PWM Pulse with Modulation

PWM Pulse with Modulation

         PWM is a way of digitally encoding analog signal levels. Through the use of high-resolution counters, the duty cycle of a square wave is modulated to encode a specific analog signal level. The PWM signal is still digital because, at any given instant of time, the full DC supply is either fully on or fully off. The voltage or current source is supplied to the analog load by means of a repeating series of on and off pulses. The on-time is the time during which the DC supply is applied to the load, and the off-time is the period during which that supply is switched off. Given a sufficient bandwidth, any analog value can be encoded with PWM.

Figure 1 shows three different PWM signals. Figure 1a shows a PWM output at a 10% duty cycle. That is, the signal is on for 10% of the period and off the other 90%. Figures 1b and 1c show PWM outputs at 50% and 90% duty cycles, respectively. These three PWM outputs encode three different analog signal values, at 10%, 50%, and 90% of the full strength. If, for example, the supply is 9V and the duty cycle is 10%, a 0.9V analog signal results. 

Fading LED

This example demonstrates the use of the analogWrite() function in fading an LED off. AnalogWrite uses pulse width modulation (PWM), turning a digital pin on and off very quickly with different ratios between on and off, to create a fading effect.
Components Required

You will need the following components −
    1 × Breadboard
    1 × Arduino Uno R3
    1 × LED
    1 × 330Ω Resistor
    2 × Jumper

Procedure
Follow the circuit diagram and hook up the components on the breadboard as shown in the above image.

Sketch

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/*
   Fade
   This example shows how to fade an LED on pin 9 using the analogWrite() function.

   The analogWrite() function uses PWM, so if you want to change the pin you're using, be
   sure to use another PWM capable pin. On most Arduino, the PWM pins are identified with
   a "~" sign, like ~3, ~5, ~6, ~9, ~10 and ~11.
*/

int led = 9; // the PWM pin the LED is attached to
int brightness = 0; // how bright the LED is
int fadeAmount = 5; // how many points to fade the LED by
// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:

void setup() {
   // declare pin 9 to be an output:
   pinMode(led, OUTPUT);
}

// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:

void loop() {
   // set the brightness of pin 9:
   analogWrite(led, brightness);
   // change the brightness for next time through the loop:
   brightness = brightness + fadeAmount;
   // reverse the direction of the fading at the ends of the fade:
   if (brightness == 0 || brightness == 255) {
      fadeAmount = -fadeAmount ;
   }
   // wait for 30 milliseconds to see the dimming effect
   delay(300);
}

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Code to Note

After declaring pin 9 as your LED pin, there is nothing to do in the setup() function of your code. The analogWrite() function that you will be using in the main loop of your code requires two arguments: One, telling the function which pin to write to and the other indicating what PWM value to write.

In order to fade the LED off and on, gradually increase the PWM values from 0 (all the way off) to 255 (all the way on), and then back to 0, to complete the cycle. In the sketch given above, the PWM value is set using a variable called brightness. Each time through the loop, it increases by the value of the variable fadeAmount.

If brightness is at either extreme of its value (either 0 or 255), then fadeAmount is changed to its negative. In other words, if fadeAmount is 5, then it is set to -5. If it is -5, then it is set to 5. The next time through the loop, this change causes brightness to change direction as well.

analogWrite() can change the PWM value very fast, so the delay at the end of the sketch controls the speed of the fade. Try changing the value of the delay and see how it changes the fading effect.
Result

You should see your LED brightness change gradually.