Given that the Requirements for Debugging are met, set the MPLAB PICkit 4 In-Circuit Debugger as the current tool in MPLAB X
IDE. Go
to File > Project Properties to open the dialog, then under “Hardware
Tool,” click PICkit 4. The following actions can now be performed.
- When Debug > Debug Main
Project is selected, the application code is
programmed into the device’s memory via the ICSP protocol as
described at the beginning of this section.
- A small “debug executive” program is loaded into the high area of
program memory of the target device. Since the debug executive must reside in
program memory, the application program must not use this reserved space. Some
devices have special memory areas dedicated to the debug executive. Check your
device data sheet for details.
- Special “in-circuit debug” registers in the target device are
enabled by MPLAB X
IDE. These allow the debug
executive to be activated by the debugger. For more information on the device’s
reserved resources, see Resources Used by the Debugger.
- The target device is run in Debug mode.