Programming the ATmega328P Registers From the Arduino IDE

Please Note:

Because I have no experience with other Arduino boards, I'm going to confine my comments to the Arduino Uno and the Atmel ATmega328P microprocessor.

Introduction

If you desire to do something beyond the Arduino programming language, like program an interrupt for any Uno I/O pin, do more precise control of pulse width modulation, or write to the EEPROM within the ATmega328P, you need to learn about the ATmega328P's internal registers. If you are studying someone else's code and see something like:

     PORTD |= (1 << PORTD1);

and you wondered what that meant, read on. By utilizing what I call "Register Programming", besides the examples above, you can more efficiently program the three I/O ports, use the ATmega328P's internal timers, program it's SPI, I²C, and serial interfaces, and make better use of the Analog to Digital converter pins, and the analog comparator.

I would not attempt to control a servo with the AnalogWrite() function. You need more resolution than 1 part in 256. Also, the frequency is wrong. AnalogWrite() gives you a frequency of 490Hz or 980Hz depending on the pin. The very common servo I am familiar with requires a frequency of 50Hz. Register programming gives you the opportunity of using an ATmega328P counter that gives you one part 65536 resolution rather than 256. You can also set the frequency exactly to your needs.

What are these registers? They are eight bit bytes of SRAM memory within the ATmega328P. These registers can be accessed through programming via the Arduino IDE. If you write "digitalWrite(13, HIGH);" in your code, you are writing to one of these resisters. The ATmega328P has 224 of these registers, but most are reserved for future use. I count 86 that are useful. All of these have particular purposes.

Resources

To do Register Programming you need three basic resources:

1. Comparison between Arduino I/O pins and ATmega328P pins
2. ATmega328P datasheet
3. AVR libraries on your computer

Arduino Pins and the ATmega328P

The following partial schematic represents the ATmega328P and the Arduino Uno's pins as printed on the device and as used in the language reference:

ATmega328P and Arduino Uno I/O Pins

The graphic of ATmega328P looks really messy. That is because, all the I/O pins, except power and grounds, have multiple functions. For the moment, we will concentrate on the ATmega328P's pin nomenclature closest to the border of the graphic, namely PB0 to PB7, PC0 to PC6, and PD0 to PD7. All but three of these pins connect to Arduino Uno I/O pins. PC6 does not because it is used by the Uno as a reset to the ATmega328P. PB6 and PB7 connect to the 16MHz crystal so can not be used as I/O pins. The other pins make up three ports, B, C, and D. Each port is controlled or monitored by three ATmega328P registers.

ATmega328P Datasheet

The next resource is the Atmel datasheet for the ATmega family of microcontrollers. Here is a link to that document.

Every function and every register is clearly presented and explained in the datasheet. You can learn a lot and do a lot by reading this document. Besides the control of the port registers, I have used the timer registers to precisely control motors and servos (better than using the Arduino's analogWrite() function). I have also used the registers for writing to and reading from the ATmega328P's internal EEPROM, and I have used them to utilize external interrupts.

ATmega328P Port Registers

Let's create an example using one of the three port registers. We will use all eight pins of port D. Four LEDs will connect to PD0 to PD3. These correspond to pins labeled 0 to 3 on the Uno. We will connect four switches to PD4 to PD7. These correspond to pins labeled 4 to 7 on the Uno. Here is the partial schematic:

Connecting LEDs and Switches To the ATmega328P

The following is copied directly from the datasheet for the ATmega328P. It details the three registers devoted to Port D:

From the Data Sheet. The Three Port D Registers

AVR Libraries On Your Computer

Here is the final resource. YOU DO NOT NEED TO CONSULT THESE LIBRARIES TO PROGRAM YOUR DEVICES. I include this discussion to show why the Arduino IDE compiler allows you to use the Atmel register and register bit names in your code.

Atmel has supplied libraries for a large number of their microcontrollers to the Arduino development suite. If you have a PC, more than likely, you will find these libraries here:

     C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\hardware\tools\avr\avr\include\avr.

