This site is for anyone who is the least bit curious about monitoring and controlling such things as motors, lights and switches, or recording and playing everything from sound to the arm position on a robot.

It's for anyone who likes to learn by doing. You will not only read about controlling motors, lights and sound, you will control real motors, real lights, and really record and play information.

It's for anyone who finds intriguing the prospect of controlling a robot or a toy or an appliance by means of a computer embedded in it or, for that matter, a whole factory or space station.

It's for anyone who has done little with computers beyond clicking a mouse button, as well as the professional looking for source code.

It's for anyone who wants to reach as far as the imagination will take them.

This site is for teachers who would like to give their students some interesting, hands-on experience.

It's for people who are considering a career change but don't want to suffer the high cost and time of a formal education before knowing for sure that this is the career they would actually look forward to every morning.

It's for programmers who would like to know how to read schematics and construct hardware and hardware people who would like to know how to write programs to control their hardware.

Please don't think electronics and programming have to be hard. Far from it. Read what others say about this site to get an idea of what the experience is like. Besides, it costs nothing but a little time to go through everything here (well, maybe more than just a little time unless you can read 240 pages really fast). It's not heavy reading, either. It's designed to be accessable by anyone with a knowledge of basic mathematics. You're ready if you can add subtract, multiply and divide. The earlier sections include self-tests that permit checking progress or skipping sections already understood.

Please note that the board is no longer offered. It has not been offered for some time now. It's ISA and that and the computers that have ISA are out of date. I now offer an alternative through Jameco Electronics. One is called the Listening Tree and uses an Arduino UNO, a small, embedded microcontroller board for experimenters that can and is actually being used in real systems.

I have a new route a person can take to learn the material offered using the Arduino UNO. It's called The Arduino Route. See it here

Let me know what you think.

The tutorial examples will work on most operating systems that allow direct access to ports (more on ports later). Linux, DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me will work, among others. To use Linux, follow the guidelines at the Linux I/O port programming mini-HOWTO. Direct port access is not permitted by NT, 2000, XP and some other operating systems. It's still possible to get at the ports however, by using special procedures that add a layer you can go through. Experienced programmers and brave beginners can look in Programmer's Heaven for information on gaining such access.

The optional hardware needed to provide an interactive, hands-on experience is available as an inexpensive experimenter's board I designed for the purpose. A small picture is shown at right. It plugs into one of the ISA slots of any XT or better PC (see Ask Jeeves for a brief description of the ISA slot). Don't have an ISA slot? Inexpensive computers that do are easy to get -- see below.

The board has more than enough capability for experimentation. Its inputs and outputs are very much like those typically found on a microcontroller, which is similar to a microprocessor, the main computational device in a desktop computer, but with extra inputs and outputs to allow it to listen to and talk to the outside world. A bare board is only $20, and there are discounts for quantity. Kits are available for $50 (plus shipping, etc.), and assembled boards can also be ordered. You can even download this whole site so you can view it off-line for your own personal use by ordering a zip archive file containing all of the site files for only $8.55. With it, you get free update files as the site is updated.

You can take the trip without the hardware, but the impact will be considerably less. It's much easier to understand the effect of the programming if it can be directly experienced. The multi-sensory impact of, for example, writing a program to control a motor or to record and play back the sound of one's own voice, then seeing it actually happen is huge.

Download the step-by-step instructions for assembling a board here to see how easy building one really is. The instructions even include a section on how to solder. The document is a 2 Meg Word97 file. Those who don't have Word97 can download a free reader from Microsoft by clicking here:

As a bonus, the board will work with Super Start. Super Start is free software that uses the hardware to help very young children get the basic core knowledge they need for a good beginning in education. That means the board can serve a dual purpose for people with infants and small children. You can also download the Super Start source code if you wish.

Need a computer? Schools and non-profits can get free computers at one of the computer recycling sites. Else, try Ebay. Just be sure the computer you find has an ISA slot available. It might be necessary to email the seller to make sure. Even computers with slots taken up with things such as modems and sound cards can be used. They are not needed and can be removed to make room for the board used in this tutorial.

Ebay search for Pentiums with ISA

Some of the computers offered in Ebay have had their hard drives erased. No problem. I have seen DOS there for around $5 -- Ebay search for MS-DOS. Don't worry if you don't know how to use DOS. You will learn enough to get by. Of course there's no need to get DOS if the machine already has an operating system on it that will work.

Table Of Contents

Sections are always being added and/or updated. Please let me know if you would like to get update notices. Please Note: I NEVER release any email addresses!!

Click here to be removed from update notification.

You can also join the LEARN-C discussion group. It permits users of the tutorial and/or board to discuss experiences. There are two ways to join. Click here to subscribe by email, or here to go to the group site to subscribe.

Please let others know about this site. It's easy to do. Just click here to send an e-mail about this website to people on your list who might find the tutorial useful (which, of course, is everyone on your list). The subject and body of the email will already be entered, but you can modify them as you wish.

Data lines, bits, nibbles, bytes, words, binary and HEX
Passing information around in a computer and the hardware.

Jump To Self-Test For Data lines, bits, nibbles, bytes, words, binary and HEX

• data lines
• bits
• nibbles
• bytes
• words
• the numbering systems used in programming

Boolean Logic as it relates to programming as well as the hardware. How to figure out if it's on or off and how to turn it on and off.

Jump To The Self-Test For Boolean Logic

• AND
• OR
• NAND
• NOR
• XOR
• NOT
• and the C Language expressions used for the above and what happens when they are applied