Introduction to PIC18F4550

Hello friends I hope you all are doing great. Today, I am going to give you a detailed Introduction to PIC18F4550. Its one of the most renowned PIC Microcontroller and is used in almost every field. You should also have a look at my previous tutorial Introduction to PIC16F877a, as it will also be helpful. PIC18F4550 also has 40 Pins and is quite similar to PIC16F877a with some additional features. In today's post we will get the general overview of this microcontroller, which is very essential if you wanna start working on it. If you have any problem in any part of it then ask your questions in comments and I will try my best to resolve them out. So, now let's get started with Introduction to PIC18F4550:

Introduction to PIC18F4550

PIC18F4550 is a 8-bit and 40-Pin PIC Microcontroller which belongs to PIC18 Family and has a Program Memory of 32KB, RAM of 2048Bytes, EEPROM Memory of 256Bytes and CPU Speed of 12MIPS. It is mostly used in embedded projects and is quite used in Engineering Projects. Few of its main features are:
  • It has five Ports on it starting from Port A to Port E.
  • It has below mentioned Ports for Data Communication.
  • USB Port
  • Serial Port
  • I2C Port
  • It also has interrupt functionality in it and we can place any kind of interrupt in it.
  • Here's the Pin Diagram of PIC18F4550:
  • Each Pin of PIC18F4550 can perform more than one task, as you can see in above figure that Pins are having more than one label.
  • So, now again we have to design its Basic Circuit as we did for PIC16F877a.
1. PIC18F4550 Basic Circuit
  • As I have mentioned in my previous tutorial on PIC16F877a that each PIC Microcontroller needs a Basic circuit, this basic circuit is like a a power supply to PIC Microcontroller.
  • You must be wondering why am I forcing again and again to read previous tutorial on PIC16F877a, its because I have discuss that tutorial quite in detail and no matter what PIC Microcontrolelr you are using that basic information will remain the same. So again must read that tutorial. :)
  • Anyways here's the PIC18F4550 Basic Circuit:
  • If you remember than its exactly the same as for PIC16F877a, so I am not gonna explain it much.
  • All the Grounded lines are shown in black color and Power Lines with +5V are shown with Red Lines.
  • We also have Crystal Oscillator for frequency here connected to Pin # 12 & Pin # 13.
  • Now, let's have a look at PIC18F4550 Ports:
2. PIC18F4550 Ports
  • Again it has same Ports as of our Previous Microcontroller starting from Port A to Port E.
  • PIC16F877a has 5 Ports in total which are:
    • Port A: It has 6 Pins in total starting from Pin # 2 to Pin # 7.
    • Port B: It has 8 Pins in total starting from Pin # 33 to Pin # 40.
    • Port C: It has 8 Pins in total. It’s pins are not aligned together. First four Pins of Port C are located at Pin # 15 – Pin # 18, while the last four are located at Pin # 23 – Pin # 26.
    • Port D: It has 8 Pins in total. It’s pins are also not aligned together. First four Pins of Port D are located at Pin # 19 – Pin # 22, while the last four are located at Pin # 27 – Pin # 30.
    • Port E: It has 3 Pins in total starting from Pin # 8 to Pin # 10.
3. PIC18F4550 Compiler
  • Their official Compiler is available online at Microchip website and can be used free of cost.
  • I use MikroC Pro for PIC Compiler which you can download from their official site and it has a demo version but you have to buy the full version.
  • You should also read this list of Top 3 PIC C Compiler.
4. PIC18F4550 USB Communication
  • Here's the main reason of PIC18F4550's popularity, it supports USB Communication.
  • Here's the simplest circuit diagram for PIC18F4550 USB Communication, I will post tutorial on it soon.
  • So, we can do the PIC18F4550 USB Communication by using below two Pins:
    1. Pin # 23: (D-)
    2. Pin # 24: (D+)
5. PIC18F4550 Serial Communication
  • We can also do the PIC18F4550 Serial Communication.
  • PIC18F4550 Serial Communication Pins are shown in below figure:
  • You can see in above figure that below two pins are used for PIC18F4550 Serial Communication:
  • Pin # 25 (TX).
  • Pin # 26 (RX).
Moreover, it also supports I2C communication and it also has interrupts in it. So, that's all for today. I hope you got something out of it. :) Will meet you guys in next tutorial till then take care and have fun !!! :)
Syed Zain Nasir

I am Syed Zain Nasir, the founder of <a href=https://www.TheEngineeringProjects.com/>The Engineering Projects</a> (TEP). I am a programmer since 2009 before that I just search things, make small projects and now I am sharing my knowledge through this platform.I also work as a freelancer and did many projects related to programming and electrical circuitry. <a href=https://plus.google.com/+SyedZainNasir/>My Google Profile+</a>

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Syed Zain Nasir