CCS C UART example for PIC18F4550 microcontroller

This article shows how to get started with PIC18F4550 microcontroller USART module using CCS PIC C compiler.
PIC18F4550 microcontroller has one (1) USART (Universal Synchronous/Asynchronous Receive/Transmit) module. This module can work in USRT mode or UART mode. In this topic we are going to use the USART module as UART (Universal Asynchronous Receive/Transmit) to transmit and receive data between the microcontroller and the computer.
PIC18F4550 UART connection circuit schematic:
Pin RC6 (TX) and pin RC7 (RX) are used for the UART (serial) communication between the microcontroller and the computer. To change between TTL logic levels (5V) and RS232 signals (+/-12V), an IC is needed which is max232.
Don't connect TX and RX pins directly to an RS232 serial port which may damage your microcontroller.

PIC18F4550 UART example CCS C code:
This is the full C code of this example.

// CCS C UART example for PIC18F4550 microcontroller
// http://ccspicc.blogspot.com/
// electronnote@gmail.com

#include <18F4550.h>
#fuses NOMCLR INTRC_IO
#use delay(clock = 8000000)
#use rs232(uart1, baud = 9600)                // Initialize UART module
#include <string.h>

char message[] = "PIC18F4550 microcontroller UART example" ;
char i, j, textsize;
void main(){
  setup_oscillator(OSC_8MHZ);                 // Set internal oscillator to 8MHz
  putc(13);                                   // Go to first column
  printf("Hello world!");                     // UART write
  delay_ms(5000);                             // Wait 5 seconds
  putc(13);                                   // Go to first column
  putc(10);                                   // Start a new line
  textsize = strlen(message);                 // Number of characters in message
  for(j = 0; j < textsize; j++){
    putc(message[j]);
    delay_ms(100);
  }
  putc(13);                                   // Go to first column
  putc(10);                                   // Start a new line
  while(TRUE){
    if(kbhit()){                              // If data has been received
      i = getc();                             // UART read
      putc(i);                                // Send it back
    }
  }
}

PIC18F4550 UART example video:
The following video shows communication between the computer and PIC18F4550 using UART module.