At 09:20 AM 11/3/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>Olin Lathrop wrote:
>
>> >  Give me your
>>mailing address and I'll send you a EasyProg kit for free.
>
>That is very tempting, and I appreciate it very much.   It would certainly 
>solve the problem, and be an easy solution to getting a programmer 
>going.  However, I'm going to take a pass on it, because to take you up on 
>the offer would be a violation of my principles.  This financial hole that 
>I am in right now is just temporary, and I've got a few ideas on making 
>some extra money.
>
>Take care,
>Bill
>--

Bill -

How about this: I could send you parts for TWO programmers; then you could 
assemble both and send me one - that would certainly be a bargain for me. I 
don't have plans for any programmers, so you would have to find one on the 
net and send me a parts list. Also, you would have to assemble the 
programmers on perf-board because I wouldn't have any PCBs for them.

As an alternative, you might reconsider accepting Olin's generous offer - 
you could assemble the kit (which would come complete with a PCB) and then 
use it until you could move on. Then you could return it to Olin, or pass 
it on to someone else wanting to learn about PICs. That way it would just 
be a loan, plus you would have done the work of assembling it.

For PICs, I would recommend using the PIC18xxx series; they have more 
features, yet don't cost much more than the older PIC16xxx chips. So 
whatever programmer you choose, you should make sure it can program the 
18xxx series.

For tutorials, you might want to check out
http://www.mikroelektronika.co.yu/english/index.htm
They have a free PIC book online which is pretty good.
You could also look at
http://www.voti.nl/jal/index_1.html

Maris



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