It is awsome for the price. And I didnt want to get into building a USB programmer. It would have taken too long.
First off you need the PL2303 driver for windows 7.Then you plug it in and having downloaded the Microburn exe you tell it what port it uses. Check this in windows device manager under ports.
But the main draw back I faced is using Mplab's IDE cos its too new and scary. I am thinking of putting an older version on there but in the mean time I am going to use what I had on Linux before SDCC and Gputils.
With these you can compile your C code straight into a HEX file to be written directly to the device.
I did this using a couple of Batch scripts:
hexlink.bat
(This file is for creating a HEX file which can be burnt directly to the PIC using Microburn - Ouch)
mysdcc.bat
(This file is for creating an ASM file , short for assembly , which is used to by hexlink above - Ohhyeah)
The batch scripts are used instead of a makefile and use the following compilers:
http://sdcc.sourceforge.net/
http://gputils.sourceforge.net/
Here are the links for the Driver (Windows 7) and the Programmer:
Driver
Programmer (Software)
Thats allyou need besides an editor like notepad++.And away you go.
Heres some code to get you started:
blink2led.c
Stick it in your goodey box and your good to go.
Oh here it is for sale on ebay:
Part 2 Will it work on Linux ...?. Ummm not so sure. Mmmm.
Next up build a relica X-45C heres a picture:-
