Where do I start  in embedded?

I'm late to the game as always, but nonetheless I'll throw in my $0.02.

I started with AVRs mostly because I transitioned from Arduinos. After diving in, I realized AVR programming and Arduino programming are two different beasts. I keep my old Uno around as a test platform (like when I get a new LCD display and quickly want to see if it works, I'll grab an Arduino library for the component and give it a quick whirl) but other than that I rarely touch the thing.

The Make book that you have is pretty good, but after about 100 pages the author forgets he's writing for non-engineers. Get ready to search here, Google, elsewhere for answers unless you have a hardware background.

That said...if I had to start over again, I wouldn't base my choice (PIC or AVR) on which is "better," but instead which has decent development boards. Other than Arduinos and Atmel's XPlained boards, I can't think of any for AVRs. Boards for PICs are plentiful, though (Digilent is one company that makes them).

The reason I prefer learning with these is that development boards typically have a debugger built in (along with lots of GPIO pins/headers and some peripherals to play with). These debuggers are often separable by jumpers and can be used to debug external circuits. Once you taste hardware debugging, you may not want to go back. Yeah, printf() statements work, but without a console and serial adapter and USART code and...etc...I don't know. I think hardware debuggers are quicker and easier. I haven't done much with my PICKIT3 so I don't know what kind of hardware debugging it offers. If it offers that, though, my vote will lean more toward PICs. Debugging AVRs requires special hardware starting at around $60 (AVR Dragon) and getting more expensive from there. That, or an XPlained board.

Anyway, there you go. I like AVRs, but PICs get my vote if you want hardware debugging.

Now if Microchip would standardize on their pin assignments...holy wowza, try building a programming board that'll support a number of different PICs, it'll drive you nuts. AVRs seem to be semi-consistent with their pinouts. I digress.

Based on all you have mentioned above I generally prefer TI. I just fined there whole environment to be so much easier simpler and overall well done then PIC with a LOT of examples for each peripheral and there prices are better than PIC. That being said I have used a good few boards (Freescale, PIC, TI, ST) and I use PIC on a daily basis at work (ewwww) but at home when I can and even at work I try my best to go with TI.

Kas

I find with a good deal of TI's boards that they have a large list of demo code that can easily be stitched together and altered to make a project that you have in mind. Maybe I'm lazy but I still enjoy having actual compilable and working code to learn how to use a new module or function on an uC.

Kas

I can see benefits to both sides of that discussion. Learning the guts of a system can be important if you plan on working close to hardware. Developing programs to run on MCUs like AVRs and PICs puts you about as close to hardware as you're ever going to get. That said, if you're developing programs to run on devices with an operating system like a RTOS or Linux, you're developing for the OS and probably won't go near the hardware (that's the whole point of running an OS). The APIs, at least for operating systems like Linux, will be similar on a RPi, BBB, or a desktop PC. I'm sure there are some differences, but they're more similar than different. Odds are good you're not going to get into bit shifting and tweaking clocks when developing on a RPi.

Y'know what? Learn both. It can't hurt. RPis aren't very good microcontrollers and MCUs aren't good at desktop stuff. They each have their place.

That's the value line LaunchPad that I mentioned, yep. Unfortunately TI now charges $7 shipping. I think element14 charges a couple of dollars less for shipping but the price is slightly higher for the board.

While you're watching videos, I'll recommend Freescale's "Book of Eli" video series, or at least the first 5 or 6 that go over how MCUs work:

https://community.freescale.com/docs/DOC-95170

I found the videos to be very instructive and fairly easy to digest. I don't think you'll regret watching them.

While you're watching videos, I'll recommend Freescale's "Book of Eli" video series, or at least the first 5 or 6 that go over how MCUs work:

https://community.freescale.com/docs/DOC-95170

I found the videos to be very instructive and fairly easy to digest. I don't think you'll regret watching them.