Applications of 8051 Microcontrollers

INTRODUCTION:

A microcontroller is a versatile chip which can be used in various fields starting from simple
consumer electronics to high end medical, automobile and defense applications also. So, now
a days the microcontrollers are found in every walk of life. In the lab you can use a
microcontroller to measure accurately the voltage, current and resistances also . The various
fields are listed below.

 Automobile
 Aeronautics
 Space
 Rail Transport
 Mobile communications
 Industrial processing
 Remote sensing , Radio and Networking
 Robotics
 Consumer electronics , music players, Computer applications
 Security (e-commerce, smart cards)
 Medical electronics (hospital equipment, and mobile monitoring) and
 Defense application

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INTERFACING DC MOTOR- 8051

A DC motor runs in response to the applied Direct Current. It produces torque by using both
electric and magnetic fields. The DC motor has rotor, stator, field magnet, brushes, shaft,
commutator etc.. The DC motor requires large currents, of the order of 400mA for its rotation
.But this much amount of current can not be generated by the ports of the microcontroller. So, if
you directly connect the DC motor to the ports of the controller ,it may draw high current for its
operation from the ports and hence the microcontroller may be damaged. Therefore we use a
driving circuit along with an opto isolator .The opto-isolator provides an additional protection
to the microcontroller from large currents.
The interface circuit consists of L293D IC which is a dual H-
bridge motor driver. This is a 16-pin chip ,which can be used to interface two DC motors and
can be controlled in both clockwise and anticlockwise direction of motion.L293 D has an output
current of 600mA and peak output current of 1.2A per channel. Also for protection of the circuit
from back emf ,output diodes are also included in the IC. The output supply has a wide range
from 4.5 V to 36V.

The ILQ74 is A Quad chip with four , optically coupled Gallium Arsenide infrared LED and
silicon NPN phototransistor pairs. Signal information, including a DC level, can be transmitted
by the device while maintaining a high degree of electrical isolation between input and output.

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The interface circuit is build as shown in the figure. The port1 pins P1.0 ,P1.1 &P1.2 are
connected to the opto-isolator inputs and the outputs of the opto-isolator are connected to the
IN1,IN2 and the Enable1 pins of the L293D driver IC. When enable is High and EN2 is low
and EN1 is high ,the motor rotates in clockwise direction .Similarly if EN2 is high and EN1 is
low with EN pin high ,the DC motor rotates in anticlockwise direction.To rotate the motor the
EN pin must be always high. Otherwise the status will be High impedance state. This can be
shown by the table below.

Enable (EN) Input1 Input2 Output

High High Low Clockwise Rotation
High Low High Anticlockwise
Low Either High or Low Either High or Low High Impedance
The rotation of the motor is controlled by writing a suitable program.

Assembly Language program :

ORG 0000H Remarks

MAIN SETB P1.2 Enable the H-bridge driver

MOV P1,#00000001B Motor runs in clockwise

ACALL DELAY

MOV P1,#00000010B Motor runs in anticlockwise

ACALL DELAY

SJMP MAIN Motor rotates continuously in clockwise for some time

and anticlockwise for some time

DELAY MOV R4,#FF H Load R4 register with FF

MOV R3,#FF H Load R3 register with FF

LOOP1 DJNZ R3,LOOP1 Decrement R3 until it is zero

LOOP2 DJNZ R4,LOOP2 Decrement R4 until it is zero

RET Return to the main program

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Stepper motor Interfacing -8051

A stepper motor is a device that translates electrical pulses into mechanical movement in steps
of fixed step angle.So, The stepper motor rotates in steps in response to the applied signals. It is
used in disk drives, dot matrix printers, plotters and robotics and process control industries.It is
mainly used for position control. Stepper motors have a permanent magnet called rotor (also
called the shaft) surrounded by a stator . There are also steppers called variable reluctance
stepper motors that do not have a PM rotor. The most common stepper motors have four stator
windings that are paired with a center-tap. This type of stepper motor is commonly referred to as
a. four-phase or unipolar stepper motor. The center tap allows a change of current direction in
each of two coils when a winding is grounded, thereby resulting in a polarity change of the
stator.

