Arguments for analogWrite()

Using Arduino Programming Questions
1

What would happen if my code were to produce an argument for analogWrite() with a negative integer for the duty cycle? Suppose the duty cycle started off as 255 and then decreased rapidly but smoothly down to 0 and then went negative? What would happen?

2

What happened when you tried?

You can always check the value prior to using it, then limit it to 0 or 255.

Also use type 'byte' 0-255
.

3

Well if you look at the source files, you get:

void analogWrite(uint8_t pin, int val)

So 'val' can be -32768 to 32767
It also does not check to see if 'val' is between 0 and 255
However, it sets OCR_ _ registers to 'val' and the OCR_ _ registers are only 8 bits. So my bet is that setting them to any number out of range of 0-255 will result in truncation. For example, if you entered 256 as val, then that is

0000 0001 0000 0000
XXXX XXXX 0000 0000 = 0

and it would truncate the rightmost 8 bits off and the OCR_ _ register would get 0. Same thing with negative numbers.

4

analogWrite(value) takes 0 to 255, 8 bits. 0x00 to 0xff.
How would you send it a negative #?

I think if you used a signed int, the upper 8 bits get tossed, and what you think of -1, 0xffff, would instead be treated as 255, 0xff.

5

so my bet is that setting them to any number out of range of 0-255 will result in truncation

No, they wrap.

void setup() {

 Serial.begin(115200);
 
 analogWrite(9,-10);
 Serial.println(OCR1A);
 
 analogWrite(9,260);
 Serial.println(OCR1A);
}

void loop() {}
6

But...thats exactly what truncation is...

-10 is 11110110 in binary 2s complement, if you treat it as unsigned, you get 246
260 is 1 00000100 in binary, if you truncate the higher bits, you get get 4
Wrapping / Truncation are the same

7

cattledog:
No, they wrap.

Thanks to the magic of twos-complement artithmetic.

8

I was hoping that wouldn't be the case. I cannot afford a valid entry being registered by the analogWrite command when the entry is not the intended one.

Is there perhaps a recommended strategy for keeping all values greater than 255 stuck to 255 and values less than 0 stuck to 0?

9

Just test the value before you stick it in analogWrite() Answer given in reply #1 by Larry D

if(value >255)
value = 255;

if (value<0)
value = 0;
10

Sure I can do that. I figured there might be a more elegant way of it but if not, this is short and simple enough I guess.

11

You can use constrain() but there's no magic there. It basically does the same thing as cattledog's code.

From Arduino/Arduino.h at 5102ed46ee75be65c4fc9fc676a51d4f4c9ada2f · arduino/Arduino · GitHub

#define constrain(amt,low,high) ((amt)<(low)?(low):((amt)>(high)?(high):(amt)))
12

Brilliant. That's the rabbit I was hoping someone would pull from their hat.