Microcontroller Interfacing Techniques

Overview
Micro-controllers are useful to the extent that they communicate with other devices, such as sensors, motors, switches, keypads, displays, memory and even other micro-controllers. Many interface methods have been developed over the years to solve the complex problem of balancing circuit design criteria such as features, cost, size, weight, power consumption, reliability, availability, manufacturability. Many microcontroller designs typically mix multiple interfacing methods. In a very simplistic form, a micro-controller system can be viewed as a system that reads from (monitors) inputs, performs processing and writes to ( controls ) outputs.
Input Devices Microcontroller Output Devices

Microcontroller Interfaces

Digital

Analog

On/Off

Parallel

Serial

Voltage

Current

Asynchronous 1-wire RS232/RS485 Ethernet

Synchronous 2-wire (I2C) 4-wire (SPI, Microwire)

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Digital Inputs/Outputs
On/OFF control and monitoring. Advantages Simplest interface Lowest-cost to implement (built into the microcontroller) High speed Low programming overhead Disadvantages Only on/off control/monitoring Short distance, few feet maximum. Single device control/monitoring

Digital Input Example: Reading the status of buttons or switches

Single-ended (non-matrix) switches

P2.7 P2.6 P2.5

8051 Microcontroller (AT89C51ED2)

P2.4 P2.3 P2.2 P2.1 P2.0

Digital Input Example: Keypad Interface

4X4 Matrix Keypad

Rows

Interface
P2.7 P2.6 P2.5 P2.4 P2.3 P2.2

Columns

P2.1 P2.0

8051 Microcontroller (AT89C51ED2)

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Columns

1 4 7 *

2 5 8 0

3 6 9 #

A B C D

Rows

Digital Output Example: LED control

VCC LED Interface

Current Limiting Resistors

8051 Microcontroller (AT89C51ED2)

LED's
P0.3 P0.2 P0.1 P0.0

Digital Output Example: Relay control

VCC Relay Interface

7407
P1.4

8051 Microcontroller (AT89C51ED2)

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Analog Inputs/Outputs
Voltage-based control and monitoring. Advantages Simple interface Low cost for low-resolutions High speed Low programming overhead Disadvantages High cost for higher resolutions Not all microcontrollers have analog inputs/outputs built-in Complicates the circuit design when external ADC or DAC are needed. Short distance, few feet maximum.

Voltage type: Typical ranges 0 to 2.5V 0 to 4V 0 to 5V +/- 2.5V +/- 4V +/- 5V

Current type: Typical ranges 0-20mA 4-20mA

Analog Interface
Vcc

Amplifier Potentiometer

LM35 Temperature Sensor

Vcc

Vcc

Analog/ Digital Converter (ADC)

8051 Microcontroller (AT89C51ED2)

Digital/ Analog Converter (DAC)

Strain-gage

4-20mA Output

Parallel Bus
Consists of multiple digital inputs/outputs. Most common types: 4-bit 8-bit ( e.g. Centronics ) 16-bit ( e.g. ISA ) 32-bit ( e.g. PCI ) Advantages High speed High throughput: Several bits are transmitted on one clock transition Low cost Disadvantages Large number of microcontroller pins that needed for implementing the parallel bus

Example: LCD Interface

4-bit LCD Interface

Alphanumeric LCD
P0.7 P0.6 P0.5 P0.4 D7 D6 D5 D4 D3 D2 D1 D0 E R/W RS

8051 Microcontroller (AT89C51ED2)

Hello World

P0.2 P0.1 P0.0

8-bit LCD Interface

Alphanumeric LCD
P0.7 P0.6 P0.5 P0.4 P0.3 P0.2 P0.1 P0.0 P2.2 P2.1 P2.0 D7 D6 D5 D4 D3 D2 D1 D0 E R/W RS

8051 Microcontroller (AT89C51ED2)

Hello World

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Serial Buses I2C ( Inter Integrated Circuit bus )

2-wire interface with one master and multiple slaves ( multi-master configurations possible ). Originated by Philips Semiconductor in the early 80s to connect a microcontroller to peripheral devices in TV sets. Signals: DATA (SDA), CLOCK (SCL) and Ground. SDA is always bi-directional; SCL is bidirectional only in multi-master mode. Maximum allowable capacitance on the lines is 400 pF. Typical device capacitance is 10 pF. To start the communications, the bus master (typically a microcontroller) places the address of the device with which it intends to communicate (the slave) on the bus. All slave devices monitor the bus to determine if the master device is sending their address. Only the device with the correct address communicates with the master. By definition, I2C is 5V. Advantages Multiple slave devices can be accessed with only 3 wires Low-cost to implement Implemented in hardware or software Ease to implement, many examples Supports multi-master configuration Disadvantages Short distance Slow speed: 100 KHz although 400 KHz and 1 MHz slave devise exist. These can not coexist with slower devices. Limited device addresses

2-wire (I2C) interface

VCC

2.2K

2.2K

SDA SCL

AT24C04 EEPROM

A0 A1 A2

8051 Microcontroller (AT89C51ED2)

SDA (P1.7) SCL (P1.6) SCL SDA

Lithium Battery

DS1307 Real-Time Clock Crystal

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Start and Stop

An I2C master prepares to communicate with a slave device first by generating a Start condition on the bus. Start condition is defined as SDA signal going low while SCL signal is high. Stop condition is defined as SDA going high while SCL is high.

