Programming an Arduino UNO with a PICKit 4 and MPLAB X.

Microchip makes the ATMEGA328P chip found on the Arduino UNO. We can use Microchip's MPLAB X programming environment (v 5.35 here) and compiler (XC8 v. 2.32 here) with a PICKit 4 or SNAP programmer to program the ATMEGA328P in C and assembler rather than with the Arduino IDE and Arduino's Bootloader. Here, I show how to do that. It requires cutting a trace on the Arduino board to prevent the support chip on the Arduino from resetting the ATMEGA328P. I then walk you through the process of pulling the firmware and settings off the Arduino so that you can restore it at a later point in time.