Devolpment board or simple programmer?

[Electron Junkie]

Need help getting started using PIC's for various projects.
I've been looking at a lot of different options for the pic. Several websites have choices of development boards online. Is this the best way to go to get started ? Or should I just buy a simple programmer and a few parts to start with ?
Thanks for any info.
Electron Junkie :roll: :roll:

 

[panic mode]

It's hard to say. I was trying to build one for myself. It took me a while to
get one that would work with my PC. (first two did work but on my friends PC). If you can find built one cheap go for it. If not try to build something like kit96 for example (see www.kitsrus.com or www.picallw.com).
Note that development kits are avaialble (not just for PIC).
Currently there is a special to buy Z-8 starter kit. It comes with development board (really nice), C compiler, books, power supply, code samples etc. for some $40-50US. The chips are very inexpencive and powerfull (2 UARTS, 5 analog, plenty of I/O...).

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Need help getting started using PIC's for various projects.
I've been looking at a lot of different options for the pic. Several websites have choices of development boards online. Is this the best way to go to get started ? Or should I just buy a simple programmer and a few parts to start with ?
Thanks for any info.
Electron Junkie :roll: :roll:

My PIC tutorials at http://www.winpicprog.co.uk use PIC circuits built on Veroboard, pictures are given enabling you to easily reproduce the layouts - no need to buy developer kits. All you need is a simple PIC programmer - as suggested above the P16PRO40 (kit96) is a good choice at minimum cost - plus you can use my free software rather than pay for the original designers software.