Arduino Playground is read-only starting December 31st, 2018. For more info please look at this Forum Post

FastPWM: Creating Custom Signal Frequencies for the ATmega328p Chip, using Timers 0, 1, and 2

Written by: David Dubins, 17-Nov-2018 Tested on Arduino IDE version 1.8.7

This story began because I needed to do something that I thought would be simple, but ended up being quite challenging. I wanted a 370 kHz wave on Pin 3 of my Arduino Uno, because I needed to move a clock out from another pin to avoid a hardware conflict with an external chip (the 23LC1024 - here is a cheap plug for the library I wrote for it: https://github.com/dndubins/SRAMsimple). Little did I know that this was not a quick or easy problem. What the fclk! There are lots of explanations and code snippets out there to create custom frequency clock signals, but I quickly learned that I lacked the basic understanding of registers to do this.

One week spent with an oscilloscope later, I feel as though I am good here, and I'd like to pass on what I've learned to the beginner (or me, one week ago, if time travel is ever invented). So with very little explanation and jumping in right to the code, here goes! Apologies to people here who actually know what they are doing - don't bother looking at this code. It's crude, it's probably inefficient, there are a number of facets I've ignored, and yes it's probably wrong in places. There are better resources out there. This brief article is for cutting right to the chase for the beginner, with the few useful timer modes I played with.

There are three timers in the ATmega328P that time various important things. Timer 0 controls pins 5 and 6, along with the arduino time-related functions (e.g. delay() and millis()). Timer 1 controls pins 9 and 10. Finally, Timer 2 controls pins 3 and 11. So let's start with Timer 0. I will organize this page by what you might looking to do, so that hopefully you can find "the answer" quickly.

Timer 0 (controls Pins 5 and 6)

"I want to output a specific frequency on Pin 5 only."

Timer 0 is a 8-bit clock, so the counters are limited to 255.

The Code for a Signal on Pin 5 Only

  1. // Just Pin 5:
  2.   pinMode(5, OUTPUT); // output pin for OCR0B, this is Arduino pin number
  3.   TCCR0A = _BV(COM0A1) | _BV(COM0B1) | _BV(WGM01) | _BV(WGM00); // inverting mode, fast PWM
  4.   //uncomment for your desired prescaler:
  5.   TCCR0B = _BV(WGM02)| _BV(CS00); // no prescaling
  6.   //TCCR0B = _BV(WGM02) | _BV(CS01); // prescaler=8
  7.   //TCCR0B = _BV(WGM02) | _BV(CS01) | _BV(CS00); // prescaler=64
  8.   //TCCR0B = _BV(WGM02) | _BV(CS02); // prescaler=256
  9.   //TCCR0B = _BV(WGM02) | _BV(CS02) | _BV(CS00); // prescaler=1024
  10.   OCR0A = 40; // counter limit: 255
  11.   OCR0B = 20; //duty cycle, can't be greater than OCR0A. (OCR0B=0.5*OCR0A for 50% duty cycle)
  12.   //duty cycle =OCR0B/OCR0A
[Get Code]

There are two counters involved in this mode: OCR0A and OCR0B. Setting OCR0A will change the frequency of the output signal. The prescaler value is a multiplier which puts you in a different frequency range. In this mode (inverting, fast PWM), the formula for the output signal is:

output frequency=fclk/((OCR0A+1)*N), where fclk=16000000, and N is the prescaler you selected by un-commenting the appropriate line in the above code (which can just go in your setup loop if you like).

The duty cycle for this signal will be defined by OCR0B, and calculated by the formula: duty cycle=OCR0B/OCR0A. The example code above creates a signal on Pin 5 with a frequency of 390 kHz and a duty cycle of 50%.

