A new opportunity to learn about microcontrollers

Understanding microcontrollers and how to code for them is essential for understanding today's electronics. A new trainer is available from Kanda that has everything you need to learn microcontroller programming at an amazingly low price.
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Microcontrollers form the basis of nearly all electronics today and are found in everything from dimmer switches to toasters. These means that an understanding of microcontrollers and how to program them is essentialif you want to understand modern electronics.

To meet this need, Kanda.com have produced a complete training kit for learning microcontroller programming. This kit is based on the Atmel AVR microcontroller but the principles that are learnt can be transferred to other microcontrollers, such as the PIC, if required - a PIC starter kit is also available if you prefer. Everything you need is included.

The kitis based around a book that covers the basic principles - numbering systems, logic, addressing, program structure, how to code and lots of examples. Once these basics have been covered, you will learn how to write code and use the development environment, AVR Studio. This program has been created by Atmel to be the best development environment available and it's easy to use. Its features include a full function editor with a built-in Assembler and C compiler to write and compile your code and a Simulator to check for simple mistakes.

Once your program is written and initial testing has been done on the PC, you can use the hardware to run and debug your code. The STK200 development board has all the functions needed for an embedded system, including digital I/O, communications, data storage and ADC. More modules such as LCD Displays, keypads or just breadboard circuits can easily be plugged in. Your can run on your code on this board through the AVR Dragon programmer and emulator included. The ICE debugger tool allows you to step through your code or run it to a breakpoint set in AVRStudio. This allows hardware and software bugs to be found. Once your code has been debugged and is running properly,the AVR Dragon can be used as a programmer to program lots of AVR microcontrollers.

In summary, that is the embedded design process and this kit gives you an excellent start in mastering it. The training starts with Assembly language, as this gives you a better understanding of microcontrollers. Then it moves on to C language programming using the same AVRStudio development environment and hardware. C Code is faster to write, the compiler does more of the work for you and it is easier to transfer between different microcontrollers.

This Kanda trainer includes:

• A book
• A complete development environment
• An AVR Dragon In Circuit Emulator and programmer
• A development board with a microcontroller
• And a C Compiler

For more information click here