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)

Description of the Blue Pill and Curiosity Nano microcontroller boards

This section explains the Blue Pill and Curiosity Nano microcontroller boards, shown in the following photos. The holes from their upper and lower rows will be connected to the header pin, and most of them are the ports. Figure 1.5 shows the Blue Pill microcontroller board showing the STM32 microcontroller chip at the center:

Figure 1.5 – The Blue Pill microcontroller board

Figure 1.5 – The Blue Pill microcontroller board

Figure 1.6 is a closeup of the Curiosity Nano microcontroller board. Notice its PIC16F15376 microcontroller chip shown at the center:

Figure 1.6 – The Curiosity Nano microcontroller board

Figure 1.6 – The Curiosity Nano microcontroller board

The black rhombus components at the center of the boards are the microcontrollers. Both boards from the previous photos do not yet have header pins. The reason is that in some projects, it is necessary to solder wires and electronic components directly to a headless board, although in...