#11: ATmega328P External Interrupts

Reading

The AVR Microcontroller and Embedded Systems using Assembly and C
by Muhammad Ali Mazidi, Sarmad Naimi, and Sepehr Naimi

Sections: 10.3, 10.5

External Interrupts

• Review ATmega328P Interrupts Lecture Notes page 4 “Interrupt Basics”
• External Interrupts are triggered by the INT0 and INT1 pins or any of the PCINT23..0 pins
• 23 Pin Change Interrupts are mapped to the 23 General Purpose I/O Port Pins:

Port B Group		PCINT7 (PB7)  PCINT0 (PB0)
Port C Group	PCINT15 (PC7)	PCINT14 (PC6)  PCINT8 (PC0)
Port D Group		PCINT23 (PD7)  PCINT16 (PD0)

ATmega328P Interrupt Vector Table

Vector No	Program Address	Source	Interrupt Definition	Arduino/C++ ISR() Macro Vector Name
1	0x0000	RESET	Reset
2	0x0002	INT0	External Interrupt Request 0 (pin D2)	(INT0_vect)
3	0x0004	INT1	External Interrupt Request 1 (pin D3)	(INT1_vect)
4	0x0006	PCINT0	Pin Change Interrupt Request 0 (pins D8 to D13)	(PCINT0_vect)
5	0x0008	PCINT1	Pin Change Interrupt Request 1 (pins A0 to A5)	(PCINT1_vect)
6	0x000A	PCINT2	Pin Change Interrupt Request 2 (pins D0 to D7)	(PCINT2_vect)
7	0x000C	WDT	Watchdog Time-out Interrupt	(WDT_vect)
8	0x000E	TIMER2 COMPA	Timer/Counter2 Compare Match A	(TIMER2_COMPA_vect)
9	0x0010	TIMER2 COMPB	Timer/Counter2 Compare Match B	(TIMER2_COMPB_vect)
10	0x0012	TIMER2 OVF	Timer/Counter2 Overflow	(TIMER2_OVF_vect)
11	0x0014	TIMER1 CAPT	Timer/Counter1 Capture Event	(TIMER1_CAPT_vect)
12	0x0016	TIMER1 COMPA	Timer/Counter1 Compare Match A	(TIMER1_COMPA_vect)
13	0x0018	TIMER1 COMPB	Timer/Counter1 Compare Match B	(TIMER1_COMPB_vect)
14	0x001A	TIMER1 OVF	Timer/Counter1 Overflow	(TIMER1_OVF_vect)
15	0x001C	TIMER0 COMPA	Timer/Counter0 Compare Match A	(TIMER0_COMPA_vect)
16	0x001E	TIMER0 COMPB	Timer/Counter0 Compare Match B	(TIMER0_COMPB_vect)
17	0x0020	TIMER0 OVF	Timer/Counter0 Overflow	(TIMER0_OVF_vect)
18	0x0022	SPI, STC	SPI Serial Transfer Complete	(SPI_STC_vect)
19	0x0024	USART, RX	USART, Rx Complete	(USART_RX_vect)
20	0x0026	USART, UDRE	USART, Data Register Empty	(USART_UDRE_vect)
21	0x0028	USART, TX	USART, Tx Complete	(USART_TX_vect)
22	0x002A	ADC	ADC Conversion Complete	(ADC_vect)
23	0x002C	EE READY	EEPROM Ready	(EE_READY_vect)
24	0x002E	ANALOG COMP	Analog Comparator	(ANALOG_COMP_vect)
25	0x0030	TWI	2-wire Serial Interface	(I2C) (TWI_vect)
26	0x0032	SPM READY	Store Program Memory Ready	(SPM_READY_vect)

ATmega328P External Interrupt Sense Control

• The INT0 and INT1 interrupts can be triggered by a low logic level, logic change, and a falling or rising edge.
  
  

  Figure 2: External Interrupt Control Register A

• This is set up as indicated in the specification for the External Interrupt Control Register A – EICRA as defined in Section 12.2.1 EICRA of the Datasheet. The number “n” can be 0 or 1.

ISCn1	ISCn0	Arduino mode	Description
0	0	LOW	The low level of INTn generates an interrupt request
0	1	CHANGE	Any logical change on INTn generates and interrupt request
1	0	FALLING	The falling edge of INT0 generates an interrupt request
1	1	RISING	The rising edge of INT0 generates an interrupt request

ATmega328P External Interrupt Enable

• All interrupts are assigned individual enable bits which must be written logic one together with the Global Interrupt Enable bit in the Status Register (SREG) in order to enable the interrupt.
  
  

  Figure 3: Status Register

• The ATmega 328P supports two external interrupts which are individually enabled by setting bits INT1 and INT0 in the External Interrupt Mask Register (Section 12.2.2 EIMSK).
  
  

  Figure 4: External Interrupt Mask Register

• Let’s look at an example. When an edge or logic change on the INT0 pin triggers an interrupt request, INTF0 becomes set (one). If the I-bit in SREG and the INT0 bit in EIMSK are set (one), the MCU will jump to the corresponding Interrupt Vector. The flag is cleared when the interrupt routine is executed.
  
  

  Figure 5: External Interrupt Flag Register

• Alternatively, the flag can be cleared by writing a logical one to it. The EIFR register is within the I/O address range (0x00 to 0x1F) of the Set Bit in I/O Register (SBI) Instruction. This flag is always cleared when INT0 is configured as a level interrupt.

