PIC18F Foundation (C18)

Overview
This "hands-on" course aims to provide engineers with an understanding of the enhanced PIC18C / PIC18F family of microcontrollers and experience of using Microchip development tools to create and debug simple 'C' programs.
The emphasis is on providing a solid foundation of knowledge on the architecture and features of this range of microcontrollers, together with practical experience of the development tools and the steps required to embark on a new development.

Key Skills

• Understand the architecture and features of the PIC18C / PIC18F family of microcontrollers
• Gain hands-on experience of Microchip development tools and the C18 compiler for creating and debugging 'C' programs on a target PIC18C / PIC18F microcontroller
• Be introduced to the use of on-chip peripherals to simplify interfaces to the outside world

Practical Work
The course includes many practical workshop exercises which are interleaved with the relevant presentation material for maximum impact and variety. These exercises are carried out using MPLAB® software running on a Windows® PC, an ICD programmer/debugger and a target development board containing a PIC16C / PIC16F microcontroller on which programs created during the exercises can be observed to be running in real-time.
You will learn how to:

• Programme object code into a target PIC18F microcontroller using MPLAB® and MPLAB® ICD2
• Create, build and debug new projects using C18, MPLAB® and MPLAB® ICD2
• Set the PIC18C / PIC18F configuration options appropriately for the target system
• Use digital I/O ports to interact with the outside world
• Customise library functions to enable data to be displayed on an LCD module
• Create a real-time clock display (with stop/start) using timers and external interrupts
• Read and display the value of an analogue input using the A-to-D converter
• Set up a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) output with a variable duty cycle
• Communicate with a PC over a serial interface using the USART peripheral
• Write and read data to/from an external EEPROM chip using the MSSP module

Course Contents
Microchip Overview

• Market profile
• Product range
• Key advantages and support network

Overview of Development Tools

• Microchip development software: MPLAB®, C18, MPSIMTM and associated tools
• Microchip In-Circuit Debugger (MPLAB® ICD2) and In-Circuit Emulator (ICE) hardware
• Device programmers, and the design option of In-Circuit Serial Programming (ICSPTM)
• Demonstration boards and kits
• Third-party development tools

The PIC18C / PIC18F Architecture

• Harvard versus Von Neumann architecture
• Optimisation of PIC18C / PIC18F architecture for C compiler efficiency
• Organisation of program and data memory
• On-chip peripherals and clock options
• Interrupts

The C18 Compiler

• Key features and extensions to support the PIC18C / PIC18F architecture
• Programming style - use of templates and comments
• Debugging at 'C' source level using MPLAB®, MPSIMTM and MPLAB® ICD2
• Purpose and operation of MPLINKTM with linker scripts, command files and map files
• C18 memory management models
• Use of library functions and customisation of library files using MPLIB
• Interrupt service routines - how to add vectors and create handlers using C18
• Improving the size of target code generated by C18