Interrupts in Arduino

Now we will see how to use interrupts in Arduino Board. It has two types of interrupts:

 External Interrupt

 Pin Change Interrupt

External Interrupt:

These interrupt are interpreted by hardware and are very fast. These interrupts can be set to trigger on
the event of RISING or FALLING or LOW levels.

Arduino Board External Interrupt pins:

UNO , NANO 2,3

Mega 2,3,18,19,20,21

Pin Change Interrupts:

Arduinos can have more interrupt pins enabled by using pin change interrupts. In ATmega168/328
based Arduino boards any pins or all the 20 signal pins can be used as interrupt pins. They can also be
triggered using RISING or FALLING edges.

Using Interrupts in Arduino

In order to use interrupts in Arduino the following concepts are need to be understood.

Interrupt Service Routine (ISR)

Interrupt Service Routine or an Interrupt handler is an event that has small set of instructions in it. When
an external interrupt occurs, the processor first executes these code that is present in ISR and returns
back to state where it left the normal execution.

ISR has following syntax in Arduino:

attachInterrupt(digitalPinToInterrupt(pin), ISR, mode);

digitalPinToInterrupt(pin): In Arduino Uno, NANO the pins used for interrupt are 2,3 & in mega
2,3,18,19,20,21. Specify the input pin that is used for external interrupt here.

ISR: It is a function that is called when an external interrupt is done.

 RISING: To trigger an interrupt when the pin transits from LOW to HIGH.

 FALLING: To trigger an interrupt when the pin transits from HIGH to LOW.

 CHANGE: To trigger an interrupt when the pin transits from LOW to HIGH or HIGH to LOW (i.e.,
when the pin state changes ).

Some Conditions while using Interrupt

 Interrupt Service Routine function (ISR) must be as short as possible.

 Delay () function doesn’t work inside ISR and should be avoided.

In this Arduino Interrupt tutorial, a number is incremented from 0 and two push buttons are used to
trigger Interrupt, each one is connected to D2 & D3. A LED is used to indicate the Interrupt. If one push
button is pressed the led goes ON and display shows interrupt2 and goes off, and when another push
button is pressed the led goes OFF and the display shows interrupt1 and goes off.

Components Required

 Arduino Board (In this tutorial Arduino NANO is used)

 Push button - 2

 LED - 1

 Resistor (10K) - 2

 LCD (16x2) - 1

 Bread Board

 Connecting Wires

Circuit Diagram
Circuit Connection between Arduino Nano and 16x2 LCD display:

LCD Arduino Nano

VSS GND

VDD +5V

To Potentiometer Centre PIN

RS D7

RW GND

E D8

D4 D9

D5 D10

D6 D11

D7 D12

A +5V

K GND

Two push buttons are connected to Arduino Nano at pin D2 & D3. They are used for using two external
interrupts, one for turning LED ON and another for turning OFF a LED. Each push button has a pull down
resistor of 10k connected to ground. So when push button is pressed it is logic HIGH (1) and when not
pressed it is logic LOW (0). A Pull down resistor is compulsory otherwise there will be floating values at
the input pin D2 & D3.

A LED is also used to indicate that a Interrupt has been triggered or a button has been pressed.

Arduino Interrupt Programming

In this tutorial a number is incremented from 0 which displays continuously in (16x2) LCD connected to
the Arduino Nano, whenever the left push button (interrupt pin D3) is pressed the LED goes ON and
display shows Interrupt2, and when the right push button (interrupt pin D2) is pressed the LED goes OFF
and display shows Interrupt1.

Complete Code with a working video is given at the end of this tutorial.
1. First the header file for the LCD display is included and then the LCD pins that are used in connecting
with the Arduino Nano are defined.

#include<LiquidCrystal.h>

LiquidCrystal lcd (7,8,9,10,11,12); // Define LCD display pins RS, E, D4, D5, D6, D7

2. Inside the void setup () function, first display some intro message on LCD display. Learn more
about interfacing LCD with Arduino here.

lcd.begin(16,2);

lcd.setCursor(0,0);

lcd.print("CIRCUIT DIGEST");

lcd.setCursor(0,1);

lcd.print("ArduinoInterrupt");

delay(3000);

lcd.clear();

3. Then in same void setup () function the input and output pins must be specified. The pin D13 is
connected to LED’s Anode, so this pin must be defined as output.

pinMode(13,OUTPUT);

4. Now the main important part in the programing comes that is attachInterrupt() function, it is also
included inside the void setup().

attachInterrupt(digitalPinToInterrupt(2),buttonPressed1,RISING);

attachInterrupt(digitalPinToInterrupt(3),buttonPressed2,RISING);

Here it is specified that pin 2 is for external interrupt, and buttonPressed1 function is called when there
is RISING (LOW to HIGH) at D2 pin. And pin 3 is also for external interrupt and buttonPressed2 function
is called when there is RISING at D3 pin.

5. Inside the void loop(), a number (i) is incremented from zero and printed on LCD(16x2).

lcd.clear();

lcd.print("COUNTER:");
lcd.print(i);

++i;

delay(1000);

In same void loop(), digitalWrite() is used on the pin D13 where LED’s anode is connected. Depending
upon the value in variable output LED will turn on or off

digitalWrite(13,output);

6. The most important part is creating a interrupt handler function according to the name that is used in
the attachInterrupt() function.

As two interrupt pins are used 2 and 3 so two ISR are required. Here in this programming following ISR
are used

buttonPressed1():

void buttonPressed1()

output = LOW;

lcd.setCursor(0,1);

lcd.print("Interrupt 1");

This function executes when push button on the pin D2 is pressed (RISING EDGE). This function changes
the state of the output to LOW causing LED to turn OFF and prints the “interrupt1” on the LCD display.

buttonPressed2():

void buttonPressed2()

output = HIGH;

lcd.setCursor(0,1);

lcd.print("Interrupt2");
}

This function executes when push button on the pin D3 is pressed. This function changes the state of the
output to HIGH causing LED to turn ON and prints the “interrupt2” on the LCD display.

Arduino Interrupt Demonstration

1. When PUSH BUTTON on the leftside is pressed the LED goes ON and the LCD displays Interrupt2.

2. When the PUSH BUTTON on the right side is pressed the LED goes OFF and the LCD displays
Interrupt1
This is how an Interrupt can be useful to trigger any important task in between of normal execution.

Code

//Interrupts using Arduino

#include<LiquidCrystal.h> // Including lcd display library

volatile int output = LOW;

void setup()

{
lcd.begin(16,2); // setting LCD as 16x2 type
lcd.setCursor(0,0);
lcd.print("CIRCUIT DIGEST");
lcd.setCursor(0,1);
lcd.print("ArduinoInterrupt");
delay(3000);
lcd.clear();
 pinMode(13,OUTPUT);

attachInterrupt(digitalPinToInterrupt(2),buttonPressed1,RISING); // function for creating external

void loop()
{
lcd.clear();
lcd.print("COUNTER:");
lcd.print(i);
++i;
delay(1000);
digitalWrite(13,output); //Turns LED ON or OFF depending upon output value
}

void buttonPressed1() //ISR function excutes when push button at pinD2 is pressed
{
output = LOW; //Change Output value to LOW
lcd.setCursor(0,1);
lcd.print("Interrupt 1");
}

void buttonPressed2() //ISR function excutes when push button at pinD3 is