Best way to get started with programming other thi

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What is the best way to get started with programming things outside of your computer?

I don't mean mainstream things like cell phones with APIs.

Please assume working knowledge of C/C++

Answer 1

To ease yourself into embedded programming, you may want to try using XNA for either the Xbox or the Zune. You won't be doing memory management, but you'll get used to the constrained hardware if you do it on the Zune. Admittedly, it's using C#; but you could always do the programming itself using CIL.

Answer 2

Give SparkFun a shot. For me, servos are what I love to hack around with.

Answer 3

I recently heard about the BUG which calls itself "open source hardware development". Is this the sort of thing you're looking for?

Answer 4

I'd strongly recommend to find an open-source project next to one of your leisure occupations.

First, open-source because the support is mostly very friendly, then open-source because other contributors will have at least one comparable hobby, and then favorite pastime occupation so you can see a need for tools etc.

Two projects I have been playing around with very successfully:

• Music: Rockbox, a firmware replacement for many mp3-players and portable media players.
• Photography: CHDK, a firmware addition to numerous Canon compact still cameras.

Answer 5

Embedded programming is fun.
You can start with things like the Basic stamp or PIC, or since you know c/c++ you can use a real microcrontroller like an Atmel AVR. look at the Butterfly or Arduino kit

The Arduino has an amazing community of projects and info behind it.

Answer 6

I would also recommend AVR (8-bit) and Butterfly or DB101 kit. The main advantage is that there is a GCC compiler available and that you can program them through the Serial Port, without the need of a tool. Inexpensive programming and debugging tools are also available. There is a very strong AVR community in AVRFreaks

Another alternative is ARM7 and ARM9 microcontrollers (32bit). If you are interested in using an OS (ucLinux/FreeRTOS for ARM7, Linux for ARM9), you should go that way. There is of course a free GCC compiler. You can buy kits and tools at Olimex