In a single ATMEGA16 microcontroller we have 4 ports and each port consists of 8 pins. The total number of pins that can be used for accessing each port is 32. But in my hardware implementation I need to give signals to 60 pins. So, can someone explain how to synchronize two microcontrollers?
To answer this kind of question, we need to know the requirement & constraint:
(1) What kind of signals do you intend to send? Analog/digital? Frequency? Signal voltage level? What is the load / how much current is needed?
(2) Is there any possibility to change the microcontroller type?
I am working in the area of selective harmonic elimination using A.I. techniques of multilevel inverter. Signals are gate pulses to each IGBT. It is an analog signal. Load may be R-load, R-L load or motor load.
Could you show us an example of the signal waveform? Is it digital PWM or pure analog?
(1) The ATMEGA16 can only output 20mA per pin, max 200 mA per chip. Please refer to page 292 of the ATMEGA16 datasheet: www.atmel.com/Images/doc2466.pdf
You would need current amplifier (e.g. transistor/ULN2803) to drive the load.
(2) If you want to drive inductive load, you need to add a reverse diode:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyback_diode
(3) You may want to use 100-pin AVR XMEGA than using two ATMEGA16 chips.
http://www.atmel.com/products/microcontrollers/avr/avr_xmega.aspx
I am sending the gate pulses waveform given to each IGBT switches. And if you can help in programming 100-pin AVR XMEGA then i would be great full to you.
Before developing your own board, you can refer to $29 XMEGA-A1 Xplained kit:
http://store.atmel.com/PartDetail.aspx?q=p:10500183
Then you can use Atmel Studio 6 and Atmel Software Framework to develop the firmware.
I don't know your condition, your priority, your limitation, and your own plan. So I just pointed you to the information I know.
If I were you, I would explain my difficulty/concern and ask specific questions.
Guide to teach how to ask technical questions in a way more likely to get a satisfactory answer.
http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
Your pulses are not analog! Your pulses are digital and must pass thorugh a gate-driver to feed the IGBT switches. For driving such amount of signals (60) it is better to use an FPGA. FPGAs are capable of doing parallel processing, they have many I/Os and can drive all your switches simultaneously. There should be no problem if your control logic is implemented in an MCU and then sent to the FPGA. Otherwise consider using a bigger MCU, but know that the FPGA will simplify your life. Splitting the low-level control in several MCUs is not very convenient.
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