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I have been given some MiWi Boards and starting to attempt to connect them to the PI. I'm pretty new, but guessing I need to decipher the datasheet of the device??

Not sure what to do physically OR in software..

I think I need to jack into either ICSP, S.A.P, ... or both?enter image description here

Seems I also was handed a pickit 3 .. which seems to connect to the ICSP side of this thing (where that right hand side white triangle is)

enter image description here

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You should read the MiWi Demo Kit User's Guide. You will need at least two MiWi boards. They are designed to be standalone devices. They have an on-board PIC18F46J50 micro-controller that interfaces with the MiWi RF transceiver module. The MiWi boards come with a demo program that you can use to set up a network using the switches and LCD as a user interface.

You can use the PICKit 3 to modify, run, and debug the code on the PIC micro.

If you change the code on the PIC micro, you can use the S.A.P. interface to send and receive data from a Raspberry Pi to the board. You have a choice of USART, SPI, or I2C. So with a little wiring and coding, you should be able to use the MiWi boards to communicate between Raspberry Pis.

Update 1

You asked about using the PICKit 3 with your Raspberry Pi. The PICKit 3 is designed to work with the MPLAB X IDE, which is only available for Intel architecture. See this question on the Microchp forum.

Update 2

In the comments, you asked how to wire the Raspberry Pi to the MiWi board. The S.A.P. pins are shown on the J1 header in the schematic from the MiWi Demo Kit User's Guide:

S.A.P. Connector J1

For a USART connection, make the following connections:

+------+------+
| MiWi | RPi  |
+------+------+
| TX   | RXD  |
| RX   | TXD  |
| GND  | GND  |
+------+------+

For an I2C connection, make the following connections:

+------+------+
| MiWi | RPi  |
+------+------+
| SDA  | SDA  |
| SCL  | SCL  |
| GND  | GND  |
+------+------+

For a SPI connection, make the following connections:

+--------+------------+
| MiWi   | RPi        |
+--------+------------+
| SDI    | MOSI       |
| SDO    | MISO       |
| SCK    | SCLK       |
| CS     | CE0 or CE1 |
| GND    | GND        |
+--------+------------+
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  • yes I've already put batteries in two MiWi demo boards, flipped them on.. and successfully run their built in demos.. I guess I need to read how to use a PickKit 3 next?? – Erik Jan 11 '17 at 21:44
  • No one had explained how to connect the pickkit3 to the MiWi devices + the Pi... but I'm guessing it's via the USB connector and I need to install something to talk to my pickkit3 – Erik Jan 11 '17 at 21:45
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    I added an update to my answer. At this time, it does not look like you can use the PICKit 3 and MPLAB on a Raspberry Pi. – David Cullen Jan 11 '17 at 21:53
  • could I , in theory modify the miwi board using say.. OSX environment.. and then once finished flashing chip.. wire it's connection to the Pi – Erik Jan 11 '17 at 22:43
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    I added an update to my answer that includes an excerpt from the MiWi schematic and tables showing the connections for the three different interface types. – David Cullen Jan 12 '17 at 16:34

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