Where would I even begin?

[stankbot]

Hi there, after looking at Pvp's tilt sensor thread and how to easily build a pic programming I decided to give it a shot.  I have yet to finish the pic programming itself (i need to get the pcb board and a capacitor)  But my question is, where do I even begin looking at information?  I have googled all sorts of pic programming topics and I get tutorials, but nothing from the ground up.  Sadly, I don't even understand how you connect the pic to the pic programmer...thats how much of a tutorial or guide I need.  Any directions would be great!

[ryan0]

you should begin by learning either c or visual basic,as these are the most common languages used to programme pic's,i recommend buying a pic development/flashing board rather than making one as you will be able to programme a wider variety of pics,u simply rest the pic on the pins of the dev board/flasher

[stankbot]

Hi! thanks for the info!  I've been reading c scripts and looking at all the stuff it does.  As for the making one, I see where you can buy the kits for like 60-100 bucks, and the one I am making uses the ?jmd2? which apparantly is awesome.  Also, I only have to go out and get the pcb board stuff, which is only like 1.25 for me.  Thanks again!

[CrkPyro]

I'd suggest checking out the forums over at sparkfun.  And possibly picking up a book on microcontrollers.  The book I was taught from was written by my professor Dr. Huang: "Pic Microcontroller: An Introduction to software & hardware interfacing" It's not the best book, but it'll probably be better in the next edition.  If you want something from the ground up I'd suggest picking a microcontroller and looking at the data sheet for it and finding out what each pin does.  I'd suggest using a pic18 series microcontroller because you can get the student edition c compiler from microchip for free.