The Design of a Test & Development Board for the Training of PIC18F4550 Microcontroller

Microcontrollers are commonly used in the industrial applications. For that reason, it is crucial to learn microcontroller software and using a hardware which the written software is tested. In this study, a trial and development board which a dual in-line package PIC18F4550 microcontroller could be programmed and the written programs could be tested. In the training sets designed up to now, the connection between the microcontroller and the peripherals was fixedly executed on a copper plaque. For example, the fixed connections of LCD, graphic LCD, touch panel, analog data reading or display are provided through definite pins of microcontroller. Thus, the flexibility disappears while writing the program due to those fixed connections. In such an approach, moreover, the necessary changes may be forgotten in case related peripherals are connected to different pins. Flexibility was provided in the connections between all the peripherals and the microcontroller in the designed training set. The set includes a group of buttons, the LED group, LCD screen, graphic LCD, 7 segment displays, a keypad, an analog input, an external EEPROM, a step motor, buzzer, a real-time clock, temperature sensor, the USB and the communications unit. In any of all the aforementioned components, there is no connection which inhibits the programmer. All the industrial applications will be executed without any limitations of designing through using this experiment set.