Microcontroller Based Retail Pharmaceutical Tablets Counting Device

Unlike the tablets counter in the market, the product developed in this project is a portable tablets counter based on microcontroller PIC16F877A as the main controller. It could overcome the disadvantages of current counters in the market that are expensive, bulky and overly heavy. This project involved both hardware (mechanical and electrical) and software design. The programming was written in assembly language with MPLAB. Special vibration plate was designed to automatically load the tablets into the photo-detector channel individually. The visual indicator of the counting result is output to a 7-segment counter. The user could stop, start and reset the counting device easily. The counting accuracy is up to 100% for many shapes of pills ranged from 8 mm to 18 mm. Besides that, the programming has reduced the cost of customization, control external components speedily and counts up to 999 tablets.