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ATmega165A/PA/325A/PA/3250A/PA/645A/P/6450A/P [DATASHEET]
8285E–AVR–02/2013
a conversion completes before ADCH is read, neither register is updated and the result from the conversion is lost.
When ADCH is read, ADC access to the ADCH and ADCL Registers is re-enabled.
The ADC has its own interrupt which can be triggered when a conversion completes. When ADC access to the
Data Registers is prohibited between reading of ADCH and ADCL, the interrupt will trigger even if the result is lost.
23.4
Starting a Conversion
A single conversion is started by writing a logical one to the ADC Start Conversion bit, ADSC. This bit stays high as
long as the conversion is in progress and will be cleared by hardware when the conversion is completed. If a differ-
ent data channel is selected while a conversion is in progress, the ADC will finish the current conversion before
performing the channel change.
Alternatively, a conversion can be triggered automatically by various sources. Auto Triggering is enabled by setting
the ADC Auto Trigger Enable bit, ADATE in ADCSRA. The trigger source is selected by setting the ADC Trigger
Select bits, ADTS in ADCSRB (See description of the ADTS bits for a list of the trigger sources). When a positive
edge occurs on the selected trigger signal, the ADC prescaler is reset and a conversion is started. This provides a
method of starting conversions at fixed intervals. If the trigger signal still is set when the conversion completes, a
new conversion will not be started. If another positive edge occurs on the trigger signal during conversion, the edge
will be ignored. Note that an Interrupt Flag will be set even if the specific interrupt is disabled or the Global Interrupt
Enable bit in SREG is cleared. A conversion can thus be triggered without causing an interrupt. However, the Inter-
rupt Flag must be cleared in order to trigger a new conversion at the next interrupt event.
Figure 23-2. ADC Auto Trigger Logic
Using the ADC Interrupt Flag as a trigger source makes the ADC start a new conversion as soon as the ongoing
conversion has finished. The ADC then operates in Free Running mode, constantly sampling and updating the
ADC Data Register. The first conversion must be started by writing a logical one to the ADSC bit in ADCSRA. In
this mode the ADC will perform successive conversions independently of whether the ADC Interrupt Flag, ADIF is
cleared or not.
If Auto Triggering is enabled, single conversions can be started by writing ADSC in ADCSRA to one. ADSC can
also be used to determine if a conversion is in progress. The ADSC bit will be read as one during a conversion,
independently of how the conversion was started.
ADSC
ADIF
SOURCE 1
SOURCE n
ADTS[2:0]
CONVERSION
LOGIC
PRESCALER
START
CLK
ADC
.
EDGE
DETECTOR
ADATE