I understand Impatient. Look here... http://www.mikroe.com/eng/home/index/ It will cost a bit for a development board and c Compiler, but it will=20 also provide near instant gratification. The good news is that you can=20 download and use the compilers for up to 2K programs for free. Your=20 project will probably fit in 2K. If you choose to use their compiler with some one else's programmer it=20 can be done, just not as convenient. Good support, lots of examples and=20 free updates for your (or theirs) life. No affiliation rather than a happy user for many years. US orders best=20 placed through http://www.circuit-ed.com/index.aspx John Ferrell W8CCW A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate=20 their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from=20 the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good=20 government. Thomas Jefferson=20 On 8/11/2010 1:54 PM, Todd Lyons wrote: > Hello all, I'm a linux sysadmin, but originally an EE by education. > I'm very technical and have a decent to thorough understanding of c, > perl, shell scripting etc, and anything server and network related WRT > to TCP/IP. I tend to tell people "just google for it" and have a low > tolerance for stupid questions. In general, my goal for PIC is > hobbyist level, but you never know, this knowledge may result in side > work or projects for others. > > I bought a PIC dev kit from Microchip with the ICD2 back in 2003, but > never did anything with it other than (accidentally) blank the demo > chip while twiddling with things. I put it in a box and never touched > it again. Now I have a project I want to do, and the PIC seems > perfect for it. My project is straight forward: I want to make a > powered ventilation system for my attic (i.e. turn a fan off and on > based on temperature, and display the status to a user). I know, I > know, you can buy those for not a whole lot of money from Lowes or > Home Depot or any number of sites on the net. Well, what would I > learn doing it that way? I'd much rather go through the struggles of > doing it myself and learn in the process. > > That being said, I'm looking for guidance (and trying to keep the > stupid questions to a minimum). > and HAND! --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .