CS578: Internet of Things
I2C Protocol
Demo Using NodeMCU and Arduino
Dr. Manas Khatua
Assistant Professor, Dept. of CSE, IIT Guwahati
E-mail: manaskhatua@iitg.ac.in
“We suffer as a result of our own actions;
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is unfair to blame anybody for it.” – Ma Sarada Devi 1
Khatua
Bit serial communication concepts
• Serial one bit at a time
• Most often using logic level signals
• Timing information needs to be shared between sender and receiver
• Timing information: Transition point between bits, duration of a bit
Two major types of bit serial protocols
Asynchronous (no shared clock)
Sender and receiver maintain independent clocks
e.g. RS-232, USB, UART
Synchronous (shared clock)
e.g. SPI, I2C
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Issue in Asynchronous Data Sampling
Source: http://www.quatech.com/support/figures/async1.gif
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I2C Introduction
• I2C – Inter Integrated Circuit
• One of the widely used Serial Communication protocols
• Created by Philips Semiconductor in 1982 (Now it is NXP Semiconductor)
• No license needed since 2006
Source: Embedded Systems Design, by Brock J. LaMeres, Springer Publisher
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I2C Communication Modes
I2C Mode Speed
Standard Mode 100 kbps
Similar in implementation,
Fast Mode 400 kbps
with different timing requirements
Fast Mode Plus 1 Mbps
High Speed Mode 3.4 Mbps Requires specific controller code
for high speed transfer
Ultra-Fast Mode 5 Mbps
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I2C Physical Layer
VDD: Voltage
Drain Drain
SDA: Serial Data
SCL: Serial Clock
• Only two communication lines for all devices on the bus (SDA, SCL)
• Bi-directional communication
• I2C link is half-duplex, means only one device transmits at any given time.
• Allows for multiple controllers and multiple targets
• Both the signal lines (SDA, SCL) are ‘open drain’, thus pull-up resistors are needed
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Open-Drain and Push-Pull Configuration
Open-drain refers to a type of output which can
either “pull” the bus down to a voltage (ground, in most cases),
or "release" the bus and let it be pulled up by a pull-up resistor
I2C uses an open-drain/open-collector with an input buffer on the same line, which allows a single data line
to be used for bidirectional data flow.
Open-drain output stage supports multiple drivers on the same signal line using NMOS transistor
When a pin is configured in output mode
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Pull Up Resistors
• Consider the Open-Drain Output Stage:
o If we turn off the NMOS by driving a LOW (0) to its gate, the line is left
floating, which is an unknown logic level.
o If a pull-up resistor it placed on the line, it will pull the resistor to a HIGH (1)
when the NMOS is off.
• Note, here we have an inverted logic scheme where driving a LOW to the NMOS yields
a HIGH on the line, and vice-versa.
??? HIGH
(1)
LOW (0) OFF LOW (0) OFF
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Cont…
To get back to positive logic, we insert an inverter before the NMOS.
LOW (0) HIGH (1)
HIGH LOW
LOW (0) ON HIGH (1) OFF
Example with LED operation:
Source: Embedded Systems Design, by Brock J. LaMeres, Springer Publisher
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Cont…
So, an I2C bus ALWAYS needs external pull-up resistors on each of its lines
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I2C Protocol Operation
Master device – the device that
initiates communication and controls
the clock.
Slave device – a device on the bus
that is read or written to, but does
not initiate transmission or provide a
clock.
Idle – when both SDA and SCL are held high
by the pull-up resistors and no I2C device is
attempting to communicate.
Slave address – a unique and
predetermined address for each Busy – when devices are driving the bus.
slave on the bus.
Messages – how I2C information is transferred.
This address is used by the master
to indicate which slave it wants to
communicate with.
Operation Steps in I2C - 1/12
• SCL and SDA both are in Idle State at the beginning.
Operation Steps in I2C - 2/12
• A master initiates a new message by generating a START(S) condition by pulling SDA
LOW while SCL is still HIGH.
• As soon as the START condition is generated, the SCL will be pulled LOW and start
pulsing to provide the clock for the message.
Operation Steps in I2C - 3/12
• Each clock pulse within the I2C message is numbered by periods.
• Both the master and the slaves count the number of periods that have occurred since the
message started in order to know when certain frames and signals should be present.
Operation Steps in I2C - 4/12
• After the master generates the START condition, it first sends the slave address that
it wishes to communicate with.
• I2C slave addresses can either be 7-bit (default) or 10-bit.
Operation Steps in I2C - 5/12
• After the slave address and read/write signal (1 bit: 0 to write, 1 to read) are sent by the master,
each slave on the bus checks whether it is being addressed.
