International Islamic University Islamabad

Faculty of Engineering and Technology

Department of Electrical Engineering

MICROPROCESSORS AND MICROCONTROLLER LAB

Lab 8 : Counter Mode Programming with Arduino

Name:

Reg. No:

Date of
Experiment:

OBE Rubrics Evaluation

a) PSYCHOMOTOR (To be judged in the field/lab during experiment)

Sr. Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Marks
Criteria
No. (0%) (25%) (50%) (75%) (100%) Obtained
0 1.25 2.5 3.75 5
Practical
With several With few With some Without
Implementation/
1 critical errors, errors, errors, errors,
Arrangement of Absent
incomplete incomplete complete complete
Equipment
and not neat and not neat but not neat and neat
Use of 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Equipment or
2 Limited Some Considerable
Simulation/ Absent Competence
competence competence competence
Programming Tool

(b) COGNITIVE (To be judged on the copy of experiment submitted)

Sr. Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Marks
Criteria
No. (0%) (25%) (50%) (75%) (100%) Obtained
Algorithm Design 0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1
or Data Record, Complete
3 Complete with Complete
Analysis and Absent Incorrect with few
some errors and Accurate
Evaluation errors

(c) AFFECTIVE (To be judged in the field/lab during experiment)

Sr. Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Marks
Criteria
No. (0%) (25%) (50%) (75%) (100%) Obtained
Level of 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
Participation &
Good Encouraging
4 Attitude to Achieve Rare sensible Some sensible
Absent sensible sensible
Individual/Group interaction interaction
interaction interaction
Goals

5 Total Marks Obtained (Out of 10):

Lab 8: Counter Mode Programming with Arduino Page 49

Objectives:
 To understand the modes and functionality of timers of ATmega328.
 To program Timer for event counting.
Introduction:
There are counter registers in microcontrollers,
 to generate time delays
 to count an event.
 for waveform generation
 for input capture.
When we connect the external event source to the clock pin of the counter register. This
is counter mode. When we connect the oscillator to the clock pin of the counter. This is
timer mode.
Timers/Counters are essential part of any modern MCU. They are an independent unit
inside a micro-controller. They basically run independently of what instruction CPU is
executing. They are primarily used for the following:

 Internal Timer: As an internal timer the unit, ticks on the oscillator frequency. The
oscillator frequency can be directly feed to the timer or it can be pre-scaled. In this
mode it used generate precise delays. Or as precise time counting machine.
 External Counter: In this mode the unit is used to count events on a specific external
pin on a MCU.
 Pulse width Modulation (PWM) Generator: PWM is used in speed control of motors
and various other applications.
 Input Capture Mode: Input capture mode is used to measure time period and pulse
width of an external frequency.
Arduino UNO has 3 timers and these times count at some frequency derived from the
16MHz system clock:
 Timer0 is an 8-bit timer:
It is used by millis(), delay() and analogWrite() on pins 5 and 6.
 Timer1 is a 16-bit timer:
It is used by analogWrite() functions on pins 9 and 10;
It is also used for driving servos using the Servo library so you can’t use
analogWrite with these pins when using the Servo library.
 Timer2 is an 8-bit timer.
It is used by analogWrite() functions on pins 3 and 11 and the Tone() library
 Clock Divisor: configured to alter the frequency and various counting modes
 Timers can be configured to generate interrupts when they overflow or reach a
specific count
Important Registers and Flags Associated with Timers:
Each timer has following registers associated with it, we can change the Timer behavior
through the timer register:
 TCNTn (Timer/Counter Reg): Upon reset, it has zero value and counts with
each timer clock. We can load/read a value into the TCNT0 register

Lab 8: Counter Mode Programming with Arduino Page 50

 TCCRn (Timer/Counter Control Reg): For setting modes of operation (Timer
/Counter) of Timer
 OCRn (Output Compare Reg): The OCR0A register is used with CTC mode. In CTC
mode timer is incremented with a clock. When contents of TCNT are equal to OCRA,
OCF flag is raised and value of TCNTn is reset to zero
 TOVn (Timer Overflow Flag): When overflow occurs, this flag is raised /set
 OCFn (Output Compare Flag): When contents of TCNT are equal to OCR, OCF flag
(located in TIFR register) is raised and value of TCNTn is reset to zero.

