The PIC Microcontroller: Your Personal Introductory Course

I bought this book back in 2007 from Amazon, and it was my springboard into a career into embedded systems (it led to embedded C programming on ARM and MIPS chips). I HIGHLY recommend as an introductory book. You'll learn enough to complete your own projects as I did. True, it's easier nowadays to write your code in C but if you're here then you're probably looking specifically for a book on assembly language. This is it. It's not as hard as you may think. I used this book to write my first lines of firmware.

I dont think this is a good intro book. The book is a bit disorganized. .For example in one of the excercise you are asked to diagram how you would connect Led to the microcontroller, but now where did they discus how to diagram. So the excercises arent related to the topic you just read. There are other intro books that will use one microcontroller, one compiler, etc.. throughout the book so that you can follow along, with the understanding that there are other tools available but that will you will learn will cover 90 of what you need to know to use other brands. This book doesnt do that, the author seems hesitant to recomend anything so it can get vagues if you are trying to follow the text and are using something different then what the author is using. The book is not bad, and it better suited to an advance beginner or intermediate, rather than a true beginner. Here is an example of where an issue may arise with a beginner. In the section "write your first program". Your are told that you will be writting a simple 3 line program as follows:Start call Init ;Main bsf porta,0 ; turn led ongoto Main ; loops backYou are then told to save the program and then assemble it. Once you assemble it you will end up with errors. If this was truly your first program you may be wondering why it didn't work. Why you keep getting the error when everything you wrote is correct. The chapter failed to inform you that it will not assemble correctly because you don't have your declarations not do you have any look up files. So if your a beginner you may find yourself stuck here for a long time until some one tell you where to get a look-up file, so that the assembler will work. So the book needs some editing, in the area where they have you write your first program they should have the completed source code rather than the 3 lines of code and assume you knew you have to add many other lines of code. Also they should tell you in the beginning all the files you should download before writing your first program. The way the book is written your only going to get errors because you missing many files that are needed to assemble the code. The book needs editing, it has good potential, but they need to re look at the book from the perspective of a beginner and they need to show where you can get the necessary files.The book also has sample programs at the end of the chapter, the issue is that many of the programs have the same error. This tell me that the author did not proof read the work and just copied and pasted the same segment of code onto other programs and thereby giving multiple programs the same error. I checked the website for an errata and none is available. I guess the on the bright side, I have read other intro books on programing pics so I ended up using this book as a sort of excercise book on finding the errors in the code. That can be a challenge as well, so if you have some knowledge of programming pics and want to practice debugging the code this is a book to practice with. If you looking for an intro book there are better books out there.

I had programmed in BASIC and C so I had some programming experience. This book deals with Assembly and is a fantastic introduction. I have run some assembled .HEX files in the past and now can program them myself. The concepts here can be applied toward the newer chips as well. All in all a terrific starting point and a good reference for the future. Definitely a must-have for the PIC hobbiest.

I bought this book being totally new to PICs and bewildered by the amount of information available on the manufacture's Website. It is a great book for anyone new to PICs how learn to program PICs and about PICs in general. However, I had hoped that the author would touch on how to interface the hardware with the software available, unfortunately he barely touches that subject. Undoubtly he feels with the amount of information available it will be unnecessary to do so.Nevertheless, I had hoped that at least he would mention how to use Microchip's software to enter the programs and how to use the software to simulate it on the computer. In that case, I would have given this book a definite 5 star instead of the 4 given.

A nicely written short introductory book on PIC programming. It is definitely on the lean side and by now antiquated. If you can pick it up cheap and are just getting started, it's a good place to start.

When I purchased this book, I was hoping for an introduction that would lay out everything I needed to build and program my first augmented microcontroller, and thats exactly what I got! This book lays out everything needed for an extreme beginner to gain a deep understanding of how to work with microcontrollers. I've found this book extremely useful and recommend it to anyone who wants to get started in robotics or any other field requiring the use of microcontrollers. You can't go wrong!

Excellent book for someone new to PIC programming. The author is clear, precise and to the point with the material. This has been a huge help to me getting starting programming PIC micro-controllers.

Satisfied with my purchase. Great a book.

Really satisfied about this purchase. I was afraid that the content may be a bit advanced for me, as I have experience with programming but not with microcontrollers.The explanation of the theory is more than comprehensive, and the reader really gets what he needs in the proper amount of pages. This is a thin book, and it goes to the point, but it also achieves to make you really understand.Although it's about for PIC microcontrollers, it is a perfect starter generally for microcontrollers programming, for hobbyists with programming background.I 'm really happy I bought and I read this book.

Excellent book which I wish I had discovered earlier. It progresses through each programming topic in a clear and well written manner which aids understanding. From a no longer newbie perspective the book would have speeded the initial steep learning curve, but still has plenty to offer - thoroughly recommended.

A logical breakdown of all the internal workings of the PIC along with example code routines.The style of presentation is clear and suitably paced even for those with less experience ofprogramming. I recommend this as a good starter course for the PIC.

Great service, would recommend.

This is the best beginner text on PIC microcontrollers that i have come across. It is well written and concise and does not use confuse the beginner with technical jargon and complicated ideas. There are numerous examples that can be implemented in hardware and/or simulated easily with PIC software tools. i would recommend this book to anyone who has or would like to begin microcontroller development.