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Where do I start  in embedded?

majorkuso

I would like to get better at building embedded devices but can't decide between avr or pic. I have the pickit 3 for pics and avr usbasp  and arduino. the arduino is ok, but I want to get closer to the metal. I would like some structured projects that I can build and familiarize myself with both the hardware and more importantly the c coding i would like to get better at my c. What would you guys recommend?

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  • 0 in reply to majorkuso

    I have been reading up on the differences between pic and avr I have read the avr is 4 times faster than the pic  executing one instruction per cycle how much of an impact would that have on a program

  • 0 in reply to majorkuso

    James Cook wrote:

     

    I have been reading up on the differences between pic and avr I have read the avr is 4 times faster than the pic  executing one instruction per cycle how much of an impact would that have on a program

     

    None because it's meaningless - what matters is how much code per second and what that code can do !!

     

    There are Pics with quite fast clocks and 16 bit architecture - AVRs and megaAVRs are 8 bit architectures.

     

    The best book to learn C, and in the opinion of many, including me, the best programming book (on any language) ever written is: "The C programming Language" by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie.

     

    For simple projects AVRs or 16 bit PICs are both perfectly adequate.

     

    If you are choosing  a processor based on performance rather than you already having the tools you should consider ARM Cortex which offer by far the widest range of features/performance/suppliers of any architecture.

     

    MK

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  • 0 in reply to majorkuso

    James Cook wrote:

     

    I have been reading up on the differences between pic and avr I have read the avr is 4 times faster than the pic  executing one instruction per cycle how much of an impact would that have on a program

     

    None because it's meaningless - what matters is how much code per second and what that code can do !!

     

    There are Pics with quite fast clocks and 16 bit architecture - AVRs and megaAVRs are 8 bit architectures.

     

    The best book to learn C, and in the opinion of many, including me, the best programming book (on any language) ever written is: "The C programming Language" by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie.

     

    For simple projects AVRs or 16 bit PICs are both perfectly adequate.

     

    If you are choosing  a processor based on performance rather than you already having the tools you should consider ARM Cortex which offer by far the widest range of features/performance/suppliers of any architecture.

     

    MK

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  • 0 in reply to michaelkellett

    Seconded! (The ARM suggestion, that is.) I have been slowly going through a free course on ARM Cortex M0+ programming and have been fairly impressed by the level of complexity. It's not as simple as AVR programming, but it's not mind-blowingly difficult either if you have a little background in MCUs. At a high level, they all share similarities.

     

    In case anyone's interested, the PDF for the course is offered as a free download from a EE professor at Indiana University. Search for "Discovering the STM32 Microcontroller" and you'll get to the PDF quickly. The course requires a $10 STM32VLDiscovery board and a few other parts that lots of folks already have on hand. The STLink-V1 on the board isn't the greatest (it operates as a SCSI mass storage device, which is really, really weird) but it works.