A newbie's humble opinion.  I started looking at micro controllers because I
have a specific application (which is why I think most newbie's come to this
list).  I went to the Masters Conference last month thinking I would learn
how to use PIC chips but learned very little mostly because we learned on
wired demo boards for everything.  After four days at the Masters
conference, I still did not know how to hook up an oscillator to a PIC (do
now.)  My application does not use an LCD but it does use 9 LEDs, a 2 X 7
display, 6 push buttons and a micro controller network.  I doubt that any
experimenter's board would have this configuration and if it did, how would
it satisfy the next newbie?

While at the conference, I picked up an ICD2 and the Universal Programming
Module.  The Guys at Microchip said that the two together will be able to
program all their chips sometime next year.  In my opinion, hooking up the
ICD2 to an experimenter's board as Peter Anderson
(http://www.phanderson.com/) does is the way to go.  I may smoke a
transistor or two but I was making little mushroom clouds over vacuum tubes
long before lots of people on this list was born.  I think making smoke and
asking embarrassing questions is a requirement to learning electronics.

Now if you guys are really itching to make some boards, how about a teeny
pcb with a PIC, oscillator, voltage regulator, brown out detector and some
protection diodes.  With surface mounts, it could be made really small.  The
thing could be plugged into an experimenters board or soldered onto a pcb.
If the pins are real long, it could be mounted over other components to save
real estate if needed.

BTW: I've learned more about PICs following the PIClist Beginners Checklist
and reading this list than at the seminar...thanks all.

Nelson

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