[tim wrote...]

> i understand where you are coming from and me too.just got started with
pic chips .i have two programmers
> and didn't even power them up yet........ they were given to me by a
friend ..........and he is too busy
> consulting  for the big microchip and he has his own co also..hehe how
nice..... i build small servo systems
> and do it all with an analogue voltage balancing scheme's ......work's
very well........microchip has an
> application note using pic to control positioning of a motor using
rheostat feedback...but I'm a little
> confused as to how the commands are sent to the chip for the
position.......i.e software program
> but if i can be of help ........i will help..............tim

One thing that sorta bothered me starting out is that Microchip doesn't do a
whole lot to give a newbie a push. Their programmer (PICStart) is pretty
good but, their examples suck. You'd think that if they we're gunning for
the mid to lower market, they'd do a better job of getting people hooked. In
my business, we call this "OOBE" - or "Out Of Box Experience" - and theirs
is really poor. If it weren't for this list, I'd probably walk away from
this dream out of frustration.

The low price for their starter equipment isn't enough. There are too many
messages on this list about people looking for the place to start with these
things. In my mind, that's a barrier to entry. It wouldn't take Microchip a
whole lot to make a "package" that, at least, leads a newbie towards a
successful LED. From there, the third-party community can kick in and lead
us through the more complicated procedures. I'm attracted to the PIC world
because of the broad range of available resources, and the PIC community
seems to better "accept" those of us that are learning. Who knows, a
"Getting Started" guide would probably push a lot of us into new territory
that would have us asking more challenging questions.

In addition, their demo boards make it pretty tough to do prototyping beyond
your first LED routine - at least they could have run traces from the ports
to a some sort of terminal block. I mean, even for this PWM/servo idea, I
can't really use their PICDEM1 board without firing up the soldering iron. I
found that I had to take the plethora of third-party material - books,
samples, etc. and "apply" them to the Microchip tools. After a while, I took
David Benson's advice and made his '84 on board' demo board. I also now use
ExpressPCB (www.expresspcb.com) for boards once I've created my basic
routines with the general proto boards.

-DO