EEL3744C Lab 5- Asynchronous Serial Communication Solved

• Learn how to apply asynchronous communication and the Universal Synchronous/Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (USART) system of the ATxmega128A1U.

INTRODUCTION 
Beyond parallel communication, where multiple bits of data are transferred together via a bus of pins[1], serial communication is another method in which a processor can communicate with external devices. Overall, serial communication involves the process of sending one bit of data at a time, while following a specific protocol.  

Serial communication is generally classified as either being asynchronous or synchronous. Unlike synchronous serial communication, where a common clock signal is used to determine when to send, receive, or sample data between multiple devices, there exists no synchronization signal for asynchronous serial communication. Instead, asynchronous communication protocols rely on the hope that a common transfer rate will be upheld by any systems using a chosen protocol; if this is not achieved, data transferred or received could be wrongly interpreted, or even entirely missed.  

To facilitate asynchronous serial communication, a device known as a Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) is generally used in conjunction with both a transmitting device and a receiving device. A UART utilizes a clock signal to generate a transfer rate, denoted as the baud rate[2], and also uses two physical connections to communicate data: one pin to receive data (Rx), and one pin to transmit data (Tx). Within the ATxmega128A1U, several UART modules are available by way of the Universal Synchronous/Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (USART) system.[3] 

LAB STRUCTURE 
Within this lab, you will begin to explore the asynchronous capabilities of the USART system within the ATxmega128A1U. In § 1, you will research relevant information regarding the USART system. In § 2, you will learn to transmit a text character from your microcontroller to a connected computer, via the USART system. In § 3, you will use an oscilloscope to measure the transmission signal generated from a relevant USART module. In § 4, you will learn to transmit a character string of arbitrary length4. In § 5, you will determine how to receive a character from a connected computer via the USART system. In § 6, you will learn to receive a character string of arbitrary length4. In § 7, you will configure the reception of data via the USART system to be interrupt-based.

  

REQUIRED MATERIALS                                       SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS 
•       Atmel ATxmega128A1U AU Manual (doc8331)   

•       Atmel ATxmega128A1U Manual (doc8385) 

•       OOTB µPAD v2.0 with USB A/B cable  

•       Digilent Analog Discovery (DAD) kit with WaveForms software 

 

                 

PRE-LAB PROCEDURE 
REMINDER OF LAB POLICY 

You must re-read the Lab Rules & Policies before submitting any pre-lab assignment and before attending any lab.

 

1. INTRODUCTION TO USART
 

PRE-LAB EXERCISES 

i.         The sampling rate of a UART receiver is usually faster than the baud rate of the overall system. Why is this so? 

ii.       What is the maximum possible baud rate for asynchronous communication within the USART system of the ATxmega128A1U, assuming that the microcontroller has a system clock frequency of 2 MHz and that the USART “double-speed mode” is disabled (i.e., the relevant bit CLK2X is set to 0)? In addition to the maximum rate, provide the values of the relevant registers used to configure that rate. Whenever appropriate, support your answer with calculations.

iii.     In the context of the USART system within the ATxmega128A1U, how many buffers (i.e., memory locations that store temporary data) are used by a transmitter? How many are used by a receiver?

Additionally, for both transmitters and receivers, explain how the use of buffers provides greater flexibility to an application involving these components. 

iv.     If an asynchronous serial communication protocol of 8 data bits, one start bit, one stop bit, no parity, and baud rate of 150 kHz was chosen, calculate how many seconds it would take to transmit the ASCII character string “Dr. Schwartz saw seven slick slimy snakes slowly sliding southward.” (This string has 67 characters.) Show all work.
NOTE: It is said that the microcontroller receives data transmitted from the EDBG chip, and that the EDBG receives data transmitted from the microcontroller. Following this nomenclature, recognize that the signal labeled EDBG_USART_CDC_TX in the µPAD schematic is meant to correspond to the Rx signal within the relevant USART module, and the signal labeled EDBG_USART_CDC_RX is meant to correspond to the Tx signal within the same USART module.
In this section, you will explore documentation for the Universal Synchronous/Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (USART) system within the ATxmega128A1U, which provides the microcontroller with forms for both synchronous and asynchronous serial communication. However, in this lab, we will only explore the asynchronous form provided by the system.  

