New to MCU's with a questions

I'm a senior undergraduate of EE (electrical engineering) and my school doesn't get into MCU's, if you don't count the one class. I decided to learn about MCU's myself and bought a book by Myke Predko. After reading the book for a few chapters I realized that it was beyond my knowledge. So I started reading a book on assembly, which helped out.

I'm halfway through the book and in no way proficient in assembly, but was wondering about programming MCU's in C/C++. I know more C/C++ than assembly. Is it a waste to learn assembly. Should I quit assembly and find a route to learn MCU's using C. I'm not proficient in C/C++ but opting for the C route would help me learn more C.

Here is what I'm learning right now.
Microchip MCU's
Myke Predko's Customizing and Programming the PIC MCU
Assembly

I've never read any books on microcontroller programming nor assembly, but I picked up quite well. Assembly tends to make you understand the underlying processes better, as the C/BASIC compilers tends to automate them. Assembly is also the most efficient of the languages, as those compilers simply convert instructions into assembly before assembling the code. However, assembly is not compulsory.
If you want to read something to start off, I'd rather you begin with the mid-range manual from Microchip, and sample codes from the net.
But seriously, you can hardly improve your C/Assembly skills via microcontroller programming.

Salam,

Yes "Myke Predko's Customizing and Programming the PIC MCU" is not good book as start learning mcu.

From my view i advise you to learn assembly first then go to C .

Becuase the assembly will make you understand the mcu architechture .

I recommend this book for you as start, It's my first learning book.

"Easy PIC'n A Beginner's Guide to Using the PIC"



Bye

SphinX thanx for uploading this book. its a nice book for starters.

but the quality of the book isnt that much good.

could u get a new copy of this book from a library and scan it again so that it clearer. i dont mind if it takes time. u must have things to do. but it will be great if u uploaded a clearer version of this book

thanx

Salam samcheetah,

The quality is not so bad, you can still read the pages.

Sorry i can't scan it again, atleast in these days.
Becuase i'm busy at the work.

May be in the future but with another book in the same series.

Bye

yes i agree that it is readable. and i have downloaded it and im reading it. but i was just wondering if u had the time

anyway thanx for this book. it will be great to read a book from the same series.

thanx again

Can Easy PIC be converted in PDF without losing it's quality?
I preinted it and it is not so good.

white_shadow,
Here is my humble advice : I started in faculty with Pic,(16f84x) but it seemed difficult to understand. Just when I was about to quit on Mcu's, I've found about www.8052.com. I had a background in assembly using Z80, but this MC was outrated and there was nothing to do with it.
The tutorial on MCS-51 family from the site mentioned before helped me undestand many and soon I was able to develop my first low amplitude project using assembly.
Read it, it's not too complicated! Try also www.iguanalabs.com !

Hey white_shadow:

I was in same situation as yours...I bought one of Myke's books and it was a big disappointment...But thank God I found a great online book at

**broken link removed**

I suggest the following plan

1- Download the datasheet of 16f84A at www.microchip.com
2- Download the Mid-Range Reference Manual at www.microchip.com which contains important information.
3- Have a look at the datasheet and reference manual, you will get confused but it's a good way to get familiar with it.
4- Start reading the online book ,go back to the datasheet or reference manual whenever you complete a chapter ,and you will find out that things have become easier...
5- After buying a programmer , do some small projects to get some confidence like flashing LED's,getting INPUT from switches..then do little bit more advanced things like interfacing keypad and 7 segment displays...
6- there's a good book you can download from here called PIC'n'UP the pace ,it has lot of things you can do with PIC16f84...

After that, when you need a pic other than pic16f84 for your project, u won't need anything other than it's datasheet !

hi

anybody interested in the book PIC in PRATICES by DW SMITH
it is a book for beginner many example in pic16f84a and 876
in assembly language

cmos babe is right. Book of Myke makes me disappointed either, while some simple books such as Easy Pic'n, Pic'n the Pace, and Microchip datasheets + application notes help much.

I do not think the problem if you learn and use assembly, although it is complicated, but easy to learn, easy to write codes.

nguyennam