Silicon Chip – May 2019

siliconchip.com.au Australia’s electronics magazine May 2019 83

ICROCHIP SNAP

Hot on the heels of the new PICkit 4 comes the Snap Debugger/Programmer,

and it’s a fraction of the price of a PICkit 4. So how does it compare?

Read on and see.

DEBUGGER/PROGRAMMER

Review by

Tim Blythman

Y

ou’d probably recall our review

of the PICkit 4 in the September

2018 issue (siliconchip.com.

au/Article/11237). We noted that the

PICkit 4 is faster than its predecessors,

both for programming and debugging.

Clones of the PICkit 2 and PICkit

3 are both in circulation, and given

that Microchip has open-sourced the

designs of both, the clones appear to

work similarly; there is no reason for

them to be significantly different to

the originals.

Either of these can be had for around

$20 from many online sellers.

The Snap is made by Microchip and

appears to be selling at a similar price

to the PICkit 2 and PICkit 3 clones, so

it’s worthwhile comparing them. Mi-

crochip Direct (Microchip’s online

store) sells the PICkit 4 for US$47.95,

while the Snap is US$14.95.

The Snap Debugger/Programmer is

based on the same Atmel SAM E70

32-bit MCU and has the same 8-pin

header as the PICkit 4, although it’s

somewhat less complex, which is how

Microchip can reduce the cost com-

pared to the PICkit 4.

For a start, there is no enclosure; all

you get is a bare PCB populated with

components. But we found a link on

the Digi-Key website to download a

set of 3D printable case files, at: http://www.

thingiverse.com/thing:3074301 We’ll

have more on that case later.

Also, the PCB is much smaller than

even the PICkit 2, let alone the PICk-

it 4. Partly this is because it lacks a

microSD card socket, so presumably,

the Programmer-To-Go function is not

available.

There is a QR code stuck to the top of

the main IC. It leads you to information

on the Snap, at this link: siliconchip.

com.au/link/aanq

First use

We are currently using MPLAB X

version 5.05 (on Windows 10; Win-

dows 7, macOS and some Linux vari-

ants are also supported). This is the