> I'm a newbee and someday I hope to be able to program these beasts.
>
> As a newbee, I am wondering which chip I should start with??? The pic page
> says to start with the 16F, some chatter on here indicates another chip has
> more capabilities and sells for less.

It all depends on what you know and what you're willing to learn.

If you don't understand assembly language, then I would suggest starting
with the Dios chip from Kronos Robotics (http://www.kronosrobotics.com/).

This is an 18f452 programmed in a dialect of basic in which you can mix
assembly language as you learn. And all you need to program these chips
is something to translate an RS-232 connection to TTL levels.

If you already know assembly language then I'd go directly to the 18f452.
While PIC assembly language has its quirks, it's fairly easy as such
things go.

The 18f452 is a 40-pin DIP part. I suggest the bigger chips for beginners
because you can always scale down your designs to the smaller chips later.

I would avoid the 16f84; most books discuss this chip, but it's old,
overpriced, and not as powerful as the later chips.

I hope this helps.
--
D. Jay Newman          !
jay@sprucegrove.com    ! Xander: Giles, don't make cave-slayer unhappy.
http://enerd.ws/~jay/  !

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