WEEK 5

3.4.1   Proteus Design Suite 7

Proteus is software for microprocessor simulation, schematic capture, and printed circuit board (PCB) design. It is developed by Labcenter Electronics. The Proteus Design Suite combines schematic capture, SPICE circuit simulation, and PCB design to make a complete electronics design system. The Proteus Design Suite includes:

·         ISIS: A networking tool very similar to Eagle, but with the possibility to simulate programmable IC such as the microchip PIC and so on.

Proteus software is used to simulate the hardware and the software to ensure that the circuit was function correctly. The keypad was connected to the keypad encoder. The port D of PIC was connected to the LCD display. The C program can be import to the virtual PIC in Proteus software so that we can try and see the functionality of the hardware and the program before we construct the real hardware.

3.4.3 Programming Language

PIC microcontrollers can be programmed in Assembly, C or a combination of the two. Other high-level programming languages can be used but embedded systems software is primarily written in C. C Programming is preferred for PIC 16F877A software. It also allow that applications to be written using syntax easier to understand than using Assembly Language. C source code is converted into assembly language by compiler, then assembled into machine codes and the machine codes are stored in a hex file

3.4.4 PICkit 2 Programmer

PICkit is a family of programmers for PIC microcontrollers made by Microchip Technology. They are used to program and debug microcontrollers, as well as program EEPROM. Some models also feature logic analyzer and serial communications (UART) tool. The PICkit 2 Development Programmer also is a low cost development tool with an easy to use interface for programming and debugging Microchip’s Flash families of microcontrollers.  The full featured Windows programming interface supports baseline (PIC10F, PIC12F5xx, and PIC16F5xx), midrange (PIC12F6xx, PIC16F), PIC18F, PIC24, dsPIC30, dsPIC33, and PIC32 families of 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit microcontrollers, and many Microchip Serial EEPROM products. In-Circuit-Debugging runs halts and single steps the program while the PIC microcontroller is embedded in the application. When halted at a breakpoint, the file registers can be examined and modified.