The 12F series of PIC microcontrollers are handy little 8-pin devices designed for small embedded applications that do not require too many I/O resources, and where small size is advantageous. These applications include a wide range of everyday products such as hair dryers, electric toothbrushes, rice cookers, vacuum cleaners, coffee makers, and blenders. Despite their small size, the PIC12F series microcontrollers offer interesting features including wide operating voltage, internal programmable oscillator, 4 channels of 10-bit ADC, on-board EEPROM memory, on-chip voltage reference, multiple communication peripherals (UART, SPI, and I2C), PWM, and more. The following project board is designed for fast and easy development of standalone applications using PIC12F microcontrollers. It features on-board regulated +5V power supply, header connectors to access I/O pins, ICSP header for programming, a reset circuit, and small prototyping area for placing additional components.
The picture below shows a closer view of the features on board.
- Two-pin terminal block for DC input (6-12V DC)
- AMS1117-5.0V regulator
- PIC12F microcontroller on a DIP IC socket
- Tact switch connected to RA3 I/O pin, which is input only. It can be used to reset the microcontroller if MCLR is enabled. Otherwise, it can be used as an user input switch.
- Header connector for ICSP programming using chipKIT2/3.
- Headers to access I/O pins and power supply pins (Vcc = +5V). Note that RA5 has been mislabeled as RP5 on silkscreen.
- Small prototyping area for connecting additional circuit. The regulated +5V power supply for the additional circuit can be derived from the Vcc header pins.
Important: The RA0-RA5 names are used for I/O pins of the PIC12F micrcontrollers in the enhanced mid-range family (PIC12F1822, PIC12F1840, etc). The corresponding I/O pins for the old ones (PIC12F629, PIC12F675, PIC12F683, etc) are named as GP0-GP5, and have the same pin configurations. Therefore, this board can be used for both.
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