As for hardware tools to help you out, I would recommend at the most basic level to have a decent oscilloscope, a multimeter, and a good set of prototyping tools. If you do alot of work on a breadboard, make sure not to cheap out and get a decent one. I first started using a crappy breadboard from no name chinese company that caused me more a headache then anything else when I was starting out. Make sure you have a good soldering iron too, not a cheap one from radioshack or else you will soon regret it.
I wouldn't concern yourself too much with ISP stuff until you get a good understanding of the LPC1768 hardware. There is alot of stuff you can learn before jumping into really complex tasks. What I did in the beginning was start doing simple stuff without the assistance of the mbed libraries. Learn to blink an LED without the use of libraries or other tasks along that line. You will start to become more familiar with the math involved. Also, make sure you have a copy of the datasheet and read it. It's complex to read over, but take your time with and really try to understand it. Re-read sections that are confusing or complicated.
After awhile you will feel alot more comfortable with the hardware, and have a much better understanding of example code. It's almost mind boggling to read over someone elses code when you have no idea what it is exactly the code is supposed to accomplish. That's my methodogy when I'm leaning something new. Doesn't always apply to everyone but it worked in my case.
Feel free to post questions on these forums if you have questions. There are alot of people here that are willing to help and assist. Good luck!
Hello,
When it comes to writing code how do I work out the math, what equiment do you use. Some of the math that is involved seems really hard to do if I was to do it from brain, so what equiment is used anybody.
I have a scope but it is old what else do I need.