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Calibration

Like anything in the real world, your sensors and devices won't necessarily work perfectly all the time. Many analog semiconductor devices are light, temperature, and pressure sensitive, so your actual readings can vary depending on outside conditions. Also, while sensors are usually manufactured to within pretty tight tolerances, every sensor has some finite error that you will need to account for to get maximum performance.

Some kind of calibration routine can help alleviate many of these concerns. By calibrating your sensors against a trusted source, you can correct a lot of the skew caused by outside conditions. Calibration will also eliminate any steady state error caused by the device itself.

A calibration routine collects a set of known data points and scales the input signal to fit the calibration data. Since we are calibrating a linear ADC, we only need two data points to determine its operating curve. To get the most out of the calibration, you should use two data points that are as far from each other as possible. In the case of the MSP430 G2231, that is 0v and 3.3v .

Calibration routine pseudocode (not in c syntax)

flag=0; interrupt function: calibrate()returns: lowMeasured, highMeasured {if flag=0: set low and set flag=1if flag=1: set highreturn }

Interrupts in c

Code Composer Studio has a special way of handling interrupts in C. It uses "compiler directives" (special instructions to the compiler, assembler, and linker) to specify which functions should go in the interrupt vector table. ISRs in C are written like any other function, except that they can take and return no values. This fits with the convention that ISRs don't interfere with or depend on the code around them.

Formatting an interrupt in code composer c

#pragma vector=PORT1_VECTOR //compiler directive saying that this function should correspond with the port1 interrupt vector__interrupt void interruptHandle() {//your ISR CODE }void main() {... all setup __enable_interrupt();//Enables general maskable interrupts ... the rest of your program}

Other concerns

Even though interrupts should work in isolation, you often need to get or modify data inside them. This can be done using volatile global variables. A global variable simply means a variable that any function in your code can see and modify. Using global variables is generally discouraged (they can be easily abused and lead to problems if you repeat common variable names), but in this case they allow you to interface with your ISR. Volatile is a directive that tells the processor to never cache the variable's value. When dealing with ISRs, cached variables could lead to problems if the ISR updates the cached data while another function is using it. Be careful using the volatile keyword excessively though-- the lack of caching slows down performance.

Full range voltmeter assignment details

Using Code Composer Studio 4, write a C language program to drive a precise 3 digit volt meter. Use the ADC to read the voltage and display back the actual voltage value. Write a calibration routine for your volt meter and an output routine that will allow you to display each of the output digits.

    Your program should include:

  • A setup section to setup the GPIO, configure the ADC, and enable interrupts
  • An ISR that runs the calibration routine and keeps track of what has been calibrated so far (so it will only run once)
  • A main loop that continuously samples, filters, and scales the ADC input to the 0-3.3 volt range as determined by your calibration.

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Source:  OpenStax, Intro to computational engineering: elec 220 labs. OpenStax CNX. Mar 11, 2013 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11405/1.2
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