FAQ

Q: Do I need any special hardware interface to enable P-ICD to work?
A: All that is needed is a RS232 level shifter. Most development boards have one built in and if not then they're easy to make following the diagram in the P-ICD or Proton help file.


Q: Will P-ICD work with the Proton Lite Version ?
A: No it is not possible to make P-ICD work with the Lite version for many reasons including the reliance on the IDE for important information and the fact that Proton Lite does not allow include files.


Q: I have Proton on several machines, can I use P-ICD on all of them?
A: Yes you can run P-ICD on as many machines you like. Simple copy the serial no and activation code to the machine you want to run it on. The license is linked to the dongle so as long as you use the same dongle used to generate the activation code in the first place you can use it anywhere.


Q: Can I still use my PIC's USART ?
A: If the PIC has only 1 Usart then no. If you have more than one USART then all, except USART1, is free to use.



Q: I understand the ICD will slow the execution of the program down. I have timing critical code, will that mean I cannot use it?
A: Where you have timing critical sections or even sections you do not wish to debug then you can simply disable debugging around them. The code is stepped in between each line of Basic so timing critical commands like PULSEIN will not be affected. Remember its better to turn on debugging around the code you need it, rather than turn if off where you do not.


Q: Will I have to pay for upgrades?
A: No. P-ICD will be supported with free upgrades for the life of the product.


Q: In my program I use interrupts. Can P-ICD cope with them?
A: P-ICD will debug wherever you have enabled it to do so. If you enable debugging in your interrupt code then it will run in there. But how successful you are with it will depend on the interrupt source and the code itself.


Q: What's Debug History about? Do you run the PIC backwards?
A: No unfortunately we have not mastered that one yet! What history enables you to do is say, animate through a section of code and then, at your leisure, step backwards and forwards to see exactly what happened. Often you will not see a variable changed and may ask "why did that happen?” Now you can just step back rather than run the whole section again or worse still start from scratch.

Q: I get an error message "$0014 ;'is not a valid integer value"  when I try to run P-ICD for a 16F88 chip
A: It's a problem with the p16f88.lpb file, Go to the Proton folder then the INC folder open the p16f88.lpb file and delete" ; For backward compatibility with 28 and 40 pin devices". It's about 28 lines down. Remove all the spaces right back to the 0X0014. Save and the error will go.

Q: Will P-ICD write my code for me?
A: No, it will not!