User manual

MPLAB

REAL ICE

™

In-Circuit Emulator User’s Guide

4.15 OTHER TRACE METHODS – SPI OR I/O PORT TRACE

The Explorer 16 board does not have the connections to perform either SPI or I/O Port

trace. Therefore, it must either be modified or a different board must be used that allows

access to the required device SPI and Port pins.

The PIC24FJ128GA010 device and code from the beginning of this tutorial will be used

in this section. Although this device has built-in (Native) trace capability, you may wish

to use the other types of trace for speed or pin resource reasons.

For devices that do not have Native trace capability, SPI and I/O Port trace are the only

forms of trace available. The procedures shown here can be modified to use with other

Microchip devices supported by the MPLAB REAL ICE in-circuit emulator.

• Using SPI Trace

• Using I/O Port Trace

4.15.1 Using SPI Trace

The Explorer 16 board does have a place for connecting with the PICkit 2. This

connection can be populated to provide connection to six of the eight high-speed

communication pins. The remaining two pins - to the SPI pins SCK and SDO - will have

to be hard-wired from two additional connector pins to the appropriate SPI pins on the

device. See Section 2.4.2 “High-Speed Communication Connection” for details.

You may also choose to use a target board of your own design that allows for access

to the necessary debug and SPI pins. Either way, a hardware connection between the

target board and the emulator’s high-speed connector is required. See

Section 2.5.2 “SPI Trace Connections (High-Speed Communication Only)” for

more information.

4.15.1.1 HARDWARE SETUP

To set up the hardware to use SPI Trace, do the following:

1. Obtain Microchip’s Performance Pak, which contains the emulator high-speed

communication boards and cables, if you have not already done so.

2. Modify or create a target board, as specified above, so that it accommodates the

high-speed connector.

3. Using an unpowered emulator and target board, insert the high-speed driver

board into the emulator and the high-speed receiver board into the target board.

Connect the boards with the included cables. See Section 2.3.2 “High-Speed

Communication” for reference.

4. Power the emulator, and then the target board.

Note: The Explorer 16 silkscreen label for pin 1 of the PICKIT2 connector is

incorrect. This is actually the location of pin 6.

Note: High-speed communications is required to use SPI Trace.