Richard,

For learning the basics of PICs I'd recommend this set of online lessons: http://www.amqrp.org/elmer160/ - it will give you a good 
grounding in how PICs work, so you'll understand how to debug your projects in future, even if you use C rather than assembler.

On Thu, 3 Aug 2006 15:00:01 -0700 (PDT), Richard Youden wrote:

> 
> OK, I have just found this...
> 
> http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1406&dDocName=en010020&part=DV003001
> 
> It looks OK to me but I have a few questions.
> 
> 1. Has anyone used this before, esecially the software?

That's the PICstart Plus, and it's getting pretty long in the tooth now - and rather expensive for what it does.

> 2. The devboard looks purely like a programming board to me or is that just a bad photo.

No, it's just a programmer.

> 3. It says that it only connects via RS232 which I ditched on my computer
> long ago, will this work with a USB to serial adaptor?

Best not to find out!  You'd be better off getting one of the small programmer/development units, PICkit1 or PICkit2, which are 
USB-connected and much cheaper and better value than the PICStart Plus.  You can get the PICkit1 from Maplin, by the way, and both are 
available from "Buy Microchip".  They handle limited ranges of PICs, but for a beginner they do the ranges that you're likely to need.

The PICkit2 also comes with some simple lessons to teach the basics, and it has a plug-on development board, and you can get a set of 
three of those (2 bare, one populated) for thirteen quid plus VAT & P&P, which I reckon is excellent value.  Its only drawback is that at 
the moment MPLAB doesn't really support it, but apparently the next release will.

Cheers,


Howard Winter
St.Albans, England


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