LPC 2148 PWM Unit and Programming

The PWM is based on the standard Timer block and inherits all of its features. When PWM
unit is not required in the project, one can use the PWM unit as third timer unit.

What is PWM: PWM output is basically a high and low waveform, whose ON time &
Period (On+Off) can be varied, i.e we can generate the waveform with programmable Pulse
rate (period of one cycle- On + Off time) & Pulse period(On time) and hence achieving
different duty cycles ( ratio of ON time to ON+OFF time).

LPC 2148 PWM Unit: The PWM is based on the standard Timer block and inherits all of its
features. When PWM unit is not required in the project, one can use the PWM unit as third
timer unit.

LPC 2148 Microcontroller -PWM ©Copyrights,Dr K Badari Nath, RVCE, Mar2020 Page 1
LPC 2148 PWM unit provides 6 PWM channels, PWM 1 to 6. Each of these channels can be
connected to motor driver circuits, to control their speed. PWM waveforms are very
commonly used to drive DC motors, Servo motors and for other applications.

The registers of PWM unit are similar to timer. It provides 32 bit timer counter for counting
PCLK cycles, to derive the required Pulse rate and Pulse period. One Match Register is
required to define the number of PCLK cycles required to make one T, period (Ton + Toff),
to simplify the hardware, all the 6 PWM channels have the same Pulse rate i.e T. MR0 is
used to define this value. To define, different pulse periods for six different PWM channels,
PWM1 TO PWM6, six Match Registers are provided, MR1 to MR6. The number, which is
loaded into these registers, define number of PCLK cycles will constitute Ton time. Pulse
period and width can be any number of timer counts and all PWM outputs will occur at the
same repetition rate.

The waveform below show a single PWM cycle, for PWM5 Channel for the indicated values
of MR0 and MR5. Total period of PWM is 100 PCLK cycles, Ton period is 65 PCLK cycles.
At the beginning of the PWM cycle, output becomes ‘1’(HIGH), after the Ton time, it goes
low, logic ‘0’.

PWM Registers :

PWMTC - PWM timer counter , 32 bits, similar to timer Timer Count(TC) register, counts
up using PCLK, from 0000 0000h to FFFF FFFFH. Its value can be reset, before reaching
the maximum value, based on the Match Register contents.

PRE-SCALER (PWMPR, PWMPC) – works similar to timer pre-scaler.

PWMTCR - PWM Timer Control Register, similar to timer TCR , used to Start/Stop the
timer, Reset the counter, Enable/Disable PWM. If PWM is disabled, PWM unit acts like
other timer. When PWM is not required, programmers use PWM as third timer.

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MR0 - Match Register 0 value is used to define the pulse rate. It defines the pulse rate,
i.e period T (ON+OFF).
MR1 to MR6 – 32 bit Match registers, used to fix the ON time of PWM waveforms, the
values of these registers are continuously compared to the count in the timer register, and
generates the corresponding PWM waveforms on channels PWM1 to PWM6 , so by
changing the values in the MR1-MR6 we can produce different duty cycles.

PWMMCR – PWM Match Control Register, is useful when PWM hardware is used as timer,
to configure the action to be initiated, when PWMTC matches with seven Match registers,
MR0 –MR7. Bit allocation of PWMMCR is similar to timer MCR, but it is for 7 Match
registers.

PWMPCR – PWM control register, used to selectively enable / disable PWM channels
PWM1 – PWM6. Also this register is used to configure the PWM channels as
a) single edge
b) double edge.

In single edge the output is always high, we are only controlling the falling edge (that
happens whenever count matches to the match registers). In double edge , we are controlling
both the rising and falling edges of the pulse (i.e why we require two match registers for one
channel, first match register controls the rising edge, other one controls the falling edge ).
Here, we are restricting our study for only single edge PWM generation. (by default, PWM
channels work as single edge type channels).

LPC 2148 Microcontroller -PWM ©Copyrights,Dr K Badari Nath, RVCE, Mar2020 Page 3
PWMPCR - D15 D14 D13……D9.. D6 D5 …..D2 D1 D0
( Bits D9 to D14 are used to enable the channels PWM1 to PWM6)
Bit D9 – 1 (Enable PWM 1) 0 (Disable PWM1)
Bit D10 -1 (Enable PWM 2) 0 (Disable PWM2)
Bit D11 -1 (Enable PWM 3) 0 (Disable PWM3)
Bit D12 -1 (Enable PWM 4) 0 (Disable PWM4)
Bit D13 -1 (Enable PWM 5) 0 (Disable PWM5)
Bit D14 -1 (Enable PWM 6) 0 (Disable PWM6)

PWMLER – PWM Latch Enable Register, is used to control the update of the PWM
Match registers when they are used for PWM generation. When software writes to Match
register, the value is held in the shadow register. When PWM Match0 event occurs, the
contents of shadow registers will be transferred to the actual Match registers, if the
corresponding bit in the Latch Enable Register is set. At that point, the new values will take
effect and determine the course of the next PWM cycle. Once the transfer of new values has
taken place, all the bits of LER are automatically cleared. Until the corresponding bit in the
PWMLER is set and a PWM Match 0 event occurs, any value written to the PWM Match
registers has no effect on PWM operation.
Bits: D7 D6 D5 D4 D3 D2 D1 D0
MR6 MR5 MR4 MR3 MR2 MR1 MR0
- ‘1’ – Writing 1 to this bit allows the last value written to the Match register to become
effective, when the timer is next by a PWM Match event.

