2 About the Debugger

The MPLAB® PICkit™ Basic In-Circuit Debugger (PG164110) allows affordable, fast and easy debugging and programming using the powerful graphical user interface of MPLAB® X IDE (Integrated Development Environment) or MPLAB IPE (Integrated Programming Environment). Supported device include:

  • PIC® and AVR® microcontrollers (MCUs)
  • dsPIC® digital signal controllers (DSCs)
  • SAM (Arm® Cortex®-based) MCUs and microprocessors (MPUs)
  • CEC (Arm Cortex-based) MCUs
Important: Because MPLAB PICkit Basic does not support high voltage programming, devices that require high voltage to program are not supported. See the MPLAB PICkit Basic programmer (PKBP) and debugger (PKBD) columns in the Device Support List to find out which devices are supported by MPLAB PICkit Basic.

The MPLAB PICkit Basic connects to the computer using a high-speed USB 2.0 interface and connects to the target via a Microchip debug 8-pin Single In-Line (SIL) connector. MPLAB PICkit Basic has all the speed and entry-level features you need to quickly debug your prototype.

The MPLAB PICkit Basic features a powerful 32-bit 300 MHz SAM E70 Arm Cortex-M7 based MCU for quicker debug iterations. Along with its support for a wide target voltage, the MPLAB PICkit Basic supports interfaces such as 4-wire JTAG and Serial Wire Debug. It is also backward compatible for demo boards and target systems using 2-wire JTAG and In-Circuit Serial Programming™.

The debugger system executes code like an actual device because it uses the target device’s built-in emulation circuitry, instead of a special debugger chip. All available features of a given device are accessible interactively and can be set and modified by the MPLAB X IDE interface.

The MPLAB PICkit Basic is compatible with any of these platforms:

  • Microsoft Windows® OS
  • Linux® OS
  • macOS®

See the release notes for versions supported.