We are getting a number of emails from readers asking questions like: Does the PIC LAB-1 and 5x7 Display, use a PIC16F84A chip?
Or how to interface a chip to an input device (called a transducer).
Or a list of books on programming.

It’s nice to get interesting emails, but a lot of the answers can be found in our Newsletters and Discussion Pages on this site.
That’s why we have written so much in the way of “commentary” - I know many readers will be new to electronics and they are eager to get started.
A website is not like a book. It contains an enormous amount of information but much of it is “hidden” on the server and you can only see one page at a time.
You can’t “skim through” the site and see the content - you have to work your way through “one page at a time.”
If you read our commentaries and go to the FREE Projects section, I am sure most of your questions will be answered.

In the meantime, the answer to the first email is YES.
The answer to the second is our Basic Electronics Course - it starts at the beginning and covers all those things you need to know to get a circuit to work.
The answer to the third is: There are no books on the market that cover programming of the PIC16F84A in more detail than our course.
Start by going to the FREE Projects section and build one of the projects. Many of them have experiments to help you learn about programming or how to modify a circuit etc.
When you get stuck on a technical point, go to our subscription-section and click one of the courses.
The Basic Electronics Course will help you with circuit design and
the PIC Programming Course will help you understand programming.

This is the fastest, cheapest and best way I know to learn electronics. More than 20,000 people have read my books and agree - many have bought our whole set of publications!
You have the advantage of reading many of these publications on this website.
Go to the FREE Projects section. You will find a lot of simple projects as well as a number of “test equipment” projects. They are all designed to teach you electronics, not simply a “put-it-together” project.
We also have some more-complex projects and some are designed to teach a specific aspect of electronics.
It’s all there in a smoothly-graded, educational, approach.

All you have to do is START …

All the best,
- Colin