Learning about PICs and CCS together.

Rob_975 · Joined: 14 Aug 2012 Posts: 16

Hello.

Don't know if I'm off topic in this forum but hopefully this thread will also help others.
I'm looking for a good book explaining the basics of the MCUs and programming with the CCS compiler.
The price is not a problem.
Any advices?
Thanks.

dyeatman · Joined: 06 Sep 2003 Posts: 1914 Location: Norman, OK

From the CCS website:
http://www.ccsinfo.com/content.php?page=books
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asmboy · Joined: 20 Nov 2007 Posts: 2128 Location: albany ny

Nigel Gardner book i found very good - back when.

warning:
Except for Easy C -( which is ULTRA SIMPLE and totally minimalist in what it teaches ) the Benson books are ALL .ASM focused and
are of no special use with CCS C that i can see with benefit of hindsight.
Those books were VERY helpful BEFORE i found CCS C, in my pure ASM days.

Mike Walne · Joined: 19 Feb 2004 Posts: 1785 Location: Boston Spa UK

I don't usually disagree with asmboy, but I could not get on with Nigel Gardner's book.

It may have been re-written since, but I found it full of errors, took too long to get to the point of providing anything useful, and no index.

Just my opinion of course. You can have my copy for free.

Mike

asmboy · Joined: 20 Nov 2007 Posts: 2128 Location: albany ny

I guess i should have been more clear:

YES the errors were there- but i forgave them.
YET- The Gardener book is not bad for a VERY new C programmer as it is at least CCS specific, in a general way- and in ways that other C for MCU programming books are not at all.

I have not needed to refer to it in years - but it was helpful in making the ASM-> c transition.

The "EASY" series books were only minimally helpful in the days when i made the leap from 8086 ASM to MCU ASM.

I wish i knew of better books than these -
SO
what do others have to say about their educational texts??

Rob_975 · Joined: 14 Aug 2012 Posts: 16

The best would be find a very good book with also advanced features of the PIC like timers, PWM, interrupts explained in depth.
I already know the basics of C but now the problem is the integration of it with the CCS compiler and its PIC specific functions.

The books at http://www.ccsinfo.com/content.php?page=books looks very basical stuff.

Mike Walne · Joined: 19 Feb 2004 Posts: 1785 Location: Boston Spa UK

Why not simply use the examples which come with the CCS compiler, and play with them.

I.e. learn by experimenting and making mistakes.

The in-depth discussions are in the Microchip data sheets and reference manuals.

Mike

newguy · Joined: 24 Jun 2004 Posts: 1903

The best book I've ever read that covers the CCS compiler with some practical coding examples is Embedded C Programming and the Microchip PIC by Barnett, Cox and O'Cull. It's well worth having on your shelf.

gpsmikey · Joined: 16 Nov 2010 Posts: 588 Location: Kirkland, WA

The bad news is that while it is 500 pages, Amazon shows it for $114 (but it does get good reviews).

mikey
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dyeatman · Joined: 06 Sep 2003 Posts: 1914 Location: Norman, OK

Its only $30 for a Used-very good version including shipping. Very Good is usually like new...
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bkamen · Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2012 1:01 am

gpsmikey · Joined: 16 Nov 2010 Posts: 588 Location: Kirkland, WA

Good point on the "used" version - I just ordered a copy for myself. Thanks for the pointers (so to speak).

I definitely agree with what others have said about needing to spend the time with the data sheets. I typically don't print out the whole data sheet, but I do print out the sections that are the areas I am working with (A/D etc) and typically mark them up with notes as I figure things out (some things are not "intuitively obvious" as they say and take a bit of reading and going back and forth to different sections/specs before it makes sense. There is no substitute though for spending the time with the data sheet (although they do have a few more pages than the old 7400 quad nand gate in my TI book !! ).

mikey
_________________
mikey
-- you can't have too many gadgets or too much disk space !
old engineering saying: 1+1 = 3 for sufficiently large values of 1 or small values of 3

Ttelmah · Joined: 11 Mar 2010 Posts: 19260

There are a whole sequence of things 'needed', to work with CCS:

1) A book if you are not already a C programmer, and details of some with a bit more 'CCS orientation' have already been given.
2) A copy of K&R. This really is the bible, and 99.5% of things in CCS follow the K&R syntax. Not an easy read, but use it as a reference.
3) The chip's data sheet.
4) The CCS manual.
5) The examples.
6) The .h file for the processor you are using.
7) fuses.txt, readme.txt in the compiler directory.
8) Then _play_ with a chip for real. Sequence, a 'flash LED' program, then a 'Hello world' application.
9) If you have particular problems, first use search, and look in the code library. Something in the order of 99.9% of likely problems have already been covered here.

Hopefully things then start to 'click'.

Best Wishes