Experiment 7

Digital Input/Output Interfacing and

Programming

Objective

The objective of this lab is to give you a first foot in the door exposure to the programming of
I/O, which when executed by the microcontroller (TI LM4F120, an ARM Cortex-M4) simply
blinks LED located on the development board.

Introduction to GPIO

A GPIO pin is a pin that can be configured through software to be either a digital input or a
digital output. GPIO outputs let you translate logical values within your program to voltage
values on output pins and it is these voltage outputs that help your microcontroller exert control
over the system into which it is embedded.

Configuring Peripherals

The fundamental initialization steps required to utilize any of the peripheral are:

1. Enable clocks to the peripheral

2. Configure pins required by the peripheral

3. Configure peripheral hardware

Structure of the Program

LED flashing code is implemented using an infinite loop which toggles bit 28 of the address
0x2009C020 after a certain delay. The delay is implemented using the loop that just increments
the loop counter until the condition is satisfied. Figure – shows the two different approaches.
The shorter flowchart leads to smaller code size and the longer flowchart translates to an inef-
ficient code.

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Start Start

Initialize LEDs Initialize LEDs

(Turn them off) (Turn them off)

Set initial value Set initial value

of counter of counter
Delay loop

Delay loop
Increment/ No Counter Increment/ No Counter
Decrement reached final Decrement reached final
the counter value? the counter value?
Yes Yes

Turn LED off

Switch the LED
(Toggle the bit)

Set initial value

of counter
Delay loop

Increment/ No Counter
Decrement reached final
the counter value?

Yes

Turn LED on

Figure 7.1: Flowchart for blinking the LED(s)

The overall structure of the program is shown in listing below. The program begins by defining
macros for the relevant register addresses. The main routine follows the initialization steps
described above then enters a loop in which it toggles an LED and waits for sometime.

#i n c l u d e ” l m 4 f 1 2 0 h 5 q r . h”

i n t main ( v o i d ) {
// Enable p e r i p h e r a l s
. . . (1) . . .
// C o n f i g u r e p i n s
. . . (2) . . .
while (1) {
// Turn ON LED
... (3)...
// Delay f o r a b i t
. . . (4) . . .
// Turn OFF LED
. . . (5) . . .
}
}
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Where is LED?

The Stellaris LaunchPad comes with an RGB LED. The LED can be configured for use in any
custom application. The following table 6.1 shows how the LED is connected to the pins on the
microcontroller. Figure 6.1 shows the physical connection of the LED.

Figure 7.2: LED Schematic

GPIO pin Pin Function USB Device

PF1 GPIO RGB LED (Red)
PF2 GPIO RGB LED (Blue)
PF3 GPIO RGB LED (Green)

Table 6.1: RGB LED Signals

LED Configuration

We will follow the steps stated above to configure the on-board LED.

Enabling the Clock

The RCGCGPIO register provides software the capability to enable and disable GPIO modules
in Run mode. When enabled, a module is provided a clock and accesses to module registers are
allowed. When disabled, the clock is disabled to save power and accesses to module registers
generate a bus fault. This register is shown in Figure 6.2. The clock can be enabled for the
GPIO port F by asserting the 6th bit of RCGGPIO register.

Following command can be used to enable clock signal for GPIO port F

SYSCTL RCGCGPIO R = 0 x20 ; // ( 1 )

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Figure 7.3: General-Purpose Input/Output Run Mode Clock Gating Control (RCGCGPIO)

Configuring the Pin as Output

After enabling the clocks, it is necessary to configure any required pins. In this case, a single
pin (PF3) must be configured as an output. To use the pin as a digital input or output, the
corresponding bit in the GPIODEN register must be set and then setting a bit in the GPIODIR
register configures the corresponding pin to be an output.

Figure 7.4: GPIO Digital Enable (GPIODEN)

Figure 7.5: GPIO Direction (GPIODIR)

The commands used to set the corresponding bits in GPIODEN and GPIODIR registers are
given as follows

GPIO PORTF DIR R = 0 x08 ; // ( 2 )

GPIO PORTF DEN R = 0 x08 ;
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Toggle the LED

After configuring the LED as an output, now we want to toggle it after regular intervals. LED
can be turned ON and OFF by setting and resetting the corresponding bits in the GPIODATA
register.

Figure 7.6: GPIO Data (GPIODATA)

The commands for toggling LED are as follows

GPIO PORTF DATA R = 0 x08 ; // ( 3 )

GPIO PORTF DATA R = 0 x00 ; // ( 5 )

Introducing a Delay

We cannot observe the toggling of LED because of very high frequency. We introduce a delay
loop in order to observe the toggle sequence of the LED. The syntax for the loop is shown in
the following figure

int counter = 0;
while ( counter < 200000){ // ( 4 )
++c o u n t e r ;
}

Source Code

The complete C and assembly language code for the program is given as follows

C language Code

1 #d e f i n e SYSCTL RCGCGPIO R ( ∗ ( ( v o l a t i l e u n s i g n e d l o n g ∗ ) 0 x400FE608 ) )

2
3 #d e f i n e GPIO PORTF DATA R ( ∗ ( ( v o l a t i l e u n s i g n e d l o n g ∗ ) 0x400253FC ) )
 62 CHAPTER 7. DIGITAL INPUT/OUTPUT INTERFACING AND PROGRAMMING

