PIC18F4550 Microcontroller

24 September 2018 - 0 Comments

PIC18F4550 Microcontroller

PIC18F4550 Microcontroller Pinout

PIC18F4550 belongs to ‘PIC18F’ family of microcontrollers. PIC18F4550 is one of popular Microcontrollers from the microchip technology, comes with a High-Performance, Enhanced flash, USB Microcontroller with nano-Watt-Technology. This is an 8-bit microcontroller popular among makers and engineers due its features and easy applications. PIC18F4550 comes in various packages like DIP, QPF and QPN and can be selected according to the project requirement.

PIC18F4550 Pinout Configuration

It is a 40 pin device as shown in PIC18F4550 pin diagram. There are so many features for a controller the manufacturer cannot provide that many I/O pins. So many pins of controller have multiple features. These features can be enabled through programming depending on requirement. We will describe each pin functions briefly below.

Pin Number	Pin Name	Description
1	MCLR/VPP/RE3	MCLR: Master Clear(RESET) Input VPP:programming voltage input RE3: I/O pin of PORTE, PIN 3
2	RA0/AN0	RA0: I/O pin of PORTA, PIN 0 AN0: Analog input 0
3	RA1/AN1	RA1: I/O pin of PORTA, PIN 1 AN1: Analog input 1
4	RA2/AN2/VREF-/CVREF	RA2: I/O pin of PORTA, PIN 2 AN2: Analog input 2 VREF-: A/D reference voltage (low) input CVREF: Analog comparator reference output
5	RA3/AN3/VREF+	RA3: I/O pin of PORTA, PIN 3 AN3: Analog input3 VREF+: A/D reference voltage (high) input
6	RA4/T0CKI/C1OUT/RCV	RA4: I/O pin of PORTA, PIN 4 T0CKI: Timer0 external clock input C1OUT: Comparator 1 output RCV:External USB transceiver RCV input
7	RA5/AN4/SS/HLVDIN/C2OUT	RA5: I/O pin of PORTA, PIN 5 AN4: Analog input 4 SS: SPI slave select input HLDVIN: High/Low-Voltage Detect input C2OUT: Comparator 2 output
8	RE0/AN5/CK1SPP	RE0: I/O pin of PORTE, PIN 0 AN5: Analog input 5 CK1SPP: SPP clock 1 output
9	RE1/AN6/CK2SPP	RE1: I/O pin of PORTE, PIN 1 AN6: Analog input 6 CK2SPP: SPP clock 2 output
10	RE2/AN7/OESPP	RE2: I/O pin of PORTE, PIN 2 AN6: Analog input 7 OESPP : SPP Enabled output
11	VDD	Positive Power Supply (+5V)
12	VSS	Ground
13	OSC1/CLKI	OSC1:Oscillator pin 1 CLKI: External clock source input
14	OSC2/CLKO/RA6	OSC2: Oscillator pin 2 CLKO: clock source output RA6: I/O pin of PORTA, PIN 6
15	RC0/T1OSO/T13CKI	RC0: I/O pin of PORTC, PIN 0 T1OSO :Timer1 oscillator output T13CKI: Timer1/Timer3 external clock input
16	RC1/T1OSI/CCP2/UOE	RC1: I/O pin of PORTC, PIN 1 T1OSI: Timer1 oscillator input CCP2:Capture 2 input/Compare 2 output/PWM2 output UOE: External USB transceiver OE output
17	RC2/CCP1/P1A	RC2: I/O pin of PORTC, PIN 2 CCP1: Capture 1 input/Compare 1 output/PWM1 output. P1A :Enhanced CCP1 PWM output, channel A
18	VUSB	VUSB:Internal USB 3.3V voltage regulator output
19	RD0/SPP0	RD0: I/O pin of PORTD, PIN 0 SPP0: Streaming Parallel Port data
20	RD1/SPP1	RD1: I/O pin of PORTD, PIN 1 SPP1: Streaming Parallel Port data
21	RD2/SPP2	RD2: I/O pin of PORTD, PIN 2 SPP2: Streaming Parallel Port data
22	RD3/SPP3	RD3: I/O pin of PORTD, PIN 3 SPP3: Streaming Parallel Port data
23	RC4/D-/VM	RC4: I/O pin of PORTC, PIN 4 D-: USB differential minus line (input/output) VM: External USB transceiver VM input
24	RC5/D+/VP	RC5: I/O pin of PORTC, PIN 5 D+: USB differential plus line (input/output). VP: External USB transceiver VP input
25	RC6/TX/CK	RC6: I/O pin of PORTC, PIN 6 TX: EUSART asynchronous transmit CK: EUSART synchronous clock (see RX/DT).
26	RC7/RX/DT/SDO	RC7: I/O pin of PORTC, PIN 7 RX: EUSART asynchronous receive DT: EUSART synchronous data (see TX/CK). SDO: SPI data out
27	RD4/SPP4	RD4: I/O pin of PORTD, PIN 4 SPP4: Streaming Parallel Port data
28	RD5/SPP5/P1B	RD5: I/O pin of PORTD, PIN 5 SPP5: Streaming Parallel Port data P1B: Enhanced CCP1 PWM output, channel B
29	RD6/SPP6/P1C	RD6: I/O pin of PORTD, PIN 6 SPP6: Streaming Parallel Port data P1C: Enhanced CCP1 PWM output, channel C
30	RD7/SPP7/P1D	RD7: I/O pin of PORTD, PIN 7 SPP7: Streaming Parallel Port data P1D: Enhanced CCP1 PWM output, channel D
31	VSS	Ground
32	VDD	Positive Power Supply (+5V)
33	RB0/AN12/INT0/FLT0/SDI/SDA	RB0: I/O pin of PORTB, PIN 0 AN12: Analog input 12 INT0: External interrupt 0 FLT0: Enhanced PWM Fault input (ECCP1 module) SDI: SPI data in SDA: I2C data I/O
34	RB1/AN10/INT1/SCK/SCL	RB1: I/O pin of PORTB, PIN 1 AN10: Analog input 10 INT1: External interrupt 1 SCK: Synchronous serial clock input/output for SPI mode SCL: Synchronous serial clock input/output for I2C mode
35	RB2/AN8/INT2/VMO	RB2: I/O pin of PORTB, PIN 2 AN8: Analog input 8 INT2: External interrupt 2 VMO: External USB transceiver VMO output
36	RB3/AN9/CCP2/VPO	RB3: I/O pin of PORTB, PIN 3 AN9: Analog input 9 CCP2: Capture 2 input/Compare 2 output/PWM2 output VPO: External USB transceiver VPO output
37	RB4/AN11/KBI0/CSSPP	RB4: I/O pin of PORTB, PIN 4 AN11: Analog input 11 KBI0: Interrupt-on-change pin CSSPP: SPP chip select control output
38	RB5/KBI1/PGM	RB5: I/O pin of PORTB, PIN 5 KBI1: Interrupt-on-change pin PGM: Low-Voltage ICSP Programming enable pin
39	RB6/KBI2/PGC	RB6: I/O pin of PORTB, PIN 6 KBI2: Interrupt-on-change pin PGC: In-Circuit Debugger and ICSP programming clock pin.
40	RB7/KBI3/PGD	RB7: I/O pin of PORTB, PIN 7 KBI3: Interrupt-on-change pin PGD: In-Circuit Debugger and ICSP programming data pin.

