10 LED sequencer using 4017 counter

[seanyiya]

Cool cool....
I'll try to be patient till the programmer comes in... 

[justDIY]

nock on wood, it will be coming soon.

bud of mine ordered his from 'overseas' ... it took about a month to show up 

[x99]

Good reading here guys. Maybe I can think of doing something like this after I get my first 'show' up and going. how is the programing of chips affected by me being on a mac?

[seanyiya]

Finally got the programmer.... took like freaking month...
Now... what do I do with this thing....
What good and easy to use software I can use for beginner??

[justDIY]

you'll need to grab a free copy of MPLab from www.microchip.com

you will also want to consult the documentation for how to upgrade your programmer to the lastest firmware revision... I think MPLAB does this for you, but I'm not 100% sure ... as I've never worked with the ICD2

from there, you can either start learning Microchip assembler (free) right in MPLAb or you can try out some of the free-samples of BASIC compilers available for the PIC

There's www.picbasic.org for the software I use, Proton Basic ... there's also a Russian company with a very popular BASIC found here --> http://www.mikroelektronika.co.yu/english/product/compilers/compilers.htm

Both provide a freebie version to get you hooked with the hope you'll upgrade to the full version.

I'm not sure what chips are supported by the freebie version of Mikro Basic, I know proton will support the 12f675, but not the larger 12f683 :/

anyway you choose I'll try my best to help

[seanyiya]

Thanks again..
I'll have to do another learning process.... 

[justDIY]

   its cool man, don't sweat the details ... just start with a blinking led program and before you know it, you'll be doing all sorts of fun stuff.

the advantage to high-level languages like basic and c are built in routines ... for example, controlling a hc595 in assembler probably takes at least 5 or 10 lines of code ... controlling one with proton basic takes one line of code ... who cares what the asm looks like!