Create the Project

After installing the software, connect the PIC24F Curiosity Development Board to a USB port on your computer. Create a new standalone project in MPLAB^® X for a PIC124FJ128GA204. The PIC124FJ128GA204 is the microcontroller on the PIC24F Curiosity Development Board. When the project creation wizard asks for a hardware tool (Step 2 in the New Project window), select the PIC24F Curiosity Board as displayed below.

After the project has been created, the Projects tab in the upper-left corner of the IDE shows that the project has been created with no source or header files.

Open MCC

Open MCC under the Tools > Embedded menu of MPLAB X IDE.

MCC will place a Resource Management tab on the left-hand side of the IDE. Inside this tab, you will see a section for Project Resources and Device Resources. For each MCC-generated project, you will need to verify/modify the System Modules under the Project Resources window.

Set the Project Resources

There are three system elements which need attention:

• Interrupt Module: controls the MCU's interrupts.
• Pin Module: configures the I/O pins.
• System Module: selects and configures the clock source for the MCU.

Interrupt Module

This project does not use interrupts so this section will not be used.

System Module

The System Module allows the user to configure the MCU's clock, the Watchdog Timer (WDT), and make changes to the debug pin assignments. This feature of the PIC24F MCU has numerous options, which are typically modified to fit the needs of the application. MPLAB^® Code Configurator (MCC) provides default settings if no changes are selected by the developer. For this lab, accept the default clock settings:

• 8 MHz Internal Free Running Oscillator with no Prescaler, but a 1:2 Postscaler (4 MHz Fosc)
• Watchdog Timer - disabled
• Unchanged debug pins

To verify the default settings, click on the System Module tab and verify the following selections have been made:

We will now configure the pin connected to LED1 (RA9) as an output pin. In the Grid View window click on the output box under RA9. The grid view will display the "padlocks" in green indicating these pins have been configured for use.

• Ensure that RA9 is set as an output pin.
• Rename RA9 as LED1.

Add the Timer to the List of Peripherals Being Used in the Application

From the Device Resources section of the MCC Resource Management window, locate Timer1 (TMR1).

Double-click on TMR1 to add this peripheral to the resources available to the project.

Confgure Timer1 for 1/2 Second Period

With the Fosc set at 2 MHz, Timer1 will be unable to generate a 1/2 second period as the 16-bit counter will overflow before 1/2 second has gone by. To lengthen the period window for this timer, we will pre-scale the system clock by 64 to down the timer. Once the timer is slowed, we will be able to select the 1/2 second timer period.

Select TMR1 from the project window and select the following settings:

Generate Code

To generate the code, click the Generate button on the MCC window.

The projects tab will show the source and header files created by MCC.

The main(void) is located within the main.c file. main(void) calls the MCC generated SYSTEM_Initialize() function before it enters the while(1) loop.

SYSTEM_Initialize() in turn calls PIN_MANAGER_Initialize() and TMR1_Initialize(). These two functions initialize the timer and pin configuration by writing to the device's function registers.

Modify the MCC-generated Code to Monitor the Timer and Toggle the LED

We will now modify main.c. An inspection of MCC-generated header file pin-manager.h and tmr1.h shows MCC has created several control functions useful for our applications.

pin-manager.h Function Prototypes

• LED1_toggle();: changes the value of the I/O pin connected to the LED1.

tmr1.h Function Prototype:

• TMR1_Start(): starts the operation of Timer1.

Consulting the MPLAB^® XC16 C Compiler user's manual will show that data register bit IFS0bits.T1IF allows the application to read or reset Timer1's overflow flag.

Make the following modifications to main.c:

1. Insert the text #include "mcc_generated_files/mcc.h" near the top of the file.
2. Insert LED1_Toggle, TMR1_Start, and the access to IFS0 into main.c as follows:

mainc.c

#include "mcc_generated_files/system.h"
#include "mcc_generated_files/mcc.h"  //##### must be added #####
/*
                         Main application
 */
int main(void)
{
   // initialize the device
    SYSTEM_Initialize();
    TMR1_Start();   // ####### Start the timer ####
    while (1)
    {
        if (IFS0bits.T1IF)
        {
            LED1_Toggle();
            IFS0bits.T1IF = 0 ;
        }
    }
    return 1;
}

8

Build, Download and Run the code

To run the program on the development board, click on the Make and Program Device Main Project button . This will build the program into the flash memory of the PIC^®. The output window of the IDE will tell you when the device has been programmed and the application is running.