Hi Ken

Sorry to have not been very responsive. I had a mother board fail on my server and have been spending my time rebuilding the hardware and software...fun fun fun.

Yes I can read the schematic...

Do you have a digital camera? Sometimes a picture is worth....well you know the saying. I'm still trying to figure out the actual hardware we are dealing with. Don't need hi-res or anything. If you already have the RC Truck, can you tell me the make and model. I could try and look it up.

You might consider ordering some more PICs too, expecially if you are going to be running at or above max limits on the pin current for the relay. It might work fine, but you may not want to be down for a week if it doesn't.

On the ICSP and PICKIT2 programmer....think of this as the interface between your PC and the PIC. The PICKIT2 programmer lets you download the HEX files generated by your compiler, as well as set configuration flags etc. It will write and verify that the code was written correctly. That is a very simplified version, but may help. The ICSP feature is just that you can hook the PICKIT2 programmer to your proto board thru this 6 pin header that it plugs into. It lets you program the PIC in place on the board, rather than pulling the chip and putting it on the demo board. The PICKIT2 probably comes with the 6 wire ICSP cable. It will mate onto 0.1" spaced header pins that you can order online or find at Fry's or equivalent. The header wires go to various locations on the board. Some to the PIC itself. The PIC has programming pins that get activated by the programmer, and also power and ground. I will try to dig up a ref to how to wire it, but MicroChip should have it on their site and the pins will be defined in the Data Sheet (be sure to download this).

Hope this helps.

John