Where to start to learn MC?

[MAAASD]

Hello all,
I want to know how to make designs using microcontroller but first of all i need to learn
cause i didn't have any idea of that field. so if i ask you how can i start? can you help me?
I know that, i have to learn MicroC programing and the steps to burn my code on PIC,
so, what good book should i start with? any ideas?
I don't have any experience in that field, i'm starting from zero, I need every single word you can say to me.
should i buy components to make exercise while learning? what book should guide me? or any tutorials ?

Thanks a million!

 

[horace1]

a good low-cost starting point is Microchip's microstick I
**broken link removed**

it comes with an onboard programmer/debugger, sample programs and includes a header to plug into a breadboard for your own circuits.
you can download the MPLAB IDE and C30 compiler from Microchip's web site.

 

[MAAASD]

any books?

 

[horace1]

have a look at
https://flyingpic24.com/

however, there are plenty of tutorials on the web

 

[MAAASD]

I need anyone to suggest me a name of a good book or online course that helps poor beginners who didn't know any thing about the whole topic.

 

[electronicsbasecom]

Hello,

We start our site for this purposes mostly for our students, similar like knowledge collection about uCs. It is not to much, but we try to explain thing in details and there is a lot of examles and it will be added more as our time allows us.
Our link: www.electronics-base.com

Greetings...

 

[sky_123]

There is a rather nice book available for free if you follow this thread. It is for the 8051, but actually the information in
there shows how to interface things to any microcontroller (e.g. ADCs etc) and full of valuable information from a practical point of view. It's a really impressive free book.
It doesn't matter too much what microcontroller you use, most people seem to start with 8051/PIC/AVR. Of the three, I'm only very familiar with AVR, and I wrote a short doc which
shows how to install the tools and how to write and program the device (including screenshots), using a cheap ($10) development board and free tools. See this thread for the link to the doc. I think a teenager could follow those instructions.
For learning C in-depth, unfortunately I don't know of good e-books, but the classic reference is 'The C Programming Language' by Kernighan and Ritchie, and another book worth reading is in that thread too. The Kernighan and Ritchie book is expensive but has high resale value after you've finished with it.

 

[qwertyuiop415263]

PIC Microcontroller and Embedded System by Muhammmad Ali Mazidi is a good book to start with.

 

[sky_123]

I'm not so sure that Mazidi is the best book (I just had a look). The first few hundred pages cover assembler, and some of the stuff he says about C is plain wrong. A quote from his first page on C: "The size of the hex file produced by the compiler is one of the main concerns of microcontroller programmers for two reasons.... assembly language produces a hex file that is much smaller than C".
That might have been true in the past, but certainly not now. It is much harder to make efficient use of a stack and registers manually using an assembler (humans are not good at that), than allowing the compiler to make the decisions. As a result, compiled programs are typically more compact and efficient. After that I lost interest.
Granted some may say it's a small thing, but technical books should be accurate, not lazily written.

 

[qwertyuiop415263]

i have done projects in past using both assembly and C language and despite the fact C compiler have strong optimization capability i always end up with bigger hex file.
But for starters this book is useful

 

[MAAASD]

@qwertyuiop415263
But i've heared that using C language (MikroC) is easy nw for the beginners to use and to get familiar with the world of microcontrollers
is your book depends only on assembly ?
@sky_123
To be honest with you, i don't have any information of even what's the meaning if an "Embedded Systems"
many people use this word i think they scared me with it and now i need to know from zero what's an embedded system?
how can one use MikroC to program the so called PIC and then use this PIC to complete a small project?

and sure thank you all very much for your reply

 

[qwertyuiop415263]

This book covers both assembly and C language for PIC18F series microcontrollers with MPLAB IDE and C-18 c compiler. Also its first two chapters covers very basic concepts you need to know for getting started with microcontrollers and also you will know what Embedded System is.

 

[MAAASD]

Okey thank you very much
I see, i should search for this book to see what it hides
Thanks but if you find any other ideas don't hesitate to tell me

 

[Robin Khosla]

Hello all,
I want to know how to make designs using microcontroller but first of all i need to learn
cause i didn't have any idea of that field. so if i ask you how can i start? can you help me?
I know that, i have to learn MicroC programing and the steps to burn my code on PIC,
so, what good book should i start with? any ideas?
I don't have any experience in that field, i'm starting from zero, I need every single word you can say to me.
should i buy components to make exercise while learning? what book should guide me? or any tutorials ?

Thanks a million!

1. Refer book written by M.Ali Mazidi
depending on u want to use which microcontroller e.g. 8051 or pic the corresponding book will be available written by mazidi
2. Download the controller, other components datasheets
3. Study the book thoroghly and learn programming in either assembly or c
4. Pick examples from book(e.g. Lcd interfacing) then write them in keil uvision software for coding and then simulate in proteus software, to verify your code before proceeding to hardware part.
5. Once u thorughly read the book and make simple projects then go for some other projects such as:

a) traffic light controller using 8051.
b) automatic room light controller using 8051.
c) room temperature using 8051.

Search the above 3projects on youtube u will find these 3projects easily by writing the above projects on youtube search engine..

 

[Robin Khosla]

or visit these urls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuF9SoVMmgQ&feature=g-upl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d76zL6rOE4&feature=g-upl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XFEDoNdU-g&feature=g-upl