Programming & Debugging using PKOB4, ICD4 and ICE

[areiter128]

Extending Debugger/Programmer-Support

PKOB4

Many of Microchip's Starter Kits, such as the Curiosity Boards, use the on-board version of PICkit4, called Pkob4. They identify as pkob4hybrid. It seems like they are not supported yet?

MPLAB ICD4 (Part Number: DV164045)

One of the most commonly used programmers/debuggers is MPLAB ICD4, which also doesn't seem to be supported. These identify as ICD4Tool

MPLAB ICE4 (Part Number: DV244140)

The latest programmer/debugger released by Microchip is MPLAB ICE4 These identify as ri4hybrid

Please let me know if there is anything I can help with.

[callwyat]

Thanks for submitting these programer names! I haven’t been able find any documentation with all the device names, so I plan to add them as issues are are submitted. I can make a preview release in the next few days that you can test with the hardware you have, or you can fork the repo and test it out yourself. You should just need to add the names to the ‘ confToMdBNames’ dictionary in src/debugAdapter/mdbCommunications.ts:251

[areiter128]

Great! Thank you. I will go for the Forking-option and will let you know if everything works soon. BTW: Sorry for the delayed reply

[areiter128]

Seems like ran in to a problem I'm unable to solve. I am building and running a debug session using the simulator. It builds fine but when it tries to start a debug session, I getting an error message, saying "Failure to write program to device". launch.json looks like this:

version": "0.2.0",
        "configurations": [
        {
            "type": "mplabx",
            "request": "launch",
            "name": "MPLABX Debug",
            "program": "${workspaceFolder}/",
            "stopOnEntry": true,
            "preLaunchTask": "MPLABX Build"
        }
    ]

Am I missing something?

[areiter128]

BTW: I'm using MPLAB X 6.0 and MPLAB X 6.05

[callwyat]

I have not seen that message before when using the simulator. I have seen that issue when working with the PICKIT4. There is an issue related to it “https://github.com/callwyat/mplab-extension/issues/1#issuecomment-1275767457“ I haven’t figured out the cause yet, but suspect it’s related to MPLAB X filling in automatic values that VSLAB doesn’t know how to handle.

Does the test project work inside of MPLAB X?

[jasonkelly214]

@areiter128 I called mdb.bat directly and saw that in the hwtool list it uses different names. Rather than ICD4Tool it is icd4. Using ICD4Tool would return null, and using icd4 it would connect. Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to build the extension so I can use it. I installed most of the tools but I get lots of errors from various things. I assume I'm missing the relevant dependencies or tools

[callwyat]

Thanks @jasonkelly214 with that info I can now add the ICT4 to the release!

[jasonkelly214]

ICD4 hopefully :) and no problem!

[callwyat]

Support for the ICD4Tool has been added in version 0.1.3. Please let me know if it doesn’t work as I don’t have a way to test it myself!

[jasonkelly214]

Awesome! Almost worked, I made a comment on the commit but it should just be flipped:

private confToMdBNames = {
    "pk4hybrid": "PICKit4",
    "ICD4Tool" : "icd4",
    "Simulator": "Sim"
};

https://github.com/callwyat/mplab-extension/commit/b24db05ba2e77bc44f855ad23ba3c87e4881bb20

[callwyat]

Thanks for testing that out! I have applied your recommendation and published it in v0.1.4.

[jasonkelly214]

I haven't gotten a change to try your build, but when I made the change I ran into some more issues. I think there's a problem with the configuration file because there are a long list of options that get returned as invalid. Perhaps this is a version issue? And/or the newer version 4 devices use different parameter sets? I intend to dig into it a bit more this week if I have time, and I can certainly post the output stream so you can take a look.

[jasonkelly214]

I updated to newer toolchains, and I removed some of the offending configuration options and now it's somewhat working.

I'm not very experienced with these scripting languages but it seems to me the async call to this.query() to call Program is returning too early...either a timeout, or the return conditions have been met.

/** Sends a command to the Microchip Debugger and returns the whole response
     * @param input The command to send to the debugger
     */
    public async query(input: string, level: ConnectionLevel): Promise<string> {

        if (this.connectionLevel >= level) {
            return this._mdbMutex.runExclusive(() => {
                // Read off any data that may be sitting in the buffer.
                if (this.mdbProcess.stdout?.readableLength ?? 0 > 0) {
                    this.mdbProcess.stdout?.read();
                }

                let result: Promise<string> = this.readResult();
                this._write(input, level);

                return result;
            });
        } else {
            return new Promise<string>((resolve) => {
                this.once(level.toString(), () => {
                    this.query(input, level).then(v => resolve);
                });
            });
        }

const programResult = await this.query(`Program "${path.join(outputFolder, outputFile)}"`, ConnectionLevel.connected);
                    if (programResult.match(/Program succeeded\./) || programResult.match(/Programming\/Verify complete/)) {
                        if (stopOnEntry) {
                            this.emit('stopOnEntry');
                        } else {
                            this.run();
                        }

                        this.connectionLevel = ConnectionLevel.programed;

                    } else {
                        throw new Error('Failure to write program to device');
                    }

Here is the output from the mdb.bat directly

I also have my project set to half at main, but I didn't get any breakpoints once launched. That would be good to add if possible.

[callwyat]

I have released a preview version of the extension that should fix this issue. Will some of you please update to 0.1.7 and let me know if your 4 Series programmers work?

[callwyat]

You’ll need to open up the extension and select “Switch to Pre-Release“

[callwyat]

Close due to inactivity, and the issue should be resolve in v0.1.7