Programmable Timer on a PIC18F4550

Victor got forced into building this project because a 30+ year old mechanical timer for the house heating gave up on them – instead of buying a new one, he decided to learn new stuff and build something digital. After talking to a few people he used a PIC18F4550 along with a Dallas Maxim DS1307 real time clock. The chips communicates through I2C and to still keep time even if power goes off a back up battery is used. Now you need to have something to display the time stuff – this project comes with a 16×2 liquid crystal display (that also comes with a backlight!). You would also need something to control and adjust the time – this comes with six momentary switches. As I mentioned earlier this was built for a heater so Victor threw in an LED (Light Emitting Diode) to indicate if the heater is on or not. Continue reading