Interfacing with

AVR GPIO
(General Purpose Input Output)
Eko Henfri Binugroho

Politeknik Elektronika Negeri Surabaya

Types of Interfaces
• Basic digital I/O operation
• Bit access
• PORT access
• Analog Interface
• ADC
• DAC / PWM
• Communication Line
• USART
• I2C
• SPI
• USB
• Device Specific Interface
• LCD
• Camera
• Keypad
• Etc.
Basic I/O Operation (Initialization)
• Most of PORTs of microcontroller need to be
initialized before accessed
• Special function (if any)
• Data direction
• Initial value
• AVR basic port operation
• As Input
• As Output
• Can be configured at bit basis
Basic I/O Operation (as Input)
• AVR port can be configured as
• Input floating
• For interfacing with push-pull driven input
• SPDT switch
• Logic gates
• Op-amp
• Etc.
• Input with internal resistor pull-up
• For interfacing with pull driven only input
• Dipswitch
• Keypad
• Push button
• Open drain/open collector output
• Etc.
• Each bit in each port can be configured independently
Basic I/O Operation (as Output)
• AVR port can be configured as
• Output Push Pull
• Symmetric sink and source capability
• Up to 20mA per pin
• But can not exceed 100mA per port.
• Initial condition can be set to logic 1 or 0
• Each bit in each port can be configured independently
AVR Bit Microcontroller Port
• All its ports are 8 bit wide
• Every port has 3 registers associated with it each
one with 8 bits
• Every bit in those registers configure pins of
particular port
• Bit0 of these registers is associated with Pin0 of the port
• Bit1 of these registers is associated with Pin1 of the
port, …. and like wise for other bits.
GPIO Register
• Each GPIO PORT in AVR has three registers as follows :
• DDRx register (Data direction register)
• PORTx register (Port write register)
• PINx register (Port read register)
• (x can be replaced by A,B,C,D as per the AVR you are
using)
Hardware Schematic on each
GPIO pin
DDRx register
• DDRx (Data Direction Register) configures data
direction of port pins.
• Means its setting determines whether port pins will be used
for input or output.
• Writing 0 to a bit in DDRx makes corresponding port pin as
input, while writing 1 to a bit in DDRx makes corresponding
port pin as output.
• Example:
• to make all pins of port A as input pins :
DDRA = 0b00000000;
• to make all pins of port A as output pins :
DDRA = 0b11111111;
• to make lower nibble of port B as output and higher nibble as
input :
DDRB = 0b00001111;
PORTx register
• PORTx is used for two purposes.
• To output data
• when port is configured as output
• To activate/deactivate pull up resistors
• when port is configures as input
PORTx register as Output
• When you set bits in DDRx to 1, corresponding pins
becomes output pins.
• Data can be written into respective bits in PORTx register.
• This will immediately change state of output pins according to data
you have written.
• Example :
• to output 0xFF data on port b
• DDRB = 0b11111111; //set all pins of port b as outputs
• PORTB = 0xFF; //write data on port
• to output data in variable x on port a
• DDRA = 0xFF; //make port a as output
• PORTA = x; //output variable on port
• to output data on only 0th bit of port c
• DDRC.0 = 1; //set only 0th pin of port c as output
• PORTC.0 = 1;1 //make it high.
PORTx register as Input
• When you set bits in DDRx to 0, i.e. make
port pins as inputs
• corresponding bits in PORTx register are used to
activate/deactivate pull-up registers associated
with that pin.
• In input mode, when pull-up is enabled,
default state of pin becomes ‘1’.
• Even if it did not connected to anything, it will
read as 1.
• when it externally driven to zero(i.e. connect to
ground / or pull-down), it will be read as 0.
Enabling Internal Pull Up Resistors
• Making the DDRx bits to 0 will configure the PORTx
as Input.
• The corresponding bits in PORTx register can be used to
enable/disable pull-up resistors associated with that pin.
• To enable pull-up resistor, set bit in PORTx to 1, and
to disable set it to 0.
Example
• to make port a as input with pull-ups enabled and read
data from port a
• DDRA = 0x00; //make port a as input
• PORTA = 0xFF; //enable all pull-ups
• y = PINA; //read data from port a pins
• to make port b as tri stated input
• DDRB = 0x00; //make port b as input
• PORTB = 0x00; //disable pull-ups and make it tri state
• to make lower nibble of port a as output, higher nibble
