Hello Kane,
I am also new to PICS. You may take a look at http://www.talkingelectronics.com Select the PIC course on the left and go to page 1. There you will find a good intro to PICS with a very simple circuit for lighting up a LED. I hope this helps.
Barry.
but that was the oscillator circuit...i just wundered if there was anything even simpler (less components wise) than that ...as i still havnt managed to build up my electronics component "stash" yet.
im still looking for some capacitor kits ...but cant find any
The circuit i posted is the simplest to test a led.
The 10K resistor to MCLR could be removed. It's just for extra safety
The 100n between +5V and GND could be removed but stability might suffer. all the other components are required
I have asked at school for a easy print to use for program and test a PIC. They used a PIC16F84,
I have get one and I have scanned it and I will attach the scan. Meaby I can get the Uliboad and ulicap stuff to but I think you will have some nice when you see this: (PS don`t use the info for provit, only to get started and to try and lurn stuff, thanks)
The easiest to get by with almost no external hardware at all is PIC 16F628. You can program it to use internal osc, and also to use the MCLR pin as I/O. In this way you need the PIC, a LED and a resistor to get the flashing LED program up and running.
With 16F84 you can't do this. The best bet is to use external RC for osc, also the MCLR pin should be connected to Vdd (as Exo said a resistor isn't needed for just a simple circuit) and then you'll have the LED and limiting resistor. That's the lowest you can go. Unfortunately a capacitor is needed for osc unless you have the 16F628.
Another idea that's not tested and could very well not work is to use the external osc mode and provide the clock manually by using a resistor and a switch. I don't know if this will work, but you can try it since you won't need the capacitor. If you try it please tell me if it works