AVRs on Mac OSX
Leah's written a pretty comprehensive guide to get you started with AVR microcontrollers on Mac OSX. Enjoy.

LEDs and Candle Wax?
Now we all know that LEDs are notorious for concentrating light in a narrow beam, a royal pain for many projects with transmissive illumination. I discovered that dipping them into melted candle wax helps to diffuse the light, but YMMV.

Where to Find Stuff

glitchbuster.com carries a wide selection of PIC micro-controllers from Microchip. Generally, shipping in the US is $1.85 for any size order, delivered First Class USPS.

Wisp628 is an in-circuit flash PIC Programmer. It's made in the Netherlands, but I found ordering and shipping to the US painless. Couple this with the high-level compiler Jal, and you'll be working with PICs in no time. I've got my setup working using Mac OSX; and the following instructions assume you'll be using your Mac's USB port:

• First get the Keyspan USB serial adapter, then the driver. Be sure to install the driver first, before plugging in the adapter.
• While you're waiting for your order to arrive, compile Jal, and start writing code.
• Then, grab the python interpreter for OSX, you'll need it to run the xwisp scripts.
• Finally, install a copy of xwisp
• When you plug in your adapter, you will get a new device filename similar to: /dev/cu.USA19QW1b1P1.1
• Edit serialposix.py; around line 56, comment out the line that looks like: return '/dev/cuaa%d' % port and replace it with return '/dev/cu.USA19QW1b1P1.1' or something similar.
• Eventually, once you've generated a hex file, you'll want to run: xwisp.py PORT 19200 TARGET 12f675 program.hex -- change variables to suit.

Excess Solutions has some nice surplus stuff at reasonable prices (LEDs, stereo plugs). Minimum order is $25.00 excluding shipping.

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