Hi Michael,

Michael Cunningham wrote:
> Thanks for all the info everyone.. Since I am doing this 
> as a hobby and not a career.. I believe I am going to do 
> the following..
> 
> 1. Pick up picbasic pro
> 2. Get mplab's assembler and all the docs.. 
> 3. Buy the melabs serial programmer and the rc40 controller as I planned.. 
> 4. Buy a few pics and read the data sheets..
> 
> This way I can play and get some basic things going.. blinking leds, moving
> servos, etc.. without having to learn a whole new language upfront.. 
> 
> Over time I will definitly make it a point to begin to learn assembly as
> necessary to get things accomplished. I can definitly see the benefits 
> and understand how knowing the hardware is essential even with a HHL. 
> I just put in an order for a couple books from square-1 "Easy Microcontrol'n
> "
> and "Microcontrol'n Apps". Those combned with the picbasic books and "PIC in
> Practice" 
> book I have should be enough to get me going. 
> 
> Thanks again,
> Mike

As your interested in Animatronix and you may be impatient to get these 
servos going, try this application, once you have your programmer, of 
course :) Twelve  servos in parallel controlled from a serial port of 
your PC. And it works great.

http://www.havingasoftware.nl/robots/servo/servo.htm

With modifications the program could be converted for other PIC models 
but as you are not up to speed yet with PIC programming I suggest that 
you use a PIC16F84 as the application calls for.

This application is also great on the pedagogical aspect for assembly 
and state machine.
Think of it, driving 12 servos simultaneously while receiving commands 
at 38400 baud with a software UART! What an achievement. Amazing.

Have fun.
Gaston

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