Introduction to Microcontroller Programming.

Chris Holden will be taking you through the basics of setting up a microcontroller programming environment and writing your first microcontroller program. We will be comparing Arduino code with microcontroller code, going through what each program is doing and demonstrating many uses for microcontrollers.

The proposed (and very loose) schedule for the tutorial is as follows:

• Brief introduction to electronics (power, ground, flow)
• Applying power and ground to a microchip
• Simple push button/led circui
• Using a power lamp and/or led to "debug" code
• Pull-up and pull-down resistors
• Decoupling and debouncing - using capacitors
• Using crystals to increase/decrease clock speed
• Using transistors to increase/amplify current
• Understanding datasheets and choosing the right microcontroller
• Investigating Oshonsoft BASIC and useful functions for robot building: serial communications servo control
• Building a simple robot

If we have time:

• How to calculate MIPS
• Interrupts - timer1
• Creating a (binary) real-time clock using timer1/counter
• Interfacing with an LCD display to show the time
• Using CCP (compare) module to automatically reset timer1 count instead of polling
• Post and pre-scalers on timer1
• Using a 32.768khz crystal to generate a 1 second interval and a real-time clock

Demonstrations:

• Simple bump-bot using 16F628A chip in place of Arduino board
• USB servo controller either stand-alone or using serial comms as a daughter-board for Arduino
• Game score tracking device - using internal EEPROM and LCD display