In many embedded projects, we have to deal with signals directly from nature, like temperature, pressure, current, etc... Theses signals are analog by default and in most of cases we use sensors that converts these analog signals to analog electrical voltage to be injected in the microcontroller to do some work.
Unfortunately, microcontrollers are digital and just can't deal with analog signals so these signals must be converted again to digital signals that is comprehensible by the microcontroller.
For this purpose, microcontroller's manufacturers usually incorporate an ADC into the microcontroller. ADC is actually stands for Analog to Digital Converter. This module is omnipresent in most of microcontrollers.
I'm going to use the STM32F4 discovery board to interface an analog input provided by a potentiometer and visualize the received data with the watch feature while debugging the program.
#include "stm32f4xx_adc.h"
#include "stm32f4xx_gpio.h"
#include "stm32f4xx_rcc.h"
int ConvertedValue = 0; //Converted value readed from ADC
void adc_configure(){
ADC_InitTypeDef ADC_init_structure; //Structure for adc confguration
GPIO_InitTypeDef GPIO_initStructre; //Structure for analog input pin
//Clock configuration
RCC_APB2PeriphClockCmd(RCC_APB2Periph_ADC1,ENABLE);//The ADC1 is connected the APB2 peripheral bus thus we will use its clock source
RCC_AHB1PeriphClockCmd(RCC_AHB1ENR_GPIOCEN,ENABLE);//Clock for the ADC port!! Do not forget about this one ;)
//Analog pin configuration
GPIO_initStructre.GPIO_Pin = GPIO_Pin_0;//The channel 10 is connected to PC0
GPIO_initStructre.GPIO_Mode = GPIO_Mode_AN; //The PC0 pin is configured in analog mode
GPIO_initStructre.GPIO_PuPd = GPIO_PuPd_NOPULL; //We don't need any pull up or pull down
GPIO_Init(GPIOC,&GPIO_initStructre);//Affecting the port with the initialization structure configuration
//ADC structure configuration
ADC_DeInit();
ADC_init_structure.ADC_DataAlign = ADC_DataAlign_Right;//data converted will be shifted to right
ADC_init_structure.ADC_Resolution = ADC_Resolution_12b;//Input voltage is converted into a 12bit number giving a maximum value of 4096
ADC_init_structure.ADC_ContinuousConvMode = ENABLE; //the conversion is continuous, the input data is converted more than once
ADC_init_structure.ADC_ExternalTrigConv = ADC_ExternalTrigConv_T1_CC1;// conversion is synchronous with TIM1 and CC1 (actually I'm not sure about this one :/)
ADC_init_structure.ADC_ExternalTrigConvEdge = ADC_ExternalTrigConvEdge_None;//no trigger for conversion
ADC_init_structure.ADC_NbrOfConversion = 1;//I think this one is clear :p
ADC_init_structure.ADC_ScanConvMode = DISABLE;//The scan is configured in one channel
ADC_Init(ADC1,&ADC_init_structure);//Initialize ADC with the previous configuration
//Enable ADC conversion
ADC_Cmd(ADC1,ENABLE);
//Select the channel to be read from
ADC_RegularChannelConfig(ADC1,ADC_Channel_10,1,ADC_SampleTime_144Cycles);
}
int adc_convert(){
ADC_SoftwareStartConv(ADC1);//Start the conversion
while(!ADC_GetFlagStatus(ADC1, ADC_FLAG_EOC));//Processing the conversion
return ADC_GetConversionValue(ADC1); //Return the converted data
}
int main(void){
adc_configure();//Start configuration
while(1){//loop while the board is working
ConvertedValue = adc_convert();//Read the ADC converted value
}
}
