Product Description

John Morton offers a uniquely concise and practical guide to getting up and running with the PIC Microcontroller. The PIC is one of the most popular of the microcontrollers that are transforming electronic project work and product design, and this book is the ideal introduction for students, teachers, technicians and electronics enthusiasts.

Assuming no prior knowledge of microcontrollers and introducing the PICs capabilities through simple projects, this book is ideal for use in schools and colleges. The step-by-step explanations make it ideal for self-study too: this is not a reference book - you start work with the PIC straight away.


The revised second edition covers the popular reprogrammable EEPROM PICs: P16C84/P16F84 as well as the P54 and P71 families.

Demystifies the leading microcontroller for students and technicians
Emphasis on putting the PIC to work, not theoretical microelectronics
A practical introduction to the world of microcontrollers

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1640319 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
"Students and hobbists have a gift in this book!....Highly Recommended."
C Vu, Journal of the Association of C and C Users

...this book is ideal for use in schools and colleges. The step-by-step explanations make it ideal for self-study too: this is not a reference book - you start work with the PIC straight way.
-Electronics Web

...essential for beginners and ideal for enthusiasts wanting to revolutionize and transform the capabilities of electronic project work and product design. It's not only a book to be read, but a guide to be actively used as you build circuits around chips and write your own programs.
-Poptronics

...a very good start for anyone who wants to learn about programming PIC microcontrollers. -Electronic Product News -- Review

Review
"Very useful book which will provide a vital reference source to students studying PIC Microcontrollers."

"Good read, well laid out, good price"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful Intro to Pics
I found this book to be very useful in learning quickly how to program PICmicros in general terms. The author goes from the basics of boolean logic and base-2 and base-16 number systems introductions all the way to analog-to-digital conversion and how to write to the eeprom of the 16C84. The important thing to remember if you are considering writing this book is that he covers three of the "early" PIC models, but the newer models have inherited qualities of these models. For instance the 16C84 led to the 16F84 which has now led to the 16F628.

I work in an electronic manufacturing services company, so I see a lot of PICs on boards that we manufacture, but haven't had the opportunity to see how the programs were written until now. One individual complained that he referenced "blowing" the PIC. This is not an uncommon term I've heard used for programming chips, since PALS, PLAs, PROMS and many other programmable chips are programmed by actually blowing fuses in the chip. While this is no longer the case with PICs (I don't think), the term I'm sure is still valid.

He includes a large number of examples, excersizes (with the answers to all in back), gotchas, and how-to's. There are numerous sample programs for each topic. A++++

Not current information
This book is relatively out of date. It deals mostly with the older PIC processors and techniques. The basic microcontroller data is there, but not in a clear format. I got it to help instruct a friend on microcontrollers, but I did not use it. Myke Predko's books are far superior,

A very sketchy overview
First a warning: This book assumes you know basic electronics. If you don't know how to tell one end of an LED from the other, or worse don't know there's a difference, then this book isn't for you.

The section on intro to hardware is non-existent. The section on software is incomplete. The section on procedure, including emulation, compilation and burning (which for some reason the author refers to as chip 'blowing') are also incomplete. The example circuits are repetitive.

It does, however, give a good overview of the different families of PIC processors.

Overall the manufacturer's databook for the PIC processors would probably be more useful.