I am a software engineer messing with some electronics I can't figure out why I can't program with my PicKit 3. I need some help understanding why I can't program my microcontroller.
I am able to power and read my eval board (PIC18F45K20 demo board) that came with the PicKit but I cannot get it to work with my circuit. I breadboarded a minimum circuit with my PIC16F18855
I've connected the circuit as in the datasheet, with VSS connected to ground. I have no resistors because I have nothing else connected to the circuit. VDD is 5V, 10A from the wall.
When I try to connect the PicKit, MPLab returns: 'Target Device ID (0x0) is an Invalid Device ID. Please check your connections to the Target Device.'
When I disconnect the external power and try to run it from the Pic I get "PICkit 3 is trying to supply 5.000000 volts from the USB port, but the target VDD is measured to be 4.500000 volts. This could be due to the USB port power capabilities or the target circuitry affecting the measured VDD."
I get this on both my Mac and my windows PC. If I change the target voltage to 4.5V it will just report a lower voltage when it measures it.
I've seen some things suggesting a pull up 10k resistor is needed or some additional capacitance but I believe this is for older PIC's and I don't understand the reasoning behind it.
The data sheet for the demo board for example shows 2 capacitors connected to VDD
Currently I'm assuming the capacitors might be important to help stabalise the voltage but then I would guess that the voltage measured by MPLab would always change but its consistent.
