PIC18 USART Interrupt for reception, doesn't trigger

Question

I have set up the Enhanced USART module for a PIC18F4331 and have been trying to do a loop test. I am using MPLABX, programming in XC8, using Pickit3 for debugging and monitoring serial pins with an oscilloscope.

Without going into much detail, this is basically what I am doing:

1) In the main function, USART is transmitting values (solely for debugging) 2) Receiver Interrupt is set, when triggered it stops transmitting and jumps to ISR

This is what happens when I connect TX to RX:

1) USART transmits fine. 2) The Rx register receives a byte and sets flag RCIF after the first STOP bit, but the ISR does not trigger. Therefore the RX register overruns because it hasn't been read. The program does not go in the ISR at all.

I am thinking that the problem might be that it may not be possible to trigger an interrupt by receiving a byte while USART is transmitting? They are independent though so I don't understand why I couldn't do it.

My code:

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {

//***********************Initializing Values****************************//
unsigned int ResultADC, FLAG; 
unsigned char temp, idle; //High Byte result store, 8bits long

//***********************ADC and SPI Settings****************************//

Initialize_control();    //Initialize Control Configuration Pins
InitializeADC();         //Initialize ADC in Continuous Mode
USART_initialize();      //Initialize USART module
InitializeMasterSPI();   //Initialize SPI module

//***********************ADC Capture and Output to SPI******************//

  while(1){             //While ADC buffer has something

    //Enable transmission
     TXREG = 0xff; //Debugger

     while(!TXSTAbits.TRMT);//wait while TSR is full

     TXREG = 0x0; //Debugger

     while(!TXSTAbits.TRMT);//wait while TSR is full

  }
  return 0;
}

//////////////////INTERRUPT SERVICE ROUTINE/////////////////

static void interrupt isr(void){

//Disable Interrupt
PIE1bits.RCIE  = 0;

int count;

//Read USART data
//PIR1bits.RCIF;//Data has been passed to RCREG
RX_Data[count] = RCREG; //Read RX register
count++;
//Reading RX_data clears RCIF, how to read more than 1 byte?

if (count==3){
    //Use data for control
    Control_Arduino(RX_Data);
    count = 0;
}

PIE1bits.RCIE  = 1;
}

//**********************Functions****************************//

void USART_initialize(void){

//Configuration TX and RX pins
TRISCbits.RC6 = 0; //TX output
TRISCbits.RC7 = 1; //RX input

//TXSTA: Transmit Status and Control Register
TXSTAbits.SYNC = 0; //Asynchronous mode
TXSTAbits.TX9 = 0; //8bit transmission
TXSTAbits.BRGH = 1; //Set HIGH Baud rate
TXSTAbits.TXEN = 1; //Enable transmitter
TXSTAbits.SENDB = 0; //Disable break

//RCSTA: Receive Status and Control Register
RCSTAbits.SPEN = 1; //Serial Port enabled
RCSTAbits.RX9 = 0; //8bit reception
RCSTAbits.CREN = 1; //Enables Receiver

//Test bits
//    RCSTAbits.FERR = 0; //No framing error, cleared by reading
//    RCSTAbits.OERR = 0; //No Overrun error, cleared by clearing CREN
                      //Disable receiver CREN 0

//BAUDCON Control register
BAUDCONbits.BRG16 = 1;  //16bit baud rate generator
SPBRG = 0xCF;           // Set to 19200 baud rate, 12Mhz, High Speed, BRG16
//Test bits
//    BAUDCONbits.RCIDL = 0; //Receive in progress

// USART interrupts configuration
RCONbits.IPEN   = 1; // ENABLE interrupt priority
INTCONbits.GIE  = 1; // ENABLE interrupts
INTCONbits.PEIE = 1; // ENable peripheral interrupts.
PIE1bits.RCIE   = 1; // ENABLE USART receive interrupt
PIE1bits.TXIE   = 0; // disable USART TX interrupt

}

Answer 1

Every processor has its own special interrupt-handling quirks.

Microchip's PIC18F4331 page has links to an errata document and the PIC18F4331 datasheet. In particular, the datasheet has some good tips in section 20 "Enhanced universal synchronous asynchronous receiver transmitter (EUSART)" and even more particularly, the 3 steps listed in section 20.0 and the 10 steps of "To set up an Asynchronous Reception" in section 20.3.2.