Features

PIC18F4550 – Simplified Features
CPU	8-bit
Total Number of Pins	40
Operating Voltage	+4.0 to +5.5 V (+5.5V being absolute maximum)
Number of programmable I/O pins	35
Communication Interface	USB Serial Interface (23,24 PINS) [Can be used for programming this controller] Master/Slave SPI Serial Interface(7,26,33, 34 PINS) [Can be used for programming this controller] Programmable Serial UART(25,26 PINS) [Can be used for programming this controller] Two-wire Serial Interface(33, 34 PINS)[Can be used to connect peripheral devices like sensors and LCDs]
ADC Module	13channels, 10-bit resolution ADC
Timer Module	One 8-bit counter, Three 16-bit counter
Analog Comparators	2
PWM channels	4
External Oscillator	Up to 48MHz
Internal Oscillator	32KHz-8MHz Calibrated Internal Oscillator
Program Memory Type	Flash
Program Memory	32Kbytes[10000 write/erase cycles]
CPU Speed	12 MIPS
RAM Bytes	2KBytes
EEPROM	256Bytes
Watchdog Timer	Programmable Watchdog Timer with Separate On-chip Oscillator
Power Save Modes	Available
Operating Temperature	-40°C to +85°C(+85 being absolute maximum, -40 being absolute minimum)

Note: More technical details can be found in the PIC18F4550 Datasheet, linked at the bottom of this page.

PIC18F4550 Replacements

PIC18F4455

PIC18F4550 Family

PIC18F2455, PIC18F2550

Where to use PIC18F4550 Microcontroller

PIC18F4550 is easy to program PIC controller. The controller program memory satisfies most applications. Along with 35 programmable Input/output pins, it can interface many peripherals easily. With Watchdog timer to reset under error it can be used on systems with no human interference. Having USB interface feature you can communicate with controller from any PC without any hassle. With many features added together further promotes use of PIC18F4550 controller.

How to Use PIC18F4550 Microcontroller

PIC18F4550 is used as any other microcontroller. Micro controllers are not like digital ICs. For working of PIC18F4550, first we need to save the appropriate program file in the controller FLASH memory. Once power is provided, the controller executes this code saved in FLASH memory to create the response.

Entire process of using PIC18F4550 goes like this -

List the functions to be executed by PIC18F4550
Write the functions in IDE application using relative programming language
(MPLAB IDE for Windows OS [ www.microchip.com/mplabx-ide-windows-installer ]
(For these IDE the functions should be written in ‘C’ language)
After writing the desired program compile for error elimination using IDE.
After successful compilation IDE application generates HEX file for the written program.
Choose the programming device (usually ‘PIC kit 3’) which establishes communication between PC and PIC18F4550.
Run the HEX file dumping software which is related to the chosen programming device.
Choose the appropriate program HEX file.
Burn the HEX file of program in PIC18F4550 flash memory using this program.
Disconnect the programmer, connect the appropriate peripherals for the controller and power the system.
After connecting the power the controller executes this HEX code saved in the memory and performers tasks as instructed.