PIC Programmer & Prototype Board

I am new to PIC BasicPro and have it doing a few things (blinking the LED mainly) on a 16F84. I am wanting to move to a bigger processor next and feel the 16F877 should be my next stepping stone.

Now I need a prototype board to do my testing on. There seems to be a few different models out there and I need some advice on solutions. Going through ebay I see a number of them available. They include
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=2559346971
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=2564791435

Of the two, I prefer the second model as I can build it up myself and I think it has a bit more space.

Once I get the prototype board, my next purchase will be my own programmer (as opposed to borrowing the one from school). There is a very simple one at
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=2562640833

MELabs now has a serial version of their programmer out too. There is yet another one on ebay at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=2564719079
and it has included with it a 40pin adapter and an incircuit adapter for my 16F84 chip.

Has anyone experience with any of these items?

Sean

"Has anyone experience with any of these items?"

I have used a Olimex PG2C programmer for some time now. It's a good match for what I do. At $12 to $20 USD it's a good value, but it's got one caveat- no ZIF socket, and you can't add one. the nested design of the socket and the location of the ICSP header prevent that.

But with the ICSP header it'll plug right into the Olimex development board (the first one you posted) and you won't have to remove the chip to reprogram it.

I've bought from Peter Anderson in the past, he's a stand up guy, and I wouldn't hesitate to do bussiness with him again (two of the auctions you linked are his)

Personaly though, I wouldn't buy any of them. You said you have access to a programmer, use it to load a bootloader, then you won't need a programmer.

I use PBP and microCode Studio, I use the bootloader with 16F877A all the time, works like charm. Also- no dev board, I do all my work on a breadboard.

Hope this was helpful enough for my first post.

-Denny