Microcontroller Programming

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Michael-love-electronics
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Microcontroller Programming

Post by Michael-love-electronics »

Hi,..<p>I want to strat learning about microcontroller and how to program them.The questions I have are:<p>1) What is the best programming language can I use.?
2) What is the simplest chip I can start with.?
3) How to burn the program on the chip.?<p> Thanks for all your help.
L. Daniel Rosa
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Re: Microcontroller Programming

Post by L. Daniel Rosa »

Aha! Another mind asking to be corrupted!<p>1: Use whatever you're familiar with. If nothing matches then high level languages get the program written first while low level get it shortest and fastest.<p>2: I'm in the PIC camp myself for logistic reasons. If there are hobbyists in your neighborhood, it may benefit you to use what they use. Elsewise, whatever you find the most articles on will be the most helpful.<p>3: That depends on the microcontroller you use. For PICs there is a serial module with about a dozen parts that can handle most of the through hole packages and serial EEPROMs as well. If you don't feel like biulding it you can probably get it for under $20 delivered.
shotgunefx
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Re: Microcontroller Programming

Post by shotgunefx »

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Michael Wahid:
Hi,..<p>I want to strat learning about microcontroller and how to program them.The questions I have are:<p>1) What is the best programming language can I use.?
2) What is the simplest chip I can start with.?
3) How to burn the program on the chip.?<p> Thanks for all your help.
<hr></blockquote><p>
I just started with pics myself. I used the Olimex PG2C serial board. I got it
here for about $13 dollars.<p>It works with most serial ports.<p>I then used PICC-Lite to code and ICPROG to load the chip. PICs are addictive!
Dave_H
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Re: Microcontroller Programming

Post by Dave_H »

Give Parallax a serious look, www.parallax.com. They have excellent support and very good instructional courses that can be completed with independant study. They are a little pricey up front, but, you don't have the added expense of the PICBasic compiler and a programming module.
shotgunefx
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Re: Microcontroller Programming

Post by shotgunefx »

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Dave_H:
Give Parallax a serious look, www.parallax.com. They have excellent support and very good instructional courses that can be completed with independant study. They are a little pricey up front, but, you don't have the added expense of the PICBasic compiler and a programming module.<hr></blockquote><p>
Not to knock stamps, but if you limit yourself to a given selection of pics, you get PICC Lite for free and the pics cost around a $1.50 as opposed to $26-$44 bucks for stamps. Stamps are also a magnitude slower and you can't do any interrupt IO. Want to flash an LED, sure, want to flash 3? Your out of luck.<p>I will say that stamps are dead simply to get started with.
naljta
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Re: Microcontroller Programming

Post by naljta »

If you are considering the stamp route or are just overwhelmed by the options. Give BasicMicro a try. www.basicmicro.com.<p>Their Atom is based on a pic and supports all of the commands that the Stamps do. Plus once you out grow the Atom, you can move to MBasic which handles a large variety of pics or you could move to the AtomPro which is based on the H8 processors by Renasas. <p>The language the Stamps and Atom are programmed in is very easy to pick up and their is a lot of supporting documentation on the web for them. <p>Just my 2cents
Nevin
wd5gnr
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Re: Microcontroller Programming

Post by wd5gnr »

You can see several tutorials at this tutorial site. There is also a Basic Stamp FAQ at this site.
bodgy
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Re: Microcontroller Programming

Post by bodgy »

Michael, haven't we (as in you and I and possibly here and there) had this discussion before ? :) <p>If your experience with any form of programming has been in using the HLL (Pascal, C, Basic etc), then you are more likely to feel comfortable in using a cross compiler (or a happy one) for your chosen microcontroller. At some stage, I believe it is necessary to get a grasp however faint of the assembler code for your uP family, as it can help in understanding why your code suddenly fails that on the face of it should work, helping to trace bugs - mixing bit masks and bit numbers of example, - when you become experienced there will be times when assembler will be more efficient.<p>IF on the other hand, you are considering some of the more powerful uP's such as those that have webserving / USB/ DSP hardware, then almost certainly you would want to code these using C, or Java.<p>If going the Basic route, I'd recommend finding a structured Basic - the step up if ever needed to C or Java will be smoother.<p>As to what chip to use - for a beginner and hobby/ professional use I would say that you have a choice of three.<p>Microchip Pic
Ubicom (now Parallax) Scenix
Atmel AVR.<p>The first and last you are more likely to find code floating about, though now Parallax distibute and support the Pic like Scenix, there may be more lurking some time soon.<p>Cross Compilers.<p>Pic.<p>Structured Basic - XCSB from www.xcprod.com
Java - Muvium [url=http://www.muvium.com,]www.muvium.com,[/url] or Parallax Java www.parallax.com<p>C - tons of these<p>CCS, HiTech, IAR, Mchip, FED (can use CCS and Hitech code) and others that I can't recall.<p>AVR.<p>Basic - Bascom and the one I can't recall published in N&V.<p>C - FED and probably others
Pascal - A German company whose name escapes me.<p>Java - Don't know.<p>Most manufactureres of uP have coding software C and or assembler no cost download.<p>OR (being a bit facetious here) spend about $9K and buy an all encompassing compiler from a well known PCB cad company.<p>There was a project called MUMP or similar which was supposed to be able to compile many different processors, not usre if it is still being supported though.<p>Colin<p>[ June 18, 2004: Message edited by: bodgy ]</p>
On a clear disk you can seek forever.
bodgy
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Re: Microcontroller Programming

Post by bodgy »

additional info.<p>The project was the UMP project, but the link seems dead now.<p>Just found a neat looking Pascal compiler available at<p>http://www.mikroelektronika.co.yu/engli ... pilers.htm<p>Not sure if this is a super updated version of P2P, it doesn't look like it.<p>Their development boards look interesting, especially the multiprocessor one.<p>Colin
On a clear disk you can seek forever.
manuka
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Re: Microcontroller Programming

Post by manuka »

Yet again I mention the esteemed PICAXE range of microcontrollers-'tis astounding how these UK sourced darlings have been "ignored" in the US! They're an electronics sensation in UK,Australia, NZ etc, & are especially suitable for educational use. Now eight in the range (PICMicro based),all high level programmable,free software,DIRT CHEAP (starter 08 is ~US$2) & more versatile than Stamps. Numerous web resources => [url=http://www.picaxe.com,]www.picaxe.com,[/url] www.picaxe.orcon.net.nz etc
Michael-love-electronics
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Re: Microcontroller Programming

Post by Michael-love-electronics »

Thanks very much my friends for all your help,<p>Since you said that any high level programming language can do it, so I prefer to use java. Also I have chosen the PIC16F873-20/SP as a begining, also I'll use the IC-Prog for burning the program.<p>All what I want now is some books and pdf files as simple as possible.<p> Thanks again for all your consideratioins
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