We ship ds30 PIC bootloader with various PIC micro-controllers. This quick tutorial explains how to use the bootloader to program the board.

Hardware Setup

You basically need a USB to UART board and target MCU with pins taken out. Remember some of our boards are shipped with the serial adapter board. If you do not have one, you may purchase the nice little board below:

Most of the Explore Embedded PIC Development boards come with standard pin breakouts for the UART. These come with a female header and and the UART comes with a corresponding male header. You can directly plug and mate them.

In case, you do not have this setup you'll have to make the connections listed below:

USB to UART	PIC Micro-controller	e.g PIC16877A pins/names
RXD	TXD	25 (RC6/TX)
TXD	RXD	25 (RC7/RX)
DTR	RESET	1 (MCLR)
GND	GND	12 (VSS)
VCC	VCC	11 (VDD)

The images below show the connections for the PIC Ultra Development board and also the breakout out board. You can use any of the ways, depending the boards that you have.

Ensure that the DTR jumper is placed as shown in the images. Connection with the Ultra PIC base board

Connection with the PIC breakout board

Software Setup and usage

Download and install the DS30 bootloader gui.

Browse the hex file
Select the appropriate MCU
Select the baud rate as 9600
Select the correct com port detected on your computer, when using USB to serial convertor check for exact COM port number in device manager

Step 3: The board uses DTR pin of the CP2102 USB to Serial Convertor to reset the MCU. Set it up as shown in the image below.