Here is a chart of the frequencies you will get (in Hz), spanning the OCR0A range and prescalers you can use: 

 OCR0A	N=1	N=8	N=64	N=256	N=1024
 1	8000000	1000000	125000	31250	7813
 5	2666667	333333	41667	10417	2604
 10	1454545	181818	22727	5682	1420
 20	761905	95238	11905	2976	744
 40	390244	48780	6098	1524	381
 60	262295	32787	4098	1025	256
 80	197531	24691	3086	772	193
 100	158416	19802	2475	619	155
 120	132231	16529	2066	517	129
 140	113475	14184	1773	443	111
 160	99379	12422	1553	388	97
 180	88398	11050	1381	345	86
 200	79602	9950	1244	311	78
 255	62500	7813	977	244	61

You can try generating this chart in Excel with the above formula. You can use any integer between 0-255 for the counter OCROA, I just wanted to make my tables a bit smaller by skipping rows.

"I want to output a specific frequency on Pin 6 only."

The Code for a Signal of Pin 6 only

  1. //Just Pin 6:
  2.   //Formula: frequency=fclk/((OCR0A+1)*2*N)
  3.   pinMode(6,OUTPUT); // duty cycle fixed at 50% in this mode.
  4.   TCCR0A =  _BV(COM0A0) | _BV(WGM01) | _BV(WGM00); // inverting mode, fast PWM
  5.   //uncomment for your desired prescaler:
  6.   TCCR0B = _BV(WGM02)| _BV(CS00); // no prescaling
  7.   //TCCR0B = _BV(WGM02) | _BV(CS01); // prescaler=8
  8.   //TCCR0B = _BV(WGM02) | _BV(CS01) | _BV(CS00); // prescaler=64
  9.   //TCCR0B = _BV(WGM02) | _BV(CS02); // prescaler=256
  10.   //TCCR0B = _BV(WGM02) | _BV(CS02) | _BV(CS00); // prescaler=1024
  11.   OCR0A = 10; // counter limit: 255
[Get Code]

OCR0B is left out of the picture here, and you are limited to a 50% duty cycle in this mode. The formula for frequency is slightly different (by a factor of 2):

output frequency=fclk/((OCR0A+1)*2*N)

The example code above creates a signal on Pin 6 with a frequency of 727 kHz and a duty cycle of 50%.

Here is a nice chart spanning the range of OCR0A and prescaler values: 

 OCR0A	N=1	N=8	N=64	N=256	N=1024
 1	4000000	500000	62500	15625	3906
 5	1333333	166667	20833	5208	1302
 10	727273	90909	11364	2841	710
 20	380952	47619	5952	1488	372
 40	195122	24390	3049	762	191
 60	131148	16393	2049	512	128
 80	98765	12346	1543	386	96
 100	79208	9901	1238	309	77
 120	66116	8264	1033	258	65
 140	56738	7092	887	222	55
 160	49689	6211	776	194	49
 180	44199	5525	691	173	43
 200	39801	4975	622	155	39
 255	31250	3906	488	122	31

So far, so good? How about if you'd like to output a signal on both Pins 5 and Pin 6 at the same time?

"I want to output a signal on both Pins 5 and 6."

So you can also create a signal on both pins; however, in the modes I've tried, you can't make them have distinct (different) frequencies. They will have the same frequency, which is (less) tweakable. You can however assign them different duty cycles, which is nice.

The Code for a Signal on Pins 5 and 6

  1. //Both Pins 5 and 6: In this mode, timer 0 always counts to 255.
  2.  //Formula: wave frequency=fclk/(256*N) - this formula is more limited with respect to frequency
  3.   pinMode(5, OUTPUT);
  4.   pinMode(6,OUTPUT);
  5.   TCCR0A = _BV(COM0A1) | _BV(COM0A0) | _BV(COM0B1) |_BV(COM0B0) | _BV(WGM01) | _BV(WGM00); // inverting mode, fast PWM
  6.   //uncomment for your desired prescaler:
  7.   TCCR0B = _BV(CS00); // no prescaling (62.5 kHz)
  8.   //TCCR0B = _BV(CS01); // prescaler=8 (7.8 kHz)
  9.   //TCCR0B = _BV(CS01) | _BV(CS00); // prescaler=64 (976 Hz)
  10.   //TCCR0B = _BV(CS02); // prescaler=256 (244 Hz)
  11.   //TCCR0B = _BV(CS02) | _BV(CS00); // prescaler=1024 (61 Hz)
  12.   OCR0A = 50; // duty cycle for pin 6 is (255-OCR0A)/255. 128 is a 50% duty cycle.
  13.   OCR0B = 128; //duty cycle for pin 5 is (255-OCR0B)/255. 128 is a 50% duty cycle.
[Get Code]

