Control Hardware PWM frequency

Question

I'm using the hardware PWM output with wiringpi. It provides the function pwmSetClock that should make it possible to change the frequency. (https://projects.drogon.net/raspberry-pi/wiringpi/functions/). I believe since the default is 200 Mhz setting the divisor to 200000000 should make an LED hooked up to the output flash visibly, but that is not the case.

Can this be changed?

Answer 1

I've recently had some reason to start experimenting with PWM myself, and found that (as pointed out by one of the comments) the frequency seems to vary with duty cycle - bizzare, right? It turns out that Broadcom implemented "balanced" PWM in order to make the on and off PWM pulses as evenly distributed as possible. They give a description of the algorithm and some more discussion on page 139 of their datasheet: http://www.element14.com/community/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadBody/43016-102-1-231518/Broadcom.Datasheet.pdf

So what you really want is to put PWM in mark-space mode, which will give you the traditional (and easily predictable) PWM you're looking for:

pwmSetMode(PWM_MODE_MS);

The rest of the answer assumes we're in mark-space mode.

I also did some experimenting with the allowable range of values for pwmSetClock() and pwmSetRange(). As noted in one of the other answers, the valid range for pwmSetClock() seems to go from 2 to 4095, while the valid range for pwmSetRange() is up to 4096 (I didn't attempt to find a lower-limit).

The range and clock (a better name is probably divisor) both affect the frequency. The range also affects resolution, so while it may be possible to use very low values, there is a practical limit to how low you will probably want to go. For example, if you used a range of 4, you could achieve higher frequencies, but you will only be able to set the duty cycle to 0/4, 1/4, 2/4, 3/4 or 4/4.

The Raspberry Pi PWM clock has a base frequency of 19.2 MHz. This frequency, divided by the argument to pwmSetClock(), is the frequency at which the PWM counter is incremented. When the counter reaches a value equal to the specified range, it resets to zero. While the counter is less than the specified duty cycle, the output is high, otherwise the output is low.

This means, if you want to set the PWM to have a specific frequency, you can use the following relationship:

pwmFrequency in Hz = 19.2e6 Hz / pwmClock / pwmRange.

If you use the maximum permissible values for pwmSetClock() and pwmSetRange(), you will end up with the minimum achievable hardware PWM frequency of ~1.14 Hz. This will certainly give a visible flicker (more of a flash, really) to an LED. I did confirm the above equation with an oscilloscope, and it seems to hold. The upper frequency limit will be affected by the resolution you need, as described above.

Answer 2

According to this formula:

pwmFrequency in Hz = 19.2e6 Hz / pwmClock / pwmRange

We can set pwmClock=1920 and pwmRange=200 to get pwmFrequency=50Hz:

50 Hz = 19.2e6 Hz / 1920 / 200

---

I test it on alarmpi:

$ pacman -S wiringpi
$ gpio mode 1 pwm
$ gpio pwm-ms
$ gpio pwmc 1920
$ gpio pwmr 200     # 0.1 ms per unit
$ gpio pwm 1 15     # 1.5 ms (0º)
$ gpio pwm 1 20     # 2.0 ms (+90º)
$ gpio pwm 1 10     # 1.0 ms (-90º)

Note: My servo expects a 50Hz signal.

Answer 3

This is the code I'm using. I'm trying to see what will change as i change the settings.

#include <wiringPi.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdint.h>

int main (void)
{
  printf ("Raspberry Pi wiringPi test program\n") ;

  if (wiringPiSetupGpio() == -1)
    exit (1) ;

  pinMode(18,PWM_OUTPUT);
  pwmSetClock(2);
  pwmSetRange (10) ;
  pwmWrite (18, 5);

for (;;) delay (1000) ;
}

pwmSetClock(1); -> 2.342kHz

pwmSetClock(2); -> 4.81MHz

pwmSetClock(3); -> 3.19MHz

pwmSetClock(4); -> 2.398MHz

pwmSetClock(5); -> 1.919MHz

pwmSetClock(6); -> 1.6MHz

pwmSetClock(7); -> 1.3MHz

pwmSetClock(8); -> 1.2MHz

pwmSetClock(9); -> 1.067MHz

pwmSetClock(10); -> 959kHz

pwmSetClock(11); -> 871kHz

pwmSetClock(20); -> 480kHz

pwmSetClock(200); -> 48kHz

pwmSetClock(500); -> 19kHz

pwmSetClock(1000); -> 9.59kHz

pwmSetClock(2000); -> 4.802kHz

pwmSetClock(4000); -> 2.401kHz

pwmSetClock(5000); -> 10.58kHz

From what i've tested, it seems the divisor goes from 2 to some number less than 5000. I would guess it has something to do with the binary representation of those numbers which are being directlly set in the register. Once the numbers binary representation has more bits than the register can take it just takes the first bits and interpretes the numbers that way. Thats why the strange behaviour comes when going from 4000 to 5000.