User manual

MPLAB

ICD 3 In-Circuit Debugger User’s Guide

• Does the MPLAB ICD 3 in-circuit debugger have complex breakpoints like

MPLAB ICE 2000/4000?

Yes. You can break based on a value in a data memory location. You can also do

sequenced breakpoints, where several events are happening before it breaks, but

you can only do 2 sequences instead of 4, as you can in the MPLAB ICE 2000.

You can also do the AND condition and do PASS counts. See

Section 9.3.1 “Breakpoints Dialog” for more information.

• Are any of the driver boards optoisolated or electrically isolated?

They are DC optoisolated, but not AC optoisolated. You cannot apply a floating or

high voltage (120V) to the current system.

• What limitations are there with the standard cable?

The standard ICSP RJ-11 cable does not allow for clock speeds greater than

about 15 Mb/sec. dsPIC33F DSCs running at full speed are greater than the 15

Mb/sec limit.

• Will this slow down the running of the program?

There is no cycle stealing with the MPLAB ICD 3 in-circuit debugger. The output of

data is performed by the state machine in the silicon.

• Is it possible to debug a dsPIC DSC running at any speed?

The MPLAB ICD 3 is capable of debugging at any device speed as specified in

the device’s data sheet.

• What is the function of pin 6, the LVP pin?

Pin 6 is reserved for the LVP (Low-Voltage Programming) connection.

6.3 WHAT’S WRONG

• My PC went into power-down/hibernate mode, and now my debugger won’t

work. What happened?

When using the debugger for prolonged periods of time, and especially as a

debugger, be sure to disable the Hibernate mode in the Power Options Dialog

window of your PC’s operating system. Go to the Hibernate tab and clear or

uncheck the “Enable hibernation” check box. This will ensure that all

communication is maintained across all the USB subsystem components.

• I set my peripheral to NOT freeze on halt, but it is suddenly freezing. What's

going on?

For dsPIC30F/33F and PIC24F/H devices, a reserved bit in the peripheral control

have performed a write to the entire register, you may have overwritten this bit.

(The bit is user-accessible in Debug mode.)

To avoid this problem, write only to the bits you wish to change for your application

(BTS, BTC) instead of to the entire register (MOV).