As planned i looked at the picaxe website which gave a clear explanation of a what a pic is, it also clear up a few misconceptions i had about Programmable systems. It was a really good website and think it will be great to refer to along the course of the project.
Initial assumption about pic chips!
- They would be expensive - I was surprised to learn how little they cost which is good for schools (and myself) I thought it was also very good that most of there software is free and easily downloadable. I downloaded a few other programs such as FLOWOL & Yenka
- They would be complicated to program - Pic chips can perform complex commands but are in fact very simple to program. the picaxe wesite had examples of people work which was great to see the capabilities of picaxe.(See image below for link)
- Only came in one or two sizes - I found that there was many different sizes of pic chip available depending on a project.