as input with pull-ups enabled
• DDRA = 0x0F; //lower nib> output, higher nib> input
• PORTA = 0xF0; //lower nib> set output pins to 0, higher
nib> enable pull-ups
Internal Pull up resistor
• Activated when pin is connected to pull down only logic, for
example:
• Push button
• Dip switch
• Open drain or open collector output
• etc.
• Deactivated if the input capable of giving push/pull logic
(logic 1 or logic 1) to reduce the power consumption when
input pull down the line, for example
• TTL or CMOS circuit
• Other logic IC pin
• Other GPIO pin
• SPDT Switch
• Etc.
Simple I/O register summary
register bits → DDRx.n PORTx.n PINx.n
pin function↓
tri stated input 0 0 read data bit
x = PINx.n;
pull-up input 0 1 read data bit
x = PINx.n;
output 1 write data bit writing 1 toggles the
PORTx.n = x; state of the output pin.
PINx.n = 1;
Problem Example
• An AVR MCU is used to control these following I/O
• PORT A is connected to LED with initial condition all LEDs
are off (active high)
• PORTB bit 0-3 are connected to dipswitch
• PORTB bit 4-5 are connected to push button
• PORTC bit 0-3 are connected to SPDT switch
• PORTC bit 4-5 are connected to open drain comparator
• Please make program in C to initialize those
configurations
Problem Example #2
• Please describe the results of each configuration
1. DDRA = 0xF0; PORTA = 0x0F;
2. DDRB = 0xFF; PORTB = 0xF0;
3. DDRC = 0x00; PORTC = 0xF0;
4. DDRD = 0x0F; PORTD = 0xF0;
5. DDRA = 0xFF; PORTA = 0x0F;
6. DDRB = 0xAA; PORTB = 0x00;
7. DDRC = 0xBB; PORTC = 0xFF;
8. DDRD = 0xCC; PORTD = 0x0F;
Logic Manipulation
• Shifting
• Rotating
• Masking
Logic shifting operation
• In C language the operator to shift logic data are
• << to shift bit(0) left
• >> to shift bit(s) right
• Syntax:
• x = x>>n // x is shifted n bits to the right
• x = x<<n // x is shifted n bits to the left
• When shifted left the least significant bit(s) will become
zero
• When shifted right the most significant bit(s) will
become zero
•
Logic Shifting Example
• X = 0XFF<<2
• X will become 0x3FC if X can contain 12bit data or more
(short, long, etc)
• X will become 0xFC if X only can contain 8 bit data (char
or unsigned char)
• X = 0XFF>>2
• X will become 0x3F
Logic Rotate operation
• In C language the operator to rotate operation
actually use combination of shift and or logic
operation.
• Syntax for 1 bit shift for 8 bit data
• X = X>>1 | X<<7 // 1 bit rotate right
• X = X<<1 | X>>7 // 1 bit rotate left
• Syntax for 1 bit shift for 16 bit data
• X = X>>1 | X<<15 // 1 bit rotate right
• X = X<<1 | X>>15 // 1 bit rotate left
Exercise #3
• How to rotate 2 bit data from 8 bit data in
• Rotate right operation
• Rotate left operation
• How to rotate 3 bit data from 16 bit data in
• Rotate right operation
• Rotate left operation
Bits input masking
• Masking can be used to ignore other logic in one port
whenever other pins are needed
• For example, we need to read 4 pin dipswitch
combination which is located to pin 0, 1, 2, 3 of port A.
• We want to read just those pins data to variable X.
• We need byte masking to filter other pins and make at zero
for example
• How to mask it?
• The ignored pins can be masked with logic 0, and the required
pins are masked with logic 1
• The mask byte is 0B00001111
• X = PINA & 0B0001111
• Result of X will vary between 0000 to 1111 according to the
dipswitch combination.
Bits Output Masking
• Output masking is used to modify several bit(s)
from the same port without affecting other pins
• How to do it?
• We need to read first the existing data from the port
• We mask the data from the reading (filter the unused
pin(s))
• Combine the masked data with the data to be written
using OR operation
Example
• Motor driver is driven using on off logic using two
bits data. Those motor driver are connected to pin
0 and 1 from port B.
• We want to update pin 0 to logic 1, and pin 1 to logic 0.
 0B01
• How to make it?
• X = PINB; // read the existing data of PORTB
• X = X & 0B11111100; // remove data from bit 0, 1
• X = X | 0B01; // write the data to the masked data
• PORTB = X; // rewrite the manipulated data to PORTB
• We can simply write:
• PORTB = (PINB & 0B11111100)|0B01;
Assignment
Make a data rotation in PORT B for nibble high (bit 4-
7) to right and nibble low (0-3) to left.
Initial data of port B is 0B10000001.
So the data will be
1. 01000010
2. 00100100
3. 00011000
4. 10000001 // return to initial data