Altering a variable in a loop.

[jmgelba]

I'm stuck!

I have a program that increments or decreases a variable from 0 to 5, or from 5 to 0 depending on button presses. Each push of the buttons alters the value up or down by one.

Each of the numbers 0 to 5 corresponds to a current output. For simplicity, lets say 0 is off, 1 = 100mA, 2 = 200mA etc etc.

Now, at each current level there is a pwm output. It is altered by a basic feedback loop and can do limited current control by increasing or decreasing the duty cycle.
What I need to do is have a set duty cycle that gives close to 100mA or 200mA etc as soon as the loop is entered, and than is able to control its self by feedback. Basically this is to speed up initial on time or speed up the output when going from say 100mA to 200mA. Otherwise the program has to loop and increase duty cycle from 0 each time or from the level at the previous set current until target is met. I need it to start at closer to target. Obviously if I put that start number in the loop, it will never self regulate.

So how do I get it to start at a number, read it once then enter the regulation loop?

[HenrikOlsson]

Hi,
Several ways to do it, as usual. Here's one:

' Setting is your variable that step or down between 0-5
Lookup Setting, [12, 30, 55, 76, 98, 120], BaseDutyCycle

Another way would be to not step the Setting variable between 0 and 5 but to actually step it directly between dutycycle values

Select Case Step
  Case 12
    IF DOWN THEN
       Setting = 12 ' We're at the bottom setting
    ELSE
       Setting = 30
 
  Case 30
     IF DOWN THEN
        Setting = 12
    ELSE
       Setting = 55
    ENDIF

'And so on
  END SELECT

PWMDuty = Setting

/Henrik.

[jmgelba]

Ok, but these 2 examples run into the same problem. You've set the pwm duty cycle using CASE and now the program must go into a loop to change the pwm duty according to feedback from a current sense resistor. In that loop the the program needs to start the pwm at the number in the correct CASE and then ignore it every time it loops through as the CASE number could be incorrect. Within that loop it will be monitoring for a change of SETTINGS so it can jump to the next loop for that particular current output. How would the CASE work to exclude the current CASE number in each loop after it has looped once?

[martintorres]

not quite understand the idea if you're needing, but I work with a MAP for a car, what I did was to implement a hardware PWM (in the background) and a TMR0 interrupt.
Within the interrupt, which is to read the ADC and modified the pwm ...
With all this, I required no implementing a LOOP and my program was much more efficient

Note: (do not know if the translation is fine >> background = the 2nd plane?)

[martintorres]

would fail to correct the fuses and setup the interruption, but more or less the idea was so (I have to find where I have the complete original program that works well) ... ¨ I understood correctly?

'OPTION_REG =%00111111
PORTA=0:TRISA=%00000001
PORTB=0:TRISB=%00000000
PORTC=0:TRISC=%00000000
PORTD=0:TRISD=%00000000
ADCON1= %10001110 '
T2CON = %00000101
PR2=249
'-----------------------------------------------------------------
@ DEVICE PIC16F877
@ DEVICE PIC16F877, WDT_OFF
@ DEVICE PIC16F877, PWRT_OFF
@ DEVICE PIC16F877, PROTECT_OFF
@ DEVICE PIC16F877, XT_OSC

DEFINE OSC 4
'**** configuracion canal ADC (ADC chanel setting) ***********
DEFINE ADC_BITS 10 
DEFINE ADC_CLOCK 1 
DEFINE ADC_SAMPLEUS 3 
'*********** Configuracion HPWM (HPWM PRESETING) *************
DEFINE CCP1_REG PORTC 
DEFINE CCP1_BIT 2 
DEFINE CCP2_REG PORTC 
DEFINE CCP2_BIT 1 

