PIC Programmers & Miscellaneous Equipment
JDM PIC Programmer:     

I bought this one first for $5.99 on eBay.
I never could get it to work - It would recognize my chips, and could read from the chips, but always failed on writes.  Oh well - worth a try for 5.99!
    

 
PICKit 2 PIC Programmer:     

Much more expensive ($56.10 with shipping)
But it actually WORKS :)
I got it here.

Close up of the PICKit 2 PIC Programmer.
 
Close up of the socket board.
JP6 must be installed to program PIC chips (It is.)

The 16F688 PIC's go in the UPPER RIGHT socket.
Pin 1 faces left, and gets inserted all the way to the left side of the socket.

The Power LED comes on steady when it is connected to USB.
The Target LED comes on steady when it is selected as the target device in MPLabs V.8

The Busy LED flashes when it's in use programming your chips. (About 1 second)
     

 
USB to RS-232 Converters: RS232 to RS-485 Converters: Moxa SmartIO C168/H PCI 8 Port Serial Card:
 
I have 5 of these as backups to the Moxa board. (4 and a spare)
I got these here.

I have 9 of these these for the Moxa board or the USB to RS-232 converters. (8 and a spare, or 4 and 5 spares :) )
I got these here.

PCI 8 Port Serial Card.
I got this here.