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The absolute question ... Where to start??

Former Member

Hi guys,

 

I recently discovered this website and seems pretty cool. I see people with a lot of experience with embedded systems.

As a begineer, in my career and with embedded systems i want to ask you some questions:

First, i finished the studies of an electrical engineering university, i work as a software developer mostly for industrial applications : programming PLCs (until now only small ones), intelligent modems(C/C++ over OpenAT OS), building scada applications.

 

I don't know if programming PLCs and modems means programming for embedded devices (maybe someone more experienced can clear this out), they are in essence for a one task, but when i hear about embedded i think more at microcontrollers and low level programming.

 

So...i picked up some 16F PICs, i learned a little the arhitecture, built some hello world applications, flashing leds, using ext port interrupts, etc - all these in ASM.

 

Is these the path to a embedded system developer, or should i advance to a better microcontroller, C programming?

What should i read to optimize my work?

Have any good books or trainings that can you recommend?

Where can i read about latest technologies, IDEs, etc?

My goal is to achieve a level when i trully can understand what a embedded OS is all about, what requierments are for designing one (software & hardware), etc.

 

Is this the right path? should i try to find anoher job more towards small processors ?

 

Any sugestion can help.

 

Thank you in advice!

Parents

  • Ionut,

     

    Yes, PLC and your modem work is embedded. PLC programmers are in pretty high demand, I have seen in the job market recently.

     

    Good choice in processors to learn. The PIC family is used everywhere. I would recommend getting into the ARM series, as I have experienced first hand that is the direction many companies are going. Code transport between ARM chips is easy.

    Low end PICs (10F, 16F) are great for less intense projects. Continue studying the chip. Be sure to program in PIC assembly. Assembly is important to know.

    For more demanding projects, use ARM. I have worked for companies is Defence and Medical, and they were all looking into using ARM. Start with this book.

     

    Become more proficient in PIC and ARM, and companies will open the door to you.

     

    Or maybe you can start your own company.

     

    To name a few devices that use ARM, most cell phones and the Nintendo Gamboy/DS family. There are huge possibilities.

     

    Cabe

Reply

  • Ionut,

     

    Yes, PLC and your modem work is embedded. PLC programmers are in pretty high demand, I have seen in the job market recently.

     

    Good choice in processors to learn. The PIC family is used everywhere. I would recommend getting into the ARM series, as I have experienced first hand that is the direction many companies are going. Code transport between ARM chips is easy.

    Low end PICs (10F, 16F) are great for less intense projects. Continue studying the chip. Be sure to program in PIC assembly. Assembly is important to know.

    For more demanding projects, use ARM. I have worked for companies is Defence and Medical, and they were all looking into using ARM. Start with this book.

     

    Become more proficient in PIC and ARM, and companies will open the door to you.

     

    Or maybe you can start your own company.

     

    To name a few devices that use ARM, most cell phones and the Nintendo Gamboy/DS family. There are huge possibilities.

     

    Cabe

Children
  • in reply to Catwell

    Thanks for your replies, it's really nice to see more experienced people ready to help you out.

     

    As I decided  how to go... i wanted to share that with you. For my job i will program PLC&modems and hope there will be more projects.

    As a side work for learning puposes i already started to learn a little bit about the picMicro. I proposed until march or so to really understand the arhitecture, build basic interfacing projects where to use all that the chip can : i/o digital&analog, interrupts, timers, pwm, communication :uart,i2c,spi. At the final i want to wrap this out with a wireless project(i have 2 wireless modules from odimex) that will include : analog reading, wireless data comm, lcd interfacing.

     

    After that as Cabe suggested i will try to go into a more complex arhitecture, cortex m3, cause it seems it's a popular processor, and i thought buying a developing board with a microcontroller based on cortex m3, i saw there are around 50$ on ebay (here if someone can to suggest something).

    After i will become confortable with this i will look into operating systems, maybe embedded linux programming and so on.

     

    I know that will not be easy, for sure i will get stuck sometimes and all that, but it's what i like to do and i want to advance!

     

    Again, thanks for your replies.

     

    Regards,

    Ionut

  • in reply to Former Member

    And now for something completely different image

     

    If I were to start now with mcu development as a beginner, I would certainly go with MSP430 TI Launchpad development board/programmer/debugger and all that for 4.3 USD shipping included! As much as I like PICs, for beginner's projects this just blows it out of the water! Plus you get two mcus, so you can play with two projects at the same time, you have nice Eclipse based IDE, and very important for me: you can get sample mcus from TI anywhere in the world (unlike cheapskate Microchip).

     

    Regarding assembler, altough I have learned it to some extent and it is valuable to get an idea on how processor actually computes, I go with the moto I once read on some forum "when flash memory and cpu time becomes more expensive than my time, I will start using assembly" image

  • in reply to nermash

    Hi nermash, thanks for you reply...but i really cannot understand what do you want by "As much as I like PICs, for beginner's projects this just blows it out of the water!"

    I know that they have problems, what i heard from a more experienced friend of mine : "if you really arrive at the point when you can say that you really now PICs, you will not have major problems on any other embedded appliance", but i think is an enough complex chip to understand and help me understand more complex chips in the future...as about assembly, i like to really know what happens on the chip, at least for the first chip i will use, which is a PIC16F690, after that i will go to C for sure.

  • in reply to Former Member

    Hi Ionut, what I ment was that as a beginer you want to get things moving quickly, simple and very often with low cost. With PIC you have to get PICKIT 2 or 3, then you have to get a mcu, or you have to buy a PICKIT dev board. In USA or western Europe this can be found for 30 USD or 30 € equivalent, but in other parts of the world it is more expensive. RS electronics, official Microchip dealer for my country, wanted 55 € IIRC for PICKIT2PROMOPICKIT2PROMO only? So inital investement is significantly lower, and IDE is much much better, samples availiable throughout the world, and that is why it blows PIC out of the water image I stand to be corrected with the new MPLAB X IDE when it comes out of beta. Regarding silicon errata, it happens to everyone, you just have to pay attention to datasheet revisions.

     

    And I agree with your friend, and with what DAB said, once you learn one platform "to the bone", you will that is relativelly easy to apply that knowledge into quicker learning of other platforms.