The formula for the output frequency is now only dependent on the prescaler you select, since the counter will run out to the end of its cycle. The frequencies you have at your disposal then are governed by the formula fclk/(256*N), giving rise to the following options: 

 N=1	N=8	N=64	N=256	N=1024	
 62500	7813	977	244	61	Hz

The duty cycle for pin 6 is adjusted by changing OCR0A to a number between 0-255. For a duty cycle of 50%, select 128. The formula for the duty cycle is (255-OCR2A)/255, so a duty cycle of 25% would need an OCR2A value of 191. Pin 5's duty cycle can be adjusted independently using OCR0B, using the same formula as A. How great is that?!

The example code above creates a signal on Pin 5 with a frequency of 62.5 kHz and a duty cycle of 80%, and a signal on Pin 6 with the same frequency (62.5 kHz) and a duty cycle of 50%.

Timer 1 (controls Pins 9 and 10)

"I want to output a specific frequency on Pin 10 only."

Timer 1 is a 16 bit clock, so there is a bit more flexibility here (largest counter value is now 65535). The code for Pin 10 bears resemblance to that of Pin 5 only above, so I'm putting these code snippets in the same order.

The Code for a Signal on Pin 10 only

  1. // Just Pin 10:
  2.   //Formula: wave frequency=fclk/((OCR1A+1)*N)
  3.   pinMode(10, OUTPUT); // output pin for OCR1B, this is Arduino pin number
  4.   TCCR1A = _BV(COM1A1) | _BV(COM1B1) | _BV(WGM11) | _BV(WGM10); // fast PWM, 10bit resolution
  5.   //uncomment for your desired prescaler:
  6.   TCCR1B = _BV(WGM13) | _BV(WGM12) | _BV(CS10); // no prescaling
  7.   //TCCR1B = _BV(WGM13) | _BV(WGM12) | _BV(CS11); // prescaler=8
  8.   //TCCR1B = _BV(WGM13) | _BV(WGM12) | _BV(CS11) | _BV(CS10); // prescaler=64
  9.   //TCCR1B = _BV(WGM13) | _BV(WGM12) | _BV(CS12); // prescaler=256
  10.   //TCCR1B = _BV(WGM13) | _BV(WGM12) | _BV(CS12) | _BV(CS10); // prescaler=1024
  11. OCR1A = 40; // counter limit: 65535
  12. OCR1B = 10; //duty cycle, can't be greater than OCR1A. (OCR1B=0.5*OCR1A for 50% duty cycle)
  13. //duty cycle =OCR1B/OCR1A
[Get Code]

Like before, setting OCR1A will change the frequency of the output signal. The formula for the output signal is: output frequency=fclk/((OCR1A+1)*N), where fclk=16000000, and N is the prescaler you selected by uncommenting the appropriate line above. The duty cycle is calculated using the formula: duty cycle = OCR1B/OCR1A (use half of 0CR1A for a 50% duty cycle)

The example code above creates a signal on Pin 10 with a frequency of 390.2 kHz and a duty cycle of 25%.

Here is a chart of the frequencies you will get, spanning the OCR1A range and prescalers you can use: 

 OCR1A	N=1		N=8		N=64		N=256		N=1024
 1	8000000.0	1000000.0	125000.0	31250.0		7812.5
 10	1454545.5	181818.2	22727.3		5681.8		1420.5
 50	313725.5	39215.7		4902.0		1225.5		306.4
 100	158415.8	19802.0		2475.2		618.8		154.7
 500	31936.1		3992.0		499.0		124.8		31.2
 1000	15984.0		1998.0		249.8		62.4		15.6
 5000	3199.4		399.9		50.0		12.5		3.1
 10000	1599.8		200.0		25.0		6.2		1.6
 50000	320.0		40.0		5.0		1.2		0.3
 65535	244.1		30.5		3.8		1.0		0.2

"I want to output a specific frequency on Pin 9 only."