Even a small stepper motor require a current of 400mA for its rotation.But the ports of the
microcontroller can not source this much amount of current .If you try to connect the motor
directly to the microcontroller ,the motor try to draw large current from the controller and the

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microcontroller will be damaged .So, we need to use a driver circuit ,to increase the port current
of the microcontroller. This can be achieved by using an array of power transistors.But now a
days we have driver circuits available readily in the form of ICs.ULN2003 is one such driver IC
which is a High-Voltage High-Current Darlington transistor array and can give a current of
500mA.This current is sufficient to drive the stepper motor. This IC is also provided with diodes
that can avoid thedamage of motor due to back emf and large eddy currents. So, this ULN2003
is used as a driver to interface the stepper motor to the microcontroller.

The significant thing in a stepper motor is the step angle.It is the minimum angle through which
the motor rotates in response to each excitation pulse.In a four phase motor if there are 200 steps
0
in one complete rotation then then the step angle is 360/200 = 1.8 .So to rotate the stepper
motor we have to apply the excitation pulse.For this we send a hexa decimal code through the
ports of the microcontroller. The hex code mainly depends on the construction of the steppe
motor.So,all the stepper motors do not have the same Hex code for their rotation.We have to
refer the operation manual supplied by the manufacturer.

For example ,let us consider the hex code for a stepper motor to rotate in clockwise direction is
77H , BBH , DDH and EEH.This hex code will be applied to the input terminals of the driver
through the assembly language program.To rotate the stepper motor in anti-clockwise direction
the same code is applied in the reverse order.The assembly language program is given below.

ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE PROGRAM

Main : MOV A,# 0FF H ; Initialisation of Port 1

MOV P1, A ;
MOV A ,#77 H ; Code for the Phase 1
MOV P1 , A ;
ACALL DELAY ; Delay subroutine
MOV A ,# BB H ; Code for the Phase II
MOV P1 , A ;
ACALL DELAY ; Delay subroutine.
MOV A ,# DD H ; Code for the Phase III
MOV P1 , A ;

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 ACALL DELAY ; Delay subroutine
MOV A ,# EE H ; Code for the Phase 1
MOV P1 , A ;
ACALL DELAY ; Delay subroutine
SJMP MAIN ; Keep the motor rotating continuously.
DELAY Subroutine
MOV R4 ,#0FF H ; Load R4 with FF
MOV R5,# 0FF ; Load R5 with FF
LOOP1: DJNZ R4 ,LOOP1 ; Decrement R4 until zero,wait
LOOP2: DJNZ R5 ,LOOP2 ; Decrement R5 until zero,wait
RET ; Return to main program .

Binary Counter : A binary counter is just like any other counter which counts the numbers
in binary form. An 8-bit binary counter counts from 00000000 to 11111111.This binary counter
can be realized by interfacing 8-LEDs to the port of the Microcontroller. By sending the
continuous pulses through the port, the LEDs are glown continuosly one after the other. The
glow of an LED indicates the binary 1 and the No Glow of LED denotes the binary 0.

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 The interface circuit is shown in the above diagram. A array of LEDs is interfaced to the
Port1 of the microcontroller.To drive the LEDs properly without any damage to the circuit,
resistors of 220 ohms are connected in series with the LEDs as shown in the circuit.Suitable
assembly program is used to realize the binary counter so that the LEDs glow from 00 to FF.
Assembly language Program :

START : MOV A, #00 ; load accumulator with 00

LOOP : MOV P1 , A ; send the contents of accumulator to Port1
CALL DELAY ; Create some delay
INC A ; Increment the content of accumulator.
CJNE A, # 0FF , LOOP ; compare the contents of A with FF and if not equal go to loop.
MOV P1, A ; send the value FF to Port 1
SJMP START ; keep the counter working continuously.
This program counts from 00 to FF and after reaching FF again it starts counting from 00.
Note : The binary counter circuit can also be designed using an inverter buffer IC with port.

