I have to agree with Shawn, about choosing the beginner part based
on easy-to-understand beginner material. One of my friends, who is new
to controllers, purchased a F628 a few months ago and banged away at
it with limited success. I lent him a couple of F84s and the PIC'N books
and within 2 weeks he was up and going fine on the F84s. He went back to the
F628s and has had much success since then.

All he needed was some very basic reputable projects that he didn't have to
change the code or the circuit for, so that he could figure out the chip
without
having to worry about whether the code or circuit are wrong.

At 08:57 AM 7/31/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>As a beginner, I recommend that you don't just rely on an 'expert' opinion
>on which part is right for you. Rather, do Google searches for "16F84
>beginner projects", "16F628 beginner projects", and "16F877 beginner
>projects" and make a decision based on what you read and what you can
>understand at this point. You are likely to find that the abundance of
>easy-to-understand, beginner material will point you in the direction of the
>16F84. Sure the 16F84 may cost you a couple of bucks more, and offer fewer
>features than other PIC microcontrollers, but you will find it easy to use
>and that's important for a beginner. If you choose the 16F628 or 16F877 and
>come to this list asking for help, you will be greated with "Read The
>Manual." and that probably won't be much help.
>
>Once you have learned the basics of microcontrollers, you'll want to move up
>the a more richly featured, higher-complexity chip -- maybe even the Texas
>Instruments MSP430 series.
>
>Have fun, Shawn

_____________________________________________________________
Cris Wilson
Information Resource Consultant
College of Architecture, Arts, and Humanities
Clemson University
cris@clemson.edu
To report problems email: aah_computers@clemson.edu

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