I2C PIC Interfacing Tutorial

           Many different types of communication protocols exist and the PIC is able to use quite a few of them. USB, RS232 and Parallel are all common forms of digital communication that use a unique method for transferring data. Today we will focus on a protocol called I²C (pronounced I-squared-C).
           I²C is unique in that it only requires 3 wires: Data, Clock and Ground. This is because data is sent and received on the same wire/pin. Clock speeds can be 100 KHz, 400 KHz or even faster, which is faster than standard RS232 but slower than USB.


The I2C PIC Interface Tutorial Setup

An Example I2C Memory Device: 24LC02B

Purpose & Overview of this project
           This tutorial will cover the basics of the I²C communication protocol. The theory section will describe the Start/Stop sequence as well as the Data/Address send and receive functionality. For the working exmaple a standard I2C memory device will be used as the slave device and the PIC18F452 will be used as the master device.
           The example design should use a switch to go back and forth from 'read' mode to 'write' mode. When write mode is activated:

• [1] A random number will be generated
• [2] It will be output to the LCD
• [3] Use I2C interface to write the number to the memory device

Specifically, the random number will be written to the memory location 56 or 0x38. Similarly, everytime the 'read 'mode is selected:

• [1] Use I2C interface to read from the memory device
• [2] then output data value received to the LCD.