Interfacing LCD Module -8051 Microcontroller :

LCD modules are based on liquid crystal technology. The seven segment displays suffer from
dissipation of power and also they are not suitable for display of graphs etc.. Hence the Liquid
Crystal modules have become very popular now a days. They consume less power and they are
highly suitable to display graphics ,numbers and characters etc..
General LCD modules are available in different version like 1x16 (one line -16 characters) or
2x16 (two lines -16 characters)or 2 x 20(two lines 20 characters) etc..The pin diagram of the
LCD module is shown below.It is a 14-pin module in which 8 pins are for data ,one pin is Vcc,
one pin is Gnd ,one pin is for contrast(Vee) ,one pin is for RS,one pin is for EN and another pin
is used for R/W.
The description of the pins is given below.
The pins 7 -1 4 denotes the data pins which are used to transfer Data .These pins are used to send
information to the LCD or to read the contents of the LCD’s internal registers.
RS is the register select pin..The LCD has two internal registers.One is command code register
and the other is the data register.The command code register is used to send commands like clear

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display,cursor at home etc..The data register allows the user to send the data to be displayed on
the LCD.

When RS = 1 ,the data register is selected and when RS = 0 the command code register is
selected.
RS = 0 is also used to check the busy flagbit to find whether the LCD is ready to receive
information. The busy flag is D7 and can be read when R/W = 1 and RS=0.
For ex: if R/W= 1 ,RS=0 AND D7 = 1 means the LCD is busy due to internal operations and will
not accept any new data. Suppose D7=0 means the LCD is ready to receive the data.
R/W pin allows the user to read the information from LCD or write information to the LCD.
When R/W = 0 writing is enabled and R/W=1 read is enabled.
EN pin is used by the LCD to latch information on its data pins.When data is given to data pins,a
high to low pulse must be applied to this pin so that the LCD can Latch in the data present at the
data pins.
Vcc ,Vss and Vee pins denote supply , ground and contrast pins respectively. Vee pin is meant
for adjusting the contrast of the LCD display and the contrast can be adjusted by varying the
voltage at this pin. This is done by connecting one end of a POT to the Vcc (5V), other end to the
Ground and connecting the center terminal (wiper) of of the POT to the Vee pin. The contrast
pin is applied a negative voltage so that by adjusting this voltage the contrast of the Display can
be controlled.
Interfacing circuit: The interfacing of LCD module to 8051 microcontroller is shon below. The
8-data pins are connected to Port1 and control pins are connected to Port 2 pins.The busy flag
must be checked before the data is send to the LCD.With the help of a 10K potentiometer the
contrast of the LCD display is adjusted.

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The assembly language program to diplay “ELEC” on LCD is given below

MOV A, #38H ; Use 2 lines and 5x7 matrix

ACALL COMMAND ; Issue a command
MOV A, #0FH : LCD ON, cursor ON, cursor blinking ON
ACALL COMMAND ; Command subroutine
MOV A, #01H ; Clear screen
ACALL COMMAND ; Command subroutine
MOV A,#06H ; Shift cursor right
ACALL COMMAND ; Command subroutine
MOV A , #80H ; Start display from Cursor line home
ACALL COMMAND ; Command subroutine
MOV A, # ’E’ ; Display letter E
ACALL DISPLAY ; Display subroutine
MOV A , # ‘L’ ; Display letter L
ACALL DISPLAY ; Display subroutine
MOV A, # ’E’ ; Display letter E

