlus team for their hard work on updating the device file.
Later I made a new version, based on PICkit3 original software. I modified it to work with both PICkit2 and PICkit3. They will be recognized automatically. Benefit is, only one software to maintain. The PICkitminus is available for download below. It requires .NET framework 2.0, which is available for Windows 2000 and later versions.
The latest addition is command line tool, PK2CMDminus. It is based on the last unofficial version from MichaelS / Microchip, and updates by Miklós Márton to add support for PICkit3. The support for SPI-type MSB1st -family PICs is based on work by bequest333. The PK2CMD Windows version is 32-bit statically linked application targeted for XP, so it should run on Windows versions from XP to 10. It compiles and works fine on Linux and macOS as well. I have tested it on Ubuntu 16.04 and OSX 10.13 High Sierra. On Linux, you need to install libusb-dev with apt-get, or alternatively download libusb-0.1.12 from sourceforge. There are also Linux prebuilt binaries in AppImage format, which should run on many distributions. For Mac, there is also compiled executable available for download below. It is compiled on OSX 10.13, I don't know if it works with other versions.
If you run pk2cmd on Linux and get a message 'PICkit2 not found', quite probable reason is that normal user doesn't have proper rights to the USB device. A simple solution is to run pk2cmd as root, but this is a bit ugly. On systems with udev, you can use this udev rules file which gives appropriate rights for PICkit2 and PICkit3. Just copy this file to /etc/udev/rules.d/ and restart udev (or restart PC). You will also need to re-plug the PICkit.
I made some improvement to pk2cmd-minus to support 'make install' directly
git clone https://github.com/cjacker/pk2cmd-minus
cd pk2cmd-minus
make
sudo make install
Then you should have 'pk2cmd' and 'pk2-device-file-editor' in your PATH, other resources will be installed to proper dir automatically.
To run 'pk2-device-file-editor', you should have mono and mono-basic installed.
To update PICKIT2 firmware:
$ pk2cmd -D/usr/share/pk2/PK2V023200.hex
Downloading OS...
Verifying new OS...
Resetting PICkit 2...
OS Update Successful.
Operation Succeeded
NOTE there is no 'blank' between '-D' and '/usr/share/pk2/PK2V023200.hex',
And this firmware is for PICKIT2, you need to find corresponding firmware for PICKIT3 in '/usr/share/pk2' dir.
To detect target device:
$ pk2cmd -P
Auto-Detect: Found part PIC16F690.
Operation Succeeded
To erase target device:
$ pk2cmd -P PIC16F690 -X -E
Erasing Device...
Operation Succeeded
Note that the device name from the auto-detection is now placed after the -P argument. Two new arguments is supplied now. -X tells the PICKit2 to "Use VPP first Program Entry Method", you may omit it. -E tells pk2cmd to erase the connected PIC.
To program target device:
$ pk2cmd -PPIC16F690 -M -F blink.hex
PICkit Program Report
21-6-2022, 11:39:46
Device Type: PIC16F690
Program Succeeded.
Operation Succeeded
Two new arguments again. -M tells pk2cmd to actually program the PIC. -F tells pk2cmd which file to use. The -M argument can actually also be either -MP, -ME, -MI or -MC to program only Program memory, EEPROM, ID memory or Configuration memory respectively but for most cases you will program the entire PIC using -M.
To verify:
$ pk2cmd -P PIC16F690 -Y -F blink.hex
PICkit 2 Verify Report
21-6-2022, 11:40:58
Device Type: PIC16F690
Verify Succeeded.
Operation Succeeded
The argument -Y tells pk2cmd to verify the PIC's memory with the HEX file given by -F. Again the -Y argument can address different areas just as the -M argument by setting either -YP, -YE, -YI or -YC to verify a specific region only.
By default, PICKIT2 doesn't supply power to target device, you can turn on the 'VDD' as:
To power on target device
$ pk2cmd -P PIC16F690 -T
Operation Succeeded
To power off
$ pk2cmd -P PIC16F690
Operation Succeeded
For more usage of 'pk2cmd', try run 'pk2cmd' command directly to find help message.