Picked up some handy gear from Dontronics, worth a look
- PICSTART Plus style programmer - works with MPLAB supports ICSP. (runs off USB)
- PIC 40 ICSP proto boards - with onboard MAX232.
For the proto board I bypassed the power supply section and just ran 5 volts in.
Be sure to use LVP_OFF and HS_OSC for the proto board (drove me nuts)
Cheers,
Andrew Rich
tech-software.net