Post by thread:pic learning curve

hey shawn, on the microchip bulletin board, you wrote: *Can somebody steer me to a book or resource that'll get me started *in learning assembly code ? I've got all of the PIC tools, chips, *books and even a hardware design that a PIC will evntually plug *into. What I'm missing is the specific knowledge about Assembly, *especially with regard to formatting , etc. I'd hate to burn up *a bunch of PICs trying to figure out what I'm doing. * *Any and all help is certainly appreciated. * *Shawn Dienhart *805 545-4481 * i am presently in the same position you were in (even have target hardware, etc), and i was wondering if you could give me a few pointers to overcome help me climb the learning curve (now that you are a seasoned expert :) i have tried to familiarize myself with the 16c84 assembly language (previous experience in c, etc), but i am still confused as to the proper formatting for assembly (my attempts thus far result in mpalc error messages)... i have been trying to write a simple program to turn on and/or blink an led on portb0 (sort of a pic "hello world" program) and was going to work up to including use of subroutine calls and implementing the real time counter and the appnote serial routine... so, any words o' wisdom or other guidance? thanks, jory bell

Jory: I'm glad you sent your message via the Internet, the local connection to the PIC BBS is no longer working (I don't know why), so I haven't been logging on there. Anyway, it appears that you might be at the same juncture I was a few months ago. I am a long way from really knowing Assembly code or the PIC. However, by charting a certain goal, I have managed to "pick" up a few things that'd gotten me started in the right direction. Just as you have noted, I too had hardware ready and waiting for a PIC to be "plugged in". So, here's what I did: 1. Sent out as many "help" requests as I could (looks like you have already started). 2. Sorted out the "help" responses and used the "best qualified" advice. 3. Sought (and got) a lot of help building the application code (Assembly) that met the needs of my hardware (cuz' I understand the hardware already). 4. Plugged in my PIC programmer to a computer and examined the code with a simulator (PICSIM), to better understand what was going on in the PIC. This was probably my biggest learning experience yet. 5. Assembled the code (from ASCII text to the various formats (ASM, BIN, etc.), and studied what each looks like/is used for, etc. 6. Programmed a PIC (OTP type). 7. Put my hardware on a Proto-Board and plugged in the PIC to simply "discover" what happens (it worked, mostly). 8. Fooled with the (ASCII) code and re-assembled it until the end result met my desires (several times through this step). So that's what I have done. I am not yet comfortable with the code/programming, but I have learned that pure persistence will make up for a lot of the programming knowledge I don't already have. As you know, most of the PIC manuals, etc., look like they're written in some cryptic code. Well, they are. My initial stumbling blocks were almost too simple for others to grasp. Things like ....what format is the code supposed to be in when I type out my program in ASCII text before assembling it, should I used the PIC code or somebody else's (like Parallax's set of instructions), how do I know how much code fits into the finite memory space, and so forth. I got answers to these questions by doing the things noted here. My "trial and error" has helped me complete my first PIC project. But as I've said, I had an individual help me put together a relatively complex assembly program. My next big step (which I'm working on) is to apply what I've learned to put together another program from ground zero. Since I'm mostly into hardware, I was a little uncomfortable in using the best advice I received about programming PICS, "just go for it" (software generally doesn't make any smoke). Any fatal errors will show up using PICSIM or at the window of a Volt meter. Don't hesitate to scratch me back a note whenever you want, we'll both likely learn something. Regards, Shawn Dienhart spam_OUTSJD2TakeThisOuTPGE.COM 805-545-4481