>
> Hello,
> two small questions:
> after hanging around here for some time and not saving most of the traffic
> to disk, I have one stupid and one less stupid question. The stupid
> question first:
>
> Is the PICStart 16B1 Kit a good starting point for working/playing with
> PICs ? For the time being, I'll probably focus on the '84, mainly for
> monetary reasons - the reprogrammable Versions of the other PICs are simply
> too expensive in low quantities.

It sure is a good point. But for a 16C84 you can actually do one better
and build your own programmer. Take a look on

ftp.armory.com:/pub/users/rstevew/PIC/pp.*

These files describe a 16C84 programmer developed by David Tait. Works
quite well.

Also all of the microchip programming tools are available at

ftp.sics.se:/pub/mchipsoft

BTW if this is a dumb question I'd sure like to see your smart ones ;-)

>
> And the probably less stupid question: will the PICStart 16B1 work on/with
> an old plain-vanilla notebook under DOS (8086-comp. V20, 2 Meg RAM,
> serial/parallel port, CGA screen) ? Speed will hopefully be not an issue.

Yes it will. Speed is not an issue. Runs off a serial port.
Currently I use mine connected to a notebook running Linux. Works fine with
the DOS emulator for Linux. That way I can do other stuff while I'm working
on my PIC development.

>
> And a last question :-) : is the list still alive ? It was very quiet
> during the last few days.

It sure is. It goes though it's lulls until someone posts something
interesting.

Later,

BAJ