Analog-to-digital converter

Analog-to-digital converter (ADC) transforms an analog voltage value to a digital value. The allowed voltage range on an ADC input of an AVR microcontroller is 0 to 5.5 V. The size of the digital value is 10 bits, but its precision is ±2 units. The error may be even larger, if the microcontroller's supply voltage is not protected from interference. AVR has a separate voltage supply and comparison voltage pin for ADC. The separate supply voltage helps to cut down the interference and it may not differ more than 0.3 V from the main supply voltage. Comparison voltage defines the maximum digital value. For example, if the comparison voltage is 3 V then an input with the same voltage will read as 2¹⁰ - 1 (1023).

AVR ADC works on the principal of successive approximation. In short, the measured voltage is compared to specific voltage levels and the results are reported as a bit array. This method is relatively slow, as each bit in the final result is calculated separately. AVR spends 13 clock cycles for each measuring, except the first (on start-up), which takes 25 cycles. These cycles are not the controller's work cycles, though, but instead special cycles allocated to the ADC unit by the frequency divider. The ADC frequency should be 50-200 kHz to achieve maximum precision, on higher frequencies the precision fades. In some cases it is more important to get a large number of readings instead of maximum precision, in which case using a larger frequency is totally justified. According to AVR documentation, one measuring takes 13-260 µs.

Mõõtetulemust saab kasutaja lugeda 8- ja 10-bitisena. Kuna AVR on 8-bitine, siis ADC mõõteväärtuste jaoks on sel kaks 8-bitist registrit. Seadistustes saab määrata, kas 10-bitisest väärtusest 2 esimest või 2 viimast bitti lähevad eraldi registrisse. Kui eraldatakse 2 noorimat ehk tulemust vähem iseloomustavat bitti, saab mõõtetulemuse 8-bitisena lugeda - sellist kombinatsiooni nimetatakse vasak-asetusega mõõtetulemuseks (left align). Teistpidist kombinatsiooni, kus kaht tulemusregistrit lugedes tekib 10-bitine arv, nimetatakse parem-asetusega mõõtetulemuseks (right align).

Mõõdetavaid analoogpinge sisendkanaleid on AVR-idel tavaliselt 8, ATtiny seerial üksikud, mõnel ATmega seeria kiibil 16, kuid muundureid on siiski üks. Erinevate sisendite kasutamiseks on kiibis multiplekser. Multiplekseri sisend on spetsiaalse registriga määratav. ADC üksusel on veel mõned omadused: muundamine protsessori magamisrežiimis müra vähendamiseks ja sisemise fikseeritud võrdluspinge (2,56 V, mõnel ka 1 V) kasutamise võimalus.

#include <avr/io.h>
 
int main()
{
	unsigned char result;
 
	// Võrdluspingeks AREF viigu valimine
	//   (eeldatavasti on see ühendatud +5V toiteahelasse)
	// Multiplekseriga kanali 3 valimine
	// Tulemus on vasak-asetusega
	ADMUX = (1 << REFS0) | (1 << ADLAR) | (3);
 
	// ADC üksuse käivitamine,
	// teisendustakti seadmine 16 korda aeglasemaks töötaktist
	ADCSRA = (1 << ADEN) | (1 << ADPS2) | (1 << ADSC);
 
	// Mõõtmise lõpetamise ootamine
	while (ADCSRA & (1 << ADSC)) continue;
 
	// 8-bitise tulemuse lugemine
	result = ADCH;
}