1.1. Read any relevant parts of § 23 (USART) within the 8331 manual to learn about the asynchronous abilities of the USART system available within the ATxmega128A1U.  

On the µPAD, the ATxmega128A1U uses a specific USART module to transfer data, via an EDBG chip, to and from the USB type B port also located on the µPAD; this allows communication between the USB type B port and a USB type A port on a computer, whenever the appropriate USB A/B cable is connected. (Note that the EDBG chip is not shown on the µPAD schematic due to the request of the manufacturer.)

1.2. Review the relevant µPAD schematic to identify which USART module is used to communicate with a connected computer.

 2. USART, CHARACTER TRANSMISSION
 

 In this section, you will write an assembly program, lab5_2.asm, to configure the appropriate USART module within your microcontroller to send data to your computer via the relevant USB ports. For this lab, you must utilize the following asynchronous serial communication protocol: odd parity, 8 data bits, 1 start bit, 1 stop bit, and 115,200 bps (bits per second) baud rate.

2.1. Create an assembly program, lab5_2.asm. In this program, first create the following two subroutines.

2.1.1. USART Initialization (USART_INIT). This subroutine should initialize the necessary USART module.

2.1.1.1. Set the data direction of the appropriate USART transmit pin.  

2.1.1.2. Configure the USART module for the appropriate mode (synchronous, asynchronous, etc.), and configure the expected number of data bits, parity type, and number of stop bits.  

2.1.1.3. Set the baud rate by storing the appropriate value in the relevant baud rate registers. (See Appendix B for

some information regarding baud rates.) You can use the excel workbook given on the course website (Baud Calculator) to verify any baud rate calculations, but be sure that you know how to calculate the necessary values by hand for quizzes and exams. (When configuring baud rate registers, it is useful to use assembler directives when programming in assembly, or macros when programming in C, which will be relevant later.)

2.1.2. Output Character (OUT_CHAR). This subroutine will output a single character to the transmit pin of a chosen USART module. It will be assumed that the relevant character is passed into the subroutine via a general-purpose register (e.g., R16 or R17).  

2.1.2.1. At the beginning of this subroutine, check if there is currently an ongoing transmission in the relevant USART module; if there is, wait until it has been completed. An appropriate interrupt flag should be polled to handle this, i.e., do not use an interrupt.

2.1.2.2. Transmit the character passed into the subroutine.

2.2. Next, create a main routine within the assembly program to continually transmit the ASCII character U (i.e., the capital letter U) utilizing the OUT_CHAR subroutine.

You will need to use a serial terminal program on your computer to view any data transmitted by your microcontroller. Basic information on how to configure/use PuTTY, a popular serial terminal program, is given in Appendix A of this document. Some other popular terminal programs are X-CTU, RealTerm, Bray Terminal (also known as Br@y++ Terminal), MobaXterm, and HyperTerminal. There is even a terminal within the Data Visualizer extension of Atmel Studio. You may use any serial terminal program for this course, as long as it has all features needed. (These features will not be listed here.)

  3. USART, MEASURING BAUD RATE
2.3. Use a serial terminal program on your computer, e.g., PuTTY, to test your assembly program and verify that the ASCII character U is continually transmitted.

In this section of the lab, you will use your DAD to measure a baud rate created by a USART module, and then record a transmission frame for the ASCII character U.  

NOTE: When utilizing a separate USART module, you will not be able to communicate with a connected computer, since the µPAD was not designed to connect any other module to the relevant EDBG chip.
Unfortunately, on the µPAD, there is no practical way to measure the physical pins utilized by the USART module connected to your computer. Thus, so that any measurements may be easier, you will utilize some other USART module that has the relevant signals mapped to more accessible pins. routine. (Other than the different USART module, this program should be unchanged from your previous program.)

transmission frame screenshot, annotate each element within one frame by type, e.g., start bit, data bit 0 (D0), data bit 1 (D1), etc.

