John and Dave,

I am more than willing to go with PICaxe. We have a MicroChip outlet here in middle Massachusetts close enough for me to enroll in a course or two.

https://secure.microchip.com/RTCV2/C...e.aspx?rtcid=5

I am comfortable with C. Many years ago I coded in Assembly. (Funny thing there. I read the Wikipedia definition of PIC. It talked about a Harvard architecture. This description reminded me of the AN/FSQ7 which did the SAGE Air Defense of the USA in the 1950's. That computer was made of vacuum tubes. It read radar data off drums. The PIC Accumulator and Register structures sound similar. That was my first programming job - Lincoln Laboratory)

Please help me select a PIC product kit that would get me started. I need to have that nudge to dig out my soldering iron and borrow an oscilloscope.

Ken