PIC Advice For A Newbe

[HankMcSpank]

FWIW, I bought the PIckit2 ...& think it's the best thing since the proverbial sliced (it even has a function that replicates the h/w normally needed to get your PIC interfaced with your PC serial comms wise ....normally you'd need to buy a signal level converter like a MAX232, but such capability is integral to the Pickit2 ...check out Uart Tool once you buy it & install the software).

Re languages, I started off thinking I'd learn assembly but alas, I spontaneously combusted when I tried to get something as simple as gettting an LED to light up!

PIC basic is much more digestible... I've got my PICs doing all sorts of stuff now ...eg just finished a program that carries out AtoD, then ultimately controls an AGC circuit based on the AtoD'ed incoming level etc ...I'd have had a beard like ZZ top trying to figure that lot out in Assembly!