Interfacing hex keypad to 8051.

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.

Hex keypad

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.
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.

Interfacing hex keypad to 8051

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 curre

nt 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.

Notes.
 The 5V DC power supply must be well regulated and filtered.
 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.
 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.
 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.