I was exactly in your shoes 4 weeks ago!!
If I could start all over again with the knowledge I have now ... (everyones life dream) ... I would do this:
1) Stop getting fustrated with your PIC.. your PIC is your friend!.. it works in 1's and 0's - yes and no's.. if it is not working it is YOUR fault.. not the PICs!.. DONT GET MAD! GET BETTER INFORMED! You will laugh at how simple most of your problems really are!
2)For me.. and I bet alot of others.. It looks hella hard at first.. Interrupts, HEX, Stacks ect... trust me.. it gets VERY easy VERY fast.. if you are detemined to learn!
3) I bought my programmer for $10. It is a JDM programmer I believe..
In hindsight, I would have made my own.. alot cheaper and a better way to understand how the PIC 'talks' to the computer.
4) For the PIC16F84 (I also am using this) (I can't help you w/ the other chip) Go to to the
Microchip website and download the MPLAB IDE (Integrated Development Environment).
This thing will make your life 100x easier!
This is an ASSEMBLY based coding program... if I were you I would learn assembly.. yeah.. it looks harder but you will have a better understanding of how the PIC works.
First things first.. go through the MPLAB tutorial to get a good understanding of the environment.
5) Complete this
**broken link removed**
6)Complete tutorials
7) Ask questions when you get stuck.
8) Welcome to an expensive hobby.
But then again I could be wrong about all of this.. and that would be no good would it.. :|