Customer Reviews

The Microcontroller Application Cookbook (Microcontroller Application Cookbooks)

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

 

 

Of the several books I purchased to learn how to use the Basic Stamp 2 computer, this is the book I keep returning to again and again as a reliable reference. The circuits and program code samples can be directly applied to your projects. The examples are based on integrated circuits and components that are up to date and are, therefore, easy to find and buy.

My only criticism is the title, which really should have contained the term, "Basic Stamp," because that's what the book is about. Some of the circuits might be readily adapted to the PIC or Atmel or other microcontrollers, but this is a essentially Basic Stamp 2 cookbook.

The book is based on the Basic Stamp 2 microcontroller but you can easily adapt the recipes to others. It is really a cookbook: you don't need to read it from A to Z to do something. If you are in the middle of a project and just want to connect a photocell to your microcontroller, no problem, just go to the photocell page and follow the instructions. You will find the schematics, its explanation, and a very simple source code. Most of the time, it's pretty easy due to the Basic Stamp architecture. On the other hand some things are obviously written again and again for each kind of input sensor for example... But that's a little cost to pay to get all the useful information when you need it. Very useful information is also provided about buffering and expanding circuits. This book does not require special knowledge in electronics.

excellent book for applications to real world! No silly formulas, straight forward app.s,with just enough programming to wet your appetite to extend your own ideas.Interfacing and controll with I.C.s, S.S.R.s,Temperature I.C.s,etc. You will not be dis- appointed with this effort that the author has endeavored to get his ideas across to layman and especially the novice.It's priced right and will give you many,many new ideas about the BS-2 from Parallax."NUFF SAID"

As a person new to the area of electronics and Microcontrollers this book has helped a lot. There are lots of circuits that can be used and adapted for projects. However some of the things covered are free on the interent & the parallax website. Two things that have impressed me most are the pages about adding extra input and output lines, overall it covers many of the common components and how to use them. If you are not an expert in electronics and want to build a microcontroller project then buy this book!

If you wanna make some microcontroller gizmos quickly and simply, this is the book for you. However, if you're more interested in designing an embedded system and need at little help interfacing to the analog world, find a more thourough book written by a hardware or digital systems engineer.

All the included circuits work for prototying, test, and hobby I/O interfacing to the real world, and are easy to understand. But please do not make the mistake of using this book as a design guide for potential consumer/commercial/industrial products or scientific uses.

For someone trying to get into robotics, and/or electronics, this is a great book. It has a bunch of schematics for creating a variety of circuits. This is extremely helpful for people who don't have much, or any experience with circuit design.

I have a bachelors + associates degree in mechanical engineering, with a minimal electrical/electronics background. I found this book to be fairly easy to read. However, the content is lacking. I felt the descriptions of the items could have been better explained/described. Instead the author assumes some knowledge of electronics for many of the circuits. However, much of the info can easily be found on the web.

I think it is a great book, and is a must have for any serious electronics hobbist, or engineer.

A year or so ago I bought the "What's a Micro-controller" package from Radio Shack. I never really got in to it and dabbled in reading about other microcontrollers (68HC11, 8051, Atmel series, Audrino etc.). Today I finally dove into the Stamp 2 (Basic Stamp HomeWork board) package and was blown away by how easy it is to program the Stamp. The instructions and documentation are superb. I have always been aware that the Parallax web site is outstanding.

As a software engineer for over 10 years, I've found myself a bit bored with writing code to shuffle around information. I've been longing to do something new and make my computer interact with the real world. Unfortunately, my electronics experience consists of building a couple of simple electronics projects (a power supply and Hi-Lo game) in a middle school shop class. I can solder, read a schematic, and figure out which resistor I need, that's about it. I've been looking for a short cut to make my own hardware projects without immersing myself in a lot of theory for a while now and this book is geared exactly toward people like me.

This easy to understand project book contains maybe a few dozen useful schematics and a quick explanation of what they do and with them you can piece together your own more complicated projects. Make no mistake though, this is very much an amateur level book. You won't be whipping out sophisticated robots after reading this, but you could make simple ones! Great book to get your started and keep you interested.

This is truly a grate book for the beginners aand amaturs
in stamp circuts, it solved ALL my circut problems, and gave me
a lot of new ideas.. Don't wayt buy it NOW.