Embedded Lab

In the PIC Experiments section, we have discussed simple applications to explain how the PIC microcontrollers are programmed and used in circuits. This section provides some PIC projects that have been constructed and tested using mikroC Pro for PIC programming language. Every project has been described in detail so that readers can easily build them if they want. Any questions related to the projects can either be posted on the comment section or emailed to

	PC-based heart-rate analyzer using MPLAB® Xpress Board and Easy Pulse mikro sensor In this article, I will describe how to use the Easy Pulse mikro sensor with Microchip’s latest MPLAB Xpress development board for uniform ADC sampling of the analog PPG signal and sending the samples to a PC for post digital processing in order to retrieve the heart-beat rate. Read more…
	Programmable relay switch (revised version) This article describes a DIY programmable relay switch using PIC16F1847 (PIC16F628A can also be used) microcontroller. It is a revised version of my previous PIC-based relay timer project with added features and some improvements in the circuit design part. Like my previous version, it also allows you to set both ON and OFF times. Read more…
	PIC16F1938 development board The PIC16F1938 is a versatile 28-pin MCU belonging to Microchip’s extreme low power microcontroller family featuring nanoWatt XLP technology, 28KB of programming memory, 1KB of RAM, 11 ADC channels, and tons of other peripherals. A while ago, I designed a development board for this MCU and I thought it would be worth sharing this design here. Read more…

	Running LED Dice This project is about a similar LED dice but with a slightly different output form. It uses 6 LEDs which are arranged in a circular pattern and are labeled 1 through 6. They create a chasing effect when the dice is rolled. The chasing effect slows down gradually, and eventually stops at one of the six LEDs. The rolling is done by a gentle shaking of the dice horizontally. The LED dice is powered with a 3V coin cell battery and uses PIC12LF1822 microcontroller to generate a random number and drive the output LEDs. Read more…
	Mini LED Christmas Tree My two and a half year old son loves toys with flashing lights. For this Christmas I thought of making a mini LED Christmas tree for him. This project uses 22 multi-color LEDs which are driven by a PIC12F683 microcontroller using the Charlieplexing technique. Read more…
	8X40 LED Matrix Marquee This project describes a mono-color LED matrix display board consisting of 320 LEDs arranged in 8 rows and 40 columns. It uses the PIC16F1847 microcontroller that receives data from a PC through a serial port (or USB using an USB-UART interface), and display on the LED matrix with the help of five 74HC595 shift registers. Read more…