Three more topics regarding my PIC project may be of interest to
others.  This was my first solo project of this type, so it all came
with a learning curve.

PCB and schematic layout software:

  Believe it or not, I used  Microsoft Word &.0 for all my PCB and
schematic layouts.  I had it, I knew how to use it, it has a nice
drawing subsystem, works with all printers and I could easily include
the art in my manual.  I also figured that many others would have this
software, and could view and edit as an example.  You can draw lines,
boxes, and cirlces with lots or widths and fills.  You can also
include very readable text (not line-art text), although I could only
make it in the one orientation.  Next time I will probably use an
actual PCB software, to try something new and to get Gerber output.

Board production:

  After designing the MSWord board layout, I called several local PCB
manufacturing houses.  My boards were 2"x2", single-sided, with about
100 holes in two different sizes.  I found a place that would build me
100 boards, silk-screened and solder masked for $250 in 3 weeks.  I
printed my artwork double sized, had photo-reduced transparencies
made, and the board shop did the rest.

In-circuit programming:

  My product did not use RB6 or RB7, so my prototype had these two
pins connected to my programmer.  As for MCLR, the Tait programmer
would switch it between 0 and 12 volts for programming, but in order
to run the circuit, I needed 5 volts, so I wired in a switch to go
between the programmer's MCLR (0 and 12) and Vcc (5).  I had to throw
the switch before and after each programming.  If I had it to do over
again, I would modify my programmer slightly to make it more AN589
like to have the computer switch the programming voltages in and out.

Byon
______________________________________
Byon Garrabrant  N6BG  byon@netcom.com