Electronic – Enable port RA0 as input and retrieve value LDR from led

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I'm using the picdem 18F4550 with microchip v8.63 with the C18 compiler.

I will enable PortA to set as input, I will connect a LDR on port RA0. Which is as following (I think):

TRISAbits.TRISA0 = 1; //<= set RA0 as input.

Now I want the value of the LDR (voltage/value if a led is on), can I say: 

int colorLed = PortAbits.RA0;

And now in the variable of type int there is the value/voltage of my Led.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Best Answer

Firstly, lets check that you have connected your LDR up correctly, it should be something like this...

LDR wiring

To read the value of PIN RA0/AN0, you need to do some initialisation to make sure the port is setup correctly. The datasheet explains how all this works, but these values should work:

TRISAbits.TRISA0 = 1;           // Set RA0/AN0 to input
ADCON0           = 0b00000000;  // Set channel select to AN0
ADCON1           = 0b00001110;  // Configure RA0/AN0 as analogue
ADCON2           = 0b10101010;  // Right justified result
                                // TAD 12 and FOSC 32 - may need to adjust this
                                // depending on your clock frequency (see datasheet)
ADCON0.ADON      = 1;           // Enable ADC

Now the port should be set up, you can now read the LDR value:

ADCON0bits.GO    = 1;           // Set the GO bit of the ADCON0 register to start
                                // the conversion.

while (ADCON0bits.GO);          // Wait until the conversion is complete.

You can now read the result of the LDR as a 10-bit value in ADRESH:ADRESL. If you only need 8-bit resolution, then set ADCON2.ADFM = 0 for left justification of the result, then you only need to read the ADRESH to get your result.

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