From Fall of 2008 to Spring of 2009, I was part of a senior design team whose aim was to create a control board. After a poor start in the Fall, I decided to see what resources were out there in the form of books. I literally looked through every book on Amazon that fell under designing with the PIC microcontroller (yes, that might be neurotic, but our senior design professors weren't that helpful and I was desperate) and came across this book. There were only a few reviews at that time, but they spoke extremely highly of this book. I decided to gamble and purchased the book from Amazon and was not disappointed. This book answered many questions I had about PIC controllers and embeddedsystems in general. I would recommend it for anyone with a good basic knowledge of electronics and mathematics. I would tell a beginner in electronics to keep the book in mind for future use when they have built up knowledge and experience.
As for the control board? It was an abysmal failure, but that is another story. :)
I think this is a terrific book ,for anyone trying to get up to speed with Pic's.
It makes programming with Assembler and C an achievable goal for most people.
I worked my way through this book from start to finish and enjoyed every page.
I built the the ping-pong and Derbot which helped me gain a better understanding of the code and the chips.
I found the introduction to MPLAB IDE to be of great value to me as debugging doesn't really change through the range of Pic,s.
The book takes you from a small Pic 16f84a all the way up to 18xxxx Pic,s.By the time you are done with these there,s a nice overview of whats next.
I am now on De Jasio's Pic32 book,and It was not such a giant leap to get going with these pics as I am now pretty familiar with MPLAB and the basic Pic mindset.
In my opinion it is a good beginners course, after which you can complete your project or start the next level with confidence.
Tim Wilmshurst knows how to look through the eyes of a beginner. He makes the reading fun, and well organized. There are plenty of code examples and illustrations as well. I was a complete novice in the field of Microcontrollers before I bought this book, but now I feel like I'm on top of what is going on.
This book is complete; I keep going back and reading the same chapters over, because I learn something new every time. I have not found a need to buy another book about PIC Microcontrollers this one covers all of the principles you need to know.
In a short description of the book:
He teaches the complete structures of Microchip's 16F84A, 16F873A and 18F242 PIC's. He teaches the assembler code, and how it works. He also gets into C code a bit. He gears his book around the robot you see on the front cover, and near the end of reading this book, you should be able to build it if you know basic circuit analysis. Another thing I liked about this book is that it gave real world examples and strategies that can be used to simplify circuitry.
I am not good with words, But this is an excellent book if you want to learn how microcontrollers work! Buy it.
I'm an electrical engineer who designs high voltage power supplies, so it's been some time since I've done any programming. I wanted to be able to design simple micro controller circuits. I found this book to be a great refresher, I especially liked it since I was already partial to Microchip parts. Also, this book helped me to make the leap to programming in C, I liked that it gave very specific examples using an actual compiler.
This book is a hands-on introduction to the principles and practice of embedded system design using the PIC microcontroller. Packed with helpful examples and illustrations, it gives an in-depth treatment of microcontroller design, programming in both assembly language and C, and features advanced topics such as networking and real-time operating systems. It is accompanied by a companion website containing copies of all programs and software tools used in the text and a 'student' version of the C complier.
Designing Embedded Systems with PIC Microcontrollers: Principles and Applications is ideal for students of electronics, mechatronics and computer engineering. Engineers in industry and informed hobbyists will also find this book a valuable resource when designing and implementing both simple and sophisticated embedded systems using the PIC Microcontroller.
Support material, including new and supporting information, links to useful sites, and errata, is available from the book's companion site.
*Gain the knowledge and skills required for developing today's embedded systems, through use of the PIC microcontroller.
*Explore in detail the 16F84A, 16F873A and 18F242 microcontrollers as examples of the wider PIC family.
*Learn how to program in Assembler and C.
*Work through sample designs and design ideas, including a robot in the form of an autonomous guided vehicle.
*Accompanied by a CD-ROM containing copies of all programs and software tools used in the text and a 'student' version of the C complier.
based on 11 reviews
