8-bit AVR Microcontroller

USART MSPIM Initialization

The USART in MSPIM mode has to be initialized before any communication can take place. The initialization process normally consists of setting the baud rate, setting master mode of operation (by setting DDR_XCKn to one), setting frame format and enabling the Transmitter and the Receiver. Only the transmitter can operate independently. For interrupt driven USART operation, the Global Interrupt Flag should be cleared (and thus interrupts globally disabled) when doing the initialization.

Note: To ensure immediate initialization of the XCKn output the baud-rate register (UBRRn) must be zero at the time the transmitter is enabled. Contrary to the normal mode USART operation the UBRRn must then be written to the desired value after the transmitter is enabled, but before the first transmission is started. Setting UBRRn to zero before enabling the transmitter is not necessary if the initialization is done immediately after a reset since UBRRn is reset to zero.

Before doing a re-initialization with changed baud rate, data mode, or frame format, be sure that there is no ongoing transmissions during the period the registers are changed. The TXCn Flag can be used to check that the Transmitter has completed all transfers, and the RXCn Flag can be used to check that there are no unread data in the receive buffer. Note that the TXCn Flag must be cleared before each transmission (before UDRn is written) if it is used for this purpose.

The following simple USART initialization code examples show one assembly and one C function that are equal in functionality. The examples assume polling (no interrupts enabled). The baud rate is given as a function parameter. For the assembly code, the baud rate parameter is assumed to be stored in the r17:r16 registers.

Assembly Code Example

 clr r18
 out UBRRnH,r18
 out UBRRnL,r18
 ; Setting the XCKn port pin as output, enables master mode.
 sbi XCKn_DDR, XCKn
 ; Set MSPI mode of operation and SPI data mode 0.
 ldi r18, (1<<UMSELn1)|(1<<UMSELn0)|(0<<UCPHAn)|(0<<UCPOLn)
 out UCSRnC,r18
 ; Enable receiver and transmitter.
 ldi r18, (1<<RXENn)|(1<<TXENn)
 out UCSRnB,r18
 ; Set baud rate.
 ; IMPORTANT: The Baud Rate must be set after the transmitter is enabled!
 out UBRRnH, r17
 out UBRRnL, r18
 ret

C Code Example

{
 UBRRn = 0;
 /* Setting the XCKn port pin as output, enables master mode. */
 XCKn_DDR |= (1<<XCKn);
 /* Set MSPI mode of operation and SPI data mode 0. */
 UCSRnC = (1<<UMSELn1)|(1<<UMSELn0)|(0<<UCPHAn)|(0<<UCPOLn);
 /* Enable receiver and transmitter. */
 UCSRnB = (1<<RXENn)|(1<<TXENn);
 /* Set baud rate. */
 /* IMPORTANT: The Baud Rate must be set after the transmitter is enabled */
 UBRRn = baud;
}