How to use Pulse Width Modulation driver

Introduction

This page describes how PWM could be configured, debugged and used on SAMA5D2 devices. Since linux-4.9-at91 the PWM could be configured using the new Linux PWM framework support called atomic PWM. This allow changing the PWM parameters without the need of disable and re-enable the correspondent PWM channel.

Supported devices

The following table specifies the pins on different boards which could be used as PWM outputs and the correspondent Linux PWM channels.
Board Name Connector Connector Pin PWM Signal Linux Channel
SAM9X60 EK J14 (mikroBUS) 16 (PWM) PWM2 2
SAMA5D29-Curiosity J19 (mikroBUS 1) PA31 (PWM) PWML0 0
J14 (mikroBUS 2) PB0 (PWM) PWMH1
SAMA5D27 WLSOM1 EK J19 (mikroBUS 1) 16 (PWM) PWMH0 0
J20 (mikroBUS 2) 16 (PWM) PWML0
SAMA5D27 SOM1 EK J25 (mikroBUS 1) 1 (PWM) PWML1 1
J30 (mikroBUS 2) 1 (PWM) PWML0 0
SAMA5D2 Xplained J20 1 PWML2 2
2 PWMH2
J26 8 PWML2
7 PWMH2
SAMA5D3 Xplained J19 PA21 PWML0 0
PA20 PWMH0
PA23 PWML1 1
PA31
PB27 PWMH1
PA22
SAMA5D4 Xplained J7 2 PWML0 0
5 PWMH0
3 PWML1 1
6 PWMH1
J8 8 PWML0 0
7 PWMH0
3
2 PWML1 1
4
6 PWML2 2
5 PWMH2
J15 4 PWML0 0
26 PWMH1 1
10 PWML2 2
9 PWMH2
33 PWML3 3
J17 4 PWML3 3
J18 4 PWML2 2
8 PWMH2
J19 7 PWML3 3
8 PWMH3
J22 8 PWML3 3
7 PWMH3
J23 8 PWML2 2
7 PWMH2

Kernel support

To enable the Linux kernel PWM support just enable the CONFIG_PWM flag:
make menuconfig

Device drivers ->
   Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) Support
To enable the SAMA5D2 PWM driver just enable the CONFIG_PWM_ATMEL flag:
make menuconfig

Device drivers -> 
   Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) Support -> 
      Atmel PWM support

PWM configurations

General

Current Linux implementation supports changing of 3 PWM parameters (signal period, signal duty cycle, signal polarity) and to change PWM channel state (enable/disable). The Linux sysfs interface which could be used to configure the PWM parameters is located at:
/sys/class/pwm/*
The PWM chips which are present in the system are listed in /sys/class/pwm
root@sama5d2-xplained:~# ls -l /sys/class/pwm/    
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Jun  6 16:06 pwmchip0 -> ../../devices/platform/ahb/ahb:apb/f802c000.pwm/pwm/pwmchip0
The presence of pwmchip0 suggest that there is one PWM chip on the system.

Available PWM channels

To check how many PWM channels could be configured the npwm file could be used. For instance, to check how many PWM channels supports PWM chip pwmchip0 above the following command could be used:
root@sama5d2-xplained:~# cat /sys/class/pwm/pwmchip0/npwm 
4
This means pwmchip0 supports 4 PWM channels.

PWM channel export

To configure a PWM channel, fist, the PWM channel needs to be exported. To export a PWM channel the number of the channel needs to be written in /sys/class/pwm/pwmchipX/export file.
root@sama5d2-xplained:~# echo 2 > /sys/class/pwm/pwmchip0/export
After that, the PWM 2 channel is exported in sysfs and it’s parameters could be changed.
root@sama5d2-xplained:~# ls -l /sys/class/pwm/pwmchip0/
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root    0 Jun  6 15:17 device -> ../../../f802c000.pwm
--w------- 1 root root 4096 Jun  6 15:16 export
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Jun  6 15:17 npwm
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root    0 Jun  6 15:17 power
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root    0 Jun  6 15:17 pwm2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root    0 Jun  6 15:17 subsystem -> ../../../../../../../class/pwm
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Jun  6 15:15 uevent
--w------- 1 root root 4096 Jun  6 15:17 unexport

root@sama5d2-xplained:~# ls -l /sys/class/pwm/pwmchip0/pwm2/  
total 0
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Jun  6 15:18 capture
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Jun  6 15:18 duty_cycle
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Jun  6 15:18 enable
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Jun  6 15:18 period
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Jun  6 15:18 polarity
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root    0 Jun  6 15:18 power
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Jun  6 15:18 uevent
A new fresh exported signal has the following parameters:
period = 0
duty_cycle = 0
polarity = normal
enable = 0
A cat on the files from /sys/class/pwm/pwmchipX/pwmY will print these values.

