IR Sensor Interface with PIC18F4550

In my previous project we have made a simple IR

sensor Circuit. In this project, as promised before we
are going to demonstrate a PIC18F4550
microcontroller interface to IR sensor circuit. We are
just going to glow few on the pic18f4550 as an
example, however you can do some more intelligent
operations by adding some more logics to the
microcontroller coding. Interfacing infrared Proximity
sensors with Microcontroller is quiet easy.
This project is not only about interfacing an infrared IR
sensor module but also we are going to learn - How to
take digital input from a PIC18F4550 Microcontroller
(Reading the Input with a Microcontroller). It means
that the source code here will work same for taking
input from a simple switch. You can replace the IR
sensor with some simple PUSH Switch or some
other types of proximity sensors . In case of push
button you would need to pull down the pin to ground
with 1 k resistance, however for IR sensor you wont
need to pull down the input pin with resistor.

Infrared IR Sensor Module

Lets take a look at the IR Infrared Sensor Circuit
Project module that we made in our previous project
which is an inexpensive ( Low Cost ) sensor circuit
module. You can find the schematic and PCB design in
my previous post. There are three pins in the
Schematic - Two pins for providing the input voltage
and GND to the IR Sensor Module, and the third pin
from the IR module is the IR control pin. This Control
Pin from the IR sensor Module will be interfaced to the
PIC18F4550 microcontroller for sensor input.
IR Sensor Module

Concept
The output from the IR sensor circuit will be connected
to pins of a PIC18f4550 microcontroller and the
microcontroller will regard it as digital input to read
either 1 or 0. According to the output from the IR
sensor module, the PIC18F4550 will respond by
glowing led. Since we just want to read some voltage in
the microcontroller as input (either High or low) hence
we are going to configure input pins as digital to read
just 1 or 0 from the sensor.

PIC18F4550 Interface with IR sensor

Circuit
The output from the IR sensor circuit is connected to
RA0 of the pic18f4550 which is configured as input with
TRISB registers, and the output will be displayed on
LED connected across RD7, RD6,RD5 (PORTD) and RB0
and RB1 (PORTB) which are configured as output pins.
Follow the schematic below.
Schematic (IR sensor and PIC18F4550 microcontroller)

In this project we dont need to perform any Analog to

Digital Conversion(ADC), hence we are going to turn
the ADC off (ADCON0bits.ADON = 0) and configure all
the PINS to Digital. At the default 1 MHZ oscillator
frequency the output sometimes gives unstable result,
hence tuning the microcontroller to 8MHZ solved the
problem, Please note that pic18f4550 works by default
on 1 MHZ and you can change the OSCCON bits
settings to tune the oscillator frequency according to
your requirement.
Search in pic18f4550 datasheet for OSCCON register
bits and you will find a nice description and bits
settings table for available oscillator frequency and
settings to configure the microcontroller oscillator
frequency. Here I have configured the internal oscillator
to 8MHZ to avoid switch debouncing. However it works

well with 1MHZ settings as well. As a better plan the

comparator is also turned off to avoid any conflict.
All the resistors in the above
Schematic is 1k resistance. If possible, it is also
recommended to add a IC 7805 liner Voltage regulator
IC as a source of +5V to avoid any voltage fluctuation
which could possibly damage the microcontroller. Make
sure the input voltage to pic18f4550 must never
exceed +5v. Please do read the excellent pic18f4550
datasheet provided by microchip.

Source Code:
MPLAB IDE and C18 Compiler is used for compiling the
source code, however MPLAB X IDE and XC8 Compiler
can be also used with no difficulty. Download the entire
project at the end of the source code below with
compiled firmware.

SOURCE CODE :infraredinput.c

/*
* File: infraredinput.c
* Author: ron
* December 10, 2012, 1:21 PM

*/
#include <p18f4550.h>

// Include Header for PIC18F4550

#define switch1 PORTAbits.RA0 // Switch on RA0

#define led1

LATDbits.LATD7

// led1

#define led2

LATDbits.LATD6

#define led3

LATBbits.LATB0 // led3

#define led4

LATBbits.LATB1

// led4

#define led5

LATBbits.LATB2

// led5

// led2

void main (void)

{
/* If you want your microcontroller to work at 1MHZ then
comment the three lines below */
OSCCONbits.IRCF0 = 1 ;

// set internal clock to 8 MHz

OSCCONbits.IRCF1 = 1;

// For Avoiding switch

debouncing problem
OSCCONbits.IRCF2= 1;

//

/* Input output settings*/

TRISAbits.TRISA0 = 1;

// RA0 Input for taking input

from IR sensor
TRISDbits.TRISD7 = 0;

// Port D pins output

TRISDbits.TRISD6 = 0;
TRISBbits.TRISB0 = 0;

// Port B pins Output

TRISBbits.TRISB1 = 0;
TRISBbits.TRISB2 = 0;
CMCON = 0x07;

// Disable Comparator

ADCON1bits.PCFG0 = 1;

// These 4 settings below

determines the analog or digital input

ADCON1bits.PCFG1 = 1;

// In our case we are making

all the pins digital

ADCON1bits.PCFG2 = 1;

// by setting them as 1111

ADCON1bits.PCFG3 = 1;

// Check with the datasheet for

a nice desc of these bits and config.

ADCON0bits.ADON = 0; // Disabled ADC
while(1)
{ //Forever Loop
if(switch1 == 1)
{

// On reading IR sensor value ON

//Turn led ON
led1 = 1;
led2 = 1;
led3 = 1;
led4 = 1;
led5 = 1;

else if ( switch1 == 0) // On reading IR Sensor Value OFF

{ //Turn led of
led1 = 0;
led2 = 0;
led3 = 0;
led4 = 0;
led5 = 0;
else {

}
}

} //End While loop --forever

}
/* THE END */

The coding above is pretty much self-explanatory, and

comment lines must be also helpful for better
understanding.

Now you can use this project to develop your own

application the way you want. It's easy to interface this
project with a L293D Motor Driver to drive DC motors
as an "IR sensor Motor Driver" or a simple IR
infrared robot, or you could add one more IR module
on some other AN pin as switch2, with which you can
make it as "IR Line follower robot"very easily.In my
next tutorial I have also shown how to
interface multiple IR sensors with Arduino Uno
board and have the status of the sensor displayed on
LCD.