PICKit3 Programming With MPLABX

           The PICKit3 is microchip's newest official PIC programmer and while people argue about how good it is, this programmer has never done me wrong. I upgraded away from the old ICD2 clone programmer that I had used for years when I saw that microchip sells their PICKit3 for under $50 and so now I'll pass on my experience of how to use it, to you guys!
           In this article I will explain the process of building up the basic PIC circuit, enough for it to be programmed, and then I will show you how MPLABX and the C18 Compiler is used with the PICKit3 to program the PIC microcontroller, using a simple LED flashing program.

PICKit3 Programming With MPLABX - Demonstration

PICKit3 Programming With MPLABX - Setup

Purpose & Overview of this project
           The goal of this project is to install an IDE suite for writing our programs, install a compiler for that IDE suite and to build the minimum hardware circuit necessary for loading programs onto the microcontroller.
           We will use microchip's MPLABX combined with microchip's C18 Compiler to compile our firmware program and then load it onto a PIC. The PIC we'll use for this project is the generic 18F452.