Execute this project and learn how to blink led connected to the GPIO pins of PIC16F877A microcontroller using MPLAB IDE and PICKIT programmer.

Project Content

• Required hardware and software
• Schematic diagram
• PIC16f877A GPIO description
• Building the software program, creating binaries
• Loading binaries on the microcontroller
• Project output observations

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Required hardware and software

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The required hardware and software for this project is as below:

A breadboard

1 x 4mmLED

1 x resistor between 220 Ohm to 1 kOhm

Hookup cables

Development board hosting PIC16F877A 8-bit microcontroller

MPLAB IDE from Microchip

PICKIT3 Programmer, connecting cable from PICKIT3 to your computer.

Development board hosting PIC16F877A Microcontroller

Power supply for the development board

The hardware components required for the project, their concepts and theory of operation are explained below:
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a two-lead semiconductor light source. It is a p–n junction diode that emits light when activated. When a suitable current is applied to the leads, electrons are able to recombine with electron holes within the device, releasing energy in the form of photons. Light-emitting diodes are used in applications as diverse as aviation lighting, automotive headlamps, advertising, general lighting, traffic signals, camera flashes, lighted wallpaper and medical devices.

The hardware components for the project are shown in the following picture. I am using ETK01001 embedded trainer kit board for this project where I am connecting a hookup cable from microcontroller GPIO pin to a led on the board.

Light emitting diode(LED) has +ve and -ve polarity. The long lead of led is +ve and short lead of led is -ve.

The resistor has no polarity. So you can connect it in any direction

Schematic diagram

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The schematic diagram for this project is as shown below:

PIC16f877A GPIO description

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PIC16F877A is a 8-bit microcontroller. Download the datasheet of the microcontroller here.

Once you have everything set up it should look something like this:

Building the software program, creating binaries

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Before starting on software development, let me introduce you some basic stuff on programming. To solve a problem you are creating a project/product. You need to develop source code for the project. To edit source code you need an editor or IDE. You need a compiler to compile your source code. We will use MPLAB X IDE for this project which is an IDE meaning XC8 compiler is integrated into it.

Follow the below steps to edit source code, compile source code, create binary for your project:

Download MPLAB X IDE 5.05 from here and install in your computer.

Create a project, click on file->New Project. Choose project as standalone project. Click Next >.

Select device as Baseline 8-bit MCUs and device as PIC16F877A. Click Next >

Select Tool as PicKit3. Click Next >

Select compiler as XC8. Click Next >

Provide a project name and folder to store it in your computer. Click Finish

On the MPLAB IDE Projects window you will see the project created. I have named the project as led. Right click on the Source Files under led and click on New->C Source file. Give the name of file as led.c and click on Finish.

Double click on the led.c file under Source Files and enter the following code in it.

Click on Build Main Project button with hammer icon and you will see Build Successful on the output window of MPLAB IDE.

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