I was stuck on lesson 1 simply because I didn't realize I had to program the device before debugging it. I know that's just logical, but at the time I wrote the OP the solution was not obvious. I dug into the supporting literature and figured it out. Thanks.

LOL............But good to hear you are up and running. In electronics never assume, be sure. Then you assume. It is a 99.99 % chance that your assumption is wrong

 

Not so easy for many people to understand. A microcontroller doesn't start out as easy to use as an Op Amp or 555 timer but once you get a handle on programming it makes some of the more complicated circuitry avoidable which makes fairly advanced projects easier and affordable in terms of time and money.

Hundreds of pages of reference materials does equal weeks of lead in.

Well said.

 

Not so easy for many people to understand. A microcontroller doesn't start out as easy to use as an Op Amp or 555 timer but once you get a handle on programming it makes some of the more complicated circuitry avoidable which makes fairly advanced projects easier and affordable in terms of time and money.

Hundreds of pages of reference materials does equal weeks of lead in.

I took to it pretty quickly. Don't get me wrong there is still a lot to learn but programming the chip has never been an issue for me. It is the analog portion where I struggle. I blew up a few LCDs and PICs and even fried one PICKit3 before I realized what I was doing wrong.

 

PRS try to start thinking in terms of bits and bytes. This will help you out drastically.