I have felt the pain too.
I would look at buying a starter kit
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TI has some that have motors in the kits but it cost more, $400. It is still a bargain.
Go to the TI, DSP, and Microchip websites. There are many application notes, FREE!!! It is the the chip manufacturers best interest in making it as easy as possible to design your systems with their products.
This is one of my favorites sites for introducing people to control.
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Get a math package like Scilab, Matlab, Mathematica, Maple and wxMaxima. I prefer the ones that can do symbolic processing. Like this
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The PDF is just an symbolic version of what is in the CTM PID website.
I am not a fan of Scilab and Matlab. They will get you the answers but in the long run being able to derive them symbolically gives one a better feel.
Look at the equations for Ki and Kp on page 2/9. Don't the equations mean more than simple numbers found on the CTM-PID website?
It is hard to recommend books. I have two main books that I use. One, by Philips and Nagle, works mainly in the digital domain.
http://www.drblank.com/coetacs5.htm
This book uses a simple motor example through out much of the book. It looks like the recent version has Matlab code too.
The other works mainly in the s domain.
http://www.amazon.com/Control-Systems-Engineering-Norman-Nise/dp/0471445770.
The Phi
Both had examples that I worked through in Mathcad and then I enhanced the examples for my application.