Low Power Application on SAMC2x Using MPLAB® Harmony v3 Peripheral Libraries: Step 2

Last modified by Microchip on 2023/11/09 09:07

Configure RTC Peripheral Library

Under the bottom left tab, in Available Components, expand Peripherals > RTC.
Double-click, or drag and drop, RTC to add the RTC peripheral library (PLIB) to the project graph. Verify that the RTC clock is set to run at 1 kHz internal ultra-low-power clock.

Dragging and dropping RTC to the RTC peripheral library​​

When a module is added to the project graph, MHC automatically enables the clock to the module. The default RTC clock source is an internal 1 kHz ultra-low-power clock (OSCULP1K).

The default RTC clock source is an internal 1 kHz ultra-low-power clock​​

Note: On the SAM C21 device, RTC can be clocked through several low power clock sources of 1 kHz and 32 kHz as shown above. The 1 kHz clock source retained (OSCULP1K) is enough to generate periods of 500 milliseconds.

Go back to the project graph and configure the RTC PLIB to generate a compare interrupt every 500 milliseconds. 

Generating a compare interrupt every 500 milliseconds. ​​

Note: The Compare Value is set as 0x200. This compare value generates an RTC compare interrupt every 500 milliseconds

  • RTC clock = 1024 Hz
  • RTC Prescaler = 1
  • Required Interrupt rate = 500 ms

Hence, Compare Value = (500/1000) x 1024 = 512 (0x200).

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Configure I²C Peripheral Library and I²C pins

Under the Available Components tab, expand Peripherals > SERCOM double-click on SERCOM2 or drag and drop to add the SERCOM instance 2 to the project.

Dragging and dropping the SERCOM instance 2 to the project​​Select the SERCOM 2 peripheral library and configure it for I²C protocol as shown.

Configuring SERCOM 2 for I²C protocol

Open the Pin Configuration tabs by clicking MHC > Tools > Pin Configuration.

Opening the Pin Configuration tabs

Select the MHC Pin Settings tab and sort the entries by Port names as shown below.

Selecting the MHC Pin Settings tab

Now, select the MHC Pin Table tab and then scroll down to the SERCOM2 module as shown below.

  • Enable I²C Clock (I2C SCL) on PA13 (Pin #30)
  • Enable I²C Data ( I2C SDA) on PA12 (Pin #29)

Selecting the MHC Pin Table tab​​

Note: This completes the configuration of the I²C peripheral library. The application code will use the I²C PLIB APIs to read temperature from the temperature sensor.

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Configure USART Peripheral Library and USART pins

Under the Available Components tab, expand Peripheral > SERCOM. Double-click on SERCOM4, or drag and drop, to add the SERCOM instance 4 to the project.

Dragging and dropping SERCOM instance 4 to the project​​Select the SERCOM 4 peripheral library in the Project Graph and configure it for USART protocol as shown below

Selecting the SERCOM 4 peripheral library in the Project Graph​​Verify the default baud rate is set to 115200 Hz.

Note: The application will use the SERCOM4 (as USART) PLIB for printing messages on the serial terminal.

Select the Pin Table tab and then scroll down to the SERCOM4 module as shown below.

  • Enable USART_TX on PB10 (Pin #23) and USART_RX on PB11 (Pin #24).

Selecting the Pin Table tab

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Configure DMA Peripheral Library

Launch DMA Configurator by going to the MHC tab in MPLAB® X IDE and then selecting Tools > DMA Configuration.
Launching the DMA Configurator

Click on the DMA Settings tab. Configure DMA Channel 0 to transfer application buffer to the USART TX register. The DMA transfers one byte from the user buffer to USART transmit buffer on each trigger.Based on the trigger source, the DMA channel configuration is automatically set by MHC.

  • Trigger Action: Action taken by DMA on receiving a trigger.
    • One beat transfer: Generally used during a memory-to-peripheral or peripheral-to-memory transfer.
    • One block transfer: Generally used during the memory-to-memory transfer on a software trigger.
  • Source Address Mode, Destination Address Mode: Select whether to increment Source/Destination Address after every transfer. Automatically set by MHC based on the trigger type. For example:
    • If the trigger source is USART transmit, then the Source Address is incremented, and the Destination Address is fixed.
    • If the trigger source is USART receive, then the Source Address is fixed, and the Destination Address is incremented.
  • Beat Size: Size of one beat. The default value is 8-bits. For example:
    • If the SPI peripheral is configured for 16-bit/32-bit mode, then the beat size must be set to 16-bits/32-bits respectively.

Configuring the DMA Settings tab

Disable USART interrupt:

Under the Project Graph tab, click on the SERCOM4 block.

In the Configuration Options, uncheck the Enable Interrupts option.

Unchecking the Enable Interrupts option in Configuration Options

Note: In this lab, SERCOM4 (as USART) interrupt is disabled as the application does not need a callback on USART transfer complete. A USART transmit buffer empty event triggers DMA to transfer one byte of data from source (user buffer) to destination (USART Tx register). When all the requested bytes are transmitted, DMA PLIB notifies the application by calling the registered DMA callback event handler.

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