4 #d e f i n e GPIO PORTF DIR R ( ∗ ( ( v o l a t i l e u n s i g n e d l o n g ∗ ) 0 x40025400 ) )

5 #d e f i n e GPIO PORTF DEN R ( ∗ ( ( v o l a t i l e u n s i g n e d l o n g ∗ ) 0 x4002551C ) )
6
7 #d e f i n e GPIO PORTF CLK EN 0 x20
8 #d e f i n e GPIO PORTF PIN3 EN 0 x08
9 #d e f i n e LED ON 0 x08
10 #d e f i n e LED OFF ˜ ( 0 x08 )
11 #d e f i n e DELAY 200000
12
13
14 i n t main ( v o i d )
15 {
16 v o l a t i l e u n s i g n e d l o n g ulLoop ;
17
18 // Enable t h e GPIO p o r t t h a t i s used f o r t h e on−board LED.
19
20 SYSCTL RCGCGPIO R |= GPIO PORTF CLK EN ;
21
22 // Do a dummy r e a d t o i n s e r t a few c y c l e s a f t e r e n a b l i n g t h e p e r i p h e r a l
.
23
24 ulLoop = SYSCTL RCGCGPIO R ;
25
26 /∗ Enable t h e GPIO p i n f o r t h e LED (PF3) . S e t t h e d i r e c t i o n a s output
and e n a b l e t h e GPIO p i n f o r d i g i t a l f u n c t i o n . ∗/
27
28 GPIO PORTF DIR R = GPIO PORTF PIN3 EN ;
29 GPIO PORTF DEN R = GPIO PORTF PIN3 EN ;
30
31 // Loop f o r e v e r .
32
33 while (1)
34 {
35
36 // Turn on t h e LED.
37
38 GPIO PORTF DATA R |= LED ON ;
39
40 // Delay f o r a b i t .
41
42 f o r ( ulLoop = 0 ; ulLoop < DELAY; ulLoop++)
43 {
44 }
45
46 // Turn o f f t h e LED.
47
48 GPIO PORTF DATA R &= LED OFF ;
49
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50 // Delay f o r a b i t .
51
52 f o r ( ulLoop = 0 ; ulLoop < DELAY; ulLoop++)
53 {
54 }
55 }
56 }

Assembly Language Code

; Directives
PRESERVE8
THUMB ; Marks t h e THUMB mode o f o p e r a t i o n

; ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ Data V a r i a b l e s a r e d e c l a r e d i n DATA AREA ∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗;

AREA c o n s t d a t a , DATA, READONLY

; I n i t i a l i z i n g some c o n s t a n t s
SYSCTL RCGCGPIO R EQU 0 x400FE608

GPIO PORTF AFSEL R EQU 0 x40025420

GPIO PORTF DIR R EQU 0 x40025400
GPIO PORTF DEN R EQU 0 x4002551C
GPIO PORTF DATA R EQU 0 x400253FC

GPIO PORTF CLK EN EQU 0 x20

GPIO PORTF PIN3 EN EQU 0 x08
DELAY EQU 200000
LED ON EQU 0 x08
LED OFF EQU 0xF7

; ∗ ∗ ∗ The u s e r code ( program ) i s p l a c e d i n CODE AREA ∗ ∗ ∗ ;

AREA | . t e x t | , CODE, READONLY, ALIGN=2

ENTRY ; ENTRY marks t h e s t a r t i n g p o i n t o f

; t h e code e x e c u t i o n
EXPORT main

main

; User Code S t a r t s from t h e next l i n e

; Enable c l o c k f o r PORT F
LDR R1 , =SYSCTL RCGCGPIO R
LDR R0 , [ R1 ]
ORR R0 , #GPIO PORTF CLK EN
STR R0 , [ R1 ]
NOP ; No o p e r a t i o n f o r 3 c y c l e s
NOP
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NOP

; S e t t h e d i r e c t i o n f o r PORT F
LDR R1 , =GPIO PORTF DIR R
LDR R0 , [ R1 ]
ORR R0 , #GPIO PORTF PIN3 EN
STR R0 , [ R1 ]

; D i g i t a l enable f o r PORT F
LDR R1 , =GPIO PORTF DEN R
LDR R0 , [ R1 ]
ORR R0 , #GPIO PORTF PIN3 EN
STR R0 , [ R1 ]

; I n f i n i t e l o o p LED flash
LED flash

; S e t t h e data f o r PORT F t o t u r n LED on

LDR R1 , =GPIO PORTF DATA R
LDR R0 , [ R1 ]
ORR R0 , R0 , #LED ON
STR R0 , [ R1 ]

; Delay l o o p
LDR R5 , =DELAY
delay1

SUBS R5,#1
BNE delay1

; S e t t h e data f o r PORT F t o t u r n LED o f f

LDR R1 , =GPIO PORTF DATA R
LDR R0 , [ R1 ]
AND R0 , R0 , #LED OFF
STR R0 , [ R1 ]

; Delay l o o p
LDR R5 , =DELAY
delay2

SUBS R5,#1
BNE delay2

B LED flash

ALIGN

END ; End o f t h e program , matched with ENTRY keyword

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Exercises