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I acquired a couple of CUIs and was hoping to use them to get started with microcontrollers (I am completely new to this stuff).

I'm trying to figure out how to use the USB interface to program the MCU. I need to burn a bootloader and the page suggests using an ICD2.

1) Looking at the ICD2 user guide, I don't understand how I would connect the ICD to the CUI - I don't know how I would use the ICD2 connector with the CUI. (The newer ICD3 seems to have the same connector)

2) Since it seems I would not need the ICD after burning the bootloader, I was wondering if there were other (cheaper) options to an ICD2. I've looked at some cheaper PIC programmers, but I don't understand how to connect them to the CUI, either.

3) Where would I find a bootloader?

Thanks!

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    \$\begingroup\$ Question 3 is different enough from the first 2 that you should probably ask it as a separate question. However, you will need to provide much more detail about what all you are wanting to do with the bootloader. \$\endgroup\$
    – Kellenjb
    Jan 4, 2012 at 2:12

2 Answers 2

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Your best option would be to use the PICkit3.

It has a female socket that should match up with the ICSP pins on the lower-left corner of the CUI, next to the red and green LEDs. You can get a PICkit3 from several sources, including Digi-Key, SparkFun and Microchip.

enter image description here

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The ICD 2 has been replaced by the ICD 3. A cheaper option is a Pickit 2 or 3. They connect to the target PIC via a standard 6 pin connector and are used with the Microchip MPLAB IDE.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ It would be good to note the difference between the ICDs and cheaper PICkits. In brief, the ICD (or "In-circuit-debugger") has better tools to allow you to figure out what's going on in your circuit. They're very similar when it comes to programming the device. \$\endgroup\$ Feb 3, 2012 at 1:56

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