PIC Microcontroller Project Book (Paperback)

by John Iovine (Author) "A microcontroller is an inexpensive single-chip computer..." (more)
Key Phrases: applics directory, programming carrier board, servo pulse width, Basic Stamp, Suppliers Index, Images Company (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
John Iovine, our 'Amazing Science' columnist...[is] bound to spur the imagination and inspire plans for using PICs in new products and projects... -- Poptronics, October, 2000

Product Description
Beginner's guide to the popular PIC Microcontroller.

Get all the advantages of the Basic Stamp, at one quarterthe cost and one hundred times the speed with Microchips Company's 8-bit PIC computer-on-a-chip.

The no assembly required PIC Microcontroller Project Book, by popular TAB author John Iovine, shows you how to program the PIC using Microchip's free MPLAB compiler and the BASIC programming language.

Learn about the two most popular PIC chips, exploring architecture, registers, CPU, RISC, RAM, and ROM.

This project-oriented guide gives you twelve complete projects, including: using transistors to control DC and ACmotors and AC appliances...servo motors...liquid crystaldisplay (LCD) output...reading resistive sensors with robotics applications...frequency generator, including tone generations, DTMF phone number logger and distinct ring detector and router...home automation using X-10 communications...digital oscilloscope...simulations of fuzzy logic and neural networks...and many other applications.
-- Book Review Poptronics, October, 2000

Bound to spur the imagination and inspire plans for using PICs in new products and projects, this book answers the question: What can you do with PIC microcontrollers? Practically anything - from creating "photovore" robots that hunt light for their solar cells to making toasters announce "Your toast is ready!"

These easy-to-use, low-cost, computers-in-a-chip let designers and hobbyists add intelligence and responsiveness to any electronic product or project - even faster than comparable Basic Stamps. Hands-on directions are supplied for putting Microchip's RISC-based chips - with up to 8k of memory - to work.

Starting with simple projects and experiments, this book progresses gradually into sophisticated programming techniques. The author John Iovine, our "Amazing Science" columnist, guides enthusiasts into such projects as synthesizing human speech, controlling DC and stepper motors, adding sensing abilities to robots, and building in decision-making neural and "fuzzy logic" functions.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Tab Books (May 18, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071354794
• ISBN-13: 978-0071354790
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #929,416 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great basic PIC book- literally., June 5, 2000

By A Customer

This is a good beginner's book on PIC 16F84 microcontrollers as long as you don't mind spending an additional $100 for a third party PIC BASIC code compiler. All of the book's lessons and programs are based on this BASIC compiler (no commonality to Microchip's MPLAB). There are some truly useful projects described such as serial communication, servo motor control and switch inputs, so if your goal is to get a design up and running quickly, this might be for you. It would be more accurately described as a user manual for the BASIC compiler rather than a PIC microcontroller reference. I was kinda bugged that this wasn't mentioned in the book's description.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Outdated and provides little useful information, June 22, 2006

By	Denard D. Springle IV "TechnoLover" (Fairfax, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: PIC Microcontroller Project Book : For PIC Basic and PIC Basic Pro Compliers (Paperback)

I'm afraid I need to disagree with the professor's review. If you are at all interested in the PIC microcontrollers and use of PIC Basic you would be best served looking elsewhere for inspiration. John Iovine's book is poorly written in so many ways that even someone new to microcontrollers would find very little use for it. Aside from his writing style being somewhat confusing, this book is full of outdated information. With a publishing date of 2004 I was suprised to find so much information applied to applications and hardware from the 90's inside. Aside from this, which in and of itself is reason enough not to waste your time or money on it, he doesn't list any resources in his text. For example, he makes mention of serial LCD's, but doesn't provide any specific examples of vendors or models and makes claim that they all work the same, which is not true. His projects are the same basic beginners projects you can find all over the internet for free and are less descriptive than those you might find elsewhere. There isn't a single PCB design in the book and he demonstrates all of his projects with a breadboard. Most unfortunate, is the pictures he provides of the finished breadboards - they are taken at an angle, far enough away from the breadboard that not only could you not use the picture to validate your own breadboard design, you can barely tell what is what on the breadboard at all. On top of everything else, he explores only the PIC16F84 chip, which while one of the more popular chipsets ever produced by Microchip, is also outdated information since Microchip has since updated this to the PIC16F84A model and he doesn't cover any other chipset in any detail. One or two of his projects and examples show a different chipset in the schematic, but that's about it. His exploration of the BASIC language is no more or less descriptive than, say, the users guide of the PIC Basic language itself (which you can get for free). There are also many omissions and errors throughout the book, specifically as they apply to his projects. For example, his H-Bridge DC motor controller design is not smokeless (you could easily fry the PIC and/or other components in this design) and is missing several key components (like capacitors) that would prevent the design from working in a real world application. He also has a half a dozen or so shameless plugs throughout the book pointing you to 'other books he has written' to get more information - if this book is any example of what you might find in his other books, you'd be best to stay away from this author altogether. The cover of this book claims it is 'Completley updated and revised' - I guess this means the first edition was really horrible, the second edition is, in my opinion, simply not worth the read.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Intro to PICs That I Have Found, March 30, 2002

By	Christopher J. Smith (Westville, IN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I teach microcontrollers at a well-known university, using the PIC 16F84. My course is in the sophomore year, so I need a book that assumes very little previous knowledge and experience. This book does a nice job of explaining the basic functioning of the PIC's hardware. The programming language used is a version of BASIC, which my students have already studied. The use of the PICBasic compiler and EPIC programmer are explained extremely well. The book contains 12 projects to build, starting from simple flashing LEDs, and moving on into motor control, LCDs, A/D conversions and serial communications. All projects are explained step-by-step and are illustrated with clear schematics and photos. Material costs are minimal. For all these reasons, John Iovine's book is the ONLY book I recommend for beginners. If you have a beginner's knowledge of electronics and have done some BASIC-language programming, this book will give you a solid foundation in the PIC microcontroller.