S.G. Vulcan » Books

Another free e-book about Microcontrollers

silviu — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:09:39 +0000

Mikroelektronica, beign the nice guys they are released another free e-book about programming PIC microcontrollers this time it’s about programming in C. The title is, unsurprisingly:

PIC Microcontrollers – Programming in C

What are microcontrollers, anyway? Electronics built in one single chip capable of controlling a small submarine, a crane or an elevator… It’s up to you to decide what you want them to do and dump a program containing appropriate instructions into the chip.

Author: Milan Verle

You can read the book online (or print it for that matter) at http://www.mikroe.com/en/books/pic-books/mikroc/ .

You can also order there the printed version of the book accompanied by a CD. Should you find the book useful you might want to consider buying it in order to support them.

PIC Microcontrollers – Programming in CPIC

Grokking the Gimp

silviu — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:52:59 +0000

Since we were talking about free e-books I thought I tell you about another free e-book. You probably know about it but anyways: Grokking the Gimp is a free book by Carey Bunks. It’s an advanced book covering A LOT of what you can do with Gimp.

For any of you who are at least a little bit interested in graphics Gimp should already be on your radar. I know that Adobe Photoshop is more advanced, but I also realized working with both that for at least 90% of the tasks (and for my webdesign and graphics design needs 100%) is good enough.

A free e-book from Texas Instruments – LED Reference Design Cookbook

silviu — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:23:38 +0000

The guys over at Make were kind enough to signal this free e-book from Texas instruments.

It is a 41-page “cookbook” of circuit designs and application notes for TI’s LED-related components. Makes for an interesting read even if you don’t use TI’s stuff.

What’s inside:

Small LCD Backlight with Digital and PWM Dimming
Small LCD Backlight from LDO
Medium-Size LCD Backlight
Large-LCD Backlight Driver
Constant Current Driver with PFC
Boost Controller with PFC
Replacement for Standard
Lightbulb
25-Watt Dimmable Driver
with PFC
100-Watt, Constant-Current,
Non-Isolated Driver with PFC
110-Watt, Constant-Current,
Isolated Driver with PFC
10-Watt, Green-Mode PWM
LED Driver
Wireless-Controlled Triple
LED Drive
Low Voltage Buck Boost for
LED Torch
Boost Driver with Integrated
Power Switch
Nonsynchronous Boost LED
Driver
Wide Input DC Voltage Range
SEPIC Driver
3-Watt Solar Lantern

LED Reference Design Cookbook [PDF]

A free book about PIC Microcontrollers

silviu — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:22:59 +0000

As you might have noticed from my posts I am always in for a free lunch.

So, this would be free lunch for your brain. Even if you don’t use or plan to use Mikroelektronika products you might want to know that they have a free book about PIC microcontrolers on their website: here.

It’s not tied up to any of their development systems but it does focus on the PIC16F887, and even if the English used is not the best possible it still gets the job done.

It’s a good read, especially for beginners. It has clear color diagrams, examples, schematics and much more. It’s been really helpful for me.

Again, if you missed the link you can read the full book for free here.

Star Trek S.C.E.

silviu — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:58:22 +0000

Have Tech, Will Travel is an anthology collecting the first four books from Pocket Books' original eBook series about the Starfleet Corps of Engineers, depicting the missions of a rapid response team of SCE taking place during the 2370s. Several canon characters and concepts were included in the stories, but with new details not mentioned in televised Star Trek of the era.

I have recently finished reading every novel in the Star Trek S.C.E. series (Star Fleet Corps of Engineers). Being a Star Trek fan I read and like pretty much every Star Trek novell that’s out there. But from the ones I read I found SCE very, very good. Nice characters developing in the course of over 60 novels, unexpected plot turns and more.

Memory Alpha says:

Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers (or Star Trek: SCE) is a novel series which follows a rapid-response team of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. First released as eBooks by Pocket Books, the books are also collected in paperback. It was conceived and created by Keith R.A. DeCandido and John J. Ordover.

In September 2006, DeCandido announced that, as of #67, the series would be renamed Star Trek: Corps of Engineers and the numbering reset, in an attempt to bring new readers to the line. In addition, the reprints in hardcopy – starting with Aftermath – would be in trade paperback format, allowing six to eight eBooks to be included per volume. The number of eBooks published per year would be reduced from twelve to six, to allow other ranges to be developed.

It was announced in March 2008 that original eBook publications from Pocket Books would go on hiatus following the end of Slings and Arrows – trade paperback reprints of the existing eBooks would continue.

If you havent, I reccomend you start with the Have Tech, Will Travel series (the first four novels), and I bet you’ll be hooked !

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Have_Tech,_Will_Travel

Computer Networks, Fourth Edition by Andrew S. Tanenbaum

silviu — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 08:34:52 +0000

To most of you this is probably old news, but if you didn’t read it go out buy a copy and read it ! I thought I knew pretty much about networks, but after I read this book I knew a lot more. There’s no way around it. If you are involved with computer networks this is a must.

It’s clearly written, simple explained, and one of the technical books I have enjoyed the most.

Here’s a preview.