HAM var word
X VAR WORD
DUTY VAR BYTE
CCP1CON.2=1
CCP1CON.3=1

   On Interrupt Goto int_TIMER0
   INTCON = %10100000


Menu:
DUTY=50
GOSUB salida
GOTO Menu

salida:
PR2=((1024-HAM)*/5625)/100+24
X=(PR2+1)* DUTY /25
CCP1CON.4=X.0
CCP1CON.5=X.1
CCPR1L=x>>2
RETURN

Disable


int_TIMER0:
ADCIN 0,HAM
INTCON = %10100000
Resume 
Enable

regards

[HenrikOlsson]

jmgelba,
The key is to only execute the lookup (or other) code once each time you actually CHANGE the setting - not all the time. If you insist on having it inside a big loop you need a flag to indicate that the setting has changed and that the dutycycle needs to be reset to a new base value.

[jmgelba]

That's exactly it. New current level gets set, pwm is set to a beginning level at the start of the loop. After one loop the pwm is set by the feedback, ignoring the initial start level.

[HenrikOlsson]

Here's the basic principle of using the flag method:

UpButton VAR PortB.0   			' Active high button
DnButton VAR PortB.1   			' Active high button

Setting VAR BYTE
SettingChanged VAR BIT
DutyCycle VAR BYTE

Main:

  If UpButton THEN
    Setting = Setting + 1              ' Increment setting
    If Setting = 6 THEN Setting = 5    ' Make sure it doesn't go beyond 5
    SettingChanged = 1                 ' Set flag indicating new setting
  EndIf


  If DnButton THEN
    Setting = Setting - 1
    If Setting = 255 THEN Setting = 0  ' Make sure it doesn't go below 0
    SettingChanged = 1                 ' Set flag indicating new setting
  EndIf

  If SettingChanged THEN
    LOOKUP Setting, [12,23,34,45,56], DutyCycle
    SettingChanged = 0                 ' Clear flag
  EndIf


  
  ' Your regulator code here...
  ' Your regulator code here...
  ' Your regulator code here...

Goto Main

/Henrik.

[martintorres]

very good your contribution! I find it very helpful to see the logic with other people who program to learn more every day... Thanks Henrik

[longpole001]

thank Hendrik , i need a somthing like this and did not know of the lookup , lookup2 commands , before i read this , cheers

[longpole001]

allocating a varable as a bit rather than a byte save memory space in the pic ??? , i have several varables which required as flags only !!!

[mackrackit]

From the manual....

When BIT variables are created, PBP must reserve full BYTEs of RAM and then
assign variable names to each bit within the BYTE containers. This is fine in most
cases, but you may wish to control this yourself. To create a bit variable and
control the BYTE it's assigned to, you can use aliasing to do it manually:
my_flags VAR BYTE 'Create a container for bits
flag0 VAR my_flags.0 'Assign an alias to bit-0
flag1 VAR my_flags.1 'Assign an alias to bit-1
This is exactly what PBP would do in the background, but it will assign its own
name to the "container" BYTE variable. It's useful to take control and assign this
name manually, especially when debugging in an environment that won't show
individual bits in a watch window.

[martintorres]

Just like that mackrackit!!
I, for example, in a project to implement a 10-bit ADC and the output of the pic, I had to generate a 10-bit DAC to simulate approximately the incoming analog signal, so I wrote this (similar to the example):

Adc VAR WORD
D0 VAR Adc.0
D1 VAR Adc.1
D2 VAR Adc.2
D3 VAR Adc.3
D4 VAR Adc.4
D5 VAR Adc.5
D6 VAR Adc.6
D7 VAR Adc.7
D8 VAR Adc.8
D9 VAR Adc.9

TRISA = %11111111
TRISB = %00000000
TRISD = %00000000

ADCON1.7 = 1

Inicio:
ADCIN 0,Adc

PORTD.0 = D0
PORTD.1 = D1
PORTD.2 = D2
PORTD.3 = D3
PORTD.4 = D4
PORTD.5 = D5
PORTD.6 = D6
PORTD.7 = D7
PORTB.0 = D8
PORTB.1 = D9
GoTo Inicio
regards friends!!!