The Code for a Signal on Pin 9 Only

  1. //Just Pin 9:
  2.   //Formula: wave frequency=fclk/((OCR1A+1)*2*N)
  3.   pinMode(9, OUTPUT); // duty cycle fixed at 50% in this mode.
  4.   TCCR1A = _BV(COM1A0) | _BV(WGM11) | _BV(WGM10); // fast PWM, 10bit resolution
  5.   //uncomment for your desired prescaler:
  6.   TCCR1B = _BV(WGM13) | _BV(WGM12) | _BV(CS10); // no prescaling
  7.   //TCCR1B = _BV(WGM13) | _BV(WGM12) | _BV(CS11); // prescaler=8
  8.   //TCCR1B = _BV(WGM13) | _BV(WGM12) | _BV(CS11) | _BV(CS10); // prescaler=64
  9.   //TCCR1B = _BV(WGM13) | _BV(WGM12) | _BV(CS12); // prescaler=256
  10.   //TCCR1B = _BV(WGM13) | _BV(WGM12) | _BV(CS12) | _BV(CS10); // prescaler=1024
  11. OCR1A = 40; // counter limit: 65535
  12. //duty cycle=50%
[Get Code]

Like with Pin 6, OCR1B is left out of the picture here, and you are limited to a 50% duty cycle in this mode. As with Pin 6, the formula is:

output frequency=fclk/((OCR1A+1)*2*N)

The example code above creates a signal on Pin 9 with a frequency of 195.1 kHz and a duty cycle of 50%.

Here is a chart spanning the range of OCR1A and prescaler values: 

 OCR1A	N=1		N=8		N=64	N=256	N=1024
 1	4000000.0	500000.0	62500.0	15625.0	3906.3
 10	727272.7	90909.1		11363.6	2840.9	710.2
 50	156862.7	19607.8		2451.0	612.7	153.2
 100	79207.9		9901.0		1237.6	309.4	77.4
 500	15968.1		1996.0		249.5	62.4	15.6
 1000	7992.0		999.0		124.9	31.2	7.8
 5000	1599.7		200.0		25.0	6.2	1.6
 10000	799.9		100.0		12.5	3.1	0.8
 50000	160.0		20.0		2.5	0.6	0.2
 65535	122.1		15.3		1.9	0.5	0.1

"I want to ouput a signal on both Pins 9 and 10."

Again, the frequencies are limited with the mode I played with (modulated only by changing the prescaler value). However, you can set the duty cycles of 9 and 10 individually.

The Code for Signals on Both Pins 9 and 10

  1. // Both Pin 9 and Pin 10:
  2.   //Formula: wave frequency=fclk/(N*1024)
  3.   pinMode(9, OUTPUT); // output pin for OCR1A, this is Arduino pin number
  4.   pinMode(10, OUTPUT); // output pin for OCR1B, this is Arduino pin number
  5.   TCCR1A = _BV(COM1A1) | _BV(COM1B1) | _BV(WGM11) | _BV(WGM10); // fast PWM, 10bit resolution
  6.   //uncomment for your desired prescaler:
  7.   TCCR1B = _BV(WGM12) | _BV(CS10); // no prescaling (freq=15625 Hz)
  8.   //TCCR1B = _BV(WGM12) | _BV(CS11); // prescaler=8 (freq=1953 Hz)
  9.   //TCCR1B = _BV(WGM12) | _BV(CS11) | _BV(CS10); // prescaler=64 (freq=244 Hz)
  10.   //TCCR1B = _BV(WGM12) | _BV(CS12) | _BV(CS11) | _BV(CS10); // prescaler=256 (freq=61 Hz)
  11.   //TCCR1B = _BV(WGM12) | _BV(CS12) | _BV(CS10); // prescaler=1024 (freq=15 Hz)
  12.   OCR1A = 512; // counter limit: 1024 (duty cycle pin9 =OCR1A/1024, 50% duty cycle=512)
  13.   OCR1B = 102; // counter limit: 1024 (duty cycle pin10 =OCR1B/1024, 50% duty cycle=512)
[Get Code]