When Will External Interrupts be Triggered?

When the INT0 or INT1 interrupts are enabled and are configured as low level triggered (Type 2), the interrupts will trigger as long as…

1. The pin is held low.
2. The low level is held until the completion of the currently executing instruction.
3. The level is held long enough for the MCU to completely wake-up (assuming it was asleep).
   – Low level interrupt on INT0 and INT1 are detected asynchronously (no clock required). The I/O clock is halted in all sleep modes except idle mode. Therefore low level interrupts can be used for waking the part from all sleep modes.
4. Among other applications, low level interrupts may be used to implement a handshake protocol.

When the INT0 or INT1 interrupts are enabled and are configured as edge or logic change (toggle) triggered, (Type 11) the interrupts will trigger as long as…

1. The I/O clock is present.
   – This implies that these interrupts cannot be used for waking up the part from sleep modes other than idle mode.
2. The pulse lasts longer than one I/O clock period. Shorter pulses are not guaranteed to generate an interrupt.

PIN Change Interrupts

• In addition to our two (2) external interrupts, twenty-three (23) pins can be programmed to trigger an interrupt if there pin changes state.
• These 23 pins are in turn divided into three (3) interrupt groups (PCI 2:0) corresponding to the three GPIO Ports B, C, and D
• Each of the groups are assigned to one pin change interrupt flag (PCIF) bit (2:0).
• A pin change interrupt flag will be set, if the interrupt is enabled (see How to Enable a Pin Change Interrupt), and any pin assigned to the group changes state (toggles).

How a PIN Change Interrupt Works

Here is how it works…

How to Enable a PIN Change Interrupt

In addition to our two (2) external interrupts, twenty-three (23) pins PCINT 23:16, 14:0 can be programmed to trigger an interrupt if there pin changes state. These 23 pins are divided into three (3) interrupt groups (PCI 2:0) of eight (8), seven (7) and (8). Consequently to enable and individual pin change interrupt 3 interrupt mask bits must be set to one (1).

1. The SREG global interrupt enable bit I
2. The pin change interrupt enable bit (PCIE 2:0) group the pin is assigned. Specifically, a pin change interrupt PCI2 will trigger if any enabled PCINT23..16 pin toggles. A pin change interrupt PCI1 will trigger if any enabled PCINT14..8 pin toggles. A pin change interrupt PCI0 will trigger if any enabled PCINT7..0 pin toggles.
   
   

   Pin Change Interrupt Control Register

3. The individual pin change interrupt enable mask bit assigned to the pin (PCINT 23:0) is set. These mask bits are located in the three pin change mask registers assigned to each group.
   
   

   Pin Change Mask Register 2

   
   
   

   Pin Change Mask Register 1

   
   
   

   Pin Change Mask Register 0

ATmega328P Interrupt Processing (REVIEW)

Programming the Arduino to Handle External Interrupts

• Stop compiler optimization of variables within an ISR by adding the volatile qualifier. This keeps the current value in SRAM until needed.

const byte pin = 8; // green LED 0
volatile int state = LOW;

• Add jumps in the IVT to ISR routine, configure External Interrupt Control Register A (EICRA), and enable local and global Interrupt Flag Bits.
  
• Write Interrupt Service Routine (ISR)

void blink()
{

state = !state;

}

To disable interrupts globally (clear the I bit in SREG) call the noInterrupts() function. To once again enable interrupts (set the I bit in SREG) call the interrupts() function.

Programming the Arduino to Handle Interrupts

• In the AVR-GCC environment upon which the Arduino language is built, the interrupt vector table (IVT) is predefined to point to interrupt routines with predetermined names (see “ATmega328P Interrupt Vector Table” on page 6).
• You create an ISR by using the Macro ISR() and these names.

#include <avr/interrupt.h>

ISR(ADC_vect)
{
// user code here
}

• Now that you have defined the ISR you need to locally and globally enable it. Here are the relevant links for learning how to complete your ISR definition.
  • Global manipulation of the interrupt flag
  • Gammon Software Solutions forum – Interrupts
  • ISR() macro

Practice Problems

Design Example – Switch Debounce

• When you press a button, its contacts will open and close many times before they finally stay in position. This is known as contact bounce.
• Depending on the switch construction, this mechanical contact bounce can last up to 10 or 20 milliseconds. This isn’t a problem for lamps, doorbells and audio circuits, but it will play havoc to with our edge-triggered interrupt circuitry.
  
  

  Switch Bounce

• With respect to the waveform above, a switch debounce solution must be designed to filter out these transitions.

Switch Debounce Solutions

So how can we design a “Debounce Circuit” to filter out these transitions.

1. The lowest-cost solution requires no hardware. Specifically, we disable the external interrupt during the switch bounce time. This solution has been implemented for the Arduino by Nick Gammon with Arduino code provided here in the “Example code of a pump timer” section.
2. For some simple electrical solutions visit http://www.patchn.com/Debounce.htm.
3. For our solution, I added a D flip-flop which is clocked at a frequency less than 50 Hz (T_p = 20 milliseconds). This digital circuit acts as a low pass filter blocking the AVR interrupt circuitry from responding to any of these additional edges.

Switch Debounce Circuit – a Simple Digital Low Pass Filter

From the Pre-lab

Appendix