Hi, I was told previously that it is possible to use a PICKit 2 in conjunction with a Velleman VM111.

I dont have a power supply for the Velleman board, so need to use the PICKit to power it up, program it, debug it, and test that it works.

As the VM111 only has a 5 pin connector, and the PICKit has room for 6 pins, which pin would I use and is there any other information that may be important in getting this working?

 

Do you have a schematic or link for the Velleman?

It may be possible, you might have to solder some pins. It depends on what the Velleman puts on the programming pins.

 

The assembly guide has a schematic (H/T to their support forum). It does not look PICKit compatible. The programming is done with special software wiggling the handshake lines on the serial port to replicate ICSP signals instead of serial comms to some bootloader. The ISCP connector is intended for programming an external board from the Velleman, not for connecting a PICkit.

But you could probably make a PICkit work through the ISCP connector by separating the lines from the DB9 from the PICs on board (remove resistors, cut traces etc). The pinout of the board's ISCP connector looks right. You would want to keep the Mode switch to RUN, I think, to pull up MCLR with R15 and let the PK2 drive Vpp.

Consider isolating the on board power supply if you are going to use the PK2 for power or at least put a diode across the two regulators (cathode on the input, anode on the output) to keep the PK2 from back-driving the 3-terminal regulators. They don't like that.

You would use MPLAB's PK2 setup and not the Velleman programmer software.

The RS232 DB-9 is for Velleman's programming setup only, the com pins are not hooked up for normal comms (but a some wire and a Dremel tool would fix that up).

Its a quick look. You should compare the schematic with the hookup diagram in the PK2 manual to ensure all is OK.

Good Luck.

FWIW: Link to the VM111 user's manual. Ignore the programming stuff when using PK2.

 

Just plug your PICkit2 into SK3 with pin 1 to pin 1.

Pin 6 will just dangle free - it is not needed.

Works just fine as long as you do not use a long extension lead.

 

If you have a PICKIT2 you do not need the velleman programmer at all. You can replace the velleman board with a simple breadbord

 

Yeah what hexreader said.

SK3 is even marked "ICSP CONNECTOR"

BTW, just about any AC or DC wall wart power converter would work with this unit as long as it pouts out more then 14 or so volts, and that includes some 9VAC units. I'm not saying buy those, I am saying try those if you have one handy.

As you get up to higher voltages you may have a heating problem.

A PICkit cannot make the 12V that part of that board runs of, but that seems to just be used for the "other" programming method. You could jump out the 12V regulator and get a much broader range of wall warts to power this thing.

Lastly, the PICkit has a small limit (100mA?) it can supply, which is why I keep talking about using other power.

 

Hi guys just wanted to apologise for not responding to this thread and thank you for your responses. I left this for a while but am getting back to it now so will take your advice onboard