Customer Reviews

Networking and Internetworking with Microcontrollers

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

 

 

If you've been following Fred Eady's long-running series of articles in Circuit Cellar, you know that this is a good book.

The book's focus is showing how to implement various interfaces that enable microcontrollers to communicate with remote computers or devices. The examples use Atmel AVR and Microchip PICmicro microcontrollers.

Fred starts with RS-232, followed by about the most detailed explanation I've seen for I2C communications. But a good 2/3 of the book is devoted to Ethernet interfacing and communications using the Cirrus CS8900A and Realtek RTL8019AS. If you're writing microcontroller Ethernet code from scratch, this book will show you how to do it.

And a plus is that Fred's writing is a pleasure to read.

Working for months with Atmel's AVR's in combination with RTL8019AS, this book became a kind of electronic bible to me. Have bought some of the boards from Fred Eady with the C sources, and translated that to my favorite programming language Bascom-AVR. At a few times not knowing why certain lines were in the C-code, and why they should remain in my Bascom-code. Working through the book, page-by-page showed me that a lot of pioneerswork had been done to get the code working. The book is well written, a lot of effort has been put in certain details of AVR, PIC, the CS8900A-CQ and the RTL8019AS microcontroller and ethernetchips.

Almost all program examples are written in C, and a few lines in PICBasic. The explanation of the registers is however handy when you are trying to program the AVR, PIC with RTL8019AS or CS8900A-CQ in assembler or as I did in Bascom-AVR.

Sniffer Screen Captures are printed to explain details about the ethernetframes. Things I have stumbled on while programming in Bascom-AVR like ICMP-checksum, IP-checksum and TCP-checksum are well explained.

A well-written book, worth every euro. Especially when you have bought some of the boards developed by Fred Eady.

The best book I have read in a long time! If you are interested in RS-232, I2C, Ethernet and microcontrollers, this book is for you. Circuit Cellar's Fred Eady's writing style shares his enthusiasm for microcontrollers and makes learning a pleasurable experience!

This book turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. I was expecting a comphrehensive reference of the different ways microcontrollers can be connected to their surroundings but the book turned out to be an introductory textbook focused on just 3 protocols: RS-232, I2C and Ethernet. Missing are several interesting and important protocols like RS-485, ZigBee, WiFi etc. The book also claims to target both PIC and AVR, but the examples in the book were mostly for PIC with AVR being left as an exercise for the reader (or quickly skimmed through). In the same breath, a large part of the book consists of code listings, something I would rather not use up valuable page space for.

In summary, if you are an absolute beginner with microcontrollers and a neophyte with interconnects this is a decent, if slightly expensive, introduction to three of the most important protocols for microcontrollers. If you are a more experienced builder your money is better spent on TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1: The Protocols (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series). You can learn the rest from datasheets distributed freely online combined with articles and tutorials on the net.

NB: Anyone buying the book should ignore the obsolete and unstocked Cirrus CS8900A and instead substitute the more accessible Microchip ENC28J60 combined with a Pulse StarJack or similar. As a bonus for the hobbyist the ENC28J60 also comes in a PDIP through hole form factor.