Reviews

• Microcontroller programming

  Pretty good overall. Contains more assembly language than most books like this, which is why I bought it. I would recommend this others. I use it as a reference or refresher.

• Essential for PICAXE developers

  This book describes how to use the PICAXE series of microcontrollers in electronic circuits. It describes the programming language and provides a tutorial; it describes the programming environment and how to make best use of it, typical applications of the PICAXE microcontrollers in electronic circuits and how to interface the devices to hardware.
  
  This book will be useful for anyone who designs and constructs their own electronic circuits for one-off or short run applications. This will include
  o Advanced electronic hobbyists
  o Amateur radio operators who build their own equipment
  o Robot builders
  o Teachers at high school, polytechnic (eg: TAFE) and undergraduate level at university
  o Graduate students who need to design equipment for their research
  o Technicians in universities, hospitals and research institutes who have to produce one-off devices for measurement and control
  
  This book is not useful for
  o Hobbyists who construct kits or build devices from plans in magazines
  o Industrial level designers.
  
  If you are serious about designing electronic devices today you need to include microcontrollers in any but the simplest circuit if measurement or control is needed at any point. Microcontrollers provide a wide range of functions in a small package. This lowers the part count, the number of connections to be made, the physical size of the device and the power consumption, all of which lower the cost. Upgrades and maintenance are just a matter of downloading software or data. Controls rely less on specialised switches and displays and there is the possibility of self diagnosis and fault reporting. Intercommunication of devices and networking are also possible, as is the production of "smart" devices. As manufacturers end production of discrete logic ICs designers need to be able to replace this functionality with microcontrollers.
  
  There are a growing number of microcontroller devices available but the PICAXE series stands out from them on several counts. The Basic Stamp series is easy to use but is both difficult to obtain and expensive outside the US. Arduino devices are sophisticated and are supported by software and "shields" that add to their capability. They are readily available but are very expensive. The ubiquitous PIC microcontrollers from microchip and the Atmel microcontrollers are cheap, readily available and well supported but rely on a high level of user knowledge. By contrast the PICAXE microcontrollers, which are essentially PIC microcontrollers with an on-board BASIC interpreter are cheap, easy to find, well supported but are very easy to program. Software is available for Macintosh and Windows and the programmers are small and cheap and use either USB or RS232 connections.
  
  This book provides a complete course on programming PICAXEs and applications that they can be used in. Each exercise is accompanied with an in-depth description of the circuit and the program that is used. The BASIC used in programming is simple and related to the 1970s version of the language, rather than Visual Basic and its ilk. The applications start with simple devices to flash lights and progresses to RFID, I2C, infra-red and numerous circuits that make use of the ADC/DAC connections on each chip. There are accessible appendices and tutorials on logic, arithmetic and troubleshooting.
  
  An internet search will locate more applications and retailers. If you are interested in going further, search for the magazine Silicon Chip and its ongoing series of PICAXE applications. I have no financial or other connection with the manufacturer but as a user I thoroughly recommend these devices and this book.
  

• OK but verbose, not for begining

  It is a very broad overview of the subject. Kind of like seeing what the forest looks like, not the trees. I found it useful to get a good overview of the subject. I will now look for a book to help be actually build something. Unless you have experience with assembly code, this book is difficult. Not a good primer even for experienced engineers like me. To end on a positive note. It does give a great deal of information on many areas and is a decent reference.

• 100 pages into the book and...

  I'm 100 pages into the book and am being annoyed more and more.
  
  The author really seems to know his stuff, but he seems to forget that alot of people reading this book are not up to par with his knowledge.
  The beginning of this book was fun, because he described many things in layman's terms. When the book starts to give examples in assembly, it's no longer laymen. I had to go online and learn PIC Assembly, then when I went back to the book, I understood what he was trying to explain, but even now having knowledge of PIC Assembly, it was still very difficult to follow. He would mix assembly instructions in with pseudo-code and didn't show how his constants were defined and which registers and their bits were used for what. It was very confusing. Then to top it off, he just jumped from not explaining the specific registers and the uses of their bits to implementing interrupts, which is an even more involved subjet.
  
  Although I have alot of respect for Myke Predko's knowledge in this area, I have to say that his writing is not easy to follow and I saddingly would have to say that this book is more for people with a pretty deep experience in programming MCUs and building electronic circuits.
  

• Burn your money instead.

  There is 1243 pages on this book but up to 243 and after 965, there is no useful information. A example:
  
  On figure 2.3, we have that about the printing of datasheets: "to create two-side documents, first print the back side in reverse order, put the pages back into the printer, and print the front side in ascending order." Are you kidding with me, author?
  
  On the book, we have:
  *useless block diagrams
  *no logical sequence. Low-end, mid-range and PIC18 are all treated simultaneously. Not very pedagogical.
  *evasive comments about personal experiences and 8051 microcontrollers approach ( I can do it but it is very difficult to you...)
  *nothing about USB. It is very disappointing for a book that deals with PIC18 family.
  
  In general, the book is not a new edition:
  
  On Figure 14.4 there is a printscreen of one very old MPLAB edition. That chapter about debug is very outdated and useless.
  On page 538, we have it: " You might be a bit suspicious of an RTOS after what I've just written. After all, you probably have a PC running Windows/95 or Windows/NT."
  
  Recommendation:
  Designing Embedded Systems with PIC Microcontrollers: Principles and Applications

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