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Arduino Forum Measure square wave frequency
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  • square
  • arduino
  • frequency
Related

Measure square wave frequency

Former Member
Former Member over 11 years ago

Hello,

 

I'm working with the Arduino Due ans I used the following code:

 

// period of pulse accumulation and serial output, milliseconds

#define MainPeriod 100

long previousMillis = 0; // will store last time of the cycle end

volatile unsigned long duration=0; // accumulates pulse width

volatile unsigned int pulsecount=0;

volatile unsigned long previousMicros=0;

 

void setup()

{

  Serial.begin(19200);

  attachInterrupt(6, myinthandler, RISING);

}

 

void loop()

{

  unsigned long currentMillis = millis();

  if (currentMillis - previousMillis >= MainPeriod)

  {

    previousMillis = currentMillis;  

    // need to bufferize to avoid glitches

    unsigned long _duration = duration;

    unsigned long _pulsecount = pulsecount;

    duration = 0; // clear counters

    pulsecount = 0;

    float Freq = 1e6 / float(_duration);

    Freq *= _pulsecount; // calculate F

    // output time and frequency data to RS232

    Serial.print(currentMillis);

    Serial.print(" "); // separator!

    Serial.print(Freq);

    Serial.print(" ");

    Serial.print(_pulsecount);

    Serial.print(" ");

    Serial.println(_duration);

  }

}

 

void myinthandler() // interrupt handler

{

  unsigned long currentMicros = micros();

  duration += currentMicros - previousMicros;

  previousMicros = currentMicros;

  pulsecount++;

}

 

to measure the frequency.

 

I can measure frequencies higher than 1.5kHz accurately, but I can't seem to measure lower frequencies.

 

How can I measure lower frequencies, say 400Hz and above?

 

Thanks.

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Top Replies

  • jw0752
    jw0752 over 11 years ago +1
    Hi Matt, I don't know about this situation but usually sampling over a longer time period will improve accuracy. John
  • D_Hersey
    D_Hersey over 11 years ago in reply to jw0752 +1
    John is right, there I said it! You might be able to get more accurate timing by latching the wdt upon interrupt. Reset the Arduino Due board using the watchdog - Arduino Forum
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 11 years ago in reply to D_Hersey +1
    I tried setting mainPeriod to be longer but it still didn't measure accurately lower frequencies. Regarding the wdt , I don't understand how can it help, can you elaborate? thanks.
  • Former Member
    Former Member over 11 years ago in reply to Robert Peter Oakes

    Thanks for that, but as far as I know this library is not compatible with the Due, right?

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  • Former Member
    Former Member over 11 years ago in reply to shabaz

    I'd like to know that I have the option, if measuring lower frequencies with Arduino won't work.

     

    Do you know of a circuit that measures frequencies (200Hz ~ 4kHz)?

     

    Thanks.

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  • Robert Peter Oakes
    Robert Peter Oakes over 11 years ago in reply to Former Member

    So in short, yes you can do it, I have done it before, a while back. I wont be able to investigate until the weekend though

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  • D_Hersey
    D_Hersey over 11 years ago

    I'm not really an Arduino guy, though I think they are really cool.  I am most familiar with real real old-school processors like ZAPs and 68HC11s, say.   So, mostly, I can only speak generally.  When you try to time directly with a controller, the problem is, what happens if another thread takes control while we are trying to time something?  Locking out everything else is not always desirable.

     

    It doesn't have to be the WDC, anything stable is fine.  I use msp430 for small stuff nowadays and they usually feature plenty of timers.

     

    Basically, you count a high fq, stable sqr wave with a high-modulus binary-denominated ring counter.  Three 4040s clickin' on the master clock might do it.  There are a few topological choices here, but say your low fq signal strobes a latch attached to the outputs of the ring counter.  Then you read the latch with, say an IIC PIO, and subtract it from the prior value.  That gives you a quantized representation of the period of a half-cycle.  This will free us from worrying about thread collision so much because stuff external to the processor is doing the work, which the processor then merely observes rather than arbitrates.  Higher clock speed yields more precision. 

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  • Robert Peter Oakes
    Robert Peter Oakes over 11 years ago in reply to D_Hersey

    Being an ardiono and with nothing special added there are no threads to worry about but bad code can still cause problems, a few things to new players to watch out for would be statements like "delay(1000)" as this too locks up the system for in this case a whole second

     

    I don't think either of the issues exist in this scenario but very informative nevertheless

     

    The counters you talk of (The 4040's,) I remember them well are pretty much redundant in today's micro-controllers as the same functionality is built into the hardware of the controller, you just have to tap into it

     

    I will put together a sketch at the weekend if this is not resolved by then, or just because I can, sorry, please be patient, I am very busy right now.

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  • D_Hersey
    D_Hersey over 11 years ago in reply to Robert Peter Oakes

    I was just using the jellybean ring counter as an example.  Cognizant of the fact that one wouldn't really do it that way nowadays, I think the discretes are still good devices to use conceptually, sometimes.

     

    Here is a way the problem was solved in analog:

    http://www.ti.com/lit/an/snoa651/snoa651.pdf

     

    Should you need a way to while away the hours.

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  • Robert Peter Oakes
    Robert Peter Oakes over 11 years ago in reply to D_Hersey

    I agree with you there, you don't get caught up with the software and loose focus on what is really happening. Please keep on with the great tips and feedback. I know it will provide value to many people

     

    Peter

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  • ravi_butani
    ravi_butani over 11 years ago in reply to Former Member

    Hey Matt, its obvious that if you want to measure low freq accurately you need long time window ...means your measurement time increases... in my code i hv kept time window of 50ms...

    you can consider more time window for accurate low freq measurements..

    modify these lines..

    if(millis() - time_stamp > 50)// 50ms window

    output0 = count0 * 20;

    all three outputx lines

     

    to

    if(millis() - time_stamp > 500)// 500ms window

    output0 = count0 * 2;

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  • Former Member
    Former Member over 11 years ago in reply to ravi_butani

    I'll try that later and report back, thanks!

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  • Former Member
    Former Member over 11 years ago in reply to ravi_butani

    Thanks! It works.

     

    Can you please elaborate on how it works, I don't fully understand. thank you.

     

    Also, there is a problem that there is a small deviation of 2-5Hz in the reading and it takes about 3-4 seconds to get the accurate reading.

     

    Can it get more accurate with better resolution?

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