Timers are widely used in industrial and domestic application for automating tasks. Microcontrollers can be used to design versatile and accurate timers with ease. Here I present a simple timer that can be used to turn on/off a load after user specified time.

The Timer uses a standard 16×2 lcd module for user interface (UI). User can set the time using a 3 button keypad.

After that Timer is started. While count down is in progress, the time left is displayed on screen.

The program use our LCD driver library more details of which can be found in here. Use avr-gcc + AVR Studio to compile.

The prototype was developed using xBoard MINI, a low cost easy to use ATmega8 development board. The program was burned to the MCU’s flash memory using eXtreme Burner – AVR Software and Hardware. A basic knowledge of working with different tools of AVR development is required, so please refer to following articles. Continue reading AVR Project – Relay Timer with ATmega8 AVR MCU →