• Period 9 of the message is reserved for the slave acknowledge (ACK) or no-acknowledge
(NACK) signal.
Operation Steps in I2C - 6/12
• Intended slave will send an ACK signal back to the master by pulling SDA LOW.
• If no device exists with the specified slave address, no device will pull down SDA.
This will result in period 9 remaining HIGH and will be interpreted as a NACK.
Operation Steps in I2C - 7/12
• If the master sees the ACK signal, it knows a slave exists with the specified address and
proceeds with the message.
Operation Steps in I2C - 8/12
• After each byte is sent, the receiving device sends an ACK signal indicating that it
successfully received the data.
Operation Steps in I2C - 9/12
• A STOP condition occurs when there is a LOW-to-HIGH transition on SDA while SCL is HIGH.
• Once, SDA goes HIGH, SCL also remains HIGH indicating that the bus is idle again.
Operation Steps in I2C - 10/12
• A NACK in period 9 tells the master that no slave exists with the specified address.
• The master then generates a STOP condition and ends the message.
Operation Steps in I2C - 11/12
• When the master is writing to a slave, the master sends the 8-bits of data and the slave
produces the ACK/NACK signal.
• When the master is reading from a slave, the slave sends the 8-bits of data and the master
produces the ACK/NACK signal.
• After the data has been sent and acknowledged, the master can end the message by
generating the STOP condition anytime.
• The Master can send multiple data bytes in a single message.
Operation Steps in I2C - 12/12
General structure of a 2-byte transfer
Writing 2-bytes (shaded bits are put on the bus by the master)
Reading 2-bytes (shaded bits are put on the bus by the master)
Source: http://www.byteparadigm.com/kb/article/AA-00255/22/Introduction-to-SPI-and-IC-protocols.html
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Demo
I2C communication between Arduino UNO and Node MCU
we choose Node MCU as master device and Arduino as slave device
Hardware Connection between Arduino and NodeMCU
• Connect the SDA pin of Arduino to SDA pin (D1) of NodeMCU
• Connect the SCL pin of Arduino to SCL pin (D2) of NodeMCU
• Connect the Ground pin of Arduino to ground pin of NodeMCU
• Plug Arduino and NodeMCU to laptop / PC through USB cable to give power
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Demo Code of NodeMCU (master)
#include <Wire.h>
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600); /* begin serial for debug */
Wire.begin(D1, D2); /* join i2c bus with SDA=D1 and SCL=D2 of NodeMCU */
}
void loop() {
Wire.beginTransmission(8); /* begin with device address 8 */
Wire.write("Hello Arduino"); /* sends hello string */
Wire.endTransmission(); /* stop transmitting */
Wire.requestFrom(8, 13); /* request & read 13 byte data from slave device #8 */
while(Wire.available()){
char c = Wire.read();
Serial.print(c);
}
Serial.println();
delay(1000);
}
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Demo Code of Arduino (slave)
#include <Wire.h>
void setup() {
Wire.begin(8); /* join i2c bus with address 8 */
Wire.onReceive(receiveEvent); /* register receive event */
Wire.onRequest(requestEvent); /* register request event */
Serial.begin(9600); /* start serial for debug */
}
void loop() {
delay(100);
}
// function that executes whenever data is received from master
void receiveEvent(int howMany) {
while (0 <Wire.available()) {
char c = Wire.read(); /* receive byte as a character */
Serial.print(c); /* print the character */
}
Serial.println(); /* to newline */
}
// function that executes whenever data is requested from master
void requestEvent() {
Wire.write("Hello NodeMCU"); /*send string on request */
}
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Wire Library
• This Wire library allows you to communicate with I2C/TWI devices
• There are both 7 or 8-bit versions of I2C addresses. 7 bits identify the
device, and the 8th bit determines if it’s being written to or read from.
• The Wire library uses 7 bit addresses throughout. However, the addresses
from 0 to 7 are not used because are reserved so the first address that can
be used is 8.
• Functions in Wire.h
begin() end()
requestFrom() beginTransmission()
endTransmission() write()
available() read()
setClock() onReceive()
onRequest() setWireTimeout()
clearWireTimeoutFlag() getWireTimeoutFlag()
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Demo Output
Output in Master Device
Output in Slave Device
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Lessons Learned
What is serial communication
What is synchronous communication
I2C communication mechanism
Demo on I2C communication
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Thanks!
Acknowledgement:
• Most of the images are taken from “Embedded Systems Design”, by Brock J. LaMeres, Springer
Publisher
• Source of the sample code used in demo: https://www.electronicwings.com/nodemcu/nodemcu-i2c-
with-arduino-ide
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