Real time clock and calendar using DS3231 and PIC16F877A – CCS C

Interfacing PIC16F877A with DS3231

The DS3231 is a low cost , extremely accurate real time clock with a built-in crystal oscillator. The characteristics of the DS3231 make it one of the best choices for real time clock chips.
This project shows how to build is simple real time clock and calendar (RTCC) using PIC16F877A microcontroller and DS3231.
The DS3231 uses I2C protocol to interface with the master device which is in our example the PIC16F877A which has one I2C module.
The I2C protocol uses only two lines: SCL (Serial Clock) and SDA (Serial Data) which are in the PIC16F877A RC3 and RC4 respectively.

Hardware Required:

  • PIC16F877A microcontroller
  • 16×2 LCD screen
  • 8 MHz crystal
  • 2 x 22pF ceramic capacitor
  • 10K ohm resistor
  • 2 x push button
  • 5V supply source
  • Breadboard
  • Jumper wires

DS3231 board contains the following components:

  • DS3231 (or DS3232) RTC – datasheet
  •  2 x 10K ohm resistors
  • 0.1uF ceramic capacitor
  • 3V coin cell battery

Simple real time clock and calendar using DS3231 and PIC16F877A circuit:

PIC16F877A DS3231 real time clock with buttons circuit

The 16×2 LCD has 7 data lines which are connected to pins RD0~6, the DS3231 SCL pin is connected to pin RC3 (#18) and SDA is connected to pin RC4 (#23) of the PIC16F877A.
In the circuit there are 2 push buttons (B1 & B2) connected to pin RB0 and pin RB1, the two push buttons are used to set the time as well as the calendar parameters. The button B1 selects the parameter and B1 increments the selected parameter as shown in the videos below.
The 3V cell battery is used as a backup to keep time and date running in case of main power failure. The circuit can work without this battery but its pin (#14) has to be grounded.
In this example the PIC16F877A runs with 8MHz crystal oscillator.

Simple real time clock and calendar using DS3231 and PIC16F877A CCS C code:
The following C code was tested with CCS PIC C compiler version 5.051.
The hardware I2C module of the PIC16F877A is initialized and configured using the function below with a speed of 100KHz:
#use I2C(master, I2C1, FAST = 100000)
master: set the microcontroller to the master mode
I2C1: use first I2C module.
The DS3231 works with BCD format only and to convert the BCD to decimal and vise versa I used the following functions (example for minute variable):
minute = (minute >> 4) * 10 + (minute & 0x0F);                                  // Convert BCD to decimal
minute = ((minute / 10) << 4) + (minute % 10);                                     // Convert decimal to BCD
The complete C code is the one below.

Simple real time clock and calendar using DS3231 and PIC16F877A video:
The following video shows a hardware circuit of the example.

and the second video shows the simulation of the example using Proteus.

PIC16F877A + DS3231 simulation file download.


Discover more from Simple Circuit

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

6 thoughts on “Real time clock and calendar using DS3231 and PIC16F877A – CCS C”

  1. Sir can you please explain void blink function and these two line function
    lcd_gotoxy(xx, yy);
    printf(lcd_putc,”%02u”, parameter); // Display parameter

    Actually I am trying to modify your code according to my need in Hitec-C compiler.

    1. That function is just a delay of 250 ms but it can be interrupted with circuit buttons. The link below shows the same project but using MPLAB XC8 compiler, it may help you:

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to Top