[HenrikOlsson]

Or

PortD = ADC.LowByte   ' Or ADC.Byte0
PortB.0 = ADC.8
PortB.1 = ADC.9

Or perhaps even

PortD= ADC.LowByte
PortB = ADC.HighByte

But the later will write "fill" the upper 6 bits of PortB with zeros (or whatever is in the upper 6 bits of the ADC variable) which may or may not be an actual problem.

Neither of this has anything to do with the original question of course, sorry about that.

/Henrik.

[mackrackit]

One from the Queen
http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=544

[longpole001]

its funny i have always done this for port pins and register assignments but never thought to do it for flags within the program

[jmgelba]

Henrik,

Thank you very much for your example. I will give this a try today and post results. Sorry I did not respond earlier. I spent the last few days helping out with a charity walk to raise money for a little girl with type 1 diabetes. Sure was nice to be out in the open air walking by a river instead of being stuck in the dungeon working

[jmgelba]

Ok, so this combines the working crude regulator code with Henriks example code. I havent programmed the pic yet but it does compile.

Define OSC 20
DEFINE ADC_BITS 10
DEFINE ADC_CLOCK 3
DEFINE ADC_SAMPLEUS 50
DEFINE CCP1_REG PORTB
DEFINE CCP1_BIT 3


PORTA = %00000000       ' Turn off all PORTA 
PORTB = %00000000       ' Turn off all PORTB
ADCON0 = %00000001
ADCON1 = %01111000
ADCON2 = %10000111

TRISA = %11100111
TRISB = %11000011


UpButton VAR PortB.0   			' Active high button
DnButton VAR PortB.1   			' Active high button

Setting VAR BYTE
SettingChanged VAR BIT
DutyCycle VAR BYTE
SETPOINT var byte  'Output current level in 0.1A increments)100 = 1A)

CURRENT VAR WORD
LEDCURRENT VAR WORD
LEDCURRENT1 VAR WORD
high_duty var word
low_duty var word



Main:

  If UpButton THEN
    Setting = Setting + 1              ' Increment setting
    If Setting = 6 THEN Setting = 5    ' Make sure it doesn't go beyond 5
    SettingChanged = 1                 ' Set flag indicating new setting
  EndIf


  If DnButton THEN
    Setting = Setting - 1
    If Setting = 255 THEN Setting = 0  ' Make sure it doesn't go below 0
    SettingChanged = 1                 ' Set flag indicating new setting
  EndIf

  If SettingChanged THEN
    LOOKUP Setting, [12,23,34,45,56], DutyCycle
    SettingChanged = 0                 ' Clear flag
  EndIf

  If Setting = 0 THEN 
  SETPOINT = 0
  endif
  
  If SETTING = 1 then
  Setpoint = 2
  endif
  
  If Setting = 2 then
  SETPOINT = 5
  endif
  
  IF setting = 3 then
  SETPOINT = 9
  endif
  
  IF Setting = 4 then
  SETPOINT = 14
  endif
  
  If Setting = 5 then
  Setpoint = 17
  endif
  
ADCIN 0, CURRENT
LEDCURRENT = CURRENT * 49 /100 *2
LEDCURRENT1 = LEDCURRENT/10

CCP1CON = %00111100
PR2 = 99
high_duty=(dutycycle>>2)        'high 6 bits in CCPR1L
      low_duty=(dutycycle<<6)         'low two bits for CCP1CON
      'low_duty=(low_duty>>2)           'shift back to CCP1CON<5:4>
      low_duty.4=0                     'PWM configuration bit
      low_duty.5=1                     'PWM configuration bit
CCPR1L=high_duty
CCP1CON = $0C
T2CON = 4

