Hi I bought the ready made board last year. I had a load of probs with it so left it. I have now gone back to it. the board would perform the in built program and flash the LEDs, however I inadvertantly pressed the pic reset, so the pic is now empty. I have tried to put a demo file on the pic but an error message comes up " no device ID received" I am using an old laptop in the 232 connector, software works etc so no probs there. any ideas on why or what I need to do before I bin it.
Many thanks in advance 
Pressing the reset button should not have erased the PIC. The reset just basically restarts the program inside the PIC, as would happen on powering the board up.
As you state you had problems with the board, are you using an adequate power supply? Velleman recommends a 12v unregulated power supply, which actually outputs about 15.2v. VR1 on the board drops the voltage down to the 12v that is required.
There are some threads related to troubleshooting home-built boards, but you may find the info you need for your pre-built one.
thanks for the reply, the switch actually states it erases the pic. I have a1200ma 12v unregulated psu on the card.