Serial communication is a fundamental aspect of embedded systems, allowing microcontrollers to communicate with other devices such as computers, sensors, and other microcontrollers. One common function used in many embedded systems, particularly in Arduino environments, is Serial.println. This function sends data over a serial port and appends a newline character at the end, making it useful for debugging and data logging.

However, in the context of microchip environments, such as those using Microchip's PIC microcontrollers, the Serial.println function is not directly applicable. Instead, Microchip environments typically use different libraries and functions to achieve similar serial communication. This article will guide you on how to set up and use serial communication in a Microchip environment, specifically using MPLAB X IDE and XC8 compiler.

Examples:

1. Setting Up Serial Communication on a PIC Microcontroller:

   To begin, you need to configure the UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter) module of the PIC microcontroller. Below is an example code for setting up UART on a PIC16F877A microcontroller.

   #include <xc.h>
   
   // Configuration bits
   #pragma config FOSC = HS        // Oscillator Selection bits (HS oscillator)
   #pragma config WDTE = OFF       // Watchdog Timer Enable bit (WDT disabled)
   #pragma config PWRTE = OFF      // Power-up Timer Enable bit (PWRT disabled)
   #pragma config BOREN = ON       // Brown-out Reset Enable bit (BOR enabled)
   #pragma config LVP = OFF        // Low-Voltage (single-supply) In-Circuit Serial Programming Enable bit (RB3 is digital I/O, HV on MCLR must be used for programming)
   #pragma config CPD = OFF        // Data EEPROM Memory Code Protection bit (Data EEPROM code protection off)
   #pragma config WRT = OFF        // Flash Program Memory Write Enable bits (Write protection off)
   #pragma config CP = OFF         // Flash Program Memory Code Protection bit (Code protection off)
   
   #define _XTAL_FREQ 20000000     // Define the system clock frequency
   
   void UART_Init(void) {
      TRISC6 = 0; // TX Pin set as output
      TRISC7 = 1; // RX Pin set as input
      SPBRG = 31; // Baud rate 9600 for 20MHz clock
      TXEN = 1;   // Enable transmission
      SPEN = 1;   // Enable serial port pins
      CREN = 1;   // Enable reception
      TX9 = 0;    // 8-bit transmission
      RX9 = 0;    // 8-bit reception
   }
   
   void UART_Write(char data) {
      while (!TRMT); // Wait until the transmit buffer is empty
      TXREG = data;  // Transmit data
   }
   
   void UART_Write_Text(char* text) {
      while (*text) {
          UART_Write(*text++);
      }
   }
   
   void main(void) {
      UART_Init(); // Initialize UART
      while (1) {
          UART_Write_Text("Hello, World!\r\n"); // Send text
          __delay_ms(1000); // Wait for 1 second
      }
   }

2. Reading Data from UART:

   To read data from the UART, you can use the following code snippet. This example reads a character from the UART and echoes it back.

   char UART_Read(void) {
      while (!RCIF); // Wait until data is received
      return RCREG;  // Return received data
   }
   
   void main(void) {
      char received;
      UART_Init(); // Initialize UART
      while (1) {
          received = UART_Read(); // Read data from UART
          UART_Write(received);   // Echo received data
      }
   }