Introduction to PIC16f877A

Hello, friends, I hope you all are enjoying your life. In today’s tutorial, we will have a detailed look at Introduction to PIC16f877A. Due to its low price and easy access, it is mostly used PIC microcontroller. You can buy this module from any electronic hope in the range of three to four dollars.

Most engineering students were asking about this important microcontroller so I am going to share a detailed post about this controller. In today’s post, we will have a detailed look at its working, pinout, operation, applications, and features. So let’s get started with Introduction to PIC16f877A.

Table of Contents

The PIC16F877A belongs to the PICmicro group of the controller and is now very commonly used in different engineering starting from basic to a professional level.

The usage of flash memory allows us to write and remove any program according to our requirements and times.
As this module has a large space in the memory unit generally eight-kilo words and three sixty bytes of RAM which allows it to store and perform more than one function at a time.
There are forty pinout exits in this module so it can be used in numerous electronic projects.
There are 5 ports assembled on this module first is A, the second is B, the third is C, the fourth is D, and fifth is E.
There are 3 timers created on this module one is sixteen-bit and the other 2 is eight-bit.
It is compatible with serial, parallel, and I2C communication protocols.

Features of PIC16F877A

These are some important features of PIC16F877A which are denoted here.
It comprises of the eight-bit central process unit.
There are fort inputs of different category exits on this module.
Its functioning voltage is in the range of two to 5,5 volts.
There is thirty-three inputs and output pinouts exit on this mode.
It has an analog-to-digital converter which comprises of eight-channel of ten bits,
Two comparators exist in this model.
Like other controllers, it does not have any digital-to-analog converter.
The commonly used communication protocol in this module is UART, SPI, I2C MSSP.
It has an exterior oscillator of twenty megahertz frequency.
It does not consist of an inner oscillator.

It has flash memory which is programmable and has a range of fourteen-kilo byte.
The speed of its central processing unit is five MIPS.
The space of its random access memory is three sixty-eight bytes.

Pinout of PIC16F877A

There are forty common pinouts of this module which are discussed here with the details.

MCLR/Vpp

Through this pinout, we program the controller normally PicKit is used to program it.

RA0/AN0

It is zero pinouts of Port A and also analog.

RA1/AN1

It is the first pinout of port A and the first analog pinout.

RA2/AN2/Vref-

It is the second pinout of port A.

RA3/AN3/Vref+

It is the third pinout of port A.

RA4/T0CKI/C1out

This is the fourth pinout of port A.

RE0/RD/AN5

It is zero pinouts of Port E.

RE1/WR/AN6

It is the first pinout of PORT E.

RE2/CS/AN7

It is the seventh pinout of Port E.

Vdd

At this pinout, the ground terminal is attached.

Vss

At this pinout plus five volts are provided.

OSC1/CLKI

At this pinout, an exterior oscillator clock is given,

RC0/T1OSO/T1CKI

This is the zero pinouts of port C.

RC1/T1OSI/CCP2

This is the first pinout of port C or also called pulse width modulation pinout.

RC2/CCP1

This is the second pinout of port C.

RC3/SCK/SCL

This is the third pinout of port c.

RD0/PSP0

This is zero pinouts of Port D.

RD1/PSPI

This is the first pinout of port D.

RD2/PSP2

It is the second pinout of port D.

RD3/PSP3

It is the third pinout of port D.

RC4/SDI/SDA

This is a serial data input pinout.

RC5/SDO

This is serail data ouput pinnput.

RC6/Tx/CK

This transmitter pinout of this controller.

RC7/Rx/DT

This is the receiver pinout of the controller.

RD4/PSP4

This is the fourth pinout of port D.

RD5/PSP5

This is the fifth pinout of Port D.

RD6/PSP6

It is six pinouts of port D.

RD7/PSP7

This is the seventh pinout of port D.

Vss

At this pinout, positive five volts are given.

Vdd

It is ground pinout.

RB0/INT

This zero pinout of port B or exterior interrupt is given at this pinout.

RB1

This is the second pinout of port B.

PIC16F877A Microcontroller Architecture

The most common parts of PIC16F877A are the central processing unit, input and output ports, memory unit analog to digital converter, timers, serial communication protocol, etc.
In the below figure block diagram of the PIC16F877A structure is shown.

