Hi from Chuck

[sdudley]

Hello. My name is Stacy, I am also married and have one son.

I've been bothering Brad for about a year now but I am still very much a novice when it comes to programming. I took three programming classes (visual basic, C++, C++ advanced) and I haven't used them since!

I have been interested in microcontrollers for years but it wasn't until I ran across this site and found the 8x8 Game System kit that I really decided to get involved. Brad has been a BIG help!

I really like programming these chips in assembly but someday might venture out and try C.

Anywhoo...

I have done a couple projects that are very basic and easy. I think they would be somewhat helpful to people who have no experience. Unfortunately, I have been so busy at work that I have not been able to participate much here on the forums, sorry!

If I ever get back to a 40 hour work week, I'll be a little more active... or should I say "RETROactive"!

[brad]

I have only just now put two and two together!

Arduino is a board containing a microcontroller right?

I never really understood what it was before.

I would have thought that it would be more straight forward to buy a cheap microcontroller, breadboard and a programmer - certainly more versatile anyway.

Speaking of PS2 controllers, I bought two wireless ones on ebay and they cost approx $20 all up for both of them including postage - bargain!

[brad]

What exactly is a bootloader?

[sdudley]

What exactly is a bootloader?

It automatically loads your boots!

[brad]

What exactly is a bootloader?

It automatically loads your boots!

This might do the job:

[brad]

Ah, I get it now.

It basically makes it all the more easy for a beginner to program something right? because most of the work has already been done.

[Garth]

The bootloader idea comes from "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" or getting yourself going without help. The computer needs instructions to do anything at all, but how does it get them if, without having them first, it doesn't know how to get them? Enter the bootstrap loader, enough of a program in ROM to tell it how to find the source of the operating system or other program, and load it so now it can do something actually useful. I'm not familiar with the Arduino, but I think what Chuck is saying is that it has a bootloader already there to make it easier to get programs in, and it may have a user interface to make the process easier for the inexperienced user. OTOH if you start with an unprogrammed microcontroller, you have to start totally from scratch, write the very basics, and use a hardware programmer to get a program into it. It won't help itself (or you) do that at all. It's about as dumb as a brick until you teach it the basics. If you put the entire program that you want to run in the ROM though, it powers up and starts without needing to load anything further. I've brought a lot of products to market with PIC microcontrollers working this way; but there is absolutely no help from the microcontroller to get started.

[brad]

Thanks for the info Garth. Now that i have been playing a little with Arduino and amicus18 i have a much better understanding of bootloaders. Although i had no idea where the term came from