I2Cdev

The I2C bus (or Inter-Integrated Circuit, referred to as I-squared-C, I-two-C, or IIC) is a multimaster serial single-ended computer bus invented by Philips.

For more information about I2C please refer to this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I2C

The I2Cdev works only in master mode.

There is a way of using the I2C kernel driver to work as a device in the userspace. It's called I2Cdev.

Configuring your kernel

For using it you will have to enable this options in your defconfig or manually in your kernel:

CONFIG_I2C=y
CONFIG_I2C_CHARDEV=y
CONFIG_I2C_MV64XXX=y

More information

For more information about using I2Cdev in the userspace please refer to (Documentation/i2c/): http://lxr.free-electrons.com/source/Documentation/i2c/

You will find there: dev-interface (contains the documentation about the i2cdev).

Configuring your FEX

In the sunxi Fex and in the kernel drivers the I2C buses will be refered as TWI (Two-Wire-Interface that is a compatible designation to the I2C). It is important to configure your .fex file to be able to do so:
(be aware that there could be othere ICs using I2C, for instance the AXP ICs genenrally used by the allwinner ICs.)

[twi0_para]
twi0_used = 1
twi0_scl = port:PB00<2><default><default><default>
twi0_sda = port:PB01<2><default><default><default>

[twi1_para]
twi1_used = 1
twi1_scl = port:PB18<2><default><default><default>
twi1_sda = port:PB19<2><default><default><default>

[twi2_para]
twi2_used = 1
twi2_scl = port:PB20<2><default><default><default>
twi2_sda = port:PB21<2><default><default><default>

For more information about editing the fex file: http://linux-sunxi.org/Fex_Guide

Using the I2Cdev

Once you will have this set you can boot your sunxi device and you will have in your dev in /dev/i2cX

Using the I2Cdev with i2c-tools

There is a package called i2c-tools that have some nice debug/comunication apps for comunicating using I2Cdev.
If you are using a Debian like filesystem you can install it using "apt-get install i2c-tools".
i2c-tools has the following apps:

i2cdetect (used to detect slaves address in the bus)
i2cdump (used get a range of values)
i2cget (used to get a value)
i2cset (used to set a value)

Please refer to each app -h option to see its usage.

Using an I2Cdev C example library

I've made a user friendlier library (C functions) to comunicate using I2Cdev:
(Note, this library supose the read and write address to be 2 bytes) You may need to install the libi2c-dev package to make it work as it requires an adittionall .h. ("apt-get install libi2c-dev")

/*
A user-space program to get data from an I2C device.
				Gustavo Zamboni
*/
#include <errno.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <linux/i2c-dev.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>

char buf[10];
extern int com_serial;
extern int failcount;

//////////
// Init I2Cdevice
//////////
int i2c_init(char filename[40], int addr)
	{
    	int file;

    	if ((file = open(filename,O_RDWR)) < 0)
		{
        	printf("Failed to open the bus.");
        	/* ERROR HANDLING; you can check errno to see what went wrong */
		com_serial=0;
        	exit(1);
    		}

    if (ioctl(file,I2C_SLAVE,addr) < 0)
		{
        	printf("Failed to acquire bus access and/or talk to slave.\n");
        	/* ERROR HANDLING; you can check errno to see what went wrong */
		com_serial=0;
        	exit(1);
    		}
	return file;
	}


//////////
// Set pointer address
//////////
void i2c_set_pointer(int address,int value,int file)
	{
	/*
	//printf("end: 0x%x%x\n", address,value);
 	if (i2c_smbus_write_byte_data(file, address, value)<0)
		{
		fprintf(stderr, "Warning - write failed\n");
		} 
	*/
	char buf[10];
	buf[0]=address;
	buf[1]=value;

 	if (write(file, buf, 2) != 2)
		{
		fprintf(stderr, "Error setting pointer\n");
		com_serial=0;
		failcount++;
		} 
	else
		{
		//printf("w_0x%0*x\n", 2, buf[0]);
		//printf("w_0x%0*x\n", 2, buf[1]);
		com_serial=1;
		failcount=0;
  		}

	}

//////////
// Read n bytes
//////////

char * i2c_read(int add1, int add2, int nbytes,int file)
	{
	int n;

	i2c_set_pointer(add1,add2,file);

 	if (read(file, buf, nbytes) != nbytes)
		{
		fprintf(stderr, "Error reading %i bytes\n",nbytes);
		com_serial=0;
		failcount++;
		} 
	else
		{
		for (n=0;n<nbytes;n++)
			{
			//printf("r_0x%0*x\n", 2, buf[n]);
			}
		com_serial=1;
		failcount=0;
		return buf;
  		}
	}

//////////
// Write n bytes
//////////
void i2c_write(int add1,int add2,int nbytes,char value[10],int file)
	{
	int n;
	unsigned char buf[10];
	buf[0] = add1;
	buf[1] = add2;
	if (nbytes>=1) buf[2] = value[0];
	if (nbytes>=2) buf[3] = value[1];
	if (nbytes>=3) buf[4] = value[2];
	if (nbytes>=4) buf[5] = value[3];

 	if (write(file, buf, nbytes) != nbytes)
		{
		fprintf(stderr, "Error writing %i bytes\n",nbytes);
		com_serial=0;
		failcount++;
		} 
	else
		{
		for (n=0;n<(nbytes+2);n++)
			{
			//printf("w_0x%0*x\n", 2, buf[n]);
			}
		com_serial=1;
		failcount=0;
  		}
	}

Usage example:

char *buffer;
char buf[10];

file=i2c_init("/dev/i2c-1",0x38); //dev,slavei2caddr

buf[0] = 0x41;
buf[1] = 0xFF;
i2c_write(0xE6,0x0E,2,buf,file); //this will write value 0x41FF to the address 0xE60E

buffer=(char *)i2c_read(0xE6,0x0E,4,file); //reading a 4 bytes value at the address 0xE60E

close(file);

See also

• AXP209/PMIC control Linux — one of i2c usage examples