The formula for the resulting frequency on both Pins 9 and 10 is: output frequency = fclk/(1024*N). Frequency depends only on the prescaler value, giving rise to the following options: 

 N=1	N=8	N=64	N=256	N=1024	
 15625	1953	244	61	15	Hz

The duty cycle for pin 9 is adjusted by changing OCR1A to a number between 0-1024. For a duty cycle of 50%, select 512. The formula for the duty cycle is (OCR1A)/1024, so a duty cycle of 25% would need an OCR1A value of 256. Pin 10's duty cycle can be adjusted independently using OCR1B, using the same formula as A.

The example code above creates a signal on Pin 9 with a frequency of 15.6 kHz and a duty cycle of 50%, and a signal on Pin 10 with the same frequency (15.6 kHz) and a duty cycle of about 10%.

Timer 2 (controls Pins 3 and 11)

"I want to output a specific frequency on Pin 3 only."

Timer 2 is a lot like Timer 0 (it's also an 8 bit clock and the registers are structured very similarly). One important distinction is that the options for the prescaler values are a little different. Also, changing Timer 2 doesn't mess up the arduino time functions.

The Code for a Signal on Pin 3 Only

  1. //Just Pin 3:
  2. pinMode(3, OUTPUT); // output pin for OCR2B, this is Arduino pin number
  3. TCCR2A = _BV(COM2A1) | _BV(COM2B1) | _BV(WGM21) | _BV(WGM20); // inverting mode, fast PWM
  4. //uncomment for your desired prescaler:
  5. TCCR2B = _BV(WGM22) | _BV(CS20); // no prescaling
  6. //TCCR2B = _BV(WGM22) | _BV(CS21); // prescaler=8
  7. //TCCR2B = _BV(WGM22) | _BV(CS21)| _BV(CS20); // prescaler=32
  8. //TCCR2B = _BV(WGM22) | _BV(CS22); // prescaler=64
  9. OCR2A = 40; // counter limit: 255
  10. OCR2B = 20; //duty cycle, can't be greater than OCR2A. (OCR2B=0.5*OCR2A for 50% duty cycle)
  11. //duty cycle =OCR2B/OCR2A
[Get Code]

You can see that this is almost identical to the code for Pin 5 only, but with the Timer2 register names, and the prescaler options are different. The formula for the signal frequency is: output frequency=fclk/((OCR2A+1)*N). The duty cycle is set by the ratio of OCR2B/OCR2A.

The example code above creates a signal on Pin 3 with a frequency of 390.2 kHz and a duty cycle of 50%.

Here is a table spanning practical values of OCR2A and prescalers: 

 OCR2A	N=1	N=8	N=32	N=64
 1	8000000	1000000	250000	125000
 5	2666667	333333	83333	41667
 10	1454545	181818	45455	22727
 20	761905	95238	23810	11905
 40	390244	48780	12195	6098
 60	262295	32787	8197	4098
 80	197531	24691	6173	3086
 100	158416	19802	4950	2475
 120	132231	16529	4132	2066
 140	113475	14184	3546	1773
 160	99379	12422	3106	1553
 180	88398	11050	2762	1381
 200	79602	9950	2488	1244
 255	62500	7813	1953	977

"I want to output a specific frequency on Pin 11 only."

The Code for a Signal on Pin 11 Only

  1. //Just Pin 11:
  2.   //Formula: frequency=fclk/((OCR2A+1)*2*N)
  3.   pinMode(11,OUTPUT); // duty cycle fixed at 50% in this mode.
  4.   TCCR2A =  _BV(COM2A0) | _BV(WGM21) | _BV(WGM20); // inverting mode, fast PWM
  5.   //uncomment for your desired prescaler:
  6.   TCCR2B = _BV(WGM22) | _BV(CS20); // no prescaling
  7.   //TCCR2B = _BV(WGM22) | _BV(CS21); // prescaler=8
  8.   //TCCR2B = _BV(WGM22) | _BV(CS21)| _BV(CS20); // prescaler=32
  9.   //TCCR2B = _BV(WGM22) | _BV(CS22); // prescaler=64
  10.   OCR2A = 10; // counter limit: 255
[Get Code]

Again, this mode is limited to a 50% duty cycle, and the output frequency is governed by the formula: fclk/((OCR2A+1)*2*N).