I've changed a few things that look like they might help:

// WARNING: untested code
int main(void){

//***********************Initializing Values****************************//
unsigned int ResultADC, FLAG; 
unsigned char temp, idle; //High Byte result store, 8bits long

//***********************ADC and SPI Settings****************************//

Initialize_control();    //Initialize Control Configuration Pins
InitializeADC();         //Initialize ADC in Continuous Mode
USART_initialize();      //Initialize USART module
InitializeMasterSPI();   //Initialize SPI module

//***********************ADC Capture and Output to SPI******************//

  while(1){             //While ADC buffer has something

    //Enable transmission
     TXREG = 0xff; //Debugger

     while(!TXSTAbits.TRMT);//wait while TSR is full

     TXREG = 0x0; //Debugger

     while(!TXSTAbits.TRMT);//wait while TSR is full

  }
  return 0;
}

//////////////////INTERRUPT SERVICE ROUTINE/////////////////

static void interrupt isr(void){
    // The PIC hardware has already disabled global interrupts
    // by the time it starts executing the ISR,
    // so there's no need to do "PIE1bits.RCIE  = 0;".

int count;

//Read USART data
//PIR1bits.RCIF;//Data has been passed to RCREG
RX_Data[count] = RCREG; //Read RX register
count++;
//Reading RCREG automatically clears the RX flag.
// so there's no need to do "PIR1bits.RCIF = 0;".
// Q: How to read more than 1 byte?
// A: FIGURE 20-5 of the datasheet
// Implies that there's only a 1 byte buffer.
// Therefore, to read more than 1 byte, we must:
// pull the current byte out of the hardware buffer,
// store it in a software buffer RX_Data[] in RAM,
// then return to normal background main loop
// until the next byte in the message
// triggers another interrupt.

// Would it be better to do the following in the main loop?
  if (count==3){
    //Use data for control
    Control_Arduino(RX_Data);
    count = 0;
  }

/*
The datasheet p. 229 is a little confusing about
whether "CREN" should be set (step 5) or cleared (step 9).
p. 219 which clearly seems to say CREN should be set.
But maybe it needs to be cleared to flush out any errors,
and then be set?
Are the following 2 lines really necessary?
*/
RCSTAbits.CREN = 0; //clear error (if any)
RCSTAbits.CREN = 1; //Enables Receiver

// the PIC hardware enables global interrupts
// automatically during the return-from-interrupt,
// so there's no need to do a "PIE1bits.RCIE  = 1;"
// See the datasheet section 10.0: "Interrupts" for details.

}

//**********************Functions****************************//

void USART_initialize(void){

//Configuration TX and RX pins
// *normally* we use a "0" to indicate "output",
// but the TX output pin is different, see p. 217 of datasheet
TRISCbits.RC6 = 1; //TX output
TRISCbits.RC7 = 1; //RX input

//TXSTA: Transmit Status and Control Register
TXSTAbits.SYNC = 0; //Asynchronous mode
TXSTAbits.TX9 = 0; //8bit transmission
TXSTAbits.BRGH = 1; //Set HIGH Baud rate
TXSTAbits.TXEN = 1; //Enable transmitter
TXSTAbits.SENDB = 0; //Disable break

//RCSTA: Receive Status and Control Register
RCSTAbits.SPEN = 1; //Serial Port enabled
RCSTAbits.RX9 = 0; //8bit reception
RCSTAbits.CREN = 1; //Enables Receiver

//Test bits
//    RCSTAbits.FERR = 0; //No framing error, cleared by reading
//    RCSTAbits.OERR = 0; //No Overrun error, cleared by clearing CREN
                      //Disable receiver CREN 0

//BAUDCON Control register
BAUDCONbits.BRG16 = 1;  //16bit baud rate generator
SPBRG = 0xCF;           // Set to 19200 baud rate, 12Mhz, High Speed, BRG16
//Test bits
//    BAUDCONbits.RCIDL = 0; //Receive in progress

// USART interrupts configuration
RCONbits.IPEN   = 1; // ENABLE interrupt priority
// (p. 4 of http://www.gooligum.com.au/tutorials/midrange/PIC_Mid_C_3.pdf )
ei(); // same as INTCONbits.GIE  = 1; // ENABLE interrupts
INTCONbits.PEIE = 1; // ENable peripheral interrupts.
PIE1bits.RCIE   = 1; // ENABLE USART receive interrupt
PIE1bits.TXIE   = 0; // disable USART TX interrupt

// make sure the RX flag is clear
    PIR1bits.RCIF = 0;
}

Other code online:

"AN944: Using the EUSART on the PIC16F688" http://www.gooligum.com.au/tutorials/midrange/PIC_Mid_C_3.pdf https://forum.sparkfun.com/viewtopic.php?t=7542 http://panteltje.com/panteltje/pic/scope_pic/ http://www.microchip.com/forums/m411875.aspx http://www.enmcu.com/guides/autobaudratebasedoneusartmodule

Tell us if you ever figure out the real problem, OK?