There are 285 library files in this directory. No matter what version of the Arduino you have, you only need to know of one these libraries: io.h. You insert "#include <avr\io.h>" at the top of your code. The Arduino IDE, when compiling, will look at this file and knowing the specific Arduino you are using, will go to the appropriate library file. For the Arduino Uno, that library is iom328p.h. Wish I could print out the entire file here, but it is quite long.

iom328p.h consists of many, many #define statements. There is a #define for each of the ATmega328P's registers, and #define statements for each bit of each register. I never counted them, but I would think all 86 registers are addressed. All the nomenclature in the library is taken directly from the data sheet. PORTD in the data sheet is PORTD in the library. Consequently, you can write "PORTD" in your code.

Here is the portion of the library that deals with the three PORTD registers. Note the text corresponds exactly to the text in the data sheet:

From the iom328p.h Library

Putting It All Together and Writing Code

While the text in the library conforms to the text in the data sheet register descriptions, the text on the schematic (also taken from the data sheet) does not. For example, the schematic pin labeled PD7 corresponds to PORTD7 in the PORTD register, PIND7 in the PIND register, and DDD7 in the DDRD register.

Now that we know that we can use the register names, like DDRD, and the register individual bit names, like DDD2, how do we write code? There are two basic ways I do it. If I want to specify all eight bits in a register (initializing a register), I will write something like this:

  PORTD = 0; //writes 0 to all eight bits.

  PORTD = 0b11110000; //top 4 bits high, lower 4 low.

If, however, I wish to simply change one, or more bits, without effecting the other bits in a register, I will do something like this:

  PORTD |= (1 << PORTD2);

This will make the logic level of I/O pin PD2 high, without effecting any of the other seven bits of PORT D. Rather than explain how this works here, I'll let you read further down this post where it will be explained.

Finally, it is time to discuss the functions of the three registers and how to used them in your code. We will make use of those four switches and four LEDs of our example circuit in our discussion.

The Data Direction Registers - DDRB, DDRC, and DDRD

The ATmega328P needs to know how you are using its pins. Are they inputs or outputs? That is the purpose of the data direction registers. You write a 1 to make a pin an output and a 0 to make it an input. In our example, PD0 to PD3 will be outputs, while PD4 to PD7 will be inputs. PD0 corresponds to DDD0 in the DDRD register. The other pins follow the same pattern as PD0. We now have enough information to write a line of code to establish which pins are inputs or outputs:

      DDRD = 0b00001111;

I'm using the binary representation (0b00001111 rather than 15 in decimal) because I can easily see each of the eight bits of DDRD. This is equivalent to using the pinMode() function in the Arduino language. However, using pinMode() you need to write eight lines of code:

      pinMode(0, OUTPUT);

      pinMode(1, OUTPUT);

      pinMode(2, OUTPUT);

      pinMode(3, OUTPUT);

      pinMode(4, INPUT_PULLUP);

      pinMode(5, INPUT_PULLUP);

      pinMode(6, INPUT_PULLUP);

      pinMode(7, INPUT_PULLUP);

Internal Pull-Up Resistors

What's with the PULLUP notation? As shown in the schematic, without further effort, the switches have no useful function. Whether a switch is pressed, or not, a logic 0 will be seen at the switch's pin. There are two ways to make the switches useful. The first is to connect a resistor between each of a switch's I/O pin and 5V. With this "pull-up" resistor connected, a logic 1 is recorded at the pin if the switch is not pressed. Since the switch connects the I/O pin to ground, a logic 0 will be recorded if the switch is pressed.

The second way utilizes a convenient feature of the ATmega328P. Each I/O pin has an internal pull-up resistor that can be connected at the pin. These ATmega328p pull-up resistors are connected by programming. We have seen how that is done using pinMode(). We can do the same, and do it for all four switches, in one statement using register programming. Per our example, we will use the PORTD register.

