Microcontrollers are in everything nowadays from simple items like dimmer switches to complex systems such as your mobile phone. Learning microcontroller programming allows you to create a huge range of embedded projects only limited by your imagination.
What is involved in developing embedded projects? You need to understand some basics like numbering systems and logic – microcontrollers don’t do decimal as they are binary systems. Then you need to comprehend the microcontroller structure and how they work. After this, you cam get on with programming them by learning assembly language and embedded C programming. Along the way, you need to grasp the development environment and learn how to download and debug the code you write to some suitable hardware.
You may have heard of Arduino, which is advertised as an electronics prototyping system so easy that your granny could use it. This is an exaggeration but it does allow you to get an embedded project off the ground very quickly. The downside is that you don’t actually learn about microcontroller programming.
Arduino has its own very simple development environment, uses a simplified language called Wiring and uses a bootloader to download code to a board while avoiding any mention of microcontrollers. This means that you don’t actually need to conceive anything about embedded systems, C programming or professional tools.
Arduino Wiring language is a very simplified version of C and it works by including lots of pre-written library files that you can just call. Great for instant results but it is just like painting by numbers, satisfying but you don’t learn how to paint.
So, what is the alternative to Arduino? Unfortunately, it is learning all of the above before you can create your new microcontroller project. This is not as hard as it sounds, a good course and practice and you’ll get there. Kanda have introduced a new trainer with these benefits
- Complete microcontroller tutorial
- Modular hardware that can expand to meet your needs
- Uses latest Integrated Development Environment
- Includes professional emulator and programmer
- Lots and lots of sample projects in assembler and C
- Documentation, book, schematics and datasheets
This kit includes everything you need to understand embedded systems and develop your own microcontroller projects.