Serial
Communication
I2C, SPI, UART and USB
Prepared by
Snehangshu Bhattacharya
Index Introduction to Serial Communication
UART protocol
SPI protocol
I2C protocol
Introduction to USB protocol
What is Serial Communication?
➔ It is a process of sending data over a channel
➔ Data is sent one bit at a time over the communication
channel / bus
Serial
Communication
Types
Serial Parallel
VS
Communication Communication
➔ One bit at a time over a channel / bus ➔ Multiple bit at a time over a channel / bus
➔ Single line Communication ➔ Multi line Communication
➔ Long distance and higher frequency ➔ Short distance and lower frequency
operations operations
➔ Low error and noise ➔ High error and noise
➔ Simple and Low Cost ➔ Complicated and Costly
Why Serial
Is better?
➔ Lower Size
➔ No Cross-Talk
➔ No Out-of-Sync Delay
➔ Hot-Pluggable
UART
Universal Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitter
➔ It is a hardware device that can send/receive data between two devices
serially
➔ Two device communicate directly and must know the speed of
communication
➔ No clock is required to transmit / receive data
Connection
How UART works
Bit Pattern
Baud Rate
➔ Start Bit: 1st bit, Generally Logic Low
The rate at which information is ➔ Data Bits: Next 5-8 bits, carries information
transferred in a communication channel. ➔ Parity Bit: Next 1 bit, carries the parity value
"9600 baud" means that the serial port is for error checking
currently transferring data at speed 9600 ➔ Stop Bit(s): Next 1 or 2 bit(s), stops the data
bits per second frame
Advantages of Disadvantages of
UART UART
➔ Only uses two wires ➔ Size of the data frame is limited to
9 bits (8 data + 1 parity)
➔ Clock not required
➔ Multiple master / slave
➔ Reliable as both transmitter and configuration not possible
receiver are aware of the speed ➔ The baud-rate of transmitter and
aka “baud-rate” receiver must be within 10% of
each other to avoid errors
Live Demo: Chat-Over-UART
A simple μC to μC chat over UART protocol
➔ Devices used: 1 x Arduino UNO , 1 x Arduino MEGA 2560, a pair of wires
➔ Baud Rate Used: 9600 bps
➔ Supporting Softwares: Arduino IDE, Serial Terminal (Serial Monitor)
➔ Source Code: https://github.com/forkbomb-666/chatoveruart
SPI
Serial Peripheral Interface
➔ It is an interface bus commonly used to send data between
microcontrollers and small peripherals such as shift registers, sensors, and
SD cards
➔ It uses separate clock and data lines, along with a select line to choose the
device you wish to talk to
➔ It offers duplex synchronous communication
Connections
How SPI works
Single Master Single Slave
Abbreviations
➔ SCLK: Serial Clock
➔ MOSI: Master Output Slave Input
➔ MISO: Master Input Slave Output
➔ SSn: Slave select line(s) where n = 1, 2, 3, ...
Single Master Multi Slave
1. Master outputs the clock signal
Communication Steps
2. The master switches the SS/CS pin to a low voltage
state, which activates the slave:
How SPI works
Abbreviations 3. The master sends the data one bit at a time to the
slave along the MOSI line. The slave reads the bits as they
are received
➔ SCLK: Serial Clock
➔ MOSI: Master Output Slave Input
➔ MISO: Master Input Slave Output
4. If a response is needed, the slave returns data one bit
➔ SSn: Slave select line(s) where n = 1, 2, 3, ... at a time to the master along the MISO line. The master
reads the bits as they are received
Advantages of Disadvantages of
SPI SPI
➔ Faster than UART ➔ Requires more signal lines than
other communication methods
➔ Cheap, as the receiving hardware
➔ The master must control all
can be a simple shift register
communications (slaves can't talk
➔ Supports multiple slaves directly to each other)
➔ It usually requires separate SS
lines to each slave, which can be
problematic if numerous slaves
are needed.
I2C
Inter - Integrated Circuit Bus
➔ A Small Area Network connecting ICs and other electronic systems
➔ Mainly used in EEPROM,Microcontroller,Interfaced chips
➔ Includes electrical and timing specifications and an associated bus protocol
➔ Two wire serial data & control bus implemented with the serial data (SDA) and
clock (SCL) lines
➔ Unique start and stop condition
➔ Bi-directional data transfer
Connections
How I2C works
Abbreviations Bit Pattern
➔ μC: MicroController
➔ ADC: Analog to Digital converter(sample device) ➔ Start Condition: 1st bit, falling edge triggering
➔ DAC: Digital to Analog converter(sample device) ➔ Address Bits + R/W: Next 7 + 1 bits, carries
➔ SDA: Serial Data Line address of slave with the Read / Write Bit
➔ SCL: Serial Clock Line ➔ ACK / NACK: Acknowledge/ Not-Acknowledge
bit
➔ Data Bits: Next 8 bits, used for data
➔ Stop Condition: Last bit, rising edge triggering
Advantages of Disadvantages of
I2C I2C
➔ Uses two wires ➔ Slower transfer rate than SPI
➔ Supports multi master multi slave ➔ Data frame size is limited to 8 bits
system
➔ More complicated than SPI
➔ Less complicated than UART
➔ Full-duplex not supported, can
➔ Can connect upto 2 ^ 7 - 1 = 127 only communicate in half-duplex
devices from a single master mode
USB
Universal Serial Bus
➔ It is a plug and play interface that allows a computer to communicate with
peripheral and other devices.
➔ Can connect anything from keyboards and mice, to music players and flash
drives
➔ USB may also be used to send power to certain devices, such as
smartphones and tablets, as well as charge their batteries
➔ Connect up to 127 devices from a single root hub
Root Hub Pyramid
The USB
Architecture
USB Root Hub
➔ USB uses 7 bit addressing for I/O
➔ Root Hub is the main controller device with
address 0
➔ Root Hub assigns addresses to I/O devices
➔ This process is known as enumeration.
Data transaction types
➔ Control: Used by the host to send commands or
query parameters. Packet lengths: 8 bytes for Low
The USB speed, 8-64 bytes for Full, and 64 bytes for High
Speed devices.
Architecture ➔ Interrupt: This is often used by devices sending
small amounts of data, e.g. mice or keyboards.
Packet Transactions ➔ Bulk: This USB protocol message is used by
devices like printers for which much larger amounts
of data are required. The maximum length is
64-byte for full speed Devices or 512 bytes for high
speed ones. The data integrity is verified using
cyclic redundancy checking, CRC and an
acknowledgement is sent.
➔ Isochronous: It is used to stream real time data
and is used for applications like live audio channels,
etc. Packet sizes can be up to 1024 bytes.
USB connectors
Other Variants are:
USB Speeds
By version
References:
➔ Image Credits:
circuitbasics.com, wikipedia.org, linustechtips.com
➔ Knowledge Credits:
wikipedia.org, sparkfun.com, mikroe.com
➔ Software Credits:
Google Slides, arduino.cc, github.com
Thank You!