If you look in the data sheet at the description of the PORT registers, you will find if a pin is declared an input, in the port's DDR register, programming a 1 in the pin's PORT register will turn on the internal pull-up resistor. To make it clear, in our example, PD4 - PD7 have been declared inputs. Therefore, we will program PORTD4, PORTD5, PORTD6, and PROTD7 as 1s. We will do this in one line of code:

      PORTD = 0b11110000;

Port Registers - PORTB, PORTC, and PORTD

We have already seen an example of using the port register for enabling the internal pull-up resistors of input pins. The other obvious use of these registers is to turn on and turn off external components like LEDs. In our example, we have four LEDs. In the line of code above, where we connected internal pull-up resistors, we have also turned the four LEDs off. A logic 0 provides, essentially, ground voltage to the device. A logic 1 provides, essentially, +5V to the device. In our case, 0 volts turns the LEDs off. To turn an LED on, program a 1 to the pin's PORTD register. To turn LEDs D1 and D3 on, and to keep LEDs D2 and D4 off, we can write the following line of code:

      PORTD = 0b11110101;

Note, by writing the line above, we have to keep track of the logic levels of all eight pins in port D. Sometimes, that is not convenient, and not possible. Once we setup those pull-up resistors, we don't want to inadvertently disconnect them by programming. What we need then is a way to write to as few as one pin in the PORTD register without disturbing the logic levels of the other pins. To do that we need to be familiarize ourselves with the logic functions given to us by mathematician George Boole: the bitwise operators.

The Bitwise Operators

What does the following statement do?

     PORTD |= (1 << PORTD1);

This statement will turn on LED D2 without effecting the other seven bits of port D. It utilizes two of the six bitwise operators. Let's list the six operators and the characters that represent them in code:

~	NOT
&	AND
|	OR
^	EXCLUSIVE OR
<<	SHIFT LEFT
>>	SHIFT RIGHT

These operators are called bitwise because they operate on individual bits of a byte.

The NOT Operator ~

This is the simplest operator. It will flip all eight bits of a byte. The 1s become 0s and the 0s, 1s. For example, if PORTD = 0b00001111, ~PORTD = 0b11110000.

The AND Operator &

This takes two bytes and results in a third byte. The best way to visualize the operation is to place one byte over the other and then state the rule. For example:.

      00001111  the first byte

      01000010  AND with the second byte

      00000010  the resulting byte

We compare the two bits, in the same bit position, of each byte, and come up with the value of the bit, in the same bit position, in the resulting byte. The rule for the AND operation: if BOTH bits are a 1, the resulting bit is a 1. If either bit is, or both bits are, a 0, the resulting bit is a 0.

The OR Operator |

This also takes two bytes and results in a third byte. For example:.

      00001111  the first byte

      01000010  OR with the second byte

      01001111  the resulting byte

The rule for the OR operation: if EITHER bit is a 1, the resulting bit is a 1. If BOTH bits are a 0, the resulting bit is a 0.

The EXCLUSIVE OR Operator ^

This takes two bytes and results in a third byte. For example:.

      00001111  the first byte

      01000010  EXCLUSIVE OR with the second byte

      01001101  the resulting byte

The rule for the EXCLUSIVE OR operation: if BOTH bits are the SAME, the resulting bit is a 0. If the bits are DIFFERENT, the result is a 1. This also has the useful function of flipping, or not flipping a bit. A logic 1 in a bit position of one byte will flip the corresponding bit in the second byte. A logic 0 in a bit position of one byte will leave the corresponding bit in the second byte unchanged.

The SHIFT LEFT Operator <<

This operator takes a byte and an argument. The argument of the operator indicates how may times we will shift all the bits in the byte to the left. After each shift, a 0 is loaded into the least significant bit position (the bit on the right end). If we have the expression "PORTD << 3;", and PORTD is 0b00001111, the resulting byte is 0b01111000.

The SHIFT RIGHT Operator >>

This operator also takes a byte and an argument. The argument of the operator indicates how may times we will shift all the bits in the byte to the right. After each shift, a 0 is loaded into the most significant bit position (the bit on the left end). If we have the expression "PORTD >> 3;", and PORTD is 0b00001111, the resulting byte is 0b00000001.

