Analog to Digital Converter Using PIC16f877A Microcontroller - Beginners Guide

What is meant by Analog to Digital Converter (ADC)? An ADC converts analog signal to it's corresponding digital signal.

How to convert analog signal to digital signal? CircuitsGallery.com has already posted ADC using LM324 IC, in that ADC tutorial I had already explained Analog to Digital Converter how it works.

While dealing with Microcontrollers we may face many situations where we have to use ADCs (Digital voltmeter, ammeter etc.). In such situations it's difficult to set up a separate ADC hardware circuit for our project.

So How to Use Analog to Digital Converter (ADC module) in PIC microchip microcontroller? PIC microcontrollers have inbuilt ADC module making easy Analog to Digital conversion.

In this article I’m gonna show you how to make use of ADC module in PIC16F877A microcontroller with the help of Mikro C Pro compiler and Proteus 8 simulator.

At the end of this tutorial, I did the video demonstration and simulation about analog to digital conversion using PIC16f877a.

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LCD interface with Microcontroller PIC: Beginner’s guide

How to interface LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) display module to PIC microcontroller? LCD is a passive component, that is it does not make any light but just modifies the light passing through it for alphanumeric displays. LCD is exclusively manufactured to be used with microcontrollers, which means that it cannot be triggered by usual IC circuits. This embedded program shows how to connect PIC to LCD display module with microcontroller programming.

Here 16x2 LCD interfaces with the PIC microcontroller. This type of LCD screen can display 2 lines with 16 characters each. Every character consists of 5x8 or 5x11 dot matrix. It can display all the letters of alphabet, Greek alphabet, mathematical symbols, punctuation marks etc. It is also likely to display symbols prepared by the user. Other positive features consist of automatic message shift (left and right), cursor appearance, LED back light etc. Interfacing LCD to microcontroller is quite simple program for beginners and easy to understand.

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DC Motor Interfacing With PIC Microcontroller Using L293 Motor Driver IC

L293d is an H Bridge bidirectional motor driver IC used to interface DC motor and stepper motors to Microcontrollers.

CircuitsGallery.com already discussed about the working principle of L293 IC with an example of bidirectional motor driver circuit.

It is very easy to make a DC motor control using microcontroller. In this article I’m gonna show you the interfacing of DC motor with PIC16F877A microcontroller using L293D motor driver with the help of Mikro C coding and Proteus 8 simulation. Basically it is a bidirectional motor driver circuit with PIC MCU.

This is the most common circuit in robotics engineering. I’m sure this article will be helpful for PIC MCU beginners.

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PWM DC Motor Speed Controller Circuit Using PIC16F877A Microcontroller

In our last PIC online tutorial we have covered PWM generation using PIC Microcontroller. As I told earlier PWM has wide application in electronics and robotics engineering.

In this article I’m gonna show you one of the important applications of PWM in Robotics, it is called Pulse Width Modulation motor speed control.

The method of generation of PWM signal is the same as before and this signal is applied to the Enable terminal of L293 motor driver IC. L293 is an H bridge motor controller IC capable of driving 2 Motor loads at a time.

Below is the detailed description of dc motor speed control using PWM technique with Proteus simulation and video demonstration.

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[Simple] Generating Pulse Width Modulation using PIC Microcontroller - Mikro C & Proteus Simulation

How to generate Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) using PIC microcontroller? This is going to be a continuation of our microcontroller online tutorial series. This article covers the detailed explanation and simulation of PWM generation using PIC16F877A microcontroller.

What is a Pulse Width Modulator? A PWM has series of pulses with variable pulse width. We have used Mikro C pro for pic microcontroller programming because it has inbuilt library functions to do many operations especially in PWM, this will simplify the user headache.

The simulation is done with Proteus design suite. In my previous article we have already discussed How to Simulate PIC Microcontroller in Proteus?

PWM has wide applications in automation such as DC motor speed control circuit , generating analog signals from digital signals and LED brightness control.