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
WGM WGM TCCR0
COM0A1 COM0A0 COM0B1 COM0B0 - -
01 00 A
R/W R/W R/W R/W R R R/W R/W
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
WGM CS TCCR0
FOC0A FOC0B - - CS01 CS00
02 02 B
W W R R R/W R/ R/W R/W
W
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Clock Source Select

Description
CS02 CS01 CS00
0 0 0 No clock source (Timer/ Counter Stopped)
0 0 1 CLKI/O (No Pre-scaling)
0 1 0 CLKI/O/8 (1:8 Pre-scaling)
0 1 1 CLKI/O/64 (1:64 Pre-scaling)
1 0 0 CLKI/O/256 (1:256 Pre-scaling)
1 0 1 CLKI/O/1024 (1:1024 Pre-scaling)
1 1 0 External clock source on T0 pin. Counting on falling edge
1 1 1 External clock source on T0 pin. Counting on rising edge

Mode WGM02 WGM01 WGM00 Timer / Counter Mode of Operation

0 0 0 0 Normal
1 0 0 1 PWM Phase Correct
2 0 1 0 CTC (Clear Timer on Compare Match)
3 0 1 1 Fast PWM (Pulse Width Modulation)
4 1 0 0 Reserved
5 1 0 1 PWM Phase Correct
6 1 1 0 Reserved
7 1 1 1 Fast PWM

Lab 8: Counter Mode Programming with Arduino Page 51

 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
- - - - - OCF0B OCF0A TOV0 TIFR0
R R R R R R/W R/W R/W
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Timer Modes:
Normal mode:
In this mode, the content of the timer/counter increments with each clock. It counts
up until it reaches its max of 0xFF. When it rolls over from 0xFF to 0x00, it sets high a
flag bit called TOV0 (Timer0 Overflow).
Steps to program Timer0 in Normal mode:
8. Load the TCNT0 register with the initial count value.
9. Load the value into the TCCR0A and TCCR0B register, indicating which mode is to
be used and the pre-scaler option.
10. When you select the clock source, the timer/counter starts to count, and each tick
causes the content of the timer/counter to increment by 1.
11. Keep monitoring the timer overflow flag (TOV0) to see if it is raised. Get out of the
loop when TOV0 becomes high.
12. Stop the timer by disconnecting the clock source
13. Clear the TOV0 flag for the next round.
14. Go back to Step 1 to load TCNT0 again.
CTC mode:
The OCR0A register is used with CTC mode. In CTC mode timer is incremented
with a clock and it counts until the contents of TCNT0 register becomes equal to the
contents of OCR0A register (compare match occurs); then the timer will be cleared and
the OCF0A flag will be set when the next clock occurs. OCF0A flag is in TIFR register.
The difference between Timer0 and Timer2:
Last two combinations of CS02-00 bits select the rising and falling edge of external
event counter in Timer0. Whereas in Timer2 these two combinations of CS22-20 bits
used to select different options of pre-scaler.

Timer1
Timer 1 is 16-bit timer and following is the register’s details

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
COM1A COM1A COM1B COM1B WGM1 WGM1 TCCR1
- -
1 0 1 0 1 0 A
R/W R/W R/W R/W R R R/W R/W
Lab 8: Counter Mode Programming with Arduino Page 52
 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
WGM1 CS1 TCCR1
ICNC1 ICES1 - WGM13 CS11 CS10
2 2 B
R/W R/W R R R/W R/W R/W R/W
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Clock Source Select

Description
CS12 CS11 CS10
0 0 0 No clock source (Timer/ Counter Stopped)
0 0 1 CLKI/O (No Pre-scaling)
0 1 0 CLKI/O/8 (1:8 Pre-scaling)
0 1 1 CLKI/O/64 (1:64 Pre-scaling)
1 0 0 CLKI/O/256 (1:256 Pre-scaling)
1 0 1 CLKI/O/1024 (1:1024 Pre-scaling)
1 1 0 External clock source on T1 pin. Counting on falling edge
1 1 1 External clock source on T1 pin. Counting on rising edge

Mode WGM12 WGM11 WGM10 Timer / Counter Mode of Operation

0 0 0 0 Normal
4 1 0 0 CTC (Clear Timer on Compare Match)
Read Data Sheet for Other Modes

Schematic Diagram:

Lab 8: Counter Mode Programming with Arduino Page 53

Sketch for Delay and Event Counting (Frequency Checker):

void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
pinMode(5,INPUT_PULLUP); // Set Pin No.5 (T1 Pin) as input
}
void loop(){
TCNT1 = 0x0000; // Start counting from 0
TCCR1A = 0x00; // 16-bit counter, Normal Mode
TCCR1B = 0x06; // Start Counting at
// Falling Edge using T1 pin
// For Rising Edge put 0x07
delay(1000); // delay of One Second
TCCR1B = 0x00; // Stop Counting
Serial.print("Input Frequency = ");
Serial.print(TCNT1);
Serial.print(" Hz ");
Serial.print("Time Period = ");
float tp = 1000.0F / TCNT1;
Serial.print(tp);
Serial.println(" ms");
}

Lab Task:
Heart pulses of a patient, in the form of square wave are reaching at Pin T1 (PD5)
(Arduino PIN No. 5) of Arduino UNO Board. Write a program to measure the current pulse
rate per minute of that patient after each 20 seconds and send this answer via serial port
to Computer.

Lab 8: Counter Mode Programming with Arduino Page 54