1. EMS1EP Lecture 8 Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
Dr. Robert Ross

2. Overview (what you should learn today)
Analog v’s digital
Theory behind PWM
PWM sample circuit/Demo
Worked examples
Servo Control

3. Digital Revision – Analog/Digital
Analog Voltages: Continuous in time and value
Digital Voltages: Discrete in time and value

4. Analog/Digital The real world is analog
Most things we measure or control can be described my continuous values
Pressure, temperature, acceleration, sound, light
Computers are digital
Need to convert these analog voltages as digital values

5. Analog/Digital ADC DAC Control Physical Variable Physical Variable
Digital Voltages
Control Physical Variable
(Sound, light, pressure, temp, ect)
ADC
Analog to
Digital
Converter
Microcontroller
(LArduino)
DAC
Digital to
Analog
Converter
Physical Variable
(Sound, light, pressure, temp, ect)
Transducer
(Sensor)
Actuator
Analog Voltages

6. ADC and DAC
Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs) are used to convert the analog voltages into a digital value
Digital to Analog Converters (DACs) are used to generate analog voltages using digital values
The LArduino board has internal ADCs and has pins which can be configured as analog outputs using Pulse Width Modulation

7. Quantisation
The analog values produced by a DAC look analog but are actually quantised values (not continuous)
These values are in small steps
The LArduino has 256 steps (0-255) over the range 0-5V
19.6mV Steps (5V/255=0.0196)
To improve resolution:
Lower the voltage range (0-3V)
Increase the number of bits:
8Bits = 255 Steps
16Bits = Steps

8. PWM Characteristics Create a square-wave Constant period
Varying duty cycle (proportional to required analog voltage) 5V 0V

9. Generating Analog Voltages
analogWrite(pin, 0); % Duty cycle - Average Voltage: 0V 5V 0V
analogWrite(pin, 63); % Duty cycle - Average Voltage: 1.25V 5V 0V
analogWrite(pin, 127); % Duty cycle - Average Voltage: 2.5V 5V 0V
analogWrite(pin, 191); % Duty cycle - Average Voltage: 3.75V 5V 0V
analogWrite(pin, 255); % Duty cycle - Average Voltage: 5V

10. Filtering PWM Signal Without filtering circuitry
With filtering circuitry:

11. Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
Use:
analogWrite(pin, <AnalogVoltage>);
AnalogVoltage can vary from 0-255
Will toggle the pin really fast high and low – to produce something more like an analog voltage need to smooth this out
Use a Low Pass Filter to smooth the voltage out to approximate an analog voltage

12. PWM Applications Communication – length of pulse specifies 1’s and 0’s
Voltage Regulation
LED brightness control
Controlling the speed of motors
Servo control

13. PWM on the LArduino
PWM can be performed on any of the pins marked with a ‘P’
Use pins 5, 6, 9, 10, 11
Pins used for PWM don’t need to be setup – analogWrite does this automatically

14. Class Challenge Write some code to do the following:
A switch is connected to Pin 8
A LED is connected to Pin 6
If the button is pressed the LED should be at 75% brightness
If the button is not pressed the LED should be at 25% brightness

15. Worked example – Sawtooth signal
Create a sawtooth signal on Pin 5
When connected to an LED the LED should successively fade brighter and dimmer
When connected to a scope should give output (when connected to filter):

16. Sawtooth - Code int PWMOUT1 = 5; // PIN ASSIGNMENTS void setup()
{ //PWM pins don't require initialisation }
void loop() {
int onTime = 0;
while(onTime < 255){
onTime++;
analogWrite(PWMOUT1, onTime);
delay(10);
while(onTime > 0){
onTime--;

17. Sawtooth - Results No Filtering (Value increased and then decreased)
LED connected – goes brighter then dimmer

18. Servo Control
Remote control aircraft (and some robotics) are operated using servos

19. Servo Control
Servos need to be attached to pin 9 or 10 on the LArduino board
Servos are controlled using a PWM signal
Period: 20ms
On time: 1.25 to 1.75ms
On time sets the position of the servo arm

20. Servo Control: Hardware connections
Red – Power (4-6V)
Black (or Brown) – GND
Yellow (or White or Orange) – PWM signal pin
Arduino 5V

21. Servo Worked Example If button on Pin 5 is pressed servo to go to 30O
If button is not pressed servo to go to 120O
Servo connected to Pin 9
Using Arduino Servo library
Allows desired angle of servo to be specified

22. Servo Worked Example #include <Servo.h>
Servo servo1; // create servo object to control a servo
int button1 = 5;
void setup() {
servo1.attach(9); // Servo on Pin 9
pinMode(button1, INPUT); }
void loop()
if (digitalRead(button1) == LOW){ //Button pressed
servo1.write(30);
else{ //Button not pressed
servo1.write(120);

23. Continuous Rotation Servos
By default servo motors only have about 180O of motion that they can travel over
Servos can be modified for continuous rotation (they can go right around)
PWM signal controls speed not position of continuous rotation servos
Involves:
Removing feedback potentiometer (variable resistor)
Soldering in resistors
Cutting notch out of gears

24. Summary (What you learnt in this session)
The real world is analog, but our microcontrollers are digital
PWM is one type of DAC to generate analog like voltages from a microcontroller
Use analogWrite() to set PWM value
Servos use PWM to set the position of the servo arm – can use the servo library