3.1. Create an assembly program, lab5_3.asm, to configure NOTE: 0b 01010101) was chosen The ASCII character for the above tasks to allow the U (equivalent to 0x55 = a USART module that has its Tx signal connected to an I/O elements within a character transmission frame to be easily pin that can be easily measured via the µPAD, and then to identified. continually transmit the ASCII character U within a main

  4. USART, STRING TRANSMISSION

Now that you have a method to output a single character via the             4.1.1.1. Read the character pointed to by Z and increment USART system, you should be able to easily create a routine to              the pointer.

output a character string of arbitrary length.                                                                    4.1.1.2. For each non-null (i.e., non-zero) character, call

4.1. Create an assembly file, lab5_4.asm. First, copy the the subroutine OUT_CHAR; when a null character subroutines used in § 2. Then, write the following is found, return from the subroutine.

          subroutine.                                                                                                                     4.2. Create a main routine within the relevant assembly

NOTE: Recall that ASCII characters can be referenced in Atmel Studio individually, by using single quotes (e.g., 'A'), and as a string, by using double quotes (e.g., "this is a string of ASCII characters").
4.1.1. Output character string (OUT_STRING). This program to output your complete name, using the subroutine should output a character string stored in OUT_STRING subroutine. Use a terminal program on program memory, using the appropriate USART your computer to test your assembly program. module. When this subroutine is called, it will be assumed that the Z register already points to the beginning of a character string within memory, i.e., any main program utilizing this subroutine must properly configure the Z register before calling the subroutine.

  5. USART, CHARACTER INPUT
3.2. To verify that the defined protocol is met (i.e., 115,200 Hz baud rate, odd parity, 8 data bits, 1 start bit, and 1 stop bit), use the Scope feature within WaveForms, along with your DAD, to measure the width of both a single data bit and a single character transmission frame. Take an appropriate screenshot for each measurement. For the character

In this section, you will begin to configure the appropriate USART module to receive serial data from your computer.

5.1. Create an assembly file, lab5_5.asm. First, copy the subroutines used in § 4, and edit the USART_INIT subroutine to additionally enable the receiver within the appropriate module and configure the data direction of the pin connected to the Rx signal. Then, write the following subroutine.

5.1.1. Input character (IN_CHAR). This subroutine should receive a single character with the relevant USART module and return the received character to the calling procedure via a specified general-purpose register (e.g., R16 or R17).

5.1.1.1. Check if a character has been received (by polling an appropriate interrupt flag), and if not, keep checking until one has been received.

5.1.1.2. Read the received character from the appropriate buffer and return the character to the calling procedure.  

5.2. Design a main routine within the relevant assembly file to

 continually echo (i.e., transmit back) to your computer any

 6. USART, STRING INPUT

Now that you have a method to input a single character via the USART system, you should be able to create a routine to input a character string of arbitrary length.

6.1. Create an assembly program (lab5_6.asm). First, copy the subroutines used in § 5. Then, write the following subroutine.

6.1.1. Input character string (IN_STRING). This subroutine should receive a character string of arbitrary length with the relevant USART module and store the received character string to some memory location(s) within data memory via the Y index. Whenever this subroutine is called, it will be assumed that the Y index already points to the beginning of some pre-allocated contiguous memory locations, i.e., any main program utilizing this subroutine must properly configure data memory and the Y index before calling the subroutine.

6.1.1.1. Continually read characters from the appropriate USART module with the IN_CHAR subroutine. For each character not equal to the carriage return[4] character (CR, 0x0D) character, nor the backspace character (BS, 0x08), nor the delete character (DEL, 0x7F), store the character in the next appropriate data memory location with the Y index; when a backspace character or delete

6
allow for another character to be written, and when a carriage return character is found, store a null character at the end of the input string and return from the subroutine.

6.2. Create a main routine within the relevant assembly program to input your complete name, using the IN_STRING subroutine, and then echo the relevant input string. To echo this string stored in data memory, you will not be able to use the OUT_STRING designed in § 4 (since this subroutine was designed to read from program memory), however another subroutine with very similar functionality could be created. Make sure to allocate an appropriate amount of data memory as well as configure any necessary indices, e.g., Y. The amount of memory that should be allocated for the input string is, more or less, arbitrary. (In general, this should be dependent on the application.) However, it would be wise to utilize some form of a symbolic constant, e.g., one defined by the `.equ` keyword, so that the amount of data allocated could be readily changed. 