Now That We Have The Fundamentals, Let's Light Some LEDs

How would we turn on LED D3 and not effect the other LEDs or the switches? Let's write the line of code and then take it apart:

     PORTD |= (1 << PORTD2);

First, we know that is a compound operation like "A += 1;" is the same as "A = A + 1;" We can expand our expression to:

     PORTD = PORTD | (1 << PORTD2);

Looking at the library we see "#define PORTD2  2". We can replace PORTD2 with 2, as below:

     PORTD = PORTD | (1 << 2);

(1 << 2) indicates a shift left with the argument of 2. The operand is the integer 1 which we can state in binary form as 0b0000000000000001. The operation wants us to left shift this twice putting a 0 in the least significant bit position each time. The result of (1 << 2) is 0b0000000000000100. We can drop the upper eight bits as they will have no impact when next operating on the eight bit PORTD. The result now is 0b00000100.

This now resolves to:

     PORTD = PORTD | 0b00000100;

Let's assume PORTD is 0b11110000. Here is what the operation looks like:

      11110000  the original value of PORTD

      00000100  OR with the second byte

      11110100  the resulting value of PORTD. --- LED D3 TURNS ON.

We turned LED D3 on, now let's turn it off (without effecting the other LEDs or switches. Here is the line of code:

      PORTD &= ~(1 << PORTD2);

Some of the line of code is the same as before. (1 << PORT2) resolves to 0b00000100. However notice the NOT operator, ~. This flips all eight bits resulting in 0b11111011. Now we apply the AND operation as shown below:

      11110100  the original value of PORTD

      11111011  AND with the second byte

      11110000  the resulting value of PORTD. --- LED D3 TURNS OFF.

Writing To Multiple Outputs

What if you wanted to turn on (or off) two or more LEDs? You can string the operations together in one line. Let's turn on LED D1 and LED D4, then turn them off:

      PORTD |= (1 << PORTD0) | (1 << PORTD3);  ON

      PORTD &= ~(1 << PORTD0) & ~(1 << PORTD3);  OFF

You can even mix them. This will turn LED D1 and LED D3 on and LED D2 and LED D4 off:

      PORTD |= (1 << PORTD0) & ~(1 << PORTD1) | (1 << PORTD2) & ~(1 << PORTD3);

For more fun, stick that line above in setup(), and add the following lines in loop():

      PORTD ^= (1 << PORTD0) ^ (1 << PORTD1) ^ (1 << PORTD2) ^ (1 << PORTD3);

      delay(500);

This will toggle the four LEDs at a 1Hz cycle. Try it.

Reading the Logic Level of Input Pins

We Can't Forget Those Switches. Continuing the example, the switches are connected to input I/O pins. To read a pin that has been declared an input we use one of the PIN registers. In our case, that will be PIND. Since we have four switches we need a way to read one switch and ignore the others. To see how this is done, the line of code to evaluate if switch SW1 (connected to PD4) is pressed is:

      PIND &= (1 << PIND4);

The above expression will be logic 0 if SW1 is pressed and not 0, actually 16, if released. The other switches will not effect the result.

I, frankly, don't always use that last method for reading from a register. I usually establish, and apply an eight bit datamask to the value in the PIN register. Like this to read the value of PIND4:

      byte datamask = 0b00010000;

      byte data;

      data = PIND & datamask;

Here is a simple sketch. If SW1 is pressed, LED D1 will light, etc. This is not the best way to do this as it allows multiple LEDs to be lit and there is no switch debouching. The better way is to use interrupts to signal when a switch is pressed. My next blog entry will deal with that exact topic. Interrupts also are best handled with register programming.

One More Thing

Here is a photo of the actual hardware:

The Hardware

I had to Photoshop in the colors of the LEDs. They are of clear plastic and do not photograph well when lit.

Since we have introduced color, why not put that into the program. Here is the sketch carried to the extreme by adding a bunch of #define statements: