In message , "Tracy R. Reed" writes: >Microcontrollers seem to be quite a bit simpler than PC's (huge >understatement :), so it looks like they are a good place to start >learning about digital electronics. Yes, and no. A good way to start learning about digital electronics is to try to build some very simple logic circuits. Get some 2-input nand gates, flipflops, counters, etc and play with them. These chips have been around in one form or other for well over 20 years. You can get many interesting IC's for Pennies a piece. There are countless books and magazine articles around with circuit ideas and there is no law at all against just sitting there and designing something on your own. If you get several different logic families such as TTL, CMOS, etc, you will gain an appreciation for their advantages and disadvantages. When you get really tired of tearing up a circuit that is perfectly good except for this one little logic problem, you will truly love microprocessors. The practical side to this line of thinking is that it is almost certain that accidents will happen. CMOS IC's can turn to nothing in a microsecond if exposed to static electricity and TTL chips will let all their smoke out if you try to sink too much current through an output or somehow manage to get 12 volts on the 5-volt line . One tends to get much more careful after a couple of such things and it is better to have learned on cheap stuff than the latest and greatest VLSI technology. I am an amateur radio operator and am interested in electronic communication and controls of all kinds. I just got on this list to learn more about the PIC. I am familiar with the 68HC11 and hope that the PIC can be used in those projects for which the HC11 would be overkill. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK OSU Computer Center Data Communications Group