Activating free output pins?

[Pilover]

Hi everyone,

I am having issues with the functionality of the available outputs. I am using serial communication so my PD0 and PD1 are being used, leaving me only PC5 to use as an output. I am trying to use the information being received from serial to turn on PC5 at specified times. For some reason, I have been having a lot of difficulties. At first I thought it was a problem with processing the serial, but now I am thinking it may be how I am activating PC5.

Are there any examples of code showing how to control PC5? I want to compare mine with it.

Thanks!

[Louie]

First you have to set the direction of the pin (DDRC)
Then write a 1 or 0 to the pin. You change the values of the register as a whole, so you have to use bitwise operators.

DDRC |= (1<<PORTC5); //Set pin 5 (the 6th) as an output - the data direction register wil be 'OR'ed with 00100000' 
PORTC |= (1<<PORTC5);  //Turn pin on port register will be 'OR'd with the same value above.
PORTC &=  ~(1<<PORTC5);  //turn pin off - port register will be 'AND'ed with the inverted form of 00100000, which is 11011111.

That should work. DDRC only needs to be set once.

[Ben]

Hello.

Another user basically just posted the same question. Rather than repeat my response, I’ll just link you to it here:

Help with digital IO for 3pi robot

Hi people. I am trying to use a digital IO from the 3pi robot to light up some LEDs. From what I understand, there are only 3 digital IOs I can use, PD0, PD1, and PC5. However, I am also using serial communication and so PD0 and PD1 are out of questions, which only leaves me PC5. Can anyone help me as to how to configure PC5 to be a GPIO?

- Ben