Continue to Site

Welcome to EDAboard.com

Welcome to our site! EDAboard.com is an international Electronics Discussion Forum focused on EDA software, circuits, schematics, books, theory, papers, asic, pld, 8051, DSP, Network, RF, Analog Design, PCB, Service Manuals... and a whole lot more! To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

[General] Advice sought for a beginner.

Status
Not open for further replies.

Mapuia

Junior Member level 3
Joined
Nov 30, 2011
Messages
25
Helped
1
Reputation
2
Reaction score
1
Trophy points
1,283
Activity points
1,577
How do I start learning about microcontrollers? Which platform do you suggest?

I can hear experienced regulars and old-timers groaning :) and I don't blame them. These questions must have been asked and answered in this and other forums over and over again. However, my situation is probably a bit different from that of most other beginners. So please bear with me while I explain the circumstances.

I live in one of the most remote corners of a developing country and started teaching myself electronics during the transition from vacuum tubes to solid-state (Yes, I am an old guy). With the help of whatever outdated books and magazines I could get my hands on, it became a profession but I still treat it as a hobby too.

I've worked in the fields of consumer, medical, communications and industrial electronics. I've successfully designed and built fairly complex analog and digital systems from scratch. But these were all with non-programmable devices. Partly due to constraints imposed by my location, I never got around to learning about programming, microprocessors, microcontrollers, EEPROMs, PALs, FPGAs, etc.

Now I want to take the plunge and I'll really appreciate it if you could help me get a good start by suggesting where and how. To the oft-asked question of what I want to do with microcontrollers, my answer would be: "Eventually, just about everything". I mention this because I know that this question often puts off raw beginners in any field.

For example, when asked for suggestions about a first camera, more experienced photographers often pounce with "What kind of photography do you want to do?". The fact is that a novice usually doesn't know until he/she has spent some time in the field.

Same thing with budgets. The question "What's your budget?", blindly asked, can be tough to answer for a novice. Budgets can often be stretched as needed (within limits).

I'm no longer young and the old grey cells are not ticking as efficiently as they used to. But I can be quite tenacious. I just don't want to waste a lot of time floundering around by myself.

I apologize for the long post and thank you for your patience.
 

Hello,

If you want to get up in Micropocessors quicly I would reccomend Arduino UNO R3 + a starter kit.

This is based on what you wrote above.

You can buy the Arduino on eBay for around £6.

The starter kit contains a potentiometer,rotary encode r,LEDs, ,LCD ,pushbuttons for £7-9

Software is free and you will find many examples and tutorials.

This is absolutely the cheapest way to get started and you see things work.

After you get more experienced you can buy AVR chips and some breadboard + wires.

The Attiny261 is a good example, even with
A/D converter built in.

Some people here will reccomend PIC's. These are nice chips too and cheap. But you need to set up some config registers to make them work as expected. If you go this way find a ready made board with example code.

Best regards,

Nils ( age 54)
 

Hi,

no need to apologize...

In my eyes your question can not be answered in general.

There are some controllers that are more than 20 years old an still are used widely.
And there are new ones with some benifits to the "old" ones.
Oftern more modern and flexible built in periferals, lower supply current, lower supply voltage, more processing power...

Old ones are the 8051 or the 68HCxx.

Modern ones are the AVRs and the PICs.
I like to recommend modern ones.

Both AVR and PIC are easy to use and widly used.
I personally work with AVR and i like it. (I´m not that experienced with PIC, maybe other users can tell more on this)
especially there are some projects like arduino with a huge of community and many borads are cheaply sold with ebay.
Also there are forums for AVR (AVRfreaks for example) and for the arduino project, where you can get all information and assistance you need.

please go through some datasheets and forums to get an idea of what the ucontrollers can do for you (your projects).
Also look for available starter kits and small cheap project that you can buy, learn and modify. Hardware and software.

I hope this helps a bit.

Klaus
 

Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Part and Inventory Search

Welcome to EDABoard.com

Sponsor

Back
Top