The example code above creates a signal on Pin 11 with a frequency of 727.2 kHz and a duty cycle of 50%.

Here is a table of output frequencies spanning the ranges of OCR2A and prescaler values: 

 OCR2A	N=1	N=8	N=32	N=64
 1	4000000	500000	125000	62500
 5	1333333	166667	41667	20833
 10	727273	90909	22727	11364
 20	380952	47619	11905	5952
 40	195122	24390	6098	3049
 60	131148	16393	4098	2049
 80	98765	12346	3086	1543
 100	79208	9901	2475	1238
 120	66116	8264	2066	1033
 140	56738	7092	1773	887
 160	49689	6211	1553	776
 180	44199	5525	1381	691
 200	39801	4975	1244	622
 255	31250	3906	977	488

"I want to ouput signals on both Pins 3 and 11."

Once again (assuming you have skipped down to this part and not read the above cases), the frequencies in this mode can only be changed by selecting the prescaler value, and once set, Pins 3 and 11 will have the exact same frequencies. However, you can set the duty cycles of pins 3 and 11 individually in this mode.

The Code for Signals on Both Pins 3 and 11

  1. //Both Pin 3 and Pin 11:
  2. //Formula: wave frequency=fclk/(256*N) - this formula is more limited with respect to frequency
  3.   pinMode(3, OUTPUT);
  4.   pinMode(11,OUTPUT);
  5.   TCCR2A = _BV(COM2A1) | _BV(COM2A0) | _BV(COM2B1) |_BV(COM2B0) | _BV(WGM21) | _BV(WGM20); // inverting mode, fast PWM
  6.   //uncomment for your desired prescaler:
  7.   TCCR2B = _BV(CS20); // no prescaling (62.5 kHz)
  8.   //TCCR2B = _BV(CS21); // prescaler=8 (7.8 kHz)
  9.   //TCCR2B = _BV(CS21)| _BV(CS20); // prescaler=32 (1.953 kHz)
  10.   //TCCR2B = _BV(CS22); // prescaler=64 (976.6 Hz)
  11.   OCR2A = 26; // duty cycle for pin 11 is (255-OCR2A)/255. 128 is a 50% duty cycle.
  12.   OCR2B = 128; //duty cycle for pin 3 is (255-OCR2B)/255. 128 is a 50% duty cycle.
[Get Code]

The formula for the frequency of the signal output by both Pins 3 and 11 is: output frequency=fclk/(256*N). This gives rise to the last table (yay!): 

 N=1	N=8	N=32	N=64	
 62500	7813	1953	977	Hz

OCR2A and OCR2B are separately used to define the duty cycles of Pins 11 and 3, respectively, using the formula: duty cycle=(255-OCR2A)/255 for Pin 11, and duty cycle=(255-OCR2B)/255 for pin 3.

The example code above creates a signal on Pin 11 with a frequency of 62.5 kHz and a duty cycle of 90%, and a signal on Pin 3 with the same frequency (62.5 kHz) and a duty cycle of 50%.

So there you have it! You need to make a square wave with a specific frequency? I hope this page saves you some time.

References that Helped Me:

https://withinspecifications.30ohm.com/2014/02/20/Fast-PWM-on-AtMega328/ https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/SecretsOfArduinoPWM https://playground.arduino.cc/Main/TimerPWMCheatsheet https://www.eprojectszone.com/how-to-modify-the-pwm-frequency-on-the-arduino-part1/

The ATmega328p datasheet from Atmel: https://www.atmel.com/Images/Atmel-42735-8-bit-AVR-Microcontroller-ATmega328-328P_datasheet.pdf