Learning PIC C

[Lloyd Burns]

My guess is that you won't program the PIC with a multi-socketed external programmer, but with a system like last year's; you'll leave the SMD soldered onto the board inside the RC (so as not to void the waranty), and attach a COM port or Mac serial port to the supplied programming port on the outside of the RC.

The MPLAB IDE will probably have a driver for this method, so you just have to enable it via a pull-down menu, and blooey, it's blown into the RC's memory. The IDE works competently (at least versions previous to 6 did - I've put the required new firmware into the PICStart, using a ver 5.x, and downloaded the latest version of 6, but I haven't tried v6 for real).

If the default program is anything like it has been for a number of years, now, there will be libraries and alias-renaming blocks, and "DO NOT CHANGE THIS" areas. There will be many examples, in the program and online. In short, not an insurmountable task.

Have fun :-)