Designing and Implementation of PIC Microcontroller Based Educational Kit

The microcontrollers are very common components in modern electronic systems. Their using is so widespread that it is almost impossible to work in electronics without coming across it. They are now providing us with a new way of designing circuits. As a result, less complex applications can be designed and built quickly and cheaply. These devices are low-cost and easy to be programmed. They have traditionally been programmed using assembly as well as high-level languages. In this regard, very complex control algorithms can be developed and implemented on the microcontrollers. The PIC is one of the most popular embedded real-time computers used in educational, commercial and industrial applications. Owing to its ease of programming and easy to interfacing with other peripherals, PIC became successful microcontroller.

This paper is devoted to practical hardware circuit design of educational PIC 16F877A microcontroller including: DC-motor (turn right and left), display a counter using seven-segment, and traffic light control system using LED's. Many other user applications can be developed and implemented to the Kit. Moreover, we develop a PIC simulator using Matlab software package which is capable to test, verify, and validate a user program loaded file. The input loaded file can be written either in high level language (micro-C) or in hexadecimal (H-file) file format. The different outputs of the implemented circuits are shown in virtual load of the developed simulator. The output window of this simulator contains the address of the RAM memory location, data, assembly instruction along with its op-code, and description of each instruction in such a way that the user can understand, keep track and follow the program easily.