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I'd certainly think so. I almost did. I initially learned Java on my own. It's good to know at least one full programming language before diving into embedded programming, I think.

Then got into Arduino programming. There are tutorials for that online. Try communicating with other Chips like a Shift-Register, then something that uses a standard serial protocol (ex. I²C).

When you feel like you have a good grasp of the basics, I recommend getting a development board and doing the same there.

Most Microcontrollers (ARM Cortex Processors at least) are pretty similar: You get a datasheet and a User's Manual. The User's Manual describes a bunch memory addresses, which control the built-in peripherals. There are excellent descriptions of what value will give you what result, but it can be a bit daunting to get your head around it at first.

I recommend a chip that has a so called "Board support Package". I have experience with LPCOPEN. This will make things a bit easier, as you don't have to figure out each register address for each thing and can instead use functions like "Chip_TIMER_Enable(timer_t timer)".

There is a lot more to it, but once you get started, you usually always see the next step.



Neat, thanks for the detailed answer!




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