Hi Robert,

Your best bet would be to use a development board for the ISP chips that have been suggested. Take a look at the Cynal development kit advertised to the left.

You'll have a hard time beating that price if you make you own board, even if you don't consider your time worth anything. (And the kit is way cheaper if you do value your time!)

You'll end up with a known good board and software, that you can then go on to learn the 8051 with.

Why do it the hard way?

Dennis