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ACALL DISPLAY ; Display subroutine
MOV A, # ’C’ ; Display letter C
ACALL DISPLAY ; Display subroutine
HERE : SJMP HERE ;Display the data continuously
COMMAND SUBROUTINE :
MOV P1, A ; Issue command code .
CLR P2.2 ; RS = 0
CLR P2.1 ; R/W =0 to write to LCD
SETB P2.0 ; EN =1 pulse to enable
CLR P2.0 ; EN =0 latch in
RET
DATA DISPLAY SUBROUTINE
MOV P1, A ; Issue data
SETB P2.2 ; RS = 1 data register
CLR P2.1 ; R/W = 0 Write to LCD
SETB P2.0 : EN = 1 for high to low pulse
CLR P2.0 ; EN = 0 Latch in
RET;

Temperature measurement and controlling : The control and measurement of

temperature is always an important task.A microcontroller can control and measure the
temperature effectively.The temperature sensor LM35 is used to measure the temperature in
degree centigrade.LM35 sensor is a precision integrated circuit whose output voltage is linearly
proportional to the centigrade temperature.This LM35 do not require any external calibration and
it gives 10mV output for 1 degree centigrade.(10mV/0C).The LM35 has atypical 10C error over
1000C temperature range.

As shown in the circuit ADC0809 is used to covert the analog voltage into its
equivalent digital voltage.For this necessary signal conditioning circuit is developed using an
operational amplifier.The ADC0809 is an 8-input channel system.A clock signal of 100KHz is
applied.the voltage drop across the LM Zener is buffered by an op-amp LM741to produce a Vcc
and Vref of around 5V to 12Vfor the A/D converter.With this reference voltage the A/D
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converter will have 256 steps of 20mV each. Since the temperature sensor signal is amplified by
2 ,each degree Celsius of temperature change will produce an output change of 20mV.or one step
on the A/D converter. This gives us a resolution of 10C ,which is about the typical accuracy of
the sensor.The advantage of using Vref as Vcc for the device is that this voltage will not have
the switching noise that the digital Vcc lines have.The control inputs and data outputs of the
ADC are connected to the Port1 of the Microcontroller as shown in the circuit.

A 2x16 LCD module is interfaced to the Microcontroller to display the temperature .Suitable
program is developed to control and measure the temperature. The temperature at which the
water bath is to be maintained is set as (Ts).The measured temperature is compared with this
Ts and if measured temperature is higher than the set temperature, a signal is sent to the relay
to switch-off the power. Otherwise the power is switched on. This temperature is displayed
on the LCD module.

The flow chart for the measurement of the Temperature is shown below.

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Flow Chart for Temperature measurement.

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Assembly Language Program :

ddress(Hex) Label Mnemonics Operands Comments

9000 START SETB P3.4 Send ALE & SOC high
NOP No operation
NOP No operation
CLR P3.4 ALE &SOC low
LOOP1 JNB P3.5 , LOOP1 Is conversion over ?
MOV A,P1 Read digital data
CLR C Clear carry bit
SUBB A,#SET POINT Compare the measured with
Set temp.
JNC OFF
ON SETB P3.0 Switch on heater
CALL CONV Convert the hex value into
Decimal value
CALL DISPLAY Display subroutine to display
temp .on LCD
OFF CLRB P3.0 Switch off heater
SJMP START Start sensing the temperature
DISPLAY LCALL 675F
MOV R7, #00
MOV A, #Set point
MOV R6,60H Display set temp.
RET Return to main program

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PULSEWIDTH MEASUREMENT -8051

The width of a pulse is equal to the sum of OFF & ON times. Normally a microcontroller is used
to measure the OFF time or ON time of a perfect Square pulse .By doubling this value we get
the total width of a perfect square pulse.

A perfect square pulse must be applied to INT0 or INT1 (P3.3 or P3.4) of the 8051 ,
Microcontroller. One of the Timers ,either T0 or T1 is used as timer to measure the pulse width.

In the present method the Timer0 is configured as a 16 bit timer in Mode 1 by using the TMOD
register. The timer will be set once the pulse appears at the pin P3.3.The timer will run until the
edge is high. Once the pulse edge goes low, the timer is stopped.The value of the timer0 is
moved to registers R6 and R7 and later the total pulse width is determined..

