UHD - X3x0 GPIO API
Table of Contents
The X3x0 Front Panel GPIO
The X3x0 is the first USRP device to offer an auxiliary GPIO connection on the motherboard itself (independent of the daughterboards). These GPIO pins are controlled directly by the FPGA, where they are controlled by an ATR (Automatic Transmit / Receive). This allows them to be toggled simultaneously with other radio-level changes (e.g., enabling or disabling a TX or RX mixer).
Front Panel GPIO
Connector
Pin Mapping
- Pin 1: +3.3V
- Pin 2: Data[0]
- Pin 3: Data[1]
- Pin 4: Data[2]
- Pin 5: Data[3]
- Pin 6: Data[4]
- Pin 7: Data[5]
- Pin 8: Data[6]
- Pin 9: Data[7]
- Pin 10: Data[8]
- Pin 11: Data[9]
- Pin 12: Data[10]
- Pin 13: Data[11]
- Pin 14: 0V
- Pin 15: 0V
Explaining ATR
ATR works by defining the value of the GPIO pins for certain states of the radio. This is the "automatic" part of it. For example, you can tell UHD that when the radio is transmitting and receiving (full duplex), GPIO6 should be high, but when it is only transmitting, GPI06 should be low. This state machine is set up using a series of GPIO attributes, with paired values and a mask, which you will want to define for the GPIO pins you intend to use. To set up the ATR, you use the multi_usrp function set_gpio_attr.
- CTRL: Is this pin controlled by ATR (automatic), or by manual control only?
- DDR: "Data Direction Register" - defines whether or not a GPIO is an output or an input.
- OUT: Manually set the value of a pin (only to be used in non-ATR mode).
- ATR_0X: The status of the pins when the radio is idle.
- ATR_RX: The status of the pins when the radio is only receiving.
- ATR_TX: The status of the pins when the radio is only transmitting.
- ATR_XX: The status of the pins when the radio is in full-duplex mode.
The counterpart to setting the ATR (the "getter"), is called get_gpio_attr. It has the exact same attributes as above, and has one more:
- READBACK: Readback the GPIOs marked as inputs.
An Example
The front panel X3x0 GPIO bank is enumerated in the motherboard property tree ("<mb_path>/gpio/FP0/"), and so is easily accessible through the standard multi_usrp UHD interface.
You can discover this using the get_gpio_banks function in multi_usrp. This will tell you that there is a GPIO bank on your X3x0 called "FP0". This is the bank we want to set-up.
Let's say we want to use GPIO6 for an external amp. We want it to be automatically controlled by ATR as an output, and we want it to be high when we are transmitting, and low in all other cases. We are also using GPIO4, which we want to control manually, as an output. We can set this up with the following code:
// set up our masks, defining the pin numbers
#define AMP_GPIO_MASK (1 << 6)
#define MAN_GPIO_MASK (1 << 4)
#define ATR_MASKS (AMP_GPIO_MASK | MAN_GPIO_MASK)
// set up our values for ATR control: 1 for ATR, 0 for manual
#define ATR_CONTROL (AMP_GPIO_MASK & ~MAN_GPIO_MASK)
// set up the GPIO directions: 1 for output, 0 for input
#define GPIO_DDR (AMP_GPIO_MASK & ~MAN_GPIO_MASK)
// assume an existing USRP device handle, called "usrp_x300"
// now, let's do the basic ATR setup
usrp_x300->set_gpio_attr("FP0", "CTRL", ATR_CONTROL, ATR_MASKS);
usrp_x300->set_gpio_attr("FP0", "DDR", GPIO_DDR, ATR_MASKS);
// let's manually set GPIO4 high
usrp_x300->set_gpio_attr("FP0", "OUT", 1, MAN_GPIO_MASK);
// finally, let's set up GPIO6 as we described above
usrp_x300->set_gpio_attr("FP0", "ATR_0X", 0, AMP_GPIO_MASK);
usrp_x300->set_gpio_attr("FP0", "ATR_RX", 0, AMP_GPIO_MASK);
usrp_x300->set_gpio_attr("FP0", "ATR_TX", 0, AMP_GPIO_MASK);
usrp_x300->set_gpio_attr("FP0", "ATR_XX", 0, AMP_GPIO_MASK);
After the above code is run, the ATR in the FPGA will automatically control GPIO6, as we have described, based on the radio state, and we have direct manual control over GPIO4.