Hello,

I don't know if you folks have a policy on this, but I thought I'd just
mention that I've just joined the PIC List yesterday.

I'm afraid it'll be more questions than answer from me, as I'm new to the
PIC scene, and it's many years since I did any assembler programming!

I've bought the PICSTART Plus programmer, installed MPLAB 4.12, and also got
hold of the "Project Board 2" from Bluebird Electronics, which looks pretty
good for testing out your circuits.  Yesterday I wrote my first MPLAB
program (press a button, light a led) to check that the system is working,
and it seems fine.

Some background about me:  I live over in East Anglia, England, and have
worked for BT as an engineer for the last 26 years.  I've got a background
knowledge of electronics and microprocessors, and am computer literate (I
run an NT4 workstation here at home).  I do some lightweight Windows
programming using Delphi - sometimes know as "Visual Basic for grown-ups"
;-)  - which I think is an excellent tool.  Other hobbies include clock and
watch repair.

I'll tell you about my only real PIC project to date another time: a
PIC-based watch timer.  This was developed using a programmer and software
from Forest Electronic Developments.  Good gear, but I wanted to go to the
more industry standard MPLAB/PICSTART environment.

In fact, that's my first question: was that a wise move?

When I first tried MPLAB a few weeks ago I was gobsmacked to find you
couldn't use PICSTART with NT4.  The Windows API for accessing the serial
ports is the same between NT4 and W95, so heaven knows how Microchip managed
it!  Fortunately MPLAB 4.12 works absolutely fine with NT4.

Sorry for the length of this note.

Best wishes to all,

Steve Thackery
Suffolk, England.
Web Site: http://www.btinternet.com/~stevethack/