Customer Reviews

Easy Pic'N: A Beginners Guide to Using Pic16/17 Microcontrollers from Square 1

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was a beginner with microchips PIC's when I purchased this book. My high expectations were left shallow after reading Easy PIC'n. In fact, it was no help when I started my first project. The data sheet supplied at no cost from microchips website was jammed packed with more info than Easy PIC'n. In fact, I feel that Easy PIC'n was a re-write of the data sheet. The book was very vague in describing the specific functions of the assembler instructions used with the PIC and the architecture involved. If you are a beginner with PIC's I would suggest first by reading the data sheet and any other resources off of microchips web site. If you have absolutely no idea of how to write the assembler language, I would suggest buying a book specifically designed to teach you programming. If you want more of my thoughts or need help deciding what to do, feel free to e-mail me at <camerlin@ovis.net>

preempt: im a mech engr, with little programming experience of uC (6811 in college), hobbiest interest in electronics, and a want to learn the basics of the PIC uC...

i picked up another PIC book first, only to have my head swim with too much initial information... i just couldnt get started....

i picked up Easy PIC'n, and it seems that this was the book i had been looking for to start the learning process (the other book is now a great reference once i was able to boil everything down)...

i even had a friend who has never programmed anything in his life, nor really tooled with any kind of electronics, and even he was able to understand what was going on...

you will still need a programmer and he offers schematics for a test board... enough to get your feet wet, and move on....

exactly what *I* was looking for...

I used this book for a microcontroller assembly class in college last year where I had to program a 16F84 to activate and change intensity of some lights sources, controlled via RS232 with a PC interface. Overall, I guess the book was quite helpful, far from perfect, but it did make the job a lot easier. I somewhat agree with the other reviewer that the book is a big vague sometimes and that reading the programming datasheets available on Microchip's website is essential. The datasheets are extremely complete, but sometimes they are really useful only when you know what you're looking for and how it works. Basically, they are perfect for reference, but not enough when you're learning from scratch. The book also has some code bits, for very common uses like Loops, doing For and While cycles, Time Delays,Lookup tables, interrupts, etc. The amout of info covered in about 150 pages (including the usual command and register lists) is insufficient. I often found myself needing more details. This is definitely no PIC bible. The book is also very focused on programming and not really on the electronics. You get a few circuit diagrams, but not much. (to me this was good, since I had to deal only with the assembly and not really with circuit design).

Overall, it is a useful book, but incomplete and lacking better organization (not to mention the cheap and amateurish print look, but that doesn't really matter). It is worth reading if you're starting with PIC 16F84 assembly. Perhaps a bit overpriced for what it offers, but since some parts are very well explained and very clear, it is the perfect companion for the official Microchip Technology programming datasheets.

One reviewer said that this book just repeats the data sheet, so why buy the book? Please allow me to answer. Those of us who are computer engineers can simply pick up the 125-page data "sheet" and learn the in's and out's of the 16F84 in one evening. But the beginner needs a guide that explains the various registers and instructions in less technical language. Those who are new to programming also need some example programs, something the data sheet lacks. And that's who this great little book targets - - the beginner. So, if you're a pro, look for something a little more advanced. But, if you're a beginner at microcontrollers, I would certainly recommend this book or its newly re-titled version (Easy Microcontrol'n).

You need help when you begin PIC programming, and Benson's book provides it. You'll get started much faster with this easy to understand book than by digging through Microchip's volumes of manuals. The book has a good section for getting started with Mpasm but lacks information on the other features of Mplab such as simulation and debugging. The book lacks an index and needs one. Also, it's expensive for the quality of printing and the amount of information covered.

This book is a competent introduction, but I found it a little obscure at times. It seems that the author intended to write a book for the rankest of beginners, but occasionally loses sight of that and makes some big leaps forward that true beginners might not follow.

Also, I think it is a bad idea to teach "bad habits" to beginners (like using TRIS), even in the name of "simplifying" the material. All too often, learners don't drop those habits even when they become advanced enough to know better.

In the end, you're kind of left with the worst of both worlds: too simplistic to do any "meaty" projects even after finishing the whole thing, but what the beginner does know is likely to be rather shaky and somewhat taken on faith rather than a firm grounding in the fundamentals.

All in all, reasonably useful to the absolute beginner but a bit pricey for what you get.

Easy PIC'n is an excellent book for a beginner. I have not worked before with the PIC microcontroller and have found this book to be easy to read and includes very good examples of introductory programming. I look forward to Benson's follow up book, PIC'n Up The Pace.

This book got me going with the PIC reasonably well. It is a little overpriced for the amount of information contained. If you are starting from zero, this book (along with microchips datasheets) will get you started. Would have been better if bank switching had been addressed from the beginning (instead of teaching the tris and option commands first and then bank switching.)

I lost myself in pages of a poor PIC programming book for a month. Then I browsed amazon.com and ordered first two PIC'n books from Square 1. I read the books almost in the same breath and it took me two days to understand what PIC is, write my first program and download it into a PIC. An index should have been included but lack of it didn't prevent me from learning PIC'n.

This book contains a reasonable amount of accessible information about programming a MicroChip PIC microcontroller. The writing could be improved substantially, but you'll figure it out if you know something about the subject. It at least gets you off ground zero.