User manual
Developing an Application
© 2009 Microchip Technology Inc. DS51852A-page 17
The MPLAB IDE software that is installed on your PC by the starter kit CD-ROM auto-
matically opens an example application that you may use to examine debug features
of the starter kit. To prepare the application for debug:
1. Launch MPLAB IDE. The example application project and related workspace will
open. For information on projects and workspaces, see the MPLAB IDE
documentation mentioned at the beginning of this chapter.
2. Select Project>Build All
to build the application code. The build’s progress will be
visible in the Build tab of the Output window.
3. Select Debugger>Select Tool>Starter Kits
. MPLAB IDE changes to add the
starter kit debug features (Figure 3-3):
1) the status bar shows “Starter Kits” as the debug tool
2) a “Starter Kit” debug toolbar is added
3) the Debugger menu changes to add starter kit debug functions
4) the Output window displays the communication status between MPLAB IDE
and the starter kit on the Starter Kit Debugger tab.
Several device resources are also used for debug. For details, see
Section 3.6 “Determining Device Support”.
4. Select Debugger>Program
to program the application code into the
PIC18F46J50 device on the starter kit. The debug programming progress will be
visible in the Starter Kit tab of the Output window.
FIGURE 3-3: STARTER KIT AS DEBUG TOOL IN MPLAB
®
IDE
Note: Debug executive code is automatically programmed in the upper program
memory of the starter kit device when the starter kit is selected as a debug-
ger. Debug code must be programmed into the target device to use the
in-circuit debugging capabilities of the starter kit.