I can't offer help with your stated question other than to perhaps fire up MPLAB and select different PICs - MPLAB will then tell you if you need a header board to use with the ICD2 (which should be the same as using the PK3 for debug). However, I would like to mention that my current crop of PIC proto boards are based on relatively small PICs - 8 pin, 14 pin, 20 pin. That is: 12f675, 16f676, 16f677. The cool thing about those chips is that they are (pin-wise) super-sets of each other. In other words, you can lay your proto board out with the 20-pin footprint, then drop in any of the above mentioned PICs (and their close relatives) and Vss, Vdd, Mclr are all correct. However, all of these chips require a header board for debug. FWIW - I use the 14 pin header to debug both 8-pin (12f675) and 14-pin (16f675) parts but you can't (shouldn't) use the 20-pin header to debug 14 pin parts (port RC problems) or 8-pin parts (comparitor differences on port RA aka GPIO). Do be careful with moving from the 8 / 14 pin parts to the 20 pin parts, though. Microchip messed up big time and changed port RC to be ST input thresholds instead of TTL thresholds on the currently available 20 pin parts. That is: Port RC on the 16f676 has TTL thresholds but on the 16f677 has ST thresholds. There is are 20 pin parts in the works (PIC16F1828/9) that do have individually selectable ST / TTL thresholds for port RC but I don't think that they available yet. I made such a big fuss about the problems I was running into that I was promised engineering samples as soon as they were available. dwayne At 01:57 PM 3/26/2010, James Newton wrote: >I've spent hours now pouring over the Microchip.com site and looking at all >the options, but I'll be darned if I can find a list of the devices >compatible for programming or for debugging with the PICKit 3. Specifically, >I want to find out which uC's are supported for ICD and which require an >adapter. > >The ultimate goal is to find a good range of uC that can all be debugged in >circuit with the cheapest possible setup and are pin compatible so one kit >board can be populated with a uC cost and code space appropriate for the >many different jobs the board can support. E.g. a very low end uC can >replace a basic 555 pulse generator for testing stepper motors with switches >for "faster", "slower", "start/stop", and "axis/dir" where a much higher end >uC would be needed with the same switches to support multi-axis, >multi-waypoint, position programming with speed ramping and position change >triggering. In that later case the same buttons would be "axis/dir", >"step/ramp", "save/next", and "prog/run" or more likely, setup from a PC. > >The kit board will support a range of activities including whatever you >might imagine could be done with a small LCD panel, switches, low resolution >analog inputs (temp, voltage, high side current, etc...), serial/USB/RF io >to a PC (possible opto-isolation), pulse generation and measurement, stepper >driver breakout, etc... It will replace 3 different PCB's I currently sell >and add a number of new possibilities at the same time. > >One of those possibilities is to sell it as an educational kit for use with >the PICKit or other low cost debugger, and for that, I need to know which >chips can be supported by the debugger at the lowest possible cost. And so I >need to know which are supported without an adapter, and that... I can't >seem to find. > >--- >James Newton >1-970-462-7764 >mailto:jamesnewton@massmind.org >http://www.massmind.org/member/JMN-EFP-786 > > > >-- >http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive >View/change your membership options at >http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist -- Dwayne Reid Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd Edmonton, AB, CANADA (780) 489-3199 voice (780) 487-6397 fax www.trinity-electronics.com Custom Electronics Design and Manufacturing -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist