You are on page 1of 4

circuitvalley.

com

30 volts Panel Volt Meter Using PIC MCU

3-4 minutos

       This is a simple application of internal 10-bit


ADC(analog to digital  converter) of PIC16F676
microcontroller.you can use this  circuit  to measure  up to 30 v
dc. the possible  applications are on bench top power supply or
as a panel meter in various system.
3A Current meter using PIC
Circuit description 

            MICROCHIP'S PIC16F676 is the heart and brain of this


circuit .the internal adc of the mcu with a resistor network
voltage  divider is used to measure the input voltage . then 3
digest of comm anode 7 segment display is used to display
final converted voltage. as you can see in the schematic the
displays are multiplexed with each other . means we switch on
one display and put the corresponding digit on this while other
two displays are off this cycle go for each of the display.

you can find more about driving multiplexed 7 segment led


display from a pic mcu in application note from
microchip AN557 Four Channel Digital Voltmeter with Display
and Keyboard

in my circuit the refresh rate is about 50hz.

Voltage Divider Front End

as you can seen in the schematic the 47k resistor and 10 k trim
pot is connected ias a voltage divider configuration  .we all
know very well that by default pic micro controller
ADC reference voltage is set to vcc(+5v in this case) .
so what we have to do is make such voltage divider that can
divide out maximum range 30 volts to 5 volts . so we need is
Vin/6 ==> 30/6 =5v   voltage divider . and to keep as less as
possible attenuation on the under test voltage we have to keep
the voltage divider resistor value in few thousand ohms
because it takes very little current from the target but as much
to drive adc of pic.

calculation   
10bit adc resolution we get 1023 maximum count
with 5 v reference  we get  5/1023 = 0.0048878 V/Count 
means if the adc count is 188 then input voltage is 188 *
0.0048878 == 0.918 volts 

but now with the voltage divider  the maximum  voltage  is 30v
so the calculations  
will be  30/1023= 0.02932 volts/count
if now we get 188 then 188*0.02932==5.5 Volts

you can also increase  or decrease  the range by changing


resistor network and the calculations a little bit.

the capacitor 0.1uf makes the adc input a bit stable because
10bit adc is really sensitive .
the 5.1v zener will provide over votage protection to the
internal adc because it wont allow voltage more than 5.1v.
Accuracy and calibration 

overall  accuracy of this circuit is great but it totally depends on


the values of 47K resistor and 10k trim pot . as fine as you can
go by adjustment of the trim pot your accuracy goes fine.

calibration of this circuit is done by adjustment of the 10k


trimpot around value of 7.5k or so .
all you have to do is take any standard power like 5v or 12v and
apply that to the input of the resistor network and adjust the
trimpot until you get correct value on the display

PCB
Software  Sorce code and Firmware
the sotware is written in c and complied using hi-tech compiler

click here download firmware  and source code 

you may also like  MSP430 BASED 30V VOLT METER

You might also like