We have both the Microchip ICD unit (designed by Advanced Transdata) and a
parallel unit from Advanced Transdata. The parallel ICD is almost twice
faster at programming than the serial Microchip ICD. It also provides some
external trigger input pins to set up externally triggered breakpoints. It
is different, though, in that it connects to the target board more like an
In Circuit Emulator. You put the PIC chip on the ICD board, then connect a
40 pin ribbon cable (with a DIP plug) into the socket for the PIC chip on
the target board. It does have pins for an "In Circuit Programming" cable
(like the Microchip ICD), but you have to provide your own cable and you
can't debug with this connection like you can with the MPLAB-ICD. The 40
pin ribbon cable that comes with the Advanced Transdata ICD is about 7-8
inches long. You will still have problems if you disconnect the ICD unit
from the PC, but since it is powered by its own power supply and has the
PIC processor on-board, you tend to have less disconnect problems overall.
There is no charge pump on this unit, so the noise should be less. I
haven't done a lot with analog yet so I can't be sure.

Howard Cripe



At 08:01 AM 9/12/00 +0100, you wrote:
>Been using an ICD for some development work on a project, and although I
>have been able to make it work I've had a few problems:
>1) Noise.  The ICD seems to generate a huge amount of noise, swamping some
>small analoguge signals on our board whenever it's connected.  I suspect
>this is due the the charge pump on board the ICD.
>
>2) MPLAB is flaky!  Yeah, I guess everyone knows that.  But, if I have to
>disconnect the ICD cable during a debug session for whatever reason, then
>after clicking on umpteen dialogue boxes telling me that ICD Comms has
>failed, if I click on the re-connect button MPLAB either hangs or crashes
>with an illegal operation.  If I use the ICD purely as a programmer, the
>reconnect button works fine.  This is under Win 95.
>
>3) SLOW! We are using a 16F877 part which is over half full.  I have checked
>the "Erase before programming" but it still gives me time to walk to the
>coffee machine, and back before it's finished ( getting through way too much
>coffee at the moment!). Is the Advanced Transdata parallel port device any
>better in this respect?  (Having thoughts of buying one and "borrowing" the
>Microchip one for home).
>
>Any advice on this would be appreciated as I find the debugger very handy to
>use compared to the emulator with it's huge pod balanced on a delicate SMT
>socket on our board.  Also any good SMT sockets(with a matching plug) that
>anyone has used for ICD connection: requirements are 1) small as possible,
>2) low profile, 3) 6 way (actually 5 way would be fine).
>
>Regards
>
>Mike
>
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