Changing a global variable in C

Question

I am running a C program on an AVR chip. Whenever a serial signal is heard, it runs the serial interrupt ISR (USART_RX_vect). In this method it should turn on change to = 1;. Then in my main while loop, it should clear the LCD and display it and then set change = 0 again.

This is to stop it continually doing the calulations, and displaying the result on the LCD a million times a minute..

However, when the interrupt method changes the change variable to 1, it does not seem to change it "globally" and in the main method it is always 0..

There is a bit of stuff in here that is for debugging purposes.

/* LCD DEFINES */
#define LED PB5
#define output_low(port,pin) port &= ~(1<<pin)
#define output_high(port,pin) port |= (1<<pin)
#define set_input(portdir,pin) portdir &= ~(1<<pin)
#define set_output(portdir,pin) portdir |= (1<<pin)

/* UART SERIAL DEFINES */
#define F_CPU 16000000UL
#define BAUD 9600
#define MYUBRR F_CPU/16/BAUD-1

#define STARTCHAR 'R'
#define ENDCHAR 'E'

char reading;
char inputBuffer[12];
char readStatus;
uint8_t position;
int change;

char output;
int result;

struct Axis
{
    uint8_t axisNumber;
    uint16_t position;
    uint16_t oldPosition;

} axis1, axis2, axis3;


/* SETUP UART */

void USART_Init( unsigned int ubrr)
{
   /*Set baud rate */
   UBRR0H = (unsigned char)(ubrr>>8);
   UBRR0L = (unsigned char)ubrr;

  /*Enable receiver and transmitter */
   UCSR0B = (1<<RXEN0)|(1<<TXEN0);

   /* Set frame format: 8data, 2stop bit */
   UCSR0C = (1<<USBS0)|(3<<UCSZ00);
}

void USART_Transmit( unsigned char data )
{
    UDR0 = data;
}

unsigned char USART_Receive( void )
{
   return UDR0;
}

/*****************************************************************/

int main(void)
{
    /* INITALISE SERIAL */
    USART_Init(MYUBRR);

    /* Turn on Receive Complete Interrupt */
    UCSR0B |= (1 << RXCIE0);

    /* Turn On GLobal Interrupts */
    sei();

    position = 0;
    change = 0;

    /* Initialise LCD */
    lcd_init(LCD_DISP_ON);  /* Initialize display, cursor off. */
    lcd_clrscr();
    lcd_puts("READY");

    //Turn on LED 13
    set_output(PORTB,LED);
    output_low(PORTB,LED);

    while (1)               /* Loop forever */
    {
        if (change == 1)
        {
            //If not reading, display the result on the LCD display.
            axis1.position  = (inputBuffer[0]<< 8) | inputBuffer[1];
            axis2.position  = (inputBuffer[2]<< 8) | inputBuffer[3];
            axis3.position  = (inputBuffer[4]<< 8) | inputBuffer[5];

            char axis1Printout[12];
            char axis2Printout[12];
            char axis3Printout[12];

            sprintf(axis1Printout,"%u ", axis1.position);
            sprintf(axis2Printout,"%u ", axis2.position);
            sprintf(axis3Printout,"%u ", axis3.position);

            char output[40] = "";
            strcat(output, axis1Printout);
            strcat(output, axis2Printout);
            //strcat(output, axis3Printout);

            lcd_clrscr();  /* Clear the screen*/
            lcd_puts(output);
            _delay_ms(300);
            change = 0;
        }
    }
}

/* INTERRUPTS */

ISR (USART_RX_vect)
{
    change = 1;
    unsigned char input = USART_Receive();

    if (input == 'R')
    {
        readStatus = 0; //Reading
        position = 0;
    }
    else if ((input != 'E') && (position < 12) && (position > -1))
    {
        inputBuffer[position] = input;
        position++;
    }
    else if (input == 'E')
    {
        readStatus = 1; //Stop Reading
        position = -1;
        output_high(PORTB,LED);
    }
}

Answer 1

You need to declare change using the volatile keyword:

volatile int change;

This tells the two 'threads' (main execution loop and your ISR code) to not 'cache' the value in a register, but always retrieve it from memory.

Edit: There's another problem with the code - in your main loop, by the time you set changed to 0, you may have already had another interrupt which should have triggered your loop to run again. The easy-but-not-guaranteed fix is to immediately set changed to 0 straight after you check it. The proper way would be to use a lock - but depending on your situation, the first option might do.