IF LEDCURRENT1 < setpoint then
    dutycycle=dutycycle+1
    if dutycycle => 300 then
    dutycycle = 300
ENDIF
ENDIF
IF LEDCURRENT1 > setpoint then
    dutycycle=dutycycle-1
    IF dutycycle > 301 then
    dutycycle = 0
    
ENDIF
ENDIF

Goto Main

[HenrikOlsson]

Hi,
I think that should work. However, since Setpoint doesn change if Setting doesn't change there's no need to assign a value to SetPoint each time thru the loop.
You can move it into the If SettingChanged section, something like:

If SettingChanged THEN
    LOOKUP Setting, [12,23,34,45,56], DutyCycle            ' Assign inital value to DutyCycle variable
    LOOKUP Setting, [0, 2, 5, 9, 14, 17], SetPoint         ' Assign value to setpoint variable    
    SettingChanged = 0                 ' Clear flag
EndIf

Or you could do something like:

IF SettingChanged THEN
  Select Case Setting
    Case 1
       DutyCycle = 12   'Initial dutycycle for setting 1
       SetPoint = 0
   Case 2
       DutyCycle = 23
       SetPoint = 2
   Case 3
       '.......
       '.......
End Select

Try it, see which works best, compiles to the smallest code, is easiest to maintain and understand etc etc.

Good luck!
/Henrik.

[jmgelba]

Good idea! I like your first example because there are less lines to scroll through, and it looks cleaner.

[jmgelba]

Ok I programmed and there are a couple of issues.

There needs to be a time delay between each step up or down that the button is pressed. Right now, pressing either button and it is too fast to set a desired level. This delay cant be put into the loop though as the response of the regulator will be to slow.

Also it doesnt fully turn off and seems to settle at a very low duty cycle when it should be zero.

IF but_0 then
pause 75
eNDIF
if !but_0 then
         if SETPOINT>0 then
            SETPOINT=SETPOINT-1
           endif
           
    endif
    
IF but_1 then
PAUSE 75
ENDIF    
    if !but_1 then
            if SETPOINT<19 then
            SETPOINT=SETPOINT+1
        endif
        
    endif

This button code used before worked well.

[jmgelba]

 If UpButton THEN
    PAUSE 75
    Setting = Setting + 1              ' Increment setting
    If Setting = 6 THEN Setting = 5    ' Make sure it doesn't go beyond 5
    SettingChanged = 1                 ' Set flag indicating new setting
  EndIf


  If DnButton THEN
    PAUSE 75
    Setting = Setting - 1
    If Setting = 255 THEN Setting = 0  ' Make sure it doesn't go below 0
    SettingChanged = 1                 ' Set flag indicating new setting
  EndIf

Adding the PAUSE 75 fixed the run away issue and gives a quick response to a button press while still being easy to use.

Still havent figured out why at DutyCycle=0 there is still a very low pwm signal that lasts for just a few uS. Or while at setting 5 it rolls over to setting 1.

[HenrikOlsson]

There's a mistake in my code.
The Setting variable can go from 0 to 5 (6 settings) but there's only five entries in the first LOOKUP statement, the one that sets the initial dutycycle.

[jmgelba]

I did actually catch that And yes, it does work. Or it did. Now I think I either messed it up or there is a hardware issue

[jmgelba]

Define OSC 20
DEFINE ADC_BITS 10
DEFINE ADC_CLOCK 3
DEFINE ADC_SAMPLEUS 50
DEFINE CCP1_REG PORTB
DEFINE CCP1_BIT 3


PORTA = %00000000       ' Turn off all PORTA 
PORTB = %00000000       ' Turn off all PORTB
ADCON0 = %00000001
ADCON1 = %01111000
ADCON2 = %10000111

TRISA = %11100111
TRISB = %11000011


UpButton VAR PortB.0   			' Active high button
DnButton VAR PortB.1   			' Active high button

Setting VAR BYTE
SettingChanged VAR BIT
DutyCycle VAR WORD
SETPOINT var byte  'Output current level in 0.1A increments)100 = 1A)