Data Validity
Data can change while the clock is low. Data should remain stable while the clock is going high.

Acknowledge (ACK)

Writing a byte to a serial EEPROM (24C04 ) on the I2C bus:

where Device Address is defined as

P0, P1, P2 indicate the page number ( 2Kbit pages ). A0, A1, A2 indicate the device number on the bus. Reading a byte from a serial EEPROM (24C04 ) on the I2C bus ( starting from the current address )

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SPI ( Serial Peripheral Interface )

4-wire interface with one master and multiple slaves. Signals: DATA IN, DATA OUT, CLOCK, CS ( Chip Select ) Originated by Motorola, SPI bus is a relatively simple synchronous serial interface for connecting low speed external devices using minimal number of wires. A synchronous clock shifts serial data into and out of the microcontrollers in blocks of 8 bits. SPI bus is a master/slave interface. Whenever two devices communicate, one is referred to as the "master" and the other as the "slave" device. The master drives the serial clock. SPI is full duplex: Data is simultaneously transmitted and received. Advantages Multiple slave devices can be accessed with only few wires Low-cost Implemented in hardware or software Ease to implement, many examples Can be high speed ( e.g. 4MHz or higher if implemented in hardware ) Disadvantages Short distance Data and clock lines can be shared but each device requires a separate Chip Select signal, limiting the number of devices in limited I/O systems

Example: Multimedia Card ( MMC ) Interface using SPI

MMC Interface

P3.5 P3.7

CS DIN DOUT

8051 Microcontroller (AT89C51ED2)

P3.3 CLK P3.4

Multimedia Card MMC

1-wire
Originated by Dallas Semiconductor ( now part of MAXIM ) to address a variety of peripherals, sensors, and memory chips from a single wire interface ( DATA and Ground ). One signal wire carries both operating power and signal. Usually the network is built using a wire pair where one wire carries the signal and power and the other wire is ground. The system is sensitive to the right timing to operate well. Advantages Multiple slave devices can be accessed with only 2 wires Low-cost Implemented in hardware or software Ease to implement, many examples Relatively long distance. Theoretically 300 meters but this is limited in practice due to noise and cable capacitance Disadvantages Slow speed 1-wire slave devices typically has to come from one source: Dallas Semiconductor

For more information on the 1-wire bus, please refer to BiPOM Application Note: Temperature Measurements with 1-Wire Bus Sensors http://www.bipom.com/applications/ds18xx_app.pdf

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RS232
Asynchronous communications Advantages Popular interface with many examples Many compatible legacy devices Relatively long distance, 50 feet maximum for low baud rates although longer distances work in practice, with low baud rates and error correction Immune to noise due to +/-5 Volts or higher voltage levels for logic 0 and 1 Implemented in hardware or software Ease to implement, many examples Disadvantages More suitable for system to system communications, not so much for chip to chip or chip to sensor Low speed for long distance, 115200 baud can be achieved with small microcontrollers using short distances Requires transceiver chips which add to system cost ( TTL/CMOS level RS232 can be used without transceiver chips ). Single master/single slave

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RS485 Asynchronous communications Advantages Popular interface with many examples Very long distance, thousands of feet Immune to noise due to differential voltage Implemented in hardware or software Ease to implement, many examples Widely used in industrial automation Higher speeds beyond 115200 baud Disadvantages More suitable for system to system communications, not so much for chip to chip or chip to sensor Requires transceiver chips and twisted pair cable with terminating resistors which add to system cost.

RS485 Network Topology: Any station can communicate with any other station, but not at the same time.

Correct termination resistor that matches the characteristic impedance of the cable is very important in RS485. Otherwise, reflected waves will result in distortions of the original waveform to the point where data errors occur.

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Ethernet
Advantages Very high speed ( 10Mbit to 100Mbit/s ) Very long distance, hundreds of feet can be achieved, more with hubs and switches Immune to noise Widely used in industrial automation due to noise immunity Disadvantages

 Cost More suitable for system to system communications, not so much for chip to chip/sensor Requires Ethernet chipset, transformer, jack and special cabling that add to system cost. Complicated to implement High code footprint