On 2006-01-11, Henry wrote:

Okay, now that I have dabbled and put some circuits together with some 25+
year old parts (7400 series TTL). What might I do if I were to be doing this
with newer, more up to date, technology? Are there programmable controllers
on a chip that are easy to work with.

the basic stamp has that reputatioon, it's as bit more pricy than
the atmel AVR and microchip PIC series. both of which can also be
programmed with minimal hardware...

Keep in mind I am looking for things
that I can do with under $50 in parts, like with the TTL gates. Is there a
relatively easy way to interface simple logic gates/transistors with a PC,
laptop, PDA, etc?

all of these devices can be connected directly to parallel ports
or with a little extra stuff to a serial port.

some have USB interfaces too.

Bye.
Jasen