Books and learning

cameron

Hi I only know a very limited amount of knowledge in electronics. I want to learn more I have two questions:

I am going to read the basic stamp books and move forward from their. So far I am reading Whats a micro-controller. I was wondering what basic stamps books should I read and in what order?

my second question is if I read all the basic stamp books what type of knowledge will I have I know this is hard to say but can you give examples.

Thank you!

Cameron

Mike Green

"What's a Microcontroller?" is the intended starting point. Parallax actually has a map of their tutorials (www.parallax.com/Default.aspx?tabid=362). The question for you is "What are you interested in?". What are your goals? The names of the various tutorials tell you something about what they cover. Download them and look at the table of contents and that will give you some idea of what you can learn from each one. Also download the StampWorks Manual. This is intended for use with the Professional Development Board, but the exercises in there are generally applicable and can be done with other boards if you have the few parts needed.

In terms of electronics in general, you might find an amateur radio club in your area. You'll find individuals who are interested in helping others learn about electronics in general and communications in particular. There's a huge amount of cross-over since there's very little modern communications equipment that doesn't have a microcontroller in there somewhere.

cameron

Thanks Mike for your reply [noparse]:)[/noparse]

sylvie369

cameron said...
Hi I only know a very limited amount of knowledge in electronics. I want to learn more I have two questions:

I am going to read the basic stamp books and move forward from their. So far I am reading Whats a micro-controller. I was wondering what basic stamps books should I read and in what order?

All of the various educational manuals are good, and I recommend reading them from front to back.

Avery

Hi cameron,

Within the last year or so, I went through all the Basic Stamp Books, so I hope I can help out. If I had to do it over again, here's how I would run through them.

1. What's a Microcontroller? - This is a obviously a great starting point, a great intro to the Basic Stamp.

2. Understanding Signals - I have a decent electronics background, so this was a little too basic for me, but who wouldn't want an oscilloscope?

3. Basic Analog and Digital - Again, a bit fundamental, but it gives you some ground to start on with how digital devices connect with the analog world.

4. Applied Sensors - This is where the fun really starts, a lot of sensors to play around with and a good introduction to measurement and control.

5. Smart Sensors - Shows you how to interface the Basic Stamp with Smart Sensors (being sensors that have additional circuitry built in). This ones a lot of fun with tons of cool projects.

6. Process Control - I had the most difficulty with this one, but even then it is a well thought out book and like all of them, easily explains even difficult concepts. This one goes through automated production, focusing on control methods, industrial systems and data-logging.

I tried to answer your second question of what you will learn with each course, but I find each books was just a starting point and your mind, once introduced to a concept, goes wild with ideas and you end up teaching yourself just as much as the book does, which I think is what I like most about Parallax... They encourage that. So, what I'm trying to say is... your results may vary.

Of course as Mike suggested above, you have to decide where you want to go with all of this, if you prefer robotics, you may not want to go through all of these and just stick with the robot ones.