Hi,

There's the other way ...

use what's inside the Pic ... the clamp diodes !!! just use a series resistor to limit input current to 10-20µA ( 500µA max continuous ... )

see AN521c for direct mains ( ! ) to Pic interfacing. That's OFFICIAL !

and if you want ... add 2x 1N4148 diodes parallelled to the clamping diodes !!!

no need regulators or complex circuitry !!!

Alain