Digital DC watt meter project using pic microcontroller

Digital dc watt meter using pic microcontroller is used to measure dc power of dc circuits.
Voltage and current sensors are used in this project. Voltage and current sensors are interfaced
with microcontroller. Voltage sensor is used to measure voltage across circuit or load. Current
sensor is used to measure current passing through load. Voltage divider circuit is used to measure
high voltage. because microcontroller can not read high voltage or voltage more than 5 volt.
Shunt resistor is used as a current sensor.Shunt resistor is used to convert current into voltage
form. Because microcontroller does not understand current. Microcontroller can read voltage
directly. Liquid crystal display is used to show measured value of dc power. Digital dc watt
meter is very simple to use and basic idea of digital dc watt meter is given in this project.

Digital dc watt meter main components

To understand this project completely you should know how to measure dc voltage using pic
microcontroller? How to measure dc current using pic microcontroller? How to interface LCD
with pic microcontrollers? If you dont know about it, I recommend you to read following
articles first. So that you can get better understanding of digital dc watt meter project.

LCD interfacing with PIC16F877A microcontroller

How to measure dc voltage using PIC16F877A microcontroller

How to measure dc current using PIC16F877A microcontroller

I hope that you have gone through above three article and understand them completely. If yes,
you can easily design digital dc watt meter using instructions given below.

Digital dc watt meter circuit diagram

circuit diagram of digital dc watt meter is given below. 0.47 resistor is used as a shunt resistor
and I have explained its purpose in digital ammeter project in detail. Resistor R1 and R4 is
used as a voltage divider. I have explained their functions in digital voltmeter project. LCD
displays measured DC power by fetching its value from PIC16F877A microcontroller. 8MHz
crystal is used to operate PIC16F877A microcontroller. DC ammeter used in below circuit is just
for simulation purpose. you dont need to connect it while designing dc watt meter circuit.

Digital Dc watt meter working

As I have mentioned above this project consists of three main components. Detail of these three
components is given below:

Digital Ammeter : Digital Ammeter is designed using shunt resistor. R6 0.47 shunt
resistor is used to measure current flowing through a load. Shunt resistor converts current
passing through it into voltage. This voltage is measured with the help of analog channel
AN1 of PIC16F877A microcontroller. Measured voltage converted back into current

using ohms law formula I = V/R. Because value of shunt resistor and measured voltage
is known.

Digital voltmeter: Digital voltmeter is used to measure voltage across load. voltage
divider is used to step down voltage less than 5 volt. Voltage across R4 resistor of voltage
divider is measured with the help of analog channel AN0 of PIC16F877A
microcontroller. Measured voltage converted back into actual voltage by multiplying it
with opposite of voltage divider formula.

PIC16F877A microcontroller: All mathematical calculations are done through

programming of PIC16F877A microcontroller. It reads current and voltage through
analog to digital converter. As you know dc power is just a product of voltage and
current.
DC Power = Voltage current

So by using above formula dc power can be easily calculated by writing simple

multiplication instruction in program. I will discuss it later in programming part.

Video lecture on dc power measurement

Watch this video lecture on Dc power measurement using pic microcontroller, if you want
complete step by step guide
:

Digital dc watt meter code

Code for dc measurement project is written using Mikro pro C compiler. Its program is given
below:

voltage = ADC_Read(0) : This function reads analog value of voltage and converts it
into binary value of voltage.

voltage = (voltage * 5 * 10)/ (1024) : It converts binary value back into actual voltage by
multiplying it with ADC resolution factor and voltage divider inverse. You can get its
more detail from voltage measurement article.

current = ADC_Read(1) : This function reads binary value of voltage across shunt
resistor.

current = (current * 0.00489 )/ (0.47) : This function converts binary value of voltage
across shunt resistor into current.

Power = voltage * current : Its just a multiplication factor of measured voltage and
measured current.

inttostr(power,pwr) : It converts power value into string.