Microchip Development Board Copyrighted?

[hessa59]

I am using the Curiosity pic32mz as a development platform for a project I hope to market. Is it possible to copy parts of the board or get PC board artwork?

Is it possible to get code for the porogrammer chip on the curiosity boards?

Any answers or direction where to look would be greatly appreciated!

[AussieSusan]

Any answer you get here would not protect you if Microchip decide that what you are doing is illegal (from their perspective). The only real answer you will get is from Microchip themselves.
Your question may be academic. The User Guide for the board contains the schematic but the document is copyrighted (as it says on each page). However the circuit is fairly standard and, certainly around the PIC32 MCU, is documented in the data sheet as to what is required to make the MCU work. Ditto around the WiFi chip and other parts of the hardware.
Microchip MCUs do not come with any software. The software on that is 'on the board' is programmed into a separate chip on the board and acts as a programmer/debugger for the PIC32 device. If you have a PicKit3 or similar then you don't even need to use that as you can use the ICSP pins on the PIC32 and program it directly.
The PicKit3 code is almost certainly proprietary but the ICSP protocol is not. Also I think the PicKit2 software is out there somewhere but whether or not it works is another story. Ther eare certainly a number of bootloader code examples also around on the 'net.
Therefore I see there is nothing to be gained by trying to copy anything from this development board.
Susan

[DavidBLit]

You might take a look at the Olimex boards https://www.olimex.com/Products/PIC/Development/PIC32-HMZ144/open-source-hardware and https://www.olimex.com/Products/PIC/Development/PIC32-EMZ64/open-source-hardware.

[hessa59]

Thanks DavidBLit!
This board looks very interesting!

[hessa59]

Any answer you get here would not protect you if Microchip decide that what you are doing is illegal (from their perspective). The only real answer you will get is from Microchip themselves.
Your question may be academic. The User Guide for the board contains the schematic but the document is copyrighted (as it says on each page). However the circuit is fairly standard and, certainly around the PIC32 MCU, is documented in the data sheet as to what is required to make the MCU work. Ditto around the WiFi chip and other parts of the hardware.
Microchip MCUs do not come with any software. The software on that is 'on the board' is programmed into a separate chip on the board and acts as a programmer/debugger for the PIC32 device. If you have a PicKit3 or similar then you don't even need to use that as you can use the ICSP pins on the PIC32 and program it directly.
The PicKit3 code is almost certainly proprietary but the ICSP protocol is not. Also I think the PicKit2 software is out there somewhere but whether or not it works is another story. Ther eare certainly a number of bootloader code examples also around on the 'net.
Therefore I see there is nothing to be gained by trying to copy anything from this development board.
Susan

Thanks Susan. I was thinking about making an educational product based on the curiosity PIC32MZ board. My worry was that if Microchip stopped making the board I would be out of luck. As I have finally been admitted to the MicroChip forum I will see if I can get Microchip contact information there.

[ric]

If you want an official answer, you should lodge a support ticket at http://www.microchip.com/support

[hessa59]

Thanks ric

I will post the results of my inquiry here.