>I am a computer sysadm with no electronics background.  I bought the book:
>
>        "PIC: Microcontroller Project Book" by John Iovine
>
>The book suggests to buy:
>
>        PICBasic compiler program
>
>        EPIC Programmer (programming carrier board)
>
>        PIC Chip(s)
>
>The compiler costs around $100, the EPIC programming board & programming
>diskette costs $59, and the PIC 16F84 microcontroller goes for $7.  This
>is $166 that I might spend, which to me is a lot of money.  I would like
to
>learn the technology and use my book but is there a cheaper alternative?
>
>Please be specific if you respond because I don't understand much of the
>jargon used in the posts.  I want to use my book so I guess I am stuck
>with the basic language in the beginning.  Thanks for any help you send my
>way!
>
>Steve <feats@iceberg.icam.vt.edu>

Hello Steve,

You can check our development tools at http://www.olimex.com/dev
I can suggest you PIC-PG4 PIC16F84 starterkit which have everything you
need to start programming with PIC16F84 and cost $19,95 complete assembled
including 20MHz PIC16F84
if you have experience with electronics and soldering you can do some of
them by yourself as we have posted all schematics on the web.

Best regards
Tsvetan
---
PCB prototypes for $26 at http://run.to/pcb (http://www.olimex.com/pcb)
Development boards for PIC, AVR and MSP430 (http://www.olimex.com/dev)

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