What book would you recomend?

Lynxmotion Electronics & Software
1

Hello all,

I figure I would get the ball rolling by posting in this forum. I want to learn how to program the Basic Atom but the user manual realy does not teach you how to program. I can program in Pbasic but I would like to learn how to program the Atom.

Thanks in advance.

2

Hey Mike;
I have little experience with the Atom but I worked with some fellow robotics enthuses who have. I asked them and they requested Programming the Pic Microcontroller with MBasic by: Jack R. Smith. It’s not only a book. It also comes with software that’s easy to learn, its simpler then C or Assembly. It also has a great reference guide for everything about the Atom. It is pretty steep for a low budget. Check it out, if you still need help privately E-mail me and I’ll put you in contact with the engineers that helped me. ([email protected])
RoboNut; Ganglia_1

3

Hi there,
i hope you’re talking about ‘how to control all the stuff in the Atom’ ?..
and not about ‘assembly language’ for PIC programming.
BS2 Basic (pBasic v >= 2.5) use the same syntax as Basic Atom (nearly)
So, first,
you MUST read the manual in order to be able to write a program !..
Why ?, because it’s the only way to know what it can or can’t do.

i have learned only with it !..and reading some examples on the lynxmotion web site…and on the Basic Micro web site too.

Then, you’ll have to learn about differences :

  • you must use Table command instead of the Data command, and warning ! with Basic Atom, the Data command is not like BS2 one, it store Datas in EEPROM (and Table store in Flash memory with the program)…that’s one of the big differences between BS2 pBasic and Basic Atom.
  • serout 15, 6, …] is now : serout p15,i38400,…] (example sending data on PIN 15)
  • Harware ! Hardware is different, so programming is different…you must learn about your Atom harware (inputs, outputs, memory, timers etc…)

Then, it’s easy ! if you can program pBasic you can program Basic Atom.

RIOS Software can generate BS2 pBasic or Basic Micro program (for stand alone system) there’s only little differences…and the biggest is…using Table instead of Data (but you can use data too if you want to use the EEPROM memory)

check your private messages for examples. 8)

4

Thanks alot!

I was just hoping there was a book comparable to the “What’s a microcontroller” book that explains in extreamly simple terms on how to use the commands, with examples. I have the Basic Atom Manual and I atempted to read it from cover to cover but was not understanding it.

5

The Jack R Smith book covers just about everything you’d want to know about MBasic. Just so you know the Atom’s basic(and the AtomPro’s basic) is simple a varient of MBasic. There will be somethings in his book that is specific to programming PICmicro microcontrollers which you can ignore but the majority of it is directly useable on an Atom. It starts out simple and goes all the way to very hard. :slight_smile:

Nathan