Measuring frequencies with PWM channel

[Marsman]

Hi,

is there a command in the RoBoard library to read a frequency of a digital signal from a PWM port?

I have an optocoupler near the axis of a wheels from my robot which switches on and off according to the speed of the wheel (disc with black/white stripes). When the wheel turns, the frequency of the digital signal is proportional to the speed. So far, I am using a routine which looks for say a rising edge, captures the time, then waits for the falling edge, and captures the time, again.

It would be more elegant if the RoBoard could deliver the frequency with a library command.

Thanks,

marsman

[PaulL]

What you have is correct. I have been through the libraries quite a bit (older version), and if you look at how position feedback is done on the servos (RCSERVO.cpp, ReadPosition functions), it's basically the same (using counters in the PWM circuitry instead, but it's functionally the same as RDTSC or whatever time method you choose).

The only difference is in how you go after the duration. You can block, this is what's done in RCSERVO, or you can poll for state change (which is what blocking does, except that the idea here is that you go do other things instead of waiting), or you can use interrupts.

I haven't tried this, but here's some info:

http://robosavvy.com/Builders/PaulL/DMP_Vortex86_Series_Software_Programming_Reference_091216.pdf

Go to page 26, section 3.5. There's info there on GPIO with interrupts. Use an ISR to generate cycle start / cycle end time stamps to get duration.

OR, you can just do blocking or polling.

Paul