Thread: Help with finding video tutorials for programming microcontrollers in C

  1. #1
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    Help with finding video tutorials for programming microcontrollers in C

    Hi everybody. Im new to this discussion board and hope I can get some ideas on a problem Im having. Im trying to find video tutorials online about programming microcontrollers in C, embedded systems. I looked on youtube and there are some but most of what I found is on the PIC microcontroller. What Im using is the Basic Atom Pro 28. I dont have that much experience in C language so should I first find a tutorial on this. Then maybe from there find a tutorial on embedded systems. I do have the data sheets for the Basic Atom Pro if that matters. If youtube is my best bet does anybody have any good ideas on what to search for and see what comes up. I know youtube does have tutorials from different university courses (i.e. computer science or computer software). Im just trying to combine these ideas and find something online. I built a mobile robotic arm and now trying to program it.
    Thanks.

  2. #2
    Registered User claudiu's Avatar
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    I think you should learn some basic C before moving on with your embedded systems programming. To do that, you can find plenty of tutorial topics on Cprogramming.com the site that hosts this forum.

    I believe we also have some members here with more experience than myself in embedded systems. Perhaps they could point you in the right direction.
    1. Get rid of gets(). Never ever ever use it again. Replace it with fgets() and use that instead.
    2. Get rid of void main and replace it with int main(void) and return 0 at the end of the function.
    3. Get rid of conio.h and other antiquated DOS crap headers.
    4. Don't cast the return value of malloc, even if you always always always make sure that stdlib.h is included.

  3. #3
    and the hat of int overfl Salem's Avatar
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    Video tutorials are even more useless than attending lectures, but at least with the latter you can actually ask a question along the way.

    Downloading gigabytes of video guff just to get a bit of information that would fit onto a single page of text (and take several hours to get there) seems poor use of your time / money / bandwidth / disk space.


    Learn by reading books, online tutorials, writing programs and asking questions on forums.
    If you dance barefoot on the broken glass of undefined behaviour, you've got to expect the occasional cut.
    If at first you don't succeed, try writing your phone number on the exam paper.

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    And I agree with claudiu.

    Don't learn C on a microcontroller. It will teach you all kinds of bad habits.

    We do many ugly things in embedded due to hardware constraints. You don't want to do them until you are comfortable with "clean" C, and can tell between ugly code out of necessity, and clean code.

    Learn it on a PC first.

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    I like the video tutorials - not a replacement for a good book, but they are something different and interesting.

    Don't forget to Google for forums that are devoted to micro-controllers!

    Good luck with your arm. Don't let it sucker punch you.

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    Thanks for the responses so far. I understand when you mean by not learning C language on microcontrollers/embedded systems. I graduated a couple of weeks ago with a BS in EET. What I thought was odd is they only taught Java for my degree program, didnt start out in any C language. Last night I was going through my books and I found a C++ language for beginners that I bought a couple of yrs. ago. My question is it a good idea to skip C and go into the C++ for beginners book that I found? Whats the main difference between the two?

  7. #7
    C++ Witch laserlight's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by zman35
    Last night I was going through my books and I found a C++ language for beginners that I bought a couple of yrs. ago. My question is it a good idea to skip C and go into the C++ for beginners book that I found?
    If your intention is to eventually program on microcontrollers/embedded systems, then you might as well stick with C as you may find it to be more immediately useful. You can learn C++ later.

    Quote Originally Posted by zman35
    Whats the main difference between the two?
    They are different programming languages with a common heritage and basic syntax such that some valid C programs are valid C++ programs (and vice versa).
    Quote Originally Posted by Bjarne Stroustrup (2000-10-14)
    I get maybe two dozen requests for help with some sort of programming or design problem every day. Most have more sense than to send me hundreds of lines of code. If they do, I ask them to find the smallest example that exhibits the problem and send me that. Mostly, they then find the error themselves. "Finding the smallest program that demonstrates the error" is a powerful debugging tool.
    Look up a C++ Reference and learn How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

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