I have tried to produce a PWM signal of 33.33KHz at a GPIO pin of nRF52832!The duty cycle of the signal varies bizzaredly even after setting it to 50%!Can anyone help me out! I wanna run an external IC on this clock!Please find the screenshot attached!

[Yashur]

PWM.PNGHere is my code:

#include "nrf.h"
#include "nrf_gpio.h"
#include "nrf_drv_rtc.h"
#include "nrf_drv_clock.h"
#include "boards.h"
#include "app_error.h"
#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdbool.h>

#define COMPARE_COUNTERTIME  (3UL)                                       < Get Compare event COMPARE_TIME seconds after the counter starts from 0.

#ifdef  BSP_LED_0
    #define TICK_EVENT_OUTPUT    BSP_LED_0                        < Pin number for indicating tick event. 
#endif
#ifndef TICK_EVENT_OUTPUT
    #error "Please indicate output pin"
#endif
#ifdef BSP_LED_1
    #define COMPARE_EVENT_OUTPUT   BSP_LED_1                               < Pin number for indicating compare event.
#endif
#ifndef COMPARE_EVENT_OUTPUT
    #error "Please indicate output pin"
#endif

const nrf_drv_rtc_t rtc = NRF_DRV_RTC_INSTANCE(0); //< Declaring an instance of nrf_drv_rtc for RTC0. 

/** @brief: Function for handling the RTC0 interrupts.
 * Triggered on TICK and COMPARE0 match.
 */
static void rtc_handler(nrf_drv_rtc_int_type_t int_type)
{    nrf_gpio_pin_toggle(10);
    if (int_type == NRF_DRV_RTC_INT_COMPARE0)
    {
        nrf_gpio_pin_toggle(COMPARE_EVENT_OUTPUT);
    }
    else if (int_type == NRF_DRV_RTC_INT_TICK)
    {
        nrf_gpio_pin_toggle(17);
    }
}

/** @brief Function configuring gpio for pin toggling.
 */
static void leds_config(void)
{
    bsp_board_leds_init();
}

/** @brief Function starting the internal LFCLK XTAL oscillator.
 */
static void lfclk_config(void)
{
    ret_code_t err_code = nrf_drv_clock_init();
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

    nrf_drv_clock_lfclk_request(NULL);
}

/** @brief Function initialization and configuration of RTC driver instance.
 */
static void rtc_config(void)
{
    uint32_t err_code;

    //Initialize RTC instance
    nrf_drv_rtc_config_t config = NRF_DRV_RTC_DEFAULT_CONFIG;
    config.prescaler =0;
    err_code = nrf_drv_rtc_init(&rtc, &config, rtc_handler);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

    //Enable tick event & interrupt
    nrf_drv_rtc_tick_enable(&rtc,true);

    //Set compare channel to trigger interrupt after COMPARE_COUNTERTIME seconds
    err_code = nrf_drv_rtc_cc_set(&rtc,0,COMPARE_COUNTERTIME * 8,true);
    APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);

    //Power on RTC instance
    nrf_drv_rtc_enable(&rtc);
}

/**
 * @brief Function for application main entry.
 */
int main(void)
{
    leds_config();

    lfclk_config();

    rtc_config();

    while (true)
    {
        __SEV();
        __WFE();
        __WFE();
    }
}

[Yashur]

I need 50% duty cycle and i'm getting only 25! My SDK version is 14 and it's a nRF52832 board and not a custom board!

[Sigurd]

Make sure that the code is exactly the same as in my post, and try to rebuild your project.

Here is a .hex generated from the above code. It should give 50% duty cycle on PIN 4.

nrf52832_xxaa_PWM.hex

[Yashur]

Okay! I'll check and get back to you! Thank You! How do a beginner understand all the api's? and Why did you suggest pwm peripheral? and your code uses high frequency clock! Isn't there a better way to consume less power?

[Sigurd]

Hi,

All the driver API is documented at infocenter here.

Since you need 33.33KHz you need to use the HFCLK anyway. The low-power PWM library that uses the LFCLK have a max frequency around 6kHz.

To save power, add this to the loop to put the CPU to sleep:

for (;;)
{
    // Use directly __WFE and __SEV macros since the SoftDevice is not available.
    // Wait for event.
    __WFE();

    // Clear Event Register.
    __SEV();
    __WFE();
}

you could also remove the code in start of main(), i.e. the NRF_CLOCK->TASKS_HFCLKSTART = 1; and while (NRF_CLOCK->EVENTS_HFCLKSTARTED == 0);. Then you will be using the HFINT(internal HF RC) instead of the HF crystal oscillator(HFXO), you will get lower power consumption with HFINT. With this, I'm measuring around 680 µA.

[Yashur]

Hey Sigurd may i know the reason you suggested PWM peripheral in the first place? why didn't my code work?