Digilent 410-297P-KIT - Manual (Page 4)

ChipKIT MX3 Board Reference Manual
Copyright Digilent, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Page 4 of 25
The ChipKIT MX3 is immediately useable with the MPIDE. Additional hardware is required to use the Microchip
MPLAB tools.
1.1 Using the ChipKIT MX3 with the MPIDE
ChipKIT and the MPIDE is a PIC32 based hardware and software system compatible with many existing Arduino™
code examples, reference materials, and other resources. The MPIDE development platform was produced by
modifying the Arduino™ IDE and is fully backward compatible with the Arduino IDE. The ChipKIT MX3 board is
designed to be fully compatible with the MPIDE system, version 20111209 or later.
The MPIDE uses a serial communications port to communicate with a boot loader running in the target board. The
serial port on the MX3 board is implemented using an FTDI FT232R USB serial converter. Before attempting to use
the MPIDE to communicate with the MX3, the appropriate USB device driver must be installed.
The ChipKIT MX3 board uses a standard mini-USB connector for connection to a USB port on the PC. Use a
standard USB-A to mini-B cable (not provided) to connect the board to an available USB port on the PC.
In the MPIDE, use the “Tools.Board” command to select the ChipKIT MX3 from the list of available boards. Use the
“Tools.Serial Port” command to choose the appropriate serial port from the list of available serial ports on the PC.
When the MPIDE needs to communicate with the MX3 board, the board is reset and starts running the boot
loader. The MPIDE then establishes communications with the boot loader and downloads the program to the
board.
When the MPIDE opens the serial communications connection on the PC, the DTR pin on the FT232R chip is driven
low. This pin is coupled through a capacitor to the MCLR pin on the PIC32 microcontroller. Driving the MCLR line
low resets the microcontroller, restarting execution with the boot loader.
Once the MPIDE has established communication with the boot loader, it transfers the user’s program to the boot
loader, which programs it into the flash memory in the Microcontroller.
The automatic reset action when the serial communications connection is opened can be disabled. To disable this
operation, remove the shorting block from jumper JP1. It is also possible that it will interfere with the operation of
the MPLAB IDE and a Microchip hardware programmer/debugger. In this case, the shorting block should also be
removed from JP1. The shorting block is reinstalled on JP1 to restore operation with the MPIDE.