The Low Pin Count USB Development Kit provides an easy, low-cost way to evaluate the functionality of PIC16F1459 (or other PIC16F145x) 14 and 20 pin USB microcontrollers. The board also supports operation with the PIC18F14K50/PIC18F13K50 pin compatible 20 pin USB microcontrollers. When used with the free Microchip Libraries for Applications software, the platform provides all of the necessary hardware, software, and code examples necessary to quickly bring your next USB design from concept to production.

The PIC18F1XK50 microcontrollers are feature-rich, but low pin count, therefore necessitating some level of pin functionality multiplexing. On the PIC18F1XK50 devices, the PGC/PGD pins are multiplexed with the USB D /D- pins. Therefore, in circuit firmware, debugging is not supported with the normal/production PIC18F14K50 silicon. However, in order to enable in-circuit debugging of PIC18F1XK50-based USB designs, a dedicated In-Circuit Debugging (ICD) board is provided in the Low Pin Count USB Development Kit, which contains special PIC18F14K50 silicon (with more pins than normal) that demultiplexes the USB D /D- pins from the ICSP program/debug PGC/PGD pins. The dedicated/non-multiplexed PGC/PGD pins on this special device allow for the active debugging of USB firmware projects, without interfering with the D /D- signaling necessary for normal USB communication.

The PIC16F1459 DIP-20 microcontroller that comes with the Low Pin Count USB Development Kit board comes pre-programmed with some example USB demo firmware. The example firmware demonstrates basic USB communication between the USB microcontroller and a custom PC host software program