6.3. Use a serial terminal on your computer to test your program. Verify that backspace functionality is correct for at least one of [1] the backspace character (BS, 0x08) or [2] the delete character (DEL, 0x7F); it is not expected that both of these specified characters actually be utilized on some connected keyboard.[5]
character is found, decrement the Y index to

  7. USART, INTERRUPT-BASED RECEIVING

In this section of the lab, you will learn how to configure interrupt-based receiving within the USART system by creating an interrupt-driven echo program for the appropriate USART module.

7.1. Create an assembly program, lab5_7.asm, that utilizes the receive complete (RxC) interrupt within the appropriate USART module to echo (i.e., transmit back) to your
GREEN_PWM LED within the main routine of your program. (See the relevant µPAD schematic, if necessary.) Use a serial terminal program to test your assembly program. Within the serial terminal, make sure that local echoing, or anything similar, is disabled. (See § A.3 within Appendix A of this document to learn how to disable local echoing within PuTTY.)
computer any character received. Additionally, to NOTE: Recall that interrupt service routines should generally be demonstrate that your serial interrupt is independent from as short as possible; thus, it would generally be unwise to call a the rest of your program, continually toggle the subroutine within an ISR.
character received. Utilize the IN_CHAR and OUT_CHAR subroutines whenever appropriate. Use a terminal program on your computer to test your assembly program.

                 

respectively. This sequence of characters originates from typewriter times, when starting a new line of text involved the two-step process of turning a carriage to the position denoting the beginning of a line and then turning the platen (wheel) to the following line.  

In systems based on Unix® or Linux®, a newline character consists of only a line feed character. 

PRE-LAB PROCEDURE SUMMARY
1)       Answer pre-lab exercises when applicable.

2)       Become introduced to the USART system within the ATxmega128A1U in § 1. 3) Learn how to transmit a character via the USART system in § 2.  

4)       Measure USART character transmissions with an oscilloscope in § 3. Take an appropriate screenshot for each relevant measurement and annotate when appropriate.

5)       Learn to transmit a character string of arbitrary length via the USART system in § 4.

6)       Create a subroutine to receive a character via the USART system in § 5.

7)       Implement a subroutine to receive a character string of arbitrary length via the USART system in § 6.

8)       Create an interrupt-driven echo program in § 7.     

APPENDIXES 
 
A. 
PUTTY 
PuTTY is a lightweight terminal program with many features and settings, but for the purposes of this course, we will only need to use its serial operating mode. To start using PuTTY, you will first need to download the program to your PC.

A.1.  To download PuTTY for 64-bit operating systems, click here; for 32-bit operating systems, click here. Once downloaded, run the executable.

Upon the program opening, the PuTTY configuration menu should be displayed, as shown in Figure 2. This configuration menu is used to select the operation(s) of the terminal application. There are a few things that must be changed before we can start communication between our computer and the microcontroller.  

 Figure 2: PuTTY Configuration Menu

A.2.  In the configuration menu of PuTTY, do the following:

A.2.1.  Select the Session tab at the top left. Choose Serial as the connection type (on the right, next to SSH).  

A.2.2.  Select the Serial sub-tab on the left of the PuTTY configuration menu (located at the bottom of the Connection tab list).  

A.2.3.  Choose and enter the correct COM (communication) port that corresponds to the µPAD. To determine which COM port on your computer represents the µPAD,  

A.2.3.1.  Open the preinstalled Device Manager application in Windows, expanding the Ports section.

A.2.3.2.  Disconnect your µPAD USB cable and make a note of the COM ports that are available.  (It is possible that no ports may be shown.)

A.2.3.3.  Re-connect your µPAD USB cable and notice the COM port was added to the list. This is the COM port that you should use in PuTTY, e.g., COM1, COM2, etc.  

