Customer Reviews

Designing Embedded Systems with PIC Microcontrollers: Principles and Applications

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's been a long while now that I have been purchasing every PIC related book that I can find and finally this one was recommended by my local Micro supplier. The fall down with most publications is that you start with the 16F84 (fantastic micro, no doubt) and then just as things get interesting the book ends.

This book avoids that and does a whole lot more. The first few chapters devoted to theory, but then hey we are not all genius level. The book then takes the reader form the 16F84 right the way through to more advanced micros e.g. 16F873. All the while expanding on the knowledge base and building ever better projects. The overall project theme of the book is the little Robot, which is great. You apply what you learn as you go practically.

Another major advantage is that in the latter part of the book the transition is made to C i.e. that High level language the gets you away from assembler. Not really a teach all you need on C, but enough to get you going and get the projects working.

I would really recommend the book to anyone who wants to avoid buying every other book just to find the right one. All the essential detail and information required is contained within these two covers and is great value for money for novice or intermediate / Advanced user.

As an amateur roboticist, I wanted a book that would cover the PIC16 and the PIC18 architecture in detail, and this is the book I needed. I was hesitant to learn PIC Assembler since I already knew x86 C, and it was no problem to move to PIC C for me. This book showed me that PIC Assembler is necessary if you really want to know about the architecture (and if you really need precise timing). I realized it was not a big hassle after all. Although the author tells you to skip the chapters on PIC Assembler and move on to C if you wish to do so, I did not, and I am glad I did not. This books is the PIC Bible for me. It is an awesome tutorial, and a marvelous reference for the beginner and the novice PIC enthusiast. The author provides many working examples (on a pong game, and a complete robot - the Derbot AGV). I have not finished it yet, but I use it as a reference all the time as I also continue learning more about the PIC architecture and assembler. Assembler was scary for me before I bought this book, now it is not. If you need a book that covers it all, buy this book, you will not regret it.

I was deciding between this and a book on assembly programming so that i could start programming PICs in assembly/C. I chose this book and i won't regret it because it introduced a working program with an actual application and use. I finally found a book that is not a cookbook and doesn't assume that i have previous experience. I like how the author explained each new command and its uses and then why he put each of the program lines in where he did. Within the first 3 chapters i was already programming my first PIC in assembly language. The author uses assembly at first to give the reader a better understanding of the structure and behavior of the microchip and then uses the C language in the later chapters (which wasn't the initial reason i got the book). I enjoy the pros and cons to both languages and i couldn't do it without the help of this great book. thanks!

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 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.

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 embedded systems 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. :)

This the 2010 edition. It is thick but readable. He really knows his stuff and the book is written around a real-life project, the little derbot robot.

He covers every major topic and also gives an execellent course on C, using Microchip's own C18 compiler (free!) and the 18 series.

Complaints? He starts using the PICSTART serial port programmer. This is not a good idea because desktop PCs have not had a serial port for about 5 years, and laptops never had one. He also uses the PICkit2 when the PICkit3 has been available for about 3 years. His treatment is sometimes too brief, eg on programming LCDs.

I give him 5 stars because it is a readable, useful and comprehensive book; an almost extinct species

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.

The best book on PIC I'v read for some time now.
I had a lot of questios and it answered all of them.

My project all work.

Thanks

Frank G.

As a textbook I probably would've been assigned certain sections and not been given adequate time to read and comprehend all the material, but as a book in my personal collection I have a valuable tool. In depth breakdown as to the general anatomy of micro controllers and how to navigate them.