Awesome. I do really like how they've made the connections for the different devices really clear on the PICkit Basic case! Nice upgrade!
It appears this device will only do for non-High Voltage AVR UPDI programming. Effectively, making it a nicer solution than the existing MPLAB Snap
low cost solution.
But, like the Snap, it doesn't support the High Voltage UPDI mode, which is needed when the UPDI pin has been re-purposed as a GPIO pin.
This is the case with my CreatiVision Controller (where I needed all the GPIO pins), but not the case with the Keyboard.
So, this new programmer will work for UPDI programming the CreatiVision Keyboard, but not the CreatiVision Controller (which will still require PICkit5).
The key excerpts from the new PICkit Basic manual are:
Pg4:
Important: For low pin count AVR devices with UPDI, MPLAB PICkit Basic cannot
generate the high voltage pulse to reactivate the UPDI interface if the UPDI pin is
configured as GPIO or RESET by configuring the RSTPINCFG configuration bits. A
different tool will need to be used to do this, such as the MPLAB PICkit 5.
Pg27:
Tool Support: All current MPLAB hardware tools support either HV pulse except for MPLAB PICkit
Basic and MPLAB Snap (do not support high voltage).
So, in summary:
A nice solution as a better
lower cost option than the existing MPLAB Snap board, but a PICkit5 is still required to cover all Microchip device programming/ debugging options.
So, a tidy / clearly labelled solution for Keyboard AVR reprogramming, but won't allow reprogramming of the Creativision Controller AVR (which requires HV UPDI mode, supported by PICkit5).
For only US$29.99, the PICkit Basic appears to be the perfect solution for the Keyboard re-programming (and other non-HV Microchip device programming).
