I've finally found someone here in euro-land who actually has any of these in stock; for the past three months its been yes...er no..yes...er no.
so i ordered some bits to get over the free shipping limit,content to wait while it arrived 'in stock' and was sent.
it landed here on the day it was supposed to arrive 'in stock' at farnell/element 14
one order was split in two,so the PK4 (sent from the UK, with an invoice for a PICKIT 3..!)arrived with a small tube of chips in a padded bag,and the rest of the order (sent from belgium;one long tube o'chips and two other dinky parts boxes) arrived in a HUGE cardbord box...now i am confused..but hey, its france, it's the national sport.
First Impressions:-
packaged in a small cardbord box of the standard 'microchip small tools' type; but this one is black instead of the traditional 'white n' blue' of yore.very 'designer' though gawd knows WHY? i personnally don't give a rats what the box looks like;it's there to stop the contents hitting the floor.
the tool is alone in the box except for two silly stickers and possibly the cheapest crappiest USB cable i've seen boxed with ANY product outside of AliExpress tat. no leaflets, checklist slip, CDROM or other standard flotsam.
The PICKit casing itself is around 1mm shorter than the PICKit3,but 3mm wider,and 2mm thicker. the programming header; now an 8-way one instead of a the old standard 6-way SIL; it still fits older boards designed for the earlier one,and the new header sticks out 1mm more from the casing compared to the old type
(i had to file cutouts into some of my home-made boards to get the connector to reliably touch on the PICKit2/3.. i don't like pin headers sticking out like dogs wotsits!)
the casing front is mostly covered by a stainless steel panel with the microchip 'shield' logo on it (yeah, very 'Power Rangers'...) which hides a tact switch for the programmer-to-go function which i haven't tried out yet. on the top corner are a couple of small holes to attatch a lanyard through, if you want to sling it round your neck and become a total dweeb.
on the top side of the casing is the micro usb port and to its left a tiny hole;which presumably gives access to a reset button. (belt and braces or fingers crossed?) on the left side of the casing is the micro SD card slot,and a peek at the 'go faster' red PCB. the SD card can be used to store the firmware to be programmed into the target.in the latest MPLAB-x IPE application there is a checkbox to do this; as well as some new options for Atmel chips...hmm wonder when they will fully merge? i presume the IPE supports hardware like the ATMEl ice, maybe it's in the readme...on the back of the casing there are four tiny 'pips' for feet molded in;they actualy do seem to stop the thing sliding about as much as the older PK's do (i put mine in miniature neoprene mobile phone sleeves to prevent lemming-like excursions off the bench; which helped, slightly)
Programming:-
the PK4 managed to connect to PMPLAB x IPE after a couple of glitches; mainly, it seems, caused by the IDE not the hardware (my PICKit 3 is a cow to connect; often taking three attempts and/or restarts of the IPE to communicate; despite powering the target!) and WHEN will microchip make the software talk to the programmer BEFORE you load a hex file?!!! or turn on/off power to the board when you click the button instead of in three attempts and reconnections later...AAAh. and yes i DO know its a three volt part and i can't connect it to a truck battery...
The PK4 loaded its new firmware without fuss and accepted the target ( a 18F45k20 on the PK3 debug express board) showing an orange 'provisional' support button next to the device type checkbox.despite this it communicated with the board without fuss reading, writing, verifying, or erasing almost instantly! i connected the PICkit3 at the same time without problems, and could swap between the two OK; BUT the IPE got its knickers in a twist when one or the other was unplugged, trying to use the wrong tool.i would advise plugging the tools you need to use in BEFORE starting the IDE.
having both tools plugged in and running under the same IDE, i was able to speed test them back-to-back. the results where better than i expected.
For a full erase,program, verify, or blank check for everything (eeprom and program memory)
PICkit3 target 18F45K20 /debug 'running lights' demo all operations @ 6 seconds each.
PICkit4 same target and code <1 Second.
PICKit3 target 16F690 /' running lights' demo; all operations @7 seconds each.
PICki4 same target and code @2 seconds
This seems to tally with the marketing blurb about the new 'Kit matching its speeed to the target precessor's; so the results will scale up when you are using the tool to the full on huge memory/faster PIC's.
given the amount of time spent actually getting the PICKit 3 to function,the PK4 walks all over it in every respect...as long as the part is supported;
and this is the rub; the wait is on for which existing parts are fully supported by both the PICKit4 and the new ICD4, that ARE supported by the PK2/3 and ICD3. the device support spreadsheet hidden in MPLAB-x's readme's, is like a walk through a mine-field,trying to match a part to a supporting programmer
reminds me of John Lennon's sarcastic lyric 'i have to admit it's getting better...it couldn't get much worse'
i hope this helps anyone who wants to know more about the PICki4, and how it is in real-world tests; apart from the rather sparse information online;
and it gives me a chance to play with my new toy...