Microcontrollers help

[donkerim]

Hi,
I need help on microcontrollers books, any recommendations? I was interested in Pic Micro MCU line of microcontrollers but I was disappointed regarding books, which are really bad on this topic. I am thinking of switching to Motorola 68HC series or Intel 8051. What about literature in this area? I have to slam authors that wrote books on Pic and the worst is probably written by Myke Predko and I recommend anyone to stay the heck away from this guy! As a matter of fact, he should be forbidden to publish any more books unless he hires editor and electronics engineer to check his work. He is robbing people by using a vacuum that exists in this area, so people are buying whatever they can find. Predko books are total crap. It is fortunate that he is not "teaching" about AC currents because someone would probably end up dead already. There are so many technical mistakes in his books (not including grammar) that are unbelievable. He should know that what he is writing about is not food receipt, so if you put three eggs instead of two...who cares?

[ian]

I'm curious about this as well. I've done extensive stuff with all 3 micro's you've described and I've always referenced the technical manuals which I download or get free from the manufacturers reps. I always say, "why get a book about something when you can learn the thing itself?" Am I missing something? Is there really something to be got from these books?
But to help you, PICs are small, fast, cheap, and have a lot of I/O because the memory is always on board. The 8031 or 68HC usually require external memory chips so you lose the I/O but they both address 64k of RAM or EPROM.
It just depends on what you're doing.
Ian

[rickske]

This topic is rather complicated and there is no easy answer. If you have programming skills in some of the high level languages than you might be able to get up and running using Microchip documentation. If you have no programming skills, than you are in trouble. It is true, there is no a complete book on the market that teaches programming micro controllers from the start to an end. At least not for PICs. I also have Myke’s book on PIC programming and I cannot tell for sure if the book is good or not. I coud not read it to the end because it is grammatically impossible to read! I use it as a reference to get some info, but could not learn a lot of new stuff from it. I think Motorola has much better documentation and I am checking how many books are out there. I studied HC6811 in college using college modules, so I do not know what’s happening in the public area. The 68HC11 is an industry standard micro controller. It is more expensive than PICs but much more powerfull than PICs. So if you are ready to give up on price, you will not make mistake if you learn 68HC.

[bodgy]

Well let me just say, that many technical books have errors in them, that have either missed the Editor, Sub Editor etc.<p>However, there are tons (literally) of books concerning 8051 and derivatives as well as books for Pics. The Pic ones I admit often tend to not to have been updated , from either the 84 or C type parts, but none the less ares till valid.<p>Goto Amazon, Barnes and Noble, have so many, that it is bewildering in which ones to choose.<p>If you got the Amazon route, then make sure you check both the US and UK site. Not only are there differences in the titles they list, but some of the titles from the UK site are cheaper than from the US one, exchange rates exempted.<p>Search for books from Prof. John Peatman, his current one is intended for those following a college or university course, and is laid out as such - so you do need basic Pic knowledge.
However his earlier books are more generic in their style.<p>Look at publishers websites, such as Prentice Hall, who specialise in technical and educational publications.<p>If you have a decent technical book store near you or access to a campus one, then at least you would be able to see a style of writing that 'does it for you'.<p>What level of introduction to uP are you looking for?<p>Very basic - will be the books by Robert Penfold (Babini Press), for 8051's look at Rigel Press [url=http://www.rigel.com,]www.rigel.com,[/url] Square1 books, though the coding examples can be hard to follow. <p>There ares for many books for both processors .<p>Colin

[wd5gnr]

There are many books on the PIC, but there are also many tutorials on the Web. Mine is at http://tutor.al-williams.com although if you google for microchip pic tutorial you'll find a bunch.<p>The PICs are very cheap and a bewildering range of parts. AVR has a more sane architecture, but are have not been as easy to get. They are also a bit more expensive and have less range of parts.<p>The HC12 scares me only because Motorola is notorious for making things hard to get at their whim.<p>Hope some of that helps.