Testing tri-state pin - erroneous results with internal pullup I'm using an MPC73831 - a LiPo charging IC - in my Arduino project. It has a status pin to allow interface to a microcontroller, which uses a tri-state operation to convey three possible states of charging. I don't have the IC and battery yet, but I wanted to write a quick program to test a generic tri-state pin for HI, LO, and HiZ while I'm waiting for it to arrive.

The algorithm I wrote is very simple:

Set pinTest to input, no pullup.
Is pinTest high?
    Yes - pinTriState is HIGH, done.
Set pinTest to input with pullup.
Is pinTest high?
    Yes - pinTriState is HiZ, internal pullup causes high reading.
    No - pinTriState is LOW, 'cancelling out' internal pullup.


However, I'm not getting the expected results when using the internal pullup resistor - my board is showing correct analysis for HI and LO, but HiZ returns a mixture of HiZ and HIGH. I have tried this on an Uno, a Pro-Micro (32u4) and Uno->Micro and Micro->Uno. All give the same spurious results. I am baffled, therefore some advice would be appreciated. The full code is as below. I have left in code which randomises the time pinTriState stays at in a given state to keep pinTest guessing, but it's ultimately only an elaborate way of cycling through the three states.

#define pinTest 2
#define pinTriState 3

int state = 0;
char stateCh = '?';

int sect1;
int sect2;
int sectMax;

void setup()
{
    Serial.begin(9600);
    randomSeed(analogRead(A0));
    sect1 = random(1, 20);
    sect2 = random(sect1 + 1, random(sect1 + 2, sect1 + 20));
    sectMax = random(sect2 + 1, random(sect2 + 2, sect2 + 20));
}

void loop()
{
    // PART (1) Code to toggle three states of a tri-state pin
    if (state == 0)
    {
        pinMode(pinTriState, OUTPUT);
        digitalWrite(pinTriState, HIGH);
        stateCh = 'H';
    }
    if (state == sect1)
    {
        pinMode(pinTriState, OUTPUT);
        digitalWrite(pinTriState, LOW);
        stateCh = 'L'
    }
    if (state == sect2)
    {
        pinMode(pinTriState, INPUT);
        stateCh = 'Z';
    }

    // PART (2) Code to determine state of tri-state pin
    Serial.print(stateCh);     // Shows what it *should* be
    pinMode(pinTest, INPUT);
    if (digitalRead(pinTest))
        Serial.println(" - HIGH");
    else
    {
        pinMode(pinTest, INPUT_PULLUP);
        if (digitalRead(pinTest))
            Serial.println(" - HiZ");
        else
            Serial.println(" - LOW");
    }

    (state == sectMax ? state = 0 : state++);
}


The necessary pins are connected with a single wire. If I upload the code to two boards I remove PART (2) on the 'triState' board and PART (1) on the 'testing' board. In this case, stateCh has no function.

For a single-board setup, I get the following output:

H - HIGH
H - HIGH
...
L - LOW
L - LOW
...
Z - HiZ        &lt;-- the first Z is correct 95% of the time
Z - HIGH
Z - HIGH       &lt;-- the remaining Zs are a mixture, biased heavily towards HIGH.
Z - HiZ
...
H - HIGH       &lt;-- H always gives HIGH
...


It makes no difference if I change the operating order of pinState. I've thrown in delay(100); between almost every other line, again to no avail.

I tried with a 22k, a 33k, and a 47k external pullup resistor. The results are perfect. However, this requires an extra Arduino pin to make sure that the pullup is only active when necessary. Part (2) becomes:

// PART (2) Code to determine state of tri-state pin
Serial.print(stateCh);     // Shows what it *should* be
pinMode(pinTest, INPUT);
pinMode(pinPullup, INPUT);    // connected to pinTest via resistor
if (digitalRead(pinTest))
    Serial.println(" - HIGH");
else
{
    //pinMode(pinTest, INPUT_PULLUP);   &lt;-- not anymore
    pinMode(pinPullup, OUTPUT);
    digitalWrite(pinPullup, HIGH);    // pulls pinTest to Vdd
    if (digitalRead(pinTest))
        Serial.println(" - HiZ");
    else
        Serial.println(" - LOW");
}


Using the extra pin to provide the pullup is a real pain in the ar...duino. I'm cripplingly short of spare pins and I don't see why this is not resolvable with internal pullups. Help?!
The internal pull-up is around 50k. So, install an external pull-down (to ground) of a somewhat higher value, like 1M.

Now:

Go to input mode, no pull-up. Get a reading. Turn on the internal pull-up. This should overpower the pull-down. If the reading changes, it was tri-state. Otherwise, if the reading doesn't change the external device is overpowering both pull-up and pull-down and you have the actual reading.

You may need a slight delay to allow the low-value pull-down to change the pin state.



Amended code to demonstrate:

 

// PART (2) Code to determine state of tri-state pin
Serial.print(stateCh);     // Shows what it *should* be

pinMode(pinTest, INPUT);
delayMicroseconds (100);
byte firstReading = digitalRead(pinTest);
pinMode(pinTest, INPUT_PULLUP);
delayMicroseconds (10);
byte secondReading =  digitalRead(pinTest);

if (firstReading != secondReading)
  Serial.println(" - HiZ");
else if (secondReading == HIGH)
  Serial.println(" - HIGH");
else
  Serial.println(" - LOW");


(Only showing the part that detects the pin state, the rest is the same).

Output:

 

H - HIGH
L - LOW
Z - HiZ
Z - HiZ
Z - HiZ
H - HIGH
H - HIGH
H - HIGH
H - HIGH
H - HIGH
H - HIGH
H - HIGH
L - LOW
Z - HiZ
Z - HiZ
Z - HiZ
H - HIGH
H - HIGH
H - HIGH
H - HIGH
H - HIGH
H - HIGH
H - HIGH
L - LOW
Z - HiZ
Z - HiZ
Z - HiZ
H - HIGH
H - HIGH
H - HIGH


As you can see, working perfectly. I needed a longer delay after turning the internal pullup off because the fall time was around 100 µs. This actually sounds reasonable, because the 1 megohm resistor will take time to discharge the capacitance on the pin.

So:


10 µs delay after turning the internal pull-up on
100 µs delay after turning the internal pull-up off




Theory for the delays

The Atmega328 pin is specified as having a maximum capacitance of 10 pF (10e-12). It is considered charged/discharged after 5 time-constants, where T = R.C.

Thus for an internal pull-up resistance of 50k and a capacitance of 10 pF, charging should take:

50e3 * 10e-12 * 5 = 2.5e-006 (0.0000025) -&gt; 2.5 µs


And to discharge through 1M (1e6) ohms, discharging should take:

1e6 * 10e-12 * 5 = 5e-005 (0.00005) -&gt; 50 µs


My observed results were about 2.5 µS for the charge, but more like 100 µs for the discharge, however I probably had considerable stray capacitance in the wires used in the test circuit.