If you use PIC chips with no debugging possibility, simulator may be more important. When I have PIC devices with debugging capabilities, I mostly use MPLAB set to debugging with PICkit 3, to do debugging on real hardware. Although would love to be able to do that right.

My current level of debugging is load the code if it doesn't work try fix the code.

what I was meaning is before i got the pickit3 i would set simulator but I set my project to pickit 3 when it arrived, is that better set as simulator? and just use MPLAB IPE for programming? Is it the debugging you are reffering to? There is an option for pm3 pickit3 and simulator I only used simulator and pickit 3 sorry I am confused. Vloki you say be careful with that not sure exactly what you mean. I Nearly went to winnipeg but got stopped on border having stayed in texas for 1.5 years on a 3 month visa waver so north dakota sent me back to UK. Hopefully I understand now, thanks NorthGuy glad I checked your website, I thought you might have been scottish. on the right pins, I am ok? Unless of course the detection software wants to write to my pic instead of question it. Ok I am with you now I think as long as I have my voltages right. I shall have a play further and see what happens and update here if I find anything worth mentioning. Sorry for not saying what version of mplab originally.I had not long installed it so did not think it would matter plus having tried the Pickit 3 software too. I Look forward to learning to debug with my new toy. I could not use the clone with PICPgm but all credit to micro chip the AN589 was thier design too, I believe, but it gets a hammering in some blogs and forums and I fail to see why. I also downloaded PICKit 3 v3.10 but it still asked for series and chip. I did change the project I am working on to pickit3 from simulate, but I can't remember if I tried to program from that project or not. Thankyou Mysil and vloki, I am using MPLAB X IDE v 3.26 and yes I had been using PICPgm Programmer 1.8.3.0 to program my hex files but I guess I still need to learn how to use the IDE properly for debugging, I did read that pickit 2 was better than 3 but decided to try the latest technology as it was well priced.

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