PIC12F508 8-bit PIC Microcontroller

2 November 2020 - 0 Comments

PIC12F508 Microcontroller

PIC12F508 Microcontroller Pinout

PIC12F508 is a low-cost, high-performance, 8-bit, fully-static, Flash-based CMOS Microcontroller unit that has 8 pins out of which 6 pins can be used as I/O pins. It has Power-on-Reset (POR) as well as the Device Reset Timer (DRT) that eliminates the need for external Reset circuitry. It has an internal oscillator with 4Mhz frequency and can be configured in Power saving oscillator mode.

PIC12F508 Pin Configuration

Pin Number	Pin Name	Description
1	VDD	Positive Pin of MCU (+5V)
2	GP5/OSC1/CLKIN	Bidirectional I/O Pin or Crystal Input or External clock source input
3	GP4/OSC2	Bidirectional I/O Pin, or Crystal output.
4	GP3/MCLR/VPP	Input Pin or connected with a programmer, mostly with PicKit
5	GP2/T0CKI	Bidirectional I/O Pin, Clock Input to Timer 0.
6	GP1/CSPCLK	Bidirectional I/O Pin, or In-Circuit Programmer Clock Pin.
7	GP0/ICSPDAT	Bidirectional I/O Pin or In-Circuit Serial Programming Data Pin, used in Programmer.
8	VSS	Ground Pin of MCU

Features and Specification of the PIC12F508 Microcontroller

PIC12F508 - Simplified Features and Specification
CPU	Baseline 8-bit
Number of Pins	8
Operating Voltage (V)	2-5.5V
Number of I/O pins	6
ADC Module	Nil
Timer Module	8-bit(1)
Comparators	Nil
DAC Module	Nil
Communication Peripherals	Nil
External Oscillator	Nil
Internal Oscillator	4 MHz
Program Memory (KB)	0.75KB
CPU Speed (MIPS)	1 MIPS
RAM Bytes	368
Data EEPROM	25 Bytes

Note: Complete technical details can be found in the PIC12F508 Datasheet linked at the bottom of this page.

Alternative Product of PIC12F508

Alternative products for PIC12F508 microcontroller are listed below-

PIC12F629
PIC12F683
PIC16F505
PIC12C508
PIC16F676
PIC16F72
PIC16F873A
PIC16F876A
PIC16F886
PIC16F252

Introduction to PIC12F508

PIC12F508 also comes with code protection, a watchdog timer, a power-saving sleep mode that serves the power and reliability feature. Also, system cost can be greatly reduced by using this microcontroller unit.

It has a wide operating voltage range, from 2V to 5.5V. Thus, it can be used in 3.3V or 5.0V logic level operations. The below image is showing the detailed pin diagram of the PIC12F508.

PIC12F508 Pin Diagram

Detailed Features of PIC12F508

PIC12F508 –Detailed Features
CPU	Baseline 8-Bit
Architecture	8
Program Memory Size (Kbytes)	0.75
RAM (bytes)	25
EEPROM/HEF	0
Pin Count	8
Max. CPU Speed (MHz)	4
Peripheral Pin Select (PPS)	No
Internal Oscillator	4-Mhz
No. Of comparators	0
No. Of Operational Amplifier	0
No. Of ADC channels	0
Max ADC Resolution (bits)	-
ADC with Computation	0
Number of DAC Converter	0
Max DAC resolution	-
Internal Voltage Reference	No
Zero Cross Detect	No
No. Of 8-bit timers	1
No. Of 16-bit Timers	0
Signal Measurement Timer	0
Hardware Limit Timer	0
No. Of PWM outputs	0
Max PWM resolution	-
Angular Timer	0
Math Accelerator	No
No. Of UART module	0
No. Of SPI Module	0
No. Of I2C module	0
No. Of USB Module	0
Windowed Watchdog Timer (WWDT)	No
CRC/Scan	No
Numerically Controlled Oscillator	No
Cap. Touch Channels	0
Segment LCD	0
Minimum Operating Temperature (*C)	-40
Maximum Operating Temperature (*C)	125
Minimum Operating Voltage (V)	2
Maximum Operating Voltage (V)	5.5
High Voltage Capable	No

Programming PIC Microcontroller

PIC microcontrollers can be programmed with different software that is available in the market. There are people who still use Assembly language to program PIC MCUs. The below details are for the most advanced and common software and compiler that has been developed by Microchip itself.

In order to program the PIC microcontroller, we will need an IDE (Integrated Development Environment), where the programming takes place. A compiler, where our program gets converted into MCU readable form called HEX files. An IPE (Integrated Programming Environment), which is used to dump our hex file into our PIC MCUs.

IDE: MPLABX v3.35

IPE: MPLAB IPE v3.35

Compiler: XC8

Microchip has given all these three software for free. They can be downloaded directly from their official page. I have also provided the link for your convenience. Once downloaded, install them on your computer. If you have any problem doing so, you can post them in the comment below.

To dump or upload our code into PIC, we will need a device called PICkit 3. The PICkit 3 programmer/debugger is a simple, low-cost in-circuit debugger that is controlled by a PC running MPLAB IDE (v8.20 or greater) software on a Windows platform. The PICkit 3 programmer/debugger is an integral part of the development engineer's tool suite. A basic Programming circuit for PIC12F508 is shown below.

PIC12F508 Programming Circuit

In addition to this, we will also need other hardware like a Perf board or breadboard, Soldering station, PIC ICs, Crystal oscillators, capacitors, etc.