AN EASY-TO-USE DEVELOPMENT KIT FOR A MICROCONTROLLER COURSE BASED ON THE 8051

Abstract

DOI: 10.14684/intertech.13.2014.100-104

Although the almost four decades old MCS51 core presents limitations if compared to many recently developed cores, its CISC instruction-set architecture and broad support are excellent features for teaching microcontrollers and assembly language. The model adopted for the development kit presented in this paper, AT89C5131A-M, differs from the regular MCS51s especially due to the embedded USB controller, as well as SPI, I2C and PWM controllers. No additional resources are necessary to program the microcontrollers’ flash, since it presents bootloader functionality for this purpose. The kit also allows the target debugging using a free available monitor program, by means of the serial or USB port (a serial/USB cable is necessary to debug via the USB). Other resources are available in the kit: A/D converter, RTC and LCD module, making the kit a useful tool for a large variety of laboratory experiments. All the components are through-hole, in order to facilitate the soldering by the students. Using the proposed kit, a microcontroller course can be held in a very simple environment and with a good involvement of the students. Index Terms - AT89C5131, development kit, MCS51, microcontroller.