Lec4: Interfacing

1
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Interfacing
n Connecting the computation capabilities of a microcontroller
to external signals
n Transforming variable values into voltages and vice-versa
n Digital and analog
n Issues
n How many signals can be controlled?
n How can digital and/or analog inputs be used to measure
different physical phenomena?
n How can digital and/or analog inputs be used to control
different physical phenomena?
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Controlling and reacting to the environment

n Tocontrol or react to the environment we need to interface

the microcontroller to peripheral devices
n Microcontroller may contain specialized interfaces to sensors and
actuators
n Things we want to measure or control
n light, temperature, sound, pressure, velocity, position
n Sensors
n e.g., switches, photoresistors, accelerometers, compass, sonar
n Actuators
n e.g., motors, relays, LEDs, sonar, displays, buzzers
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Communication Interface

nCommunication interface is essential for communicating with

various subsystems of the embedded system and with the
external world

1. Device/board level communication interface (Onboard Communication Interface)

2. Product level communication interface (External Communication Interface)

+ Onboard Communication Interface
5

n The communication channel which interconnects the various

components within an embedded product is referred as onboard
communication interface
n Serial interfaces
n I2 C (Inter Integrated Circuit) Bus
n SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) Bus
n UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter)
n 1-Wires Interface

n Parallel bus interface

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External Communication Interface

n is responsible for data transfer between the embedded system and

other devices or modules. The external communication interface
can be either wired media or wireless media and it can be a serial
or parallel interface.
n Examples for wireless communication interface: Infrared (IR), Bluetooth
(BT), Wireless AN (Wi-Fi), Radio Frequency waves (RF), GPRS etc.
n Examples for wired interfaces: RS-232C/RS-422/RS 485, USB, Ethernet
(TCP-IP), IEEE1394 port, Parallel port etc.
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Inter-Integrated Circuit Bus (I2C)

n Modular connections on a printed circuit board

n Multi-point connections (needs addressing)

n Synchronous transfer (but adapts to slowest

device)

n Similar to Controller Area Network (CAN) protocol

used in automotive applications

n Similar to TWI (Two-Wire Interface) on ATmegas

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Serial data format

n SDA going low while SCL high signals start of data

n SDA going high while SCL high signals end of data

n SDA can change when SCL low

n SCL high (after start and before end) signals that a data bit can be read
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Byte transfer
n Byte followed by a 1 bit acknowledge from receiver

n Open-collector wires
n sender allows SDA to rise
n receiver pulls low to acknowledge after 8 bits

n Multi-byte transfers
n first byte contains address of receiver
n all devices check address to determine if following data is for them
n second byte usually contains address of sender
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Clock synchronization
n Synchronous data transfer with variable speed devices
n go as fast as the slowest device involved in transfer

n Each device looks at the SCL line as an input as well as driving it

n if clock stays low even when being driven high then another device needs more time, so wait for it to
finish before continuing
n rising clock edges are synchronized
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Inter-Integrated Circuit Bus (I2C)

n Supports data transfers from 0 to 400KHz

n Philips (and others) provide many devices
n microcontrollers with built-in interface
n A/D and D/A converters
n parallel I/O ports
n memory modules
n LCD drivers
n real-time clock/calendars
n DTMF decoders
n frequency synthesizers
n video/audio processors
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Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI)

n SPIis used to send data between

Microcontrollers and small
peripherals such as shift registers,
sensors, and SD cards.

n 8-bits
transferred in each direction
every time

n Master generates clock

n Shift
enable used to select one of
many slaves
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Data Payload on SPI

n Data is exchanged between master and slave
n Master always initiates
n May need to poll slave (or interrupt-driven)
n Decide on how many bytes of data have to move in each direction
n Transfer the maximum for both directions
n One side may get more than it needs
n Decide on format of bytes in packet
n Starting byte and/or ending byte?
n Can they be distinguished from data in payload?
n Length information or fixed size?
n SPI buffer
n Write into buffer, specify length, master sends it out, gets data
n New data arrives at slave, slave interrupted, provides data to go to master, reads data from
master in buffer
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I2C v/s SPI

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Universal Serial Bus

n Connecting peripherals to PCs
n Ease-of-use
n Low-cost
n Up to 127 devices (optionally powered through bus)
n Transfer rates up to 480 Mb/s (USB 2.0)
n Variable speeds and packet sizes
n Full support for real-time data for voice, audio, and video
n Protocol flexibility for mixed-mode isochronous data transfers and asynchronous
messaging
n PC manages bus and allocates slots (host controller)
n Can have multiple host controllers on one PC
n Support more devices than 127
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USB Peripherals
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USB Data Transfer

n Data transfer speeds

n Low is <0.8v, high is >2.0v differential
n 480Mb/sec, 12Mb/sec, 1.5Mb/sec
n Data is NRZI encoded (data and clock on one wire)
n SYNC at beginning of every packet
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USB Packet Format

n Sync + PID + data + CRC

n Basic data packet

n Sync: 8 bits (00000001)
n PID: 8 bits (packet id – type)
n Data: 8-8192 bits (1K bytes)
n CRC: 16 bits (cyclic redundancy check sum)

n Other data packets vary in size

n May be as short as only 8 bits of PID
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RS-232 (standard serial line)

n Point-to-point, full-duplex
n Synchronous or asynchronous
n Flow control
n Variable baud (bit) rates
n Cheap connections (low-quality and few wires)
n Variations: parity bit; 1, 1.5, or 2 stop bits
+ 20

RS-232 wires
+ 21

Transfer modes

nn Synchronous
n clock signal wire is used by both receiver and sender to sample data
nn Asynchronous
n no clock signal in common
n data must be oversampled (16x is typical) to find bit boundaries
nn Flow control
n handshaking signals to control rate of transfer
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Upstream - BL0086 - 8-Bit AVR Programmer

q The board comes complete with a

powerful ATMEGA328P
microcontroller.
q The board presents all port pins
collected together as E-blocks 2
sockets.
q The board takes power from an
external power supply or from the
micro USB port.
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BL0086 –Block diagram

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BL0086 Layout
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BL0061 - ST ARM Programmer

• The board comes complete with

a powerful series 4 ARM
microcontroller.
• The board presents all port pins
collected together as E-blocks 2
sockets.
• The board takes power from an
external power supply or from
the micro USB port.
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lab2