A very important precaution to be followed here is that ,the applied pulse must be always a
perfect square pulse. So, one can use a Schmitt trigger to convert a sine pulse into a square pulse
and it is applied to the pin P3.3 or P3.4 as shown in figure below.

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Assembly Language Program :

Address Lable Instruction Comments

MOV TMOD, #09 Initialize timer 0 in mode 1

Main MOV TL0,#00 Load Timer0 with 0000H.

MOV TH0,#00

Loop1 JB P3.3 ,Loop1 Continue the loop as long as

pulse is high
Loop2 JNB P3.3 , Loop2

SETB TR0 Start the timer 0

Loop3 JB P3.3 , Loop3

CLR TR0 Clear the timer 0

MOV R6 ,TL0
Move the contents of Timer0
MOV R7 TH0 into R6 &R7 registers.

LCALL 675F Call Display subroutine, to

display the data.

SJMP Main Ready for next measurement.

FREQUENCY MEASUREMENT -8051 :

Frequency of the given pulse train is equal to the number of pulses per second.

Frquency = Number of pulses / Time.

To find the frequency using the microcontroller, both the Timers T0 and T1 of 8051 are used.
Normally if T0 is used as a counter ,the T1 is used as a Timer. The procedure is , the external
pulse train is applied at the PinP3.3 or P3.4 . The Timer1 is configured to lapse for a known
time . Say,100 micro seconds. During this time the Timer0 is used as a counter and it counts the
total number of pulses appeared at the pinP3.3or P3.4.From this the number of pulses per
second is calculated, which is nothing but the frequency of the pulse.

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To measure the frequency, it is recommended to use a square wave pulses. If exact square wave
is not available from a function generator , a Schimitt trigger circuit can be used ,which converts
a sine wave into a square wave..The circuit diagram is shown below.

Procedure : In the procedure Timer0 is configured as a counter and the Timer1 is configured as
a 16 bit timer. Timer 1 is pre-loaded with a suitable value so that it will run for time which
generates a time lapse of 100 microseconds. During this time the Timer0 which is configured as
a counter will count the number of pulses. The count value is divided by the time. This give the
frequency of the pulse train applied externally at the pinP3.3

The maximum frequency measured by the microcontroller depends on the clock frequency
.Normally the 8051 microcontroller can measure accurately those frequencies which do not
exceed f/24, where f is clock frequency of the controller.

The assembly language program for the measurement of frequency is given below.

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Assembly Language Program:

Address Label Mnemonics comments

8000 START MOV TCON,#00 Initialize TCON register
SETB PSW.3 Initialize Banks 1
MOV R0,#00 Initialize R0 Register

MOV R1,#00 Initialize R1 Register

CLR PSW.3 Return Bank 1

MOV TMOD,#25 Timer 0 as a counter

Timer 1 as a counter
MOV TL1, #9C Start TL1 at 9CH

MOV TH0,#00 TH1 Overflowing 100 clocks

CLR FLAG

MOV TCON, #50 Start timer and counter

MOV IE, #88 Enable global and T1 over flow interrupt

JBC 0F LOOP1
LOOP2: SJMP LOOP2

LOOP1: MOV R6, TL0 Load the count values into R6 & R7 registers
MOV R7, TH0
LCALL Display Display subroutine to display the data

SJMP START Ready for the next Measurement.

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MEASUREMENT OF CURRENT- 8051 CONTROLLER :

Small currents can be measured using the microcontroller. For this a resistor of small value
between 0.1 to 1 ohm is connected to the load and Vcc in series as shown in the diagram.The
voltage source must be always a regulated power supply. The voltage across the resistor is
connected to the inverting terminal for signal conditioning. This will make the voltage suitable to
apply to one of the inputs of the ADC0809.This ADC will convert this analog voltage into
equivalent digital value.This digital signal is applied to the Port 1 of the microcontroller .The
data is processed and displayed on the LCD module.

