The 16F877 has everything you want.  33 I/O pins, A/D, USART, all kinds of
stuff.  There are a few gotchas such as watching PB3 to make sure you know
whether low-voltage programming is on or not, setting up the ADC pins
right, etc.  Nice chip, though.

If you use assembly, MPASM is the way to go, and free.  If you're a Linux
user, GPASM is there too, also free.  Scott Dattalo maintains some GNU
tools for PICs such as GPASM, GPSIM, etc.

I use an EPIC+ from microEngineering Labs (www.melabs.com).  I have also
heard very good things about Warp-13 and a few others.  If money is no
object get one from Microchip.

Have fun!!

Dale

On Sat, 24 Mar 2001, Neil Bradley wrote:

> Okay, a repost because I didn't put a colon in the Subject line. Sheesh!
> ----------------------------
>
> I've been reading and studying the links that have been given to me by
> many listmembers (thanks, all!), and now I have more questions!
>
> * The 16F84 has been recommended to me. Are there any other PIC micros out
> there with many more GPIO pins, maybe in a DIP 40 package? The 16F84 I
> could use, but I'd have to add multiplexing and latching circuitry and
> it'd be nice to avoid that.
>
> * I've seen quite a few programmers. Anyone have any experiences they'd
> like to share as far as which is fairly inexpensive and works well? I'm
> not interested in building my own - I'd rather just buy one.
>
> * Is there a particular assembler that people generally like to use with
> the PIC micros?
>
> * Are there any such PIC micros (with lots of GPIO pins) that have A to Ds
> built in? In my massive searches I probably missed something, but it'd be
> great to be able to multiplex many potentiometers.
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> -->Neil
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Neil Bradley            There'd be no more N'Sync if everyone had guns.
> Synthcom Systems, Inc.
> ICQ #29402898
>
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>

---
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new
discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny ..."
                -- Isaac Asimov

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