PIC16F72 8-bit PIC Microcontroller

6 October 2020 - 0 Comments

PIC16F72 Microcontroller

PIC16F72 Pinout

PIC16F72 is a low-cost, low-power, high-speed CMOS Flash technology capable, 8-bit, fully-static Microcontroller unit that has 28 pins out of which 22 pins can be used as I/O pins. It has Power-on-Reset (POR) as well as the Power-up Timer (PWRT) and Oscillator Start-up Timer (OST) circuitry.

PIC16F72 Pin Configuration

Pin Number	Pin Name	Description
1	MCLR / VPP	MCLR is used during programming, mostly connected to programmer like PicKit
2	RA0 / AN0	Analog pin 0 or 0^th pin of PORTA
3	RA1 / AN1	Analog pin 1 or 1^st pin of PORTA
4	RA2 / AN2	Analog pin 2 or 2^nd pin of PORTA
5	RA3 / AN3 / VREF	Analog pin 3 or 3^rd pin of PORTA
6	RA4 / T0CKI	4^th pin of PORTA
7	RA5 / AN5 / SS	Analog pin 4 or 5^th pin of PORTA
8	Vss	Ground Pin of MCU
9	OSC1 / CLKI	External Oscillator or clock input pin
10	OSC2 / CLKO	External Oscillator or clock output pin
11	RC0 / T1OSO / T1CKI	0^th pin of PORT C or Timer1 oscillator output or Timer1 External Clock Input
12	RC1 / T1CKO	1^st pin of PORTC or Timer1 external Clock Output
13	RC2 / CCP1	2^nd pin of PORTC or CAPTURE/COMPARE/PWM pin
14	RC3 / SCK / SCL	3^rd pin of PORTC or Serial Data Clock pin
15	RC4 / SDI / SDA	4^th pin of PORTC or Serial Data In pin
16	RC5 / SDO	5^th pin of PORTC or Serial Data Out pin
17	RC6	6^th pin of PORTC
18	RC7	7^th pin of PORTC
19	Vss	Ground Pin of MCU
20	Vdd	Positive Pin of MCU (+5V)
21	RB0 / INT	0^th pin of PORTB or External Interrupt pin
22	RB1	1^st pin of PORTB
23	RB2	2^nd pin of PORTB
24	RB3	3^rd pin of PORTB
25	RB4	4^th pin of PORTB
26	RB5	5^th pin of PORTB
27	RB6 / PGC	6^th pin of PORTB or connected to programmer
28	RB7 / PDG	7^th pin of PORTB or connected to programmer

Features and Specification of the PIC16F72 Microcontroller

PIC16F72 - Simplified Features and Specification
CPU	Baseline 8-bit
Number of Pins	28
Operating Voltage (V)	2-5.5V
Number of I/O pins	22
ADC Module	8-bit, 5-channel
Timer Module	2 x 8-bit 1 x 16-bit
Capture/Compare/PWM Peripherals	1 x 16-bit Capture module 1 x 16-bit Compare module, 1 x 10-bit PWM module,
DAC Module	Nil
Communication Peripherals	1 x SSP (SPI / I2C)
External Oscillator	Up to 20Mhz
Internal Oscillator	Nil
Program Memory (KB)	3.5KB
CPU Speed (MIPS)	5 MIPS
RAM Bytes	128
Data EEPROM	Nil

Note: Complete technical details can be found in the PIC16F72 Datasheet linked at the bottom of this page.

Introduction to PIC16F72

It has a SLEEP mode, which can be configured in Power saving applications. PIC16F72 also comes with the code protection, watchdog timer mode that serve the power and reliability feature. Also, system cost can be greatly reduced by using this microcontroller unit.

It has a wide operating voltage ranging 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 PIC16F72.

Detailed Features of PIC16F72

PIC16F72 –Detailed Features
CPU	Baseline 8-Bit
Architecture	8
Program Memory Size (Kbytes)	3.5
RAM (bytes)	128
EEPROM/HEF	0
Pin Count	28
Max. CPU Speed (MHz)	20
Peripheral Pin Select (PPS)	No
Internal Oscillator	0
No. Of comparators	0
No. Of Operational Amplifier	0
No. Of ADC channels	5
Max ADC Resolution (bits)	8
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	2
No. Of 16-bit Timers	1
Signal Measurement Timer	0
Hardware Limit Timer	0
No. Of PWM outputs	1
Max PWM resolution	10
Angular Timer	0
Math Accelerator	No
No. Of UART module	0
No. Of SPI Module	1
No. Of I2C module	1
No. Of USB Module	0
Windowed Watchdog Timer (WWDT)	Yes
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 is 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 on 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 PIC16F72 is shown below.

Programming Circuit for PIC16F72

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