I recently ordered some PIC24F32KA302 microcontrollers, but found out that my PicKit 2 wouldn’t detect them!

Luckily, I found a way to add them to the software. First you need to download the PicKit 2 Device File Editor .

Open the PicKit 2 device file, usually located at C:\Program Files\Microchip\PicKit 2\PK2DeviceFile.dat

I started by duplicating a similar device, the PIC24F16KA102. Most of the settings appear to be the same for that particular family, so by looking at the differences you can work out what needs to be modified.

![PicKit 2 Device File Editor - Duplicate](files/PicKit 2 Device File Editor - Duplicate.png)

But where do you get the missing numbers from? Eventually I stumbled across a datasheet by Microchip: PIC24FXXKA1XX/FVXXKA3XX Flash Programming Specifications

The fields that need to be updated are:

  • PartName
  • DeviceID
  • ProgramMem

All the other fields appear to be the same.

Device ID

The Device ID is in Section 6 near the bottom, and for the PIC24F32KA302 it is 0x4502.

ProgramMem

The Program Memory Size is a little trickier. For example, the PIC24F08 family reports 0x0B00 in the device file, but 0x2BFE in the datasheet. I found the formula to be (0x2BFE + 2) / 2.

Thus for the PIC24F32KA302, the program memory field should be set to 0x2C00

Programming

Save the data file to the desktop, then copy & replace the original.

Now start PicKit 2, select PIC24 from the Device Family menu, and…

Success!

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