This article is about interfacing a hex key pad to 8051 microcontroller. A clear knowledge on interfacing hex key pad to 8051 is very essential while designing embedded system projects which requires character or numeric input or both. For example projects like digital code lock, numeric calculator etc. Before going to the interfacing in detail, let’s have a look at the hex keypad.

Hex Keypad

Hex key pad is essentially a collection of 16 keys arranged in the form of a 4×4 matrix. Hex key pad usually have keys representing numerics 0 to 9 and characters A to F. The simplified diagram of a typical hex key pad is shown in the figure below.


The hex keypad has 8 communication lines namely R1, R2, R3, R4, C1, C2, C3 and C4. R1 to R4 represents the four rows and C1 to C4 represents the four columns. When a particular key is pressed the corresponding row and column to which the terminals of the key are connected gets shorted. For example if key 1 is pressed row R1 and column C1 gets shorted and so on. The program identifies which key is pressed by a method known as column scanning. In this method a particular row is kept low (other rows are kept high) and the columns are checked for low. If a particular column is found low then that means that the key connected between that column and the corresponding row (the row that is kept low) is been pressed. For example if row R1 is initially kept low and column C1 is found low during scanning, that means key 1 is pressed.

Circuit Diagram

The circuit diagram for demonstrating interfacing hex keypad to 8051 is shown below.Like previous 8051 projects, AT89S51 is the microcontroller used here. The circuit will display the character/numeric pressed on a seven segment LED display. The circuit is very simple and it uses only two ports of the microcontroller, one for the hex keypad and the other for the seven segment LED display.


The hex keypad is interfaced to port 1 and seven segment LED display is interfaced to port 0 of the microcontroller. Resistors R1 to R8 limits the current through the corresponding segments of the LED display. Capacitors C1, C2 and crystal X1 completes the clock circuitry for the microcontroller. Capacitor C3, resistor R9 and push button switch S1 forms a debouncing reset mechanism.

Program

ORG 00H
MOV DPTR,#LUT  // moves starting address of LUT to DPTR
MOV A,#11111111B  // loads A with all 1's
MOV P0,#00000000B  // initializes P0 as output port

BACK : MOV P1,#11111111B  // loads P1 with all 1's
              CLR P1.0  // makes row 1 low
              JB P1.4,NEXT1  // checks whether column 1 is low and jumps to NEXT1 if not low
              MOV A,#0D  // loads a with 0D if column is low (that means key 1 is pressed)
              ACALL DISPLAY  // calls DISPLAY subroutine
              NEXT1 : JB P1.5,NEXT2  // checks whether column 2 is low and so on...
              MOV A,#1D
              ACALL DISPLAY

NEXT2 : JB P1.6,NEXT3
                MOV A,#2D
                ACALL DISPLAY

NEXT3 : JB P1.7,NEXT4
                MOV A,#3D
                ACALL DISPLAY

NEXT4 : SETB P1.0
                CLR P1.1
                JB P1.4,NEXT5
                MOV A,#4D
                ACALL DISPLAY

NEXT5 : JB P1.5,NEXT6
                MOV A,#5D
                ACALL DISPLAY

NEXT6 : JB P1.6,NEXT7
                MOV A,#6D
                ACALL DISPLAY

NEXT7 : JB P1.7,NEXT8
                MOV A,#7D
                ACALL DISPLAY

NEXT8 : SETB P1.1
                CLR P1.2
                JB P1.4,NEXT9
                MOV A,#8D
                ACALL DISPLAY

NEXT9 : JB P1.5,NEXT10
                MOV A,#9D
                ACALL DISPLAY

NEXT10 : JB P1.6,NEXT11
                  MOV A,#10D
                  ACALL DISPLAY

NEXT11 : JB P1.7,NEXT12
                  MOV A,#11D
                  ACALL DISPLAY

NEXT12 : SETB P1.2
                  CLR P1.3
                  JB P1.4,NEXT13
                  MOV A,#12D
                  ACALL DISPLAY

NEXT13 : JB P1.5,NEXT14
                  MOV A,#13D
                  ACALL DISPLAY

NEXT14 : JB P1.6,NEXT15
                  MOV A,#14D
                  ACALL DISPLAY

NEXT15 : JB P1.7,BACK
                  MOV A,#15D
                  ACALL DISPLAY
                  LJMP BACK

DISPLAY : MOVC A,@A+DPTR  // gets digit drive pattern for the current key from LUT
                    MOV P0,A  // puts corresponding digit drive pattern into P0
                    RET

LUT : DB 01100000B // Look up table starts here
           DB 11011010B
           DB 11110010B
           DB 11101110B
           DB 01100110B
           DB 10110110B
           DB 10111110B
           DB 00111110B
           DB 11100000B
           DB 11111110B
           DB 11110110B
           DB 10011100B
           DB 10011110B
           DB 11111100B
           DB 10001110B
           DB 01111010B
END

About the Program
Firstly the program initializes port 0 as an output port by writing all 0′s to it and port 1 as an input port by writing all 1′s to it. Then the program makes row 1 low by clearing P1.0 and scans the columns one by one for low using JB instruction.If column C1 is found low, that means 1 is pressed and accumulator is loaded by zero and DISPLAY subroutine is called. The display subroutine adds the content in A with the starting address of LUT stored in DPTR and loads A with the data to which the resultant address points (using instruction MOVC A,@A+DPTR). The present data in A will be the digit drive pattern for the current key press and this pattern is put to Port 0 for display. This way the program scans for each key one by one and puts it on the display if it is found to be pressed.

Important Points
  1. The 5V DC power supply must be well regulated and filtered.
  2. Column scanning is not the only method to identify the key press. You can use row scanning also. In row scanning a particular column is kept low (other columns are kept high) and the rows are tested for low using a suitable branching instruction. If a particular row is observed low then that means that the key connected between that row and the corresponding column (the column that is kept low) is been pressed. For example if column C1 is initially kept low and row R1 is observed low during scanning, that means key 1 is pressed.
  3. A membrane type hex keypad was used during the testing. Push button switch type and dome switch type will also work. I haven’t checked other types.
  4. The display used was a common cathode seven segment LED display with type number ELK5613A. This is just for information and any general purpose common cathode 7 segment LED display will work here.

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