Check out http://www.piclist.com . While you are there, check out the
list FAQ, as you seem to have missed out on the proper use of topic tags
for your post. There are a number of beginner's projects that might be
applicable. In addition, it's a wonderful resource when you get stuck.
You will need a programmer though, which can be close to a religious
debate on the list. Best bet is to read through the list of programmers
on the piclist.com website. You will also need MPLAB, the development
environment available from Microchip's website,
http://www.microchip.com. A good idea would be to download the
datasheets for the chips you have chosen and read them. Read (or at
least skim) the whole thing, it really does explain quite a bit. And
since someone else will doubtless mention this, I might as well. You may
wish to start with some different chips. In the 16F series, the 16f628
is a great replacement for the 16f84, it has more features and costs
less. The 16f877 is a great 40 pin device. You may wish to look at the
18f series though. General consensus seems to be this is where most PICs
are heading, with some of the data and program memory paging issues
fixed. However, the smallest ones available now start at 28 pins. In
addition, you will have to carefully choose a programmer, and there is
less sample code available for the 18F series.

Hope this helps,
Josh
--
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something
completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete
fools.
        -Douglas Adams

Jeff Lawver wrote:
> I'm new to PIC, and pretty new to anything related to it. I'm pretty good
> in C/C++ and know a bit of assembly for x86. I have a few PICs coming
> [PIC16F84A-04/P] and some 12x's that I'm not going to use since they have
> EPROM. but I would like to know how to go about starting with the PIC. I
> want to eventually get into robotics with the PIC but I'm satisfied with
> whatever projects I can get done. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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