
RS232 serial communication is one of the oldest communication where data is sent or received one bit at a time. This protocol can easily be used to communicate between a PC and various devices supporting this type of protocol like PIC microcontrollers, GPS, GSM modem etc. While other interfaces like Ethernet, FireWire, and USB all send data as a serial stream, the term "serial port" usually identifies hardware more or less compliant to the RS-232 standard, intended to interface with a modem or with a similar communication device. The Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) controller is the key component of the serial communications between a device and a PC or between devices.
UART is also a common integrated feature in most microcontrollers today which is useful for communicating serial data (text, numbers, etc.) to your PC. In this article we're going to learn how to use the RS232 communication with MPLAB XC8 Compiler using the PIC18F Peripheral Library and MPLAB Code Configurator.