Note:
1. All single edge controlled PWM outputs go high at the beginning of a PWM
cycle, unless their match value is equal to zero.
2. Each PWM output will go low when its match value is reached. If no match
occurs (i.e the match value is greater than the PWM rate), the PWM output
remains continuously high.
3. PWM Latch enable register, 8bit register - bit D0-D6 are for MR0- MR6,
usually what we write to match registers will go to shadow registers, while timer
is running when the match event occurs, then it will be copied to match
registers, only if the corresponding bits in the PWMLER is enabled.

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Example: Generate the PWM waveform of 25% duty cycle at the PWM channel 3

#include <LPC214x.h>
void PWM_Init(void)
{
//P0.1 pin has second alternate function as PWM3 channel, so using
PINSEL0 register
PINSEL0 |= 0x00000008; // Select P0.1 as PWM output , bits D2 & D3
are for P0.1
//Configure PWM channel 3 as single edge type and enable the channel
PWMPCR = 0x00000800; //bit D3 to select single edge(make it 0), bit
D11 is for
//enabling PWM3 channel(make it 1)
//load the value to MR0 to fix the pulse rate
PWMMR0 = 2000; // any other value, I could have taken
// enable PWM unit of LPC2148 and start the timer
PWMTCR = 0x0000 0009; // bit D3 = 1 (enable PWM), bit D0=1 (start
the timer)
}

int main()
{
PWM_Init();
while(1)
{
PWMMR3 = 500; // value which decides pulse ON time, ¼ of 2000
PWMLER = 0X08;

}
}

Calculation of duty cycle in the above program: if PCLK is 15MHz, then T= 0.067µsec,
Pulse rate, T = ON+OFF = 2000 * T
Puse width, Ton = 500 * T
Duty cycle = Ton/T = 500*T/2000*T = ¼= 0.25 x 100 = 25 %

LPC 2148 Microcontroller -PWM ©Copyrights,Dr K Badari Nath, RVCE, Mar2020 Page 5
DC Motor Control Using LPC 2148 PWM Unit

DC motor, unlike steeper motor rotates continuously

not in steps (measured in rpm – revolutions per minute
ex: 100 rpm). By connecting the terminals of motor to
power supply (+12V/+24V/+48V) the motor rotates at
full speed. By changing polarity of input voltage the
direction of rotation can be changed. By changing the
input dc voltage (within the range specified by the
manufacture) the speed of the motor can be changed (ex: Fan used in CPU cooling uses dc
motor).

DC Motor speed control:

Achieved using PWM (pulse width modulation by changing width of the pulse, we can
increase / decrease the power to the motor for a given load.

𝑇𝑂𝑁
Effective dc voltage applied to DC motor = × 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 (𝑠𝑎𝑦 12𝑉)
𝑇
𝑇 1
(if 𝑇𝑂𝑁 = 𝑇, 𝐹𝑢𝑙𝑙 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑖. 𝑒. 12𝑉, 𝐼𝑓 𝑇𝑂𝑁 = 2 , 50% 𝐷𝐶 (2 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟)
By controlling 𝑇𝑂𝑁 time, effective DC voltage applied to motor is changed, hence the speed.

How can we drive the motor with microcontroller control. As Microcontroller can’t supply
the required voltage and current required by DC motor, we use driver circuit, like transistor
(acting like a switch) to drive the motor as shown in the figure. Here when we send ‘1’ to
P0.0, transistor becomes ON, motor conducts. Sending logic ‘0’, transistor becomes switched
off, motor stops rotating.

LPC 2148 Microcontroller -PWM ©Copyrights,Dr K Badari Nath, RVCE, Mar2020 Page 6
H-Bridge Circuit: Controlling DC motor direction :

To make the DC motor run in both the directions, motor is connected in the H-Bridge
configuration, as shown in the below diagram. Here, four transistor switches are used,
connected with the motor and power-supply in the ‘H’ shape.

To run the motor in the clockwise direction, switch on – SW1,SW4, switch off – SW2,SW3
To run the motor in the anticlockwise direction: SW2,SW3-ON and SW1,SW4 - OFF

Many H Bridge circuits are commercially available, in the single chip, like L298, DRV 8801
etc. They are popularly referred as DC Motor Driver ICs. In general, all of them provide two
inputs, which are connected to Microcontroller port pins.

1. Direction control (0 – clock wise, 1 – anti-clock wise), any GPIO pin can be used
2. PWM input (to control the speed of the DC Motor), PWM pin can be used.

LPC 2148 Microcontroller -PWM ©Copyrights,Dr K Badari Nath, RVCE, Mar2020 Page 7
Interface DC Motor to LPC 2148 and write an Embedded C
program to generate PWM wave to control speed of DC motor.

Embedded C Program:

//DC Motor Speed Control

//P0.28 - used for direction control
//P0.9 - used for speed,generated by PWM6
//duty cycle - 0 to 100 controlled by PWM,

#include <lpc214x.h>
void runDCMotor(int direction, int dutycycle) ;
int main()
{
IO0DIR |= 1U << 28; //set P0.28 as output pin
PINSEL0 |= 2 << 18; //select P0.9 as PWM6 (option 2)
runDCMotor(2,10); // run at 10% duty cycle
while(1); // do other jobs
}
void runDCMotor(int direction, int dutycycle)
{
if (direction == 1)
IO0SET = 1 << 28; //set to 1, to choose anti-clockwise direction
else
IO0CLR = 1 << 28; //set to 0, to choose clockwise direction

PWMPCR = (1 << 14); // enable PWM6 channel

PWMMR0 = 1000; // set PULSE rate to value suitable for DC Motor operation
PWMMR6 = (1000U*dutycycle)/100; // set PULSE period
PWMTCR = 0x00000009; // bit D3 = 1 (enable PWM), bit D0=1 (start the timer)
PWMLER = 0X70; // load the new values to PWMMR0 and PWMMR6 registers
}

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