Current Part:
PIC 18F452 Microcontroller
Breadboard
20 MHz Oscillator
LEDs
Wire
(Scroll Down for Parts Descriptions)
Parts List Details
You may or may not be familiar with the parts above so a picture of each item has been included to help give you an idea of what they look like. I'll go through and explain each part briefly below.
5v Adapter or Battery
The PIC requires a +5v input. This input can come from either an array of batteries (in this tutorial 4 rechargeable AA's will be used) or a standard wall adapter. The only requirement is that +5v is input. A voltage regulator like a LM7805 can be used to pull down higher voltages to +5v.
PIC - 18F452
This is the microcontroller that has multiple timers inside. We will setup & use these timers in this tutorial. Each timer will be uniquely setup and it will do something different than the other.
Breadboard & Wire
A generic breadboard will be necessary or if you prefer you could do everything on a PIC development board. A breadboard offers alot of flexibility and since everything is still low frequency the electronics will all work flawlessly.
20 MHz Crystal Oscillator
This is the speed of our microcontroller. A different clock speed (4 MHz, 8 MHz) could be used, however the timing calculation would need this value instead of the 20 MHz that will be used throughout the rest of this tutorial.