ARM Embedded Tutorial - Raspberry Pi Pico Scanning for I2C Devices

Introduction

The I2C Protocol allows us in theory to connect and control more than 100 devices with a single pair of wires.

To be able to do so every device has an on-board 7-bit ID that often can be changed between several numbers to allow more than one instance of a device to be connected to the bus.

This small program allows us to scan the bus for all connected devices and it outputs the result in a little table.

Load the project into Lazarus

Please open the project i2c/i2c_scan-raspi_pico.lpi in Lazarus

program i2c_scan;
{$MODE OBJFPC}
{$H+}
{$MEMORY 10000,10000}

uses
  pico_gpio_c,
  pico_uart_c,
  pico_i2c_c,
  pico_timer_c,
  pico_c;

const
  BAUD_RATE=115200;
var
  addr : byte;
  ret : longInt;
  rxData : array[0..0] of byte;
  tmpStr : String;
begin
  gpio_init(TPicoPin.LED);
  gpio_set_dir(TPicoPin.LED,TGPIODirection.GPIO_OUT);

  uart_init(uart0, BAUD_RATE);
  gpio_set_function(TPicoPin.GP0_UART0_TX, GPIO_FUNC_UART);
  gpio_set_function(TPicoPin.GP1_UART0_RX, GPIO_FUNC_UART);

  i2c_init(i2c0Inst, 100000);
  gpio_set_function(TPicoPin.GP4_I2C0_SDA, GPIO_FUNC_I2C);
  gpio_set_function(TPicoPin.GP5_I2C0_SCL, GPIO_FUNC_I2C);
  gpio_pull_up(TPicoPin.GP4_I2C0_SDA);
  gpio_pull_up(TPicoPin.GP5_I2C0_SCL);

  repeat
    uart_puts(uart0,'I2C Bus Scan'+#13#10);
    uart_puts(uart0,'     0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  A  B  C  D  E  F'+#13#10);

    for addr := 0 to 127 do
    begin
      if (addr mod 16) = 0 then
      begin
        str(addr div 16,tmpStr);
        uart_puts(uart0,'$'+tmpStr+'0 ');
      end;
      ret := i2c_read_blocking(i2c0Inst, addr, rxdata, 1, false);
      if ret < 0 then
        uart_puts(uart0,' . ')
      else
        uart_puts(uart0,' X ');
      if addr mod 16 = 15 then
        uart_puts(uart0,#13#10);
    end;
    uart_puts(uart0,#13#10);
    busy_wait_us_32(2000000);
  until 1=0;
end.

What is important for the I2C bus is that it is always terminated to +3.3V. For this reason we enable pull-up's for both of the I2C Pins we use:

gpio_pull_up(TPicoPin.GP4_I2C0_SDA);
gpio_pull_up(TPicoPin.GP5_I2C0_SCL);

Without the pull up's the code does not work!

See also

• ARM Embedded Raspberry Pi Pico Tutorials