I can't offer advice about ICD2 (too rich for my hobbyist blood!) but I can offer some advice about ICSP. Use it! Its usually the first thing I build into any circuit that does more than blink leds. Then comes the RS232 connection for debugging. Between the two it takes a little more (ok a lot more) work than an ICD2 would, but works fairly well for even complicated programs and is lots cheaper. If picstart plus doesn't support ICSP then maybe try getting one that does. But then again if you want an excuse to buy an ICD2, just get it! P.S. For programming PICS I use the cheap olimex parallel port programmer (http://www.sparkfun.com/shop/index.php?shop=1&cart=74609&cat=3) along with ICPROG software. Also they have a much cheaper drop-in replacement for the ICD2 as well, granted it doesn't have the nifty microchip(tm) case... ----- Original Message ----- From: "mark allen" To: Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2004 12:30 PM Subject: [PIC:] ICD2 - worth getting for a hobbyist? > Hi. I'm a artist/hobbyist who does a fair amount work with pics, and I'm > wondering if people would be willing to offer an opinion on if getting > the icd2 is worthwhile, and what aspects of it make it useful. Currently > I have a pic start plus, which entails pulling the chip in and out of > circuit everytime I need to program the chip. > > Honestly, I'm looking for an excuse to buy more stuff ;) > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics > (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics