Well, for Christmas I got a Willem programmer off ebay and about 50 pic10f200's, hoping to just play around with them. Unfortunately, the included CD had no useful instructions, and as I said, I am a total noob when it comes to microcontrollers. Can someone please explain how to use this? Thanks in advance.

 

I'd recommend going to the microchip site and downloading MPlab IDE, which is free and has a built in simulator. Also get the datasheet from there.
An interesting program to check everything is working and as a code example is here:
http://www.rickard.gunee.com/projects/mixed/dice/
It uses charlieplexing which is a bit difficult to understand but it shows you some of what the chip can do.

 

Thanks for the link, I think I might try that out. So does the Willen require anything other than the USB cable to connect? Also where do I plug in the chip?

 

You'll need to check the datasheet for your specific chip and hook it up to the programming pins, these are certain pins you hook up to the programmer to program it. Also I would stongly recommend picking up a couple cheap $20 development boards from microchip so you can see how everything works, like LED's, LCD's, Crystals, etc... That way you have something working as a reference.

 

I just finally realized that the programmer I got only uses USB for power, and needs the parallel port that my laptop doesn't have. The return policy is exchange only, so I might get this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...ddefa6f&itemid=360132086121&ff4=263602_263622
If I get this, will it be easy to program using it? Would I be better off not returning it and getting a Pickit?

 

I looked at this guy's other items and he has a PICkit 2 clone. It looks fairly well made so I'd be tempted to give him a few more dollars for that. I've got a PICkit 2 clone and it works fine. I think the design has been published so a well made clone should work exactly the same as the original.

 

His pickit doesn't say anything about supporting the pic10f200...

 

Odd, maybe check with him to see if his list is not complete. The real one programs it. His feedback is good.