Answer 2

When I use XC16 (I dont think XC8 is much different), I generally create a project with the project wizard because it adds a bunch of useful c and h files.

One of them being an interrupts.c.

    /******************************************************************************/
/* Interrupt Vector Options                                                   */
/******************************************************************************/
/*                                                                            */
/* Refer to the C30 (MPLAB C Compiler for PIC24F MCUs and dsPIC33F DSCs) User */
/* Guide for an up to date list of the available interrupt options.           */
/* Alternately these names can be pulled from the device linker scripts.      */
/*                                                                            */
/* Primary Interrupt Vector Names:                                            */
/*                                                                            */
/* _INT0Interrupt  _INT2Interrupt                                             */
/* _IC1Interrupt   _U2RXInterrupt                                             */
/* _OC1Interrupt   _U2TXInterrupt                                             */
/* _T1Interrupt    _SPI2Interrupt                                             */
/* _IC2Interrupt   _C1Interrupt                                               */
/* _OC2Interrupt   _IC3Interrupt                                              */
/* _T2Interrupt    _IC4Interrupt                                              */
/* _T3Interrupt    _IC5Interrupt                                              */
/* _SPI1Interrupt  _IC6Interrupt                                              */
/* _U1RXInterrupt  _OC5Interrupt                                              */
/* _U1TXInterrupt  _OC6Interrupt                                              */
/* _ADCInterrupt   _OC7Interrupt                                              */
/* _NVMInterrupt   _OC8Interrupt                                              */
/* _SI2CInterrupt  _INT3Interrupt                                             */
/* _MI2CInterrupt  _INT4Interrupt                                             */
/* _CNInterrupt    _C2Interrupt                                               */
/* _INT1Interrupt  _PWMInterrupt                                              */
/* _IC7Interrupt   _QEIInterrupt                                              */
/* _IC8Interrupt   _DCIInterrupt                                              */
/* _OC3Interrupt   _LVDInterrupt                                              */
/* _OC4Interrupt   _FLTAInterrupt                                             */
/* _T4Interrupt    _FLTBInterrupt                                             */
/* _T5Interrupt                                                               */
/*                                                                            */
/* For alternate interrupt vector naming, simply add 'Alt' between the prim.  */
/* interrupt vector name '_' and the first character of the primary interrupt */
/* vector name.                                                               */
/*                                                                            */
/* For example, the vector name _ADC2Interrupt becomes _AltADC2Interrupt in   */
/* the alternate vector table.                                                */
/*                                                                            */
/* Example Syntax:                                                            */
/*                                                                            */
/* void __attribute__((interrupt,auto_psv)) <Vector Name>(void)               */
/* {                                                                          */
/*     <Clear Interrupt Flag>                                                 */
/* }                                                                          */
/*                                                                            */
/* For more comprehensive interrupt examples refer to the C30 (MPLAB C        */
/* Compiler for PIC24 MCUs and dsPIC DSCs) User Guide in the                  */
/* <compiler installation directory>/doc directory for the latest compiler    */
/* release.                                                                   */
/*                                                                            */
/************************

******************************/

Basically your ISR should look something more like this. You can read the manual to find out what what the different attributes mean, but this is what I'm using for an existing project and it works :)

 void __attribute__((interrupt, no_auto_psv)) _U1RXInterrupt(void)
    {
        //do whatever you need to here
        IFS0bits.U1RXIF = 0; //clear UART1 RX interrupt flag
    }

Answer 3

I'm not sure how XC8 handles interrupt functions, but in C18 you must use a #pragma compiler directive to specify for the compiler that a particular function is an interrupt handler. This places a jump instruction to the interrupt handler at the proper interrupt vector location on the part. You should check the assembly listing to see if the interrupt vector is setup properly.

Answer 4

Try to disable interrupt priorities; change

RCONbits.IPEN   = 1; // ENABLE interrupt priority

to

RCONbits.IPEN   = 0; // DISABLE interrupt priority

or handle both the priorities:

void interrupt high_priority HighIsr(void) //High priority interrupt
{
    //ISR - High
}

void interrupt low_priority LowIsr(void)   //Low priority interrupt
{
    //ISR - LOW
}