A.2.4.  Enter the correct baud rate in the Speed (baud) textbox, select the correct number of data and stop bits, and also select the correct type of parity.  Additionally, set Flow Control to None. (Make sure that the data bits, stop bits, and type of parity are all configured as they are in the USART system within the ATxmega128A1U.)

A.2.5.  Once everything is configured, you can save your configuration settings so that you do not have to change them every time. To do this, do the following:

A.2.5.1.  Navigate back to the Session menu, and in the textbox located under Saved Sessions, type something such as 3744 UART Config. This will be the name used for your configuration.  

A.2.5.2.  Next, click the button to the right labeled Save. This will save your current configuration, so that you can access it for the next time you use PuTTY. (To load a saved configuration, you will need to first click on the appropriate configuration listed within Saved Sessions and then click the button to the right

labeled Load.) 

Now that everything is configured, you can open the terminal window by clicking the Open button located at the bottom right of the window.  

NOTES: 

v  Configure PuTTY and open the terminal window BEFORE you debug/run your program in Atmel Studio.  

v  It is possible that the COM channel will change if you have different USB devices connected to your PC, or if you connect any USB devices in a different order. If this occurs, just repeat items 2 and 3 above to determine the proper COM port for your microcontroller.
Additionally, there is a setting in PuTTY that causes characters typed to the terminal to be echoed, i.e., displayed to the terminal automatically. This can be mistaken as a properly-working echo program, when in fact PuTTY might be the only source of echoing.  

A.3. When applicable, to turn off the automatic echo setting, do the following:

A.3.1.  Open the configuration menu of PuTTY.  

A.3.2.  Select the Terminal tab.

A.3.3.  Under Local echo, select Force off.  

You can find more detailed information on PuTTY’s website, or by clicking on the following link: PuTTY User Manual.         

  B.                                                                                                           BAUD RATE VS. HZ VS. BITS/SECOND 
In general, a baud rate represents the rate of symbols per second, where a symbol represents a relevant unit. In this course, the relevant symbol for a baud rate is a bit.  Therefore, the overall unit of any baud rate in this course is bits/second (bps).  

Additionally, since one bit of data is transmitted per one cycle of a respective clock signal, and since the unit of hertz (Hz) represents cycles per second, we can state that a baud rate of 1 bps implies that the respective clock signal has a frequency of 1 Hz.  

To learn more about communication theory, take EEL4514: 

 C.                                                                                                                                 DEBUGGING WITH UART
 Communication Systems and Component

The ATxmega128A1U UART module does not continue to run while the processor is halted at a breakpoint. Consequently, if you are trying to debug your code by setting breakpoints anywhere near your UART functions, or code that calls your UART functions, your character transmissions are very likely to become corrupted. If you use breakpoints, you should be aware of this fact.

Fortunately, you have many tools at your disposal. Halting the program to view IO memory and registers can still be useful, as long as you are aware that stepping through the code line by line will interfere with UART communication. Additional debugging techniques include outputting useful information (such as the USART STATUS register) via LEDs at runtime. Another common debugging technique is printing information to the terminal.


 
[1] You have previously utilized parallel communication whenever using an I/O port or the external bus interface (EBI) system. 
[2] To learn more about baud rates in the context of this course, see Appendix B of this document.
[3] In addition to providing the functionality of a UART, the USART system also provides a form of synchronous serial communication to the ATxmega128A1U. 4 By “arbitrary length”, we mean any length of allottable, contiguous data memory locations.
[4] To denote when text should start to appear at the beginning of a following line, a special sequence of values, comprising what is known as a newline, is utilized. Usually, a newline is generated by an Enter key or Return key on a computer keyboard, and, with most operating systems, a newline consists of at least a line feed (LF, 0x0A, \n) character. However, with PuTTY and some other serial terminal programs, only a carriage return (CR, 0x0D, \r) character is used to represent a newline, at least by default.

In the Windows® operating system, a newline is a carriage return character, followed by a line feed character, to designate that a relevant cursor should both return to the beginning of a line of text and advance to the next line of text,
[5] The delete character code is included here since serial terminal programs (e.g., PuTTY) utilize, by default, the delete character code to represent a “backspace”.