To calculate the current Ohm's law, V= IR , is used. In the above circuit the sense resistor 's
value is 1 ohm and when 1 ampere of current is flowing in the resistor , then 1 Volt will be
developed across the sense resistor. So, I=V/R

By measuring the voltage using the microcontroller, The current in the resistor can be found.

Note : This method is useful to measure small currents only. Because with large currents the
small resistor will dissipate large heat. So, to measure large currents high wattage wire wound
resistors or Torroid must be used.

The circuit diagram is shown below.

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Assembly Language Program : The assembly language program is basically an ADC program

As given below.

Address(Hex) Label Mnemonics Operands Comments

9000 START SETB P3.4 Send ALE & SOC high
NOP No operation
NOP No operation
CLR P3.4 ALE &SOC low
LOOP1 JNB P3.5 , LOOP1 Is conversion over ?
MOV A,P1 Read digital data(Voltage)
CALL CONV Convert the hex value into
Decimal value
MOV B, # Resistor Load the resistor value into B
Value register
DIV AB Divide voltage by resistance

CALL DISPLAY Display subroutine to display

current on LCD
SJMP START Measure the current
continuously

MEASUREMENT OF VOLTAGE- 8051 CONTROLLER :

Small DC Voltage s can be measured using the microcontroller. For this a resistor of small value
around 1 ohm is connected to the load and Vcc in series as shown in the diagram. The voltage
source must be always a regulated power supply. The voltage across the resistor is connected to
the inverting terminal for signal conditioning. This will make the voltage suitable to apply to one
of the inputs of the ADC0809.This ADC will convert this analog voltage into equivalent digital
value. This digital signal is applied to the Port 1 of the microcontroller .The data is processed and
displayed on the LCD module.

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Note : This method is useful to measure small currents only. Because with large currents the
small resistor will dissipate large heat. So, to measure large voltages high wattage wire wound
resistors or Torroid must be used.

Assembly Language Program : The assembly language program is basically an ADC program

As given below.

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Address(Hex) Label Mnemonics Operands Comments

9000 START SETB P3.4 Send ALE & SOC high

NOP No operation
NOP No operation
CLR P3.4 ALE &SOC low
LOOP1 JNB P3.5 , LOOP1 Is conversion over ?
MOV A,P1 Read digital data(Voltage)
CALL CONV Convert the hex value into
Decimal value
CALL DISPLAY Display subroutine to
display Voltage on LCD
SJMP START Measure the voltage
continuously

MEASUREMENT OF RESISTANCE - 8051 CONTROLLER

Resistance is measured using the current-voltage relation. i.e using the Ohm’s law.In the relation
V= IR if the voltage and current are known ,the resistance can be determined. In this method a
constant current source is used. A resistor is connected in series to the current source .The
voltage drop across the resistor is signal conditioned using the op-amp circuit and this analog
signal is then converted into equivalent digital signal by using ADC. The digital signal is fed to
the Port1 of the microcontroller. The microcontroller will process the data .Using the relation
R=V/I , the resistor value is determined and by developing a suitable program the resistance
value is displayed on the LCD. In the circuit LM317 regulator can be used as constant current
source.

The interface diagram is shown below.

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An assembly language program is developed to find the resistance value.The program is given
below.

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Address(Hex) Label Mnemonics Operands Comments
9000 SETB P3.4 Send ALE & SOC high
START
NOP No operation
NOP No operation
CLR P3.4 ALE &SOC low
LOOP1 JNB P3.5 , LOOP1 Is conversion over ?
MOV A,P1 Read digital data(Voltage)
CALL CONV Convert the hex value into
Decimal value
MOV B, # Current Load the known value of the
value current into B register
DIV AB Divide voltage by current

CALL DISPLAY Display subroutine to display

resistance value on LCD
SJMP START Measure the resistance
continuously

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