Category Archives: XMega


XMega DAC

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In embedded systems, oftentimes it is needed to generate analog outputs from a microcontroller. Examples of such include, generating audio tones, voice, music, smooth continuous waveforms, function generators, voltage reference generators, etc. Traditionally in such cases the most common techniques applied are based on Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), resistor networks and external Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) chips like MCP4921. The aforementioned techniques have different individual limitations and moreover require external hardware interfacing, adding complexities and extra cost to projects.  XMega micros are equipped with 12 bit fast DACs apart from PWM blocks and again it proves itself to be a very

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XMega External Interrupt

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External interrupts are a must have feature in any microcontroller. Interrupts solve a lot of problem that would have otherwise been dependent on polling methods. For instance when we press the volume up key of a TV tuner’s remote controller, the remote controller quickly responds by transmitting the volume up command to the TV set and in turn the TV’s volume increases. This fast response is due to external interrupt issued by the remote’s button to the microcontroller it is connected to. If, however, all the keys of the remote were regularly and frequently scanned and then responded up on

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XMega Analog Comparator

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Previously we dealt with the XMega Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) block. We know that we can use the ADC to measure voltages and take decisions based on voltage values/levels but sometimes it is enough to detect voltage levels and not to measure the exact voltage values. In such occasions where we just need to check voltage levels relative to a reference or threshold value, we need an Analog Comparator (AC). An analog comparator can be used to compare two voltage levels and based on that it can be used to generate a logic output (0 or 1) to indicate which of

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XMega ADC

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For users of advance MCUs like the XMega it is not necessary to tell what an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is or what it does. I assume this is not the first family of microcontroller they are dealing with. Unlike the ADCs of other microcontroller the ADC of XMega devices is a highly complex tool. The level of complexity is so much that without understanding every bits-and-pieces of this piece of hardware a user won’t enjoy its absolute power. XMega ADC is also the most confusing hardware as it is not like other MCU ADCs. We will be dealing with ATXMega32A4U

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XMega Clock System

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Okay firstly the reason I wrote about the clock system instead of I/O ports or something else in this second post of the XMega series is simply because of the fact that without understanding clock configurations you won’t get what you want from your chip. Since XMega’s clock system is software-level configurable and complex at first, it makes itself the first priority module before anything else. There are several clock sources that XMega micros can use as clock. These are both internal and external clock sources. As stated earlier, clocks are not set by fuse settings unlike traditional Mega AVRs,

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