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How to Simulate PIC Microcontroller in Proteus Design Suite 8

This is our PIC Microcontroller tutorial series. We have already discussed basic beginners guide to PIC. Now let’s see how to simulate the PIC microcontroller?

PIC simulation is the important step that you should do before practical implementation of any microcontroller projects.

As Circuits Gallery covers topic of Microcontrollers especially with PIC (Peripheral Interface Controller), this guide shows how to simulate PIC in one of the best PIC microcontroller simulation software ‘Proteus Design Suite Version 8’.

A simulation software can interact with the embedded project with screen indicators for example LED, LCD displays, switches and buttons. The simulation takes place in real time.

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Real Time Clock Circuit using Mircocontroller

Here I am going to teach you a simple circuit of 24 hour digital clock display that can also be used in 12 hour format by simply loading the corresponding clock program. You can download the hex files for both 12 hour format and 24 hour time system from the link given in this article. Coming to the technical part, main component of the circuit is a PIC16f84A microchip; it generates the one second clock to run the device and also controls the seven segment display. Three push buttons are also provided to set the time; one for reset by which you can reset the complete circuit as it is connected to the reset pin of PIC microcontroller. Other two push buttons are for setting hour and minute. By Pressing these button continuously you can increment hour and minutes.

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How to Build your Own USB PIC Programmer?

This DIY PIC programmer is a continuation of our PIC programming basics tutorial. By using this USB PIC programmer, you can program microchip PIC series of 10F, 12F, 16F, 18F, 24F, 30F. This is also an EEPROM programmer as it supports 12Cxx EEPROM. The main component of this PIC microcontroller programming circuit is a PIC182550 microcontroller which controls the overall circuit. Serial port PIC programmers are the widely used PIC chip programmer Kit, but since laptops have no RS232 ports they require an USB to RS232 converter.

Recommended for you:

• PIC microcontroller Beginner's guide: Basic connection circuit 
• How to burn or program PIC Microcontroller? 

Now one of the main advantages of this circuit is that it does not require any external power supply, instead it uses USB power. It generates programming voltage of 13V through voltage multipliers. Linux PIC programmer software is also available for burning. You can program micro controller like pic16f84a, pic16f877a, pic18f4550, pic16f628a etc. and make your micro controller programming easier.

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What is Hexa decimal? Why Hexadecimal Often Used in Assembly Language?

What is hexadecimal? Hexa decimal numbers are commonly used in microcontrollers, microprocessors etc. The term 'Hexa Decimal' indicates Hexa (six) and Decimal (ten) i.e. Sixteen. That is the base-16 number system.

At the very launch of computer expansion it was realized that people had many complexities in managing binary numbers. For this reason, a new number system using 16 different symbols was developed. It is called hexadecimal number system and consists of the ten digits and 6 alphabets, i.e. (0, 1, 2, 3, …. 9, A, B, C, D, E and F).

In this article we will cover why is hexadecimal used, binary to hexadecimal conversion and hexadecimal to decimal conversion table.

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LED Dancing light using PIC Microcontroller: Beginner's guide

LED running light project can be easily implemented using microcontrollers especially with microchip PIC microcontroller. This is a simple microcontroller project using micro PIC16f877A with a neat circuit diagram. PIC16F877A is a 40 pin IC, LEDs are connected at port B. These LEDs twinkle according to the microcontroller C program providing a dancing effect to the viewer.

Mikro C compiler is used for PIC programming. The simulation of this circuit from i-St@r lab is shown in this article.The Mikro C is a popular C language compiler for PIC16F8xxx family and it has wide varieties of inbuilt functions (library functions). You can download it from the Mikro C website.

This microcontroller project program is easy for those who wish to explore the fundamentals of embedded microcontroller programming from the PIC microcontroller MCU. You can simply realize this program if you have done LED interfacing with PIC microcontroller.

