Can anyone help me erase a few PIC uCs?

Buy a xtal

What part of the country are you in?

I'm assuming you're referring to changing the design to incorporate one. Well I have now....after going through three PICs!

I'm in Melbourne

I'm new to PICs and I haven't touched anything fancier than a central locking kit since highschool so please excuse me if these are really silly questions.

I haven't been able to find a good explaination of what an xtal is, it seems to be mentioned in relation to radios and music, would I be right in assuming its to do with using an external oscillator?

I was also thinking about disconnecting the Vdd pin from the programmer, and hooking it to a switching transistor, this transistor would be controlled by the Vpp pin (probably through a voltage divider) so Vdd only goes high once Vpp has hit ~12v. Would this work? and if there is a chance of it working, is it possible that it could damage my programmer? (I know my Vpp line can only provide a very small amount of current but I dont think switching a transistor should be a problem)

Thanks

-- Michael Heydon

Sort of. 'xtal' is the usual electronics industry abbreviation for "quartz cystal".

it's a short way to write crystal, (and apparently common way to confuse noobs),

you're correct.

Bye. Jasen