TIP TIPS:: The capture file could be used to capture the PWM signal. The Atmel products doesn’t support this feature.

Period configuration

To configure period parameter for a PWM channel write the desired period value, in nanoseconds, in period file. For instance, to configure a 0.5 seconds period for PWM 2 channel use the following command:
echo 500000000 > /sys/class/pwm/pwmchip0/pwm2/period

Duty cycle configuration

To configure duty cycle parameter for a PWM channel write the desired duty cycle value, in nanoseconds, in duty_cycle file. For instance, to configure a 0.25 seconds duty cycle for PWM 2 channel use the following command:
echo 250000000 > /sys/class/pwm/pwmchip0/pwm2/duty_cycle

Polarity configuration

Linux PWM implementation defines normal and inversed polarities for PWM signals. To configure signal polarity for a PWM channel write one of these strings to polarity file. For instance, to configure inversed polarity for PWM 2 channel use the following command:
echo inversed > /sys/class/pwm/pwmchip0/pwm2/polarity

Enable/Disable PWM channels

To enable or disable a PWM channel write a 1 or a 0 in the enable file. For instance, to enable PWM 2 channel use the following command:
echo 1 > /sys/class/pwm/pwmchip0/pwm2/enable
Below is a picture with PWM signals (PWMH and PWML) on PWM channel 2, configured with above parameters, on SAMA5D2 Xplained board:

After a channel was exported and configured its parameters could be changed. Starting with linux-4.9-at91 the parameters could be changed on the fly. With version below linux-4.9-at91, if a PWM channel was exported and configured a new configuration imply to first disable the channel, reconfigure and then re-enable it.

Configuring PWM channels via device tree

Besides the sysfs, a Linux PWM channel could be requested by other drivers (e.g. regulators, leds or backlight drivers) with a set of default parameters. This is done using the pwms binding. For instance, the PWM regulator could request PWM channel 2 using the following device tree bindings:
   pwm_regulator {
      compatible = "pwm-regulator";
      pwms = <&pwm0 2 500000000 0>;
      regulator-name = "PWM_REGULATOR";
      regulator-min-microvolt = <0>;
      regulator-max-microvolt = <3300000>;
      regulator-always-on;
   };
- the first parameter of pwms binding specify the label of PWM controller in device tree
- the second parameter specifies the PWM channel to be requested by PWM regulator driver
- the third parameter specifies the PWM signal period (in nanoseconds)
- the fourth parameter specifies the PWM signal polarity (0 = normal, 1 = inversed)

Debugging PWM

Linux offers a file in /sys/kernel/debug which could be used to see the state of PWM channels.
root@sama5d2-xplained:~# cat /sys/kernel/debug/pwm 
platform/f802c000.pwm, 4 PWM devices
 pwm-0   ((null)              ): period: 0 ns duty: 0 ns polarity: normal mode: complementary trigger: none
 pwm-1   ((null)              ): period: 0 ns duty: 0 ns polarity: normal mode: complementary trigger: none
 pwm-2   (sysfs               ): requested enabled period: 500000000 ns duty: 250000000 ns polarity: normal
 pwm-3   ((null)              ): period: 0 ns duty: 0 ns polarity: normal mode: complementary trigger: none

-- Claudiu Beznea - 2017-07-03

Topic attachments
I Attachment Action Size Date Who CommentSorted ascending
JPEGjpg linux4sam-pwm-documentation-pwm-signal-example.jpg manage 259.3 K 2017-07-03 - 09:57 UnknownUser linux4sam pwm output
r16 - 09 Nov 2023 - 13:16:38 - AndreiSimion
 
Linux & Open Source for AT91 Microchip Microprocessors

Copyright © by the contributing authors. All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.

Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.

Microchip® and others, are registered trademarks or trademarks of Microchip Technology Inc. and its subsidiaries. This site is powered by the TWiki collaboration platform

Arm® and others are registered trademarks or trademarks of Arm Limited (or its affiliates). Other terms and product names may be trademarks of others.

Ideas, requests, contributions ? Connect to LinksToCommunities page.

Syndicate this siteRSS ATOM