STM32 PWM Input Mode Configuration and Implementation

STM32 PWM Input Mode Configuration and Implementation


4 minute read

In robotic and embedded programming applications, it is quite important to not only generate but also read PWM signals. A vivid example of it is working with RC Joysticks receivers which became widespread thanks to drones and other unmanned vehicles. It generates PWM signals with varying duty cycles according to the position of the Joystick rods. Therefore, modern microcontrollers incorporate the capability of reading PWM signals, and STM32 MCUs are no exception.  Nevertheless, there is little information about this functionality on the web. This article aims to fill this gap and provide you with clear guidance on STM32 PWM Input Mode.

We will use STM32CubeIde along with HAL API and CubeMx to develop our code. STM32F4 Discovery Board will be our main hardware. In addition, we will an RC Joystick to test our code. 

STM32 PWM Input Mode Timer configuration in CubeMx

Let's dive into the configuration of the timer for the PWM Input Mode. 

  • Among various timers, we need to choose one of them to read PWM signals. In my case, I chose TIM2. We enable it by choosing the Internal Clock as the clock timer. Then, for combined Channels, we set PWM Input on Ch1. Also, enable the Timer global Interrupts by ticking the box. We can play with other parameters to optimize the code, but for demonstration purposes, we can keep the rest of the parameters in default conditions. 
  • STM32 PWM Input Timer configurationThen, Open GPIO Settings. There, you will find a pin from which the STM32 MCU will read a PWM signal. If you are working with a joystick, connect the output of the receiver to this pin. In my case, it is PA15. Finally, we can save the .ioc file and generate the code. STM32 PWM Input GPIO Pin

STM32 PWM Input Frequency and Duty Cycle capturing using HAL API

The next thing we need to do is to enable the timer by calling the HAL_TIM_IC_Start_IT function. Two channels of the timer will be responsible for capturing an input PWM signal. So, we call this function twice within the timer configuration function (MX_TIM2_Init in my case).

HAL_TIM_IC_Start_IT for capturing PWM signal

To understand the rest of the code, I would like to deviate from the main topic and talk a little bit about how the microcontroller captures input PWM signals. The picture below demonstrates the working principle of time PWM Input Mode. By capturing the rising edges using channel 1 of the timer, the microcontroller identifies the frequency of the PWM signal (by measuring the time between two consecutive rising edges). Channel 2 detects the falling, which will eventually allow us to obtain the duty cycle of the PWM signal (time between the consecutive rising and falling edges). PWM Input Mode timing

If we implement this scheme in our project, we will obtain the following piece of code:

int32_t frequency, duty_cycle;
uint32_t capture_value;
void HAL_TIM_IC_CaptureCallback(TIM_HandleTypeDef *htim)
{
    if(htim ->Channel == HAL_TIM_ACTIVE_CHANNEL_1)
    {
        capture_value = HAL_TIM_ReadCapturedValue(htim, TIM_CHANNEL_1);
	if(capture_value)
	{
	    frequency = SystemCoreClock / (capture_value);
            duty_cycle = 10000 * HAL_TIM_ReadCapturedValue(htim, TIM_CHANNEL_2) /
					capture_value - 750;
        }
     }
}

HAL_TIM_IC_CaptureCallback is invoked whenever the microcontroller captures the rising edge and falling edge of the signal. Then, we check whether it happened in channel 1. If so, we can read the number of ticks by calling HAL_TIM_ReadCapturedValue function. Then, we can read the duty cycle of the PWM signal using the same function, but for channel 2. To get the frequency of the PWM signal, we can use the SystemCoreClock. 

To obtain the duty cycle I divided channel 2 captured value by channel 1 captured value. Then, multiply by 10000 and subtract 750. These parameters depend on the frequency of the timer. Tune them to get the best range of the duty cycle value.

Finally, we can run the code and see how things work using Live Expressions. If you have a joystick, the duty_cycle will change according to the stick's position. Live Expressions PWM frequency duty cycle

It is worth mentioning that the overflow might happen when reading PWM Input signals. In that case, set the prescaler of the timer. You can refer to the following article to get info about the timer prescaler:

https://www.steppeschool.com/pages/blog/stm32-timer-stm32cubemx

Please comment if you have any problems!

STM32 Programming tutorials:

STM32 PWM Input Mode Video Tutorial

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