InitTimer2

Syntax: (MicroChip PIC)

    InitTimer2 prescaler, postscaler

or, where you required to state the clock source, use the following

    InitTimer2 clocksource, prescaler, postscaler

Syntax: (Atmel AVR)

    InitTimer2 source, prescaler

Command Availability:

Available on all microcontrollers with a Timer 2 module.  As shown above a Microchip microcontroller can potentially support two types of methods for initialisation.

The first method is:

    InitTimer2 prescaler, postscaler

This the most common method to initialise a Microchip microcontroller timer.  With this method the timer has only one possible clock source, this mandated by the microcontrollers architecture, and that clock source is the System Clock/4 also known as FOSC/4.


The second method is much more flexible in term of the clock source.  Microcontrollers that support this second method enable you to select different clock sources and to select more prescale values.  The method is shown below:

    InitTimer2 clocksource, prescaler, postscaler

How do you determine which method to use for your specific Microchip microcontroller ?

The timer type for a Microchip microcontroller can be determined by checking for the existance of a T2CLKCON register, either in the Datasheet or in the GCBASIC "dat file" for the specific device.

If the Microchip microcontroller DOES NOT have a T2CLKCON register then timers 2/4/6/8 for that specific microcontroller chip use the first method, and are configured using:

    InitTimer2 (PreScale, PostScale)

If the microcontroller DOES have a T2CLKCON register then ALL timers 2/4/6/8 for that specific microcontroller chip use the second method, and are configured using:

    InitTimer2 (Source,PreScale,PostScale)

The possible Source, Prescale and Postscale constants for each type are shown in the tables below.  These table are summary tables from the Microchip datasheets.

Period of the Timers

The Period of the timer is determined by the system clock speed, the prescale value and 8-bit value in the respective timer period register.  The timer period for timer 2 is held in register PR2.  

When the timer is enabled, by starting the timer, it will increment until the TMR2 register matches the value in the PR2 register.  At this time the TMR2 register is cleared to 0 and the timer continues to increment until the next match, and so on.

The lower the value of the PR2 register, the shorter the timer period will be.  The default value for the PR2 register at power up is 255.

The timer interrupt flag (TMR2IF) is set based upon the number of match conditions as determine by the postscaler.  The postscaler does not actually change the timer period, it changes the time between interrupt conditions.

Timer constants for the MicroChip microcontrollers

Parameters for this timer are detailed in the tables below:

Parameter Description

clocksource

This is an optional parameter. Please review the datasheet for specific usage.
 
Source can be one of the following numeric values:
 
1 equates to OSC (FOSC/4).    The default clock source

6 equates to EXTOSC same as SOSC
5 equates to MFINTOSC
4 equates to LFINTOSC
3 equates to HFINTOSC
2 equates to FOSC
1 equates to FOSC/4 same as OSC
0 equates to TxCKIPPS same as EXTOSC and EXT (T1CKIPPS)

Other sources may be available but can vary from microcontroller to microcontroller and these can be included manually per the specific microcontrollers datasheet.

prescaler

The value of the prescaler for this specific timer. See the tables below for permitted values.

postscaler

The value of the postscaler for this specific timer. See the tables below for permitted values.

Table 1 shown above

prescaler can be one of the following settings, if you MicroChip microcontroller has the T2CKPS4 bit then refer to table 3:

Prescaler Value Primary GCB Constant Constant Equates
to value

1:1

PS2_1

0

1:4

PS2_4

1

1:16

PS2_16

2

1:64

PS2_64

3

Table 2 shown above

Note that a 1:64 prescale is only avaialable on certain midrange microcontrollers. Please refer to the datasheet to determine if a 1:64 prescale is supported by a spectific microcontroller.

Prescaler Value Primary GCB Constant Constant Equates
to value

1:1

PS2_1

0

1:2

PS2_2

1

1:4

PS2_4

2

1:8

PS2_8

3

1:16

PS2_16

4

1:32

PS2_32

5

1:64

PS2_64

6

1:128

PS2_128

7

Table 3 shown above

postscaler slows the rate of the interrupt generation (or WDT reset) from a counter/timer by dividing it down.

On Microchip PIC microcontroller one of the following constants where the Postscaler Rate Select bits are in the range of 1 to 16.

Postcaler Value GCB Constant Eqautes to

1:1 Postscaler

POST_1

0

1:2 Postscaler

POST_2

1

1:3 Postscaler

POST_3

2

1:4 Postscaler

POST_4

3

1:5 Postscaler

POST_5

4

1:6 Postscaler

POST_6

5

1:7 Postscaler

POST_7

6

1:8 Postscaler

POST_8

7

1:9 Postscaler

POST_9

8

1:10 Postscaler

POST_10

9

1:11 Postscaler

POST_11

10

1:12 Postscaler

POST_12

11

1:13 Postscaler

POST_13

12

1:14 Postscaler

POST_14

13

1:15 Postscaler

POST_15

14

1:16 Postscaler

POST_16

15

Table 4 shown above





Explanation:(Atmel AVR)

InitTimer2 will set up timer 2, according to the settings given.

source can be one of the following settings: Parameters for this timer are detailed in the table below:

Parameter Description

source

The clock source for this specific timer. Can be either Osc or Ext where`Osc` is an internal oscillator and Ext is an external oscillator.

Table 5 shown above

prescaler for Atmel AVR Timer 2 is chip specific and can be selected from one of the two tables shown below. Please refer to the datasheet determine which table to use and which prescales within that table are supported by a specific Atmel AVR microcontroller.

Table1: Prescaler Rate Select bits are in the range of 1 to 1024

Prescaler Value Primary GCB Constant Secondary GCB Constant Constant Equates
to value

1:0

PS_0

PS_2_0

1

1:1

PS_1

PS_2_1

1

1:8

PS_8

PS_2_8

2

1:64

PS_64

PS_2_64

3

1:256

PS_256

PS2_256

4

1:1024

PS_1024

PS_2_1024

5

Table 6 shown above


Prescaler Rate Select bits are in the range of 1 to 16384

Prescaler Value Primary GCB Constant Secondary GCB Constant Constant Equates
to value

1:1

PS_2_1

none

1

1:2

PS_2_2

none

2

1:4

PS_2_4

none

3

1:8

PS_2_8

none

4

1:16

PS_2_16

none

5

1:32

PS_2_32

none

6

1:64

PS_2_64

none

7

1:128

PS_2_128

none

8

1:256

PS_2_256

none

9

1:512

PS_2_512

none

10

1:1024

PS_2_1024

none

11

1:2048

PS_2_2048

none

12

1:4096

PS_2_4096

none

13

1:8192

PS_2_8192

none

14

1:16384

PS_2_16384

none

15

Table 7 shown above

Example:

This code uses Timer 2 and On Interrupt to flash an LED every 200 timer ticks.

    #chip 16F1788, 8

    #DEFINE LED PORTA.1
    DIR LED OUT

    #Define Match_Val PR2 'PR2 is the timer 2 match register
    Match_Val = 200       'Interrupt afer 200 timer ticks

    On interrupt timer2Match call FlashLED  'Interrupt on match
    Inittimer2 PS2_64, 15 'Prescale 1:64 /Postscale 1:16 (15)
    Starttimer 2

    Do
      ' Wating for interrupt on match val of 100
    Loop

    'This sub will be called when Timer 2 matches "Match_Val" (PR2)
    SUB FlashLED
        pulseout LED, 5 ms
    END SUB