CURRENT VAR WORD
LEDCURRENT VAR WORD
LEDCURRENT1 VAR WORD
high_duty var word
low_duty var word



Main:

  If UpButton THEN
  pause 75
    Setting = Setting + 1              ' Increment setting
    If Setting = 6 THEN Setting = 5    ' Make sure it doesn't go beyond 5
    SettingChanged = 1                 ' Set flag indicating new setting
  EndIf


  If DnButton THEN
  pause 75
    Setting = Setting - 1
    If Setting = 255 THEN Setting = 0  ' Make sure it doesn't go below 0
    SettingChanged = 1                 ' Set flag indicating new setting
  EndIf

  If SettingChanged THEN
    LOOKUP Setting, [0,100,150,200,240,254], DutyCycle
    LOOKUP Setting, [0, 2, 5, 9, 14, 17], SetPoint ' Assign value to setpoint variable 
    SettingChanged = 0                 ' Clear flag
  EndIf
  
ADCIN 0, CURRENT
LEDCURRENT = CURRENT * 49 /100 *2
LEDCURRENT1 = LEDCURRENT/10

CCP1CON = %00111100
PR2 = 99
high_duty=(dutycycle>>2)        'high 6 bits in CCPR1L
      low_duty=(dutycycle<<6)         'low two bits for CCP1CON
      'low_duty=(low_duty>>2)           'shift back to CCP1CON<5:4>
      low_duty.4=0                     'PWM configuration bit
      low_duty.5=1                     'PWM configuration bit
CCPR1L=high_duty
CCP1CON = $0C
T2CON = 4

if LEDCURRENT1 < setpoint then
    dutycycle=dutycycle+1
    if dutycycle => 300 then
    dutycycle = 300
endif
ENDIF
if LEDCURRENT1 > setpoint then
    dutycycle=dutycycle-1
    IF dutycycle > 301 then
    dutycycle = 0
    
ENDIF
endif
pause 100
Goto Main

Ok seem to be stuck. It no longer responds to button presses, turns off the LED if I raise the input voltage to 22V - should operate from 19 - 42V, and the pwm output is a constant low %. I have no idea what is causing this.

The pause 100 at the end is just to slow things down so I can see whats happening on the scope.

[jmgelba]

At the start of the program before the loop, I made sure Setting = 0. Works very well now. Still a minor issue of the pwm signal never turning off though, even on a setting of 0.

[HenrikOlsson]

Hi,
I think the problem is here:

CCP1CON = %00111100            '<-- Here you actually set the two LSB's of the dutycycle register.
PR2 = 99                                  ' <--There's no need to set PR2 every time thru the loop.
high_duty=(dutycycle>>2)        'high 6 bits in CCPR1L
      low_duty=(dutycycle<<6)         'low two bits for CCP1CON 
      'low_duty=(low_duty>>2)           'shift back to CCP1CON<5:4>  
      low_duty.4=0                     'PWM configuration bit 
      low_duty.5=1                     'PWM configuration bit
CCPR1L=high_duty
CCP1CON = $0C                       '<- Then you reset the two LSB's of the dutycycle register.
T2CON = 4                               '<- No need to set this every time

So, the glitch probably comes from the fact that even when your dutycycle variable is 0 you actually set the dutycycle to 4 (the two LSBs in CCP1CON being set by CCP1CON = %00111100) and then back to 0 again by CCP1CON = $0C.

Set up the module (ie CCP1CON and PR2) at the beginning of the program. If you need to use the lower two LSBs of the dutycycle then assign those bits in CCP1CON individually each time thru the loop. Don't mess with PR2 or T2CON every time thru the loop.

Finally, you do a lot of bit shifting an dflippin on the Low_Duty variable but you never actually USE it to set the dutycycle, you're only using the 8 high bits in CCPR1L.

/Henrik.