Well it has gone slower than I thought but I spent most of my night with a tutor learning to programme in C. We then used a development board to programme the chip with the compiled code and tested our software.
The current function is as follows:
4 Buttons: Left, Right, Stop, Limit Sets
Variable Resistor/Pot - Speed
2 LEDS - Motor Running, Set Limits
Functions:
Left - jogs motor left
Right - jogs motor right
Stop - kills motor
Speed - Variable Resistor pot varies speed
Limits - Turning the circuit on from a hard reset sets the position to Zero. Press 'limit' button, light comes on. Move left & right until at position. Press 'mem' light starts to flash. Press left or right to set that limit, light goes out and the user can then press left and right to move between these limits.
So this was all coded in, complied and programmed onto the chip. A test board looks like this:

So basically ALL the buttons are on there and the pins for the outputs were connected to the driver and then stepper motor. We run this programme and it worked a treat so it is totally possible to make a circuit for this which is scarily simple! In all that board all we were using was obviously the PIC, 2 LEDS and 4 press buttons, a POT and about 6 resistors! That is it - maybe a few connectors to make connecting easier but not necessary! However I enjoyed this and although this works I want to understand more and learn how to move this forward further. Àlthough he was happy to programme a pic for me I want to see this project through from start to finish, especially since I just used the circuit in my Rotarytable CNC conversion, I wanted to have a part in all of this.
So for me, my next step is to get a simple development board (the one in the picture was like what we used but far too complex for what I need) probably about £40. Now it would be £20 for a PIC programming circuit alone so I may as well spend the extra and get the development function as well. Then I`ll acutally use the test board to actually run my controller on the mill and then when I`m happy, see exactly what is being used and put together the circuit required to run the controller.
Sorry, no pictures, there is nothing to take! I`m quite happy to provide the HEX. files if anyone has a use for them.
Chris