Customer Reviews

Programming and Customizing the HC11 Microcontroller

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Tom Fox's book takes you on a grand tour of the 68HC11 microcontroller. He begins with the simplest idea of what a computer is and ends with several applications of this particular family of microcontrollers. This is not your PC that is being examined here, but rather a single chip computer (well OK, most applications will probably require a few additional ones). The 68HC11 family is one of the latest of Motorola's line of microcontrollers that started with the 6800 about 25 years ago.

You don't need to be an engineer or technician to tackle this book, but you will need some basic background. To build one of the project boards some printed circuit board soldering and component identification skills are required. This is not a Heathkit, with detailed, illustrated assembly instructions. However the author does provide some insight and well thought out testing procedures.

What makes any computer useful are the software programs. The author provides the ones needed for the exercises and applications that are in the book, but the point is to have the reader come up with the ones needed for other applications. These programs are written in assembly language, which is much simpler than it sounds. The Author explains the fundamentals of this language and details of the instuction set (the commands the 68HC11 can execute). Anyone who has written simple BASIC language programs should have no problem.

The book and accompanying CD ROM have some of the supporting documentation and the author gives a lot of information on how to obtain more. Searching the Internet for additional information can be a great learning experience in itself.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in applying microcontrollers to solve control problems.

Tom Fox has created a project orientated book to introduce you to the Motorola 68HC11, the HC11's history and environment as well as using it in applications. The ten projects included in the book will guide you through the HC11 in such a way as you will have the knowledge and confidence with the microcontroller to develop your own applications.

What impressed me the most about the book was Tom's knowledge and outlining the different features and tools developed over the years for the HC11. This book has a very wide range of information for different products and tools needed to work efficiently with the HC11.

Just got the book and have spent about an hour with it and I am very pleased so far. First of all you don't have to buy the author's PC boards. There is ample information to create the same circuits with wire wrap. Traces are given that should allow you to make your own boards or have them made. Apendix E give tips on making your own PC boards too. Not too much rocket science there, but some. There are also examples of an HC11 controller circuit on a bread board. I was looking for a book to jump start me on building an HC11 controller and this looks like it will do the job nicely.FYI - I am not any kind of electronics guru either. I like learning by total immersion and this book appears to fit my style. I can't wait to get all the parts and get going. Later - jd

Even though this book has a small audience of people that may be interested in creating appplications with the Motorola 68HC11, this text is outdated.If your interested in learning about the 68HC11, you should turn to another author to start with,because if you do decide to build the MAG-11,you will be required to make modifications to the PCB layout to handle the newer PLCC 52 pin package, which leaves me to believe that this is better left to a much more knowledgable person in Electronics Engineering.
The author does explain how to implement easy to use applications if you already own the EVBU board from Motorola, then you could easy be on your way, however I found that the address mapping in memory refers to the MAG-11,but neverless it does have valuable information to help you if your willing to spend time learning on your own.The Motorola Assembly is huge with a very large instruction set, in comparison to the Microchip assembly used in MPLAB. In general, the transistion is much easier to learn after gaining some experience with the Microchip controllers. This book makes a good reference, but I would not advise anyone to use this text, if you don't have a good solid background in Electronics Engineering.Overall the information is pretty good, but the technical aspects of it keep the general audience fairly small, and I wish I had looked to another author to start out with.

Although published in 2000, this book seems to have entered a time warp and traveled directly from 1986. Even so, the style is more in the spirit of the 1960's and the Heathkit revolution (you can build it yourself!). If you don't know what Heathkit is and don't care to build electronic projects as part of the learning process, this book is probably not for you.

The back cover leaves the impression that the projects are illustrations, but in fact they are so entwined with the instruction that the book is not truly useful unless the reader builds them. Much of the instruction involves constructing the author's PC board designs Mag-11, MagPro-11, and Mag-Troll. Originally these were sourced in kit form through Magicland Electronics, and some parts are still available. Of course, it is possible to build PC boards at home and complete the projects if all the individual components can still be acquired. One must have the will and means to do so, however.

The style of the book is chatty in the extreme. The first headed section declares:

Microcontrollers - Beware! They are everywhere! Beware!

Chattiness continues with self revelations like "However, keep alert at all times so that you don't make as many goofs as I have in the past - and I have made more idiotic mistakes than I care to admit!" and highlighted tips such as "If the following is a bit hard to understand, this simply means that you haven't had experience with Motorola's 6800 series of MPUs." One must slog through such unnecessary verbiage to find out anything useful.

The layout of the book is rather crude and almost looks as if it were composed on a word processor and printed with a 300 DPI laser printer. This helps to foster the impression that it came from the past. It is organized well from an experimenter's standpoint but cannot be easily utilized as reference apart from that.

In summary, this is a hands-on book that takes the reader through a series of learn-by-doing build-it-yourself projects such as a square wave generator, a photometer, and a solid-state wind vane. If that is not your thing, neither is this book.

The author does provide simple and light treatment of the basics, then plunges ahead with examples of his own circuit boards.

It is not clear to me if any board will function with the same programs/examples.

I hope there is a better text out there.

I FIND THIS BOOK USEFUL ONLY IF YOU PURCHASE THE AUTHORS CIRCUIT BOARDS; THIS LEAVES THE BUYER WITH THE DECISION TO EITHER TO BUY HIS BOARDS OR TO BUILD THEIR OWN. I FELT THIS BOOK WOULD BE SIMILAR TO THE ONES WRITTEN BY MYKE PREDKO BUT IT FELL WAY SHORT. THE 68HC11 IS A COMPLEX MICROCONTROLLER AND I FEELTHAT THIS BOOK WILL NOT DO A NOVICE JUSTICE FOR THE SIMPLE FACT THAT ALL PROJECTS ARE PROPRIETARY AND NOT UNIVERSAL AS THEY SHOULD BE.