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LED Interfacing with PIC Microcontroller: Embedded C program with circuit

How to interface LED with Microchip's PIC microcontroller? How to connect LEDs to a PIC microcontroller? LED interfacing is the stepping stone for microcontroller development. This is a simple embedded program for PIC 16F877A to interface LEDs, suitable for beginners who wish to study basics of embedded microcontroller programming. The program is developed through Micro C compiler, one of the best solutions for embedded programming in PIC family. It is compatible for Windows XP and Windows 7 platforms and comes with internal burning tools. This PIC circuit is a beginner circuit, do this PIC project to explore the world of microcontrollers.

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How to burn or program PIC Microcontroller?

How to program or burn .HEX file to a PIC microcontroller? The method of transferring compiled .HEX (machine code) file to the memory of microcontroller using microcontroller burning software is called burning or programming of a microcontroller. Once a program is burned into the memory of the microcontroller, it then works with respect to the program logic.

What is a compiler? Which compiler is suitable for PIC microcontroller environment? 

A compiler is a software like ‘Mikro C’ which provides an environment to develop embedded program, test, debug and build .Hex for the microcontroller. And for the second question, surely I can say ‘Mikro C Pro’ is the best microcontroller software for PIC family. The advantage of ‘Mikro C’ is that it has so many inbuilt functions to perform different tasks along with microcontroller programming software (Boot loader- burning tool or burning software). It is the better Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for PIC family of microcontrollers and allows C language for code development. Finally the compiler converts the embedded C codes in to .HEX file.

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How to write embedded C project in Mikro C to build .HEX file

Are you an electronics hobbyist? I will help you to write your first embedded C program. ‘Mikro C pro’ is one of the popular embedded C software for PIC microcontroller. It is more user-friendly and has a set of inbuilt functions and commands. After compiling a microcontroller program in C using ‘Mikro C pro’,you will be able to generate .HEX files from the program codes. 

What is .HEX file? .HEX file is a machine code that corresponds to our C language codes. Only microcontroller and microprocessor can interpret the .HEX files.  After building a .HEX file, you need to write the .HEX file to the memory of micro controller. This process is called burning of microcontroller.

This article will give you an idea about getting started with ‘Mikro C’ programming for microcontrollers and how to build .HEX files.

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PIC microcontroller Beginner's guide: Basic connection circuit

What is a pic microcontroller? The PIC microcontroller is a low cost 'computers on a chip' manufactured by Microchip. They allow electronic designers and hobbyists impart intelligence and logic to a single chip for special purpose applications and products. The PIC microcontroller programming is done using the popular software ‘Mikro C’. This powerful yet easy to program into a 40-pin package is upwards compatible with the PIC16C5X, PIC12CXXX and PIC16C7X devices.

How to program microcontroller?
Which is the program for microcontroller? These are the commonly asked questions by microcontroller beginners. Here we are going to explore the world of microcontroller, microcontroller programming and embedded systems with PIC16F877A. It is has five ports- port A, port B, port C, port D and port E.

An embedded system design is easy with the help of embedded C programming. Let’s start studying about microcontroller and embedded C programming for microcontroller PIC using Mikro C Pro. This article deals with the basic connection diagram and a LED blinking program of PIC microcontroller.

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Getting started with PIC Microcontroller Programming

What is a PIC Microcontroller? PIC (Peripheral Interface Controller) is a microcontroller family developed by the Microchip Technology. It plays important role in embedded systems.

Low cost, serial programming capability, reprogramming of the flash memory, availability of free developing tools, large user database, etc. are some of the PIC microcontroller features which make it a best microcontroller.

How to program a pic microcontroller? PIC microcontroller programming is easy with C language. Mikro C is simple C compiler for this Microchip microcontroller.

PIC In System Programmer (ISP) is an essential circuit to flash the memory of microcontroller. This article deals about PIC microcontroller, compiler Mikro C and USB PIC programmer circuit. We are planned to provide an online PIC microcontroller training course via CircuitsGallery.com.

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