31 March 2008

Welcome!

I first became interested in embedded systems while working for a broadcaster in Australia. While working for a software company in London, we needed to develop a motion activated remote control - and with nobody else willing to take it on, I thought, how hard can it be?

Microcontroller programming is a lot of fun - there's something nice and clean about such small, simple environments. You can do things with microcontrollers that interact with the real world, LEDs, LCDs, buttons, GPS devices, temperature sensors, RF connections and more. After a while, you start to realise how many things around the home are actually run by microcontrollers... They really do run the planet these days.

In any case, I created this blog to post the things I do and share the code I write.

My microcontroller of choice is the Microchip PIC, which has a lot of support out there on the net. If someone hasn't got the code you need already, then there's bound to be something close.

I use the Sourceboost development environment in C. It's a great compiler with fantastic support from the guys to made it. All the examples here use it.

Hopefully this web site will help you on your embedded adventure. I've had a lot of fun building little things that do stuff - I hope you will too.