CPU

There are different process that occurs through the central processing unit of the controller such as arithmetic operation, logical operation. The CPU also makes pull-like arrangement between random access memory and other components of the controller.
Arithmetic and logic operations are done by the ALU of the CPU. Different types of instruction are stored in the memory unit of CPU.
Through the memory unit, we can define the program size of the microcontroller. There is one important part of the controller which is the control unit which operates communication buses among the central processing unit and other parts of the controller.

RAM

The operating speed of the controller is defined by the size of the RAM. The ram comprises of registers that perform certain operations.
The commonly used registers are of two types.
The first one is GPR and the second is SFR.
GPR performs general operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc. They can handle data up to eight bits.
GPR does the read and write function through the user. For their function, they required certain types of software.
For complicated functions, SFR registers are used and they can handle data up to sixteen bits through these registers user can read instructions and can not write.
So the function performed by these registers are defined at the time of their creation.

ROM

This memory unit is used for data storage, Through this memory, the size of our program is defined that it is known as program memory,
During the operation of the controller, the program already stored in the read-only memory is executed according to every communication cycle.

EEPROM

The EEPROM or electronically erasable read-only memory is also the category of the memory unit. In this command stores when the program gets executed.
This memory retains the data after the power supplied to the controller is off.

Flash Memory:

Flash memory of controller is a type of memory unit where we can read, write, and erase programs according to our requirements. Usually, ROM is used as a flash memory.

PIC Microcontroller Programming

There are different types of programming software exist that are used for PIC controller programming. Some students and engineers are still using Assembly language for PIC controller programming but some other latest tools also exist that are used for programming.
For programming PIC controller IDE is needed for performing programming. The compiler is a module that transformed our program in MCU reading form which is HEX files. The IPE used for converted hex will in PIC understanding language commonly used compiler is
XC8 and IDE are MPLABX v3.35 while IPE is MPLAB IPE v3.35

PIC16F877a Ports

PIC16F877a comes with 5 ports that are listed here

Port A:

This port comes with six inputs there Pin # 2 to Pin # 7 and noted as RA0 to RA5

Port B:

In port B 8 pins are from Pin # 33 to Pin # 40. These pins are denoted as RB0 to RB7

Port C:

Port C has also 8 pins there at different locations first four are Pin # 15 – Pin # 18 and the remaining four are Pin # 23 – Pin # 26.

Port D:

It has 8 pins Pin # 19 – Pin # 22, and Pin # 27 – Pin # 30.

Port E:

Port E comes with 3 pinouts that are Pin # 8 to Pin # 10. Mentioned as RE0 to RE2

PIC16f877A Vs PIC16f877

Features	PIC16f877A	PIC16f877
CPU	8-bit PIC	8-Bit
Total Pins	40	8-Bit
Operating Voltage (V)	2 to 5.5 V	4 to 5.5 V
Number of I/O pins	33	33
ADC	8ch, 10-bit	10-bit, 8 Channel
Timer	8-bit(2), 16-bit(1)	8bit
Comparators	2	2
DAC	Nil	nil
Communication Protocol	UART(1), SPI(1), I2C(1), MSSP(SPI/I2C)	UART, SPI(1), I2C MSSP(SPI/I2C)
External Oscillator	Up to 20Mhz	up to 20 MHz
Internal Oscillator	Nil	nil
Program Memory	Flash	Flash
Program Memory (KB)	14KB	14 KB
CPU Speed (MIPS)	5 MIPS	(MIPS/DMIPS) 5
RAM Bytes	368	SRAM (B) 368
Data EEPROM	256 bytes	256 Bytes

Applications of PIC16F877A

These are some applications of PIC16F877A.
It used in numerous DIY projects.
To learn different types of the controller it is the best option.
For such projects that need numerous input and output interfaces, this controller is preferred.
In such projects where Arduino is required, you can use this controller.

Faqs

What is PIC16F877A used for?

PIC16F877A is used for differnt PIC projects such as digital electronics circuits it is also used in different devices such as remote sensor control, and security systems home automation systems.

What are the features of a PIC microcontroller?

The advanced PIC controller comes with flash memory for storing instructions. Flash memory comes with a larger capacity and is erased than EPROM. PIC also comes with built-in RAM and EEPROM

Which software is used for PIC16F877A?

Microchip PIC16F877 has 8K 14Kb flash memory that can be programmed with the use of C or assembly language. MPLAB X IDE (Integrated Development Environment) comes with assembler features and XC8 is also used which is a commonly used compiler for Microchip’s 8-bit compilers.