Book Image

DIY Microcontroller Projects for Hobbyists

By : Miguel Angel Garcia-Ruiz, Pedro Cesar Santana Mancilla
Book Image

DIY Microcontroller Projects for Hobbyists

By: Miguel Angel Garcia-Ruiz, Pedro Cesar Santana Mancilla

Overview of this book

We live in a world surrounded by electronic devices, and microcontrollers are the brains of these devices. Microcontroller programming is an essential skill in the era of the Internet of Things (IoT), and this book helps you to get up to speed with it by working through projects for designing and developing embedded apps with microcontroller boards. DIY Microcontroller Projects for Hobbyists are filled with microcontroller programming C and C++ language constructs. You'll discover how to use the Blue Pill (containing a type of STM32 microcontroller) and Curiosity Nano (containing a type of PIC microcontroller) boards for executing your projects as PIC is a beginner-level board and STM-32 is an ARM Cortex-based board. Later, you'll explore the fundamentals of digital electronics and microcontroller board programming. The book uses examples such as measuring humidity and temperature in an environment to help you gain hands-on project experience. You'll build on your knowledge as you create IoT projects by applying more complex sensors. Finally, you'll find out how to plan for a microcontroller-based project and troubleshoot it. By the end of this book, you'll have developed a firm foundation in electronics and practical PIC and STM32 microcontroller programming and interfacing, adding valuable skills to your professional portfolio.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)

Chapter 1: Introduction to Microcontrollers and Microcontroller Boards

In this chapter, you will learn how to set up fundamental software tools for programming microcontrollers, as well as how to use basic electronic components as a starting point for programming examples for beginners. We will begin with a general introduction to microcontrollers and their definitions, as well as their importance and applications in our everyday lives. We will then go on to give a simplified explanation of the digital and analog electronics necessary for the microcontroller projects carried out in the rest of the chapters. Here, we will also explain the basic equipment that may be used in this book's projects. Finally, we will look at a concise description of the Blue Pill and Curiosity Nano microcontroller boards to be used throughout this book.

Specifically, we will cover the following main topics:

  • Introduction to microcontrollers
  • An overview of analog and digital electronics...