Introduction.
The following describes a number of books which may prove helpful to
PIC enthusiasts.
Certainly, no book can hope to meet everyone's expectations; that is,
pick it up, easily read every
page and when you are done, you know all there is to know about the PIC.
Rather, we all have different experience levels. Peatman's "Design
with Microcontrollers" might
be viewed as poor by a beginner to the field of controllers and David
Benson's Easy PIC'n viewed
as trivial to an advanced user.
With all of these books, there certainly are many pages of material
which I already know and with
a few there are more than a few pages that are far beyond me, at least for
the moment. I usually
feel a book is well worth the money if I learn three or four things I
didn't know. Each concept
opens new doors for me to apply my own creativity in approaching a new
problem and pulls me
up on the learning curve so I can learn more.
Please note that with all of the following books, I own them and have
used them. I haven't read
each one cover to cover as some presentations don't currently interest me,
some of the material is
beyond me and there are only so many hours in a day. However, I consider
all of these to be
excellent books.
Each book is briefly discussed and thoughts are offered on where to buy
them.
Benson, "Easy PIC'n".
David Benson, "Easy PIC'n, A Beginner's Guide to Using PIC16/17
Microcontrollers", 1996,
Square 1 Electronics, ISBN 0-9654162-0-8.
My initial reaction to this book was that it was too trivial. However,
I came to PICs with some
twenty five years of experience with various controllers.
I have since returned to examine the book in some detail and consider
it quite good, particularly
for a newcomer. The author does not throw the entire instruction set at
the reader, but rather
gradually presents it in the context of simple applications.
Interrupts and use of the timing module are difficult for any author to
clearly explain and the
author does an outstanding job in this area.
Benson, "PIC'n up the Pace, PIC16/17 Microcontroller
Applications Guide".
David Benson, "PIC'n up the Pace, PIC16/17 Microcontroller Applications
Guide", 1997, Square
1 Electronics, ISBN 0-9654162-1-6.
The author extends his earlier work to deal with the PIC in various
applications including, serial
communication, interfacing with an LCD, keypads, D/A and A/D. He present
a number of
arithmetic building blocks and going from natural binary to BCD and BCD to
natural binary. In
dealing with the LM335 temperature sensor, he present gain and shift
circuitry using operational
amplifiers.
His writing approach is not cookbook. He explains and uses flow charts
to advantage to aid in
understanding. Of course, the user could use it as a cookbook by simply
extracting the code.
One small criticism would be that the schematics tend to be physical
point to point representations
rather than functional schematics. However, no schematic is too
complicated for the reader to
redraw it in a functional manner within a few minutes.
Note that the source code contained in "PIC'n up the Pace" is available
at
Predko, "Programming and Customizing the PIC
Microcontroller".
Myke Predko, "Programming and Customizing the PIC Microcontroller",
1998, McGraw-Hill,
ISBN 0-07-913646-X.
This is somewhat more advanced than Benson's books and I am uncertain
this is the right book if
you are new to microcontrollers, but it certainly should be the second
book you buy.
This is 350 pages of valuable information and I have spent many
enjoyable hours reading small
portions at a time. Each time, I come away with many new pieces of
knowledge. In my mind, this
is the "best" of the four books in this discussion, but recall that the
"best" for one person may not
be the "best" for someone with a different experience background.
Unlike Benson's books which are limited to features associated with the
PIC16F84 and similar
(16C554, 558), Predko goes much further to discuss such advanced features
as voltage
comparison, on-board A/D, synchronous and asynchronous serial, timers,
compare, capture and
PWM and master / slave PIC capabilities associated with such processors as
the 16C62X,
16C7CX and 17C4 families.
Predko's book is perhaps unique in approaching software development in
a somewhat more
formal manner dealing with such topics as templates, preparing stimulation
files for the Microchip
simulator, recycling and reusing code.
The book includes some 25 sample programs or "experiments" and they are
very well done with
good narratives and well annotated code. Here agin, they are considerably
more advanced than
those in Benson's book. Examples include lookup tables extending beyond
256 entries, use of a
simulated stack for arithmetic operations, debounce routines, and an
interrupt handler with
context saving.
Predko also includes some twelve projects ranging from a serial LCD
interface, interfacing with a
Universal Remote (infrared) Control, interfacing with a keyboard, servo
controller and more. He
notes that in developing the projects he attempted to limit the components
to those which are
readily available and I believe he did an excellent job.
Each time I pick up his book, which is quite often I marvel at the fact
that although Myke and
myself probably have similar backgrounds, we go about attacking problems
quite differently.
Thus, I have found his book particularly valuable. Something I learned
while I was at AT&T Bell
Labs for some 18 years was to try to hang with people who are smarter and
think differently than
you do. It helps you to grow.
Myke maintains a web site at .
Peatman, "Design with PIC Microcontrollers".
John B. Peatman, "Design with PIC Microcontrollers", Prentice Hall,
1998, ISBN
0-13-759259-0.
In the field of higher education, Peatman at Georgia Tech is without
question, the most famous
educator in the area of microcontrollers.
When I first received this book, I will confess that I was
disappointed. However, I was just
beginning with PICs and this definitely is not the right book for a
beginner. The instruction set is
presented on a single page.
A year later, I have quite a bit more experience and I am now beginning
to tinker with such higher
order PICs as the 16C6X and 16C7X and I find that I am consulting the book
more frequently.
Although Microchip does an excellent job of documenting their products I
have found Peatman
extremely useful for gaining additional understanding.
The strength of this book is a good discussion of all of the advanced
features associated with such
"higher end" PICs as the 16C6X and 16C7X families.
For example;
Summary.
Hopefully, this discussion aids in helping you to decide which book or
books are suitable for you.
I have attempted to look at each book, not from my personal experience
level, but rather from the
perspective of people with different experience levels. If you are just
starting out, certainly
Peatman's book would be a waste of your money. If you have been using
processors for a long
time, Benson's books are probably not for you. Predko's book is somewhat
unique as there is
something in his book for everyone.
Where to Buy.
All of these books are available at Amazon.Com and you
should be able to quickly locate them by searching on the author's name.
Benson, "Easy PIC'n" - $29.95 (No Discount).
Benson, "PIC'n Up the Pace" - $34.95 (No Discount).
Predko, "Programming and Customizing the PIC Microcontroller", $27.96.
This price reflects a 20 percent discount.
Peatman, "Design with PIC Microcontrollers", $48.00 (No Discount).
Subsequent to writing the above, I have decided to offer Myke Predko's book at the same price as Amazon and Peatman's Book for $42.95.
.