Glorified Plumbing

Specification

The standard was developed by Philips and the current documentation is maintained by NXP. As of November 2023 the latest version is Rev 7.0 – 1 October, 2021.

• Official download UM10204 at NXP.com

On-line resources

There are many on-line resources, these are my favourites.

• https://www.i2c-bus.org
  • Easy to navigate
  • Mostly focussed on the EE side of things.
  • Sponsored by a vendor of I2C test equipment.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I²C
• https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/I2C
  • Though in French the illustrations are clearer than in the English version.

These blog posts contain interesting content.

• Four Rigol oscilloscope hacks with Python
  • Introduction to PyVisa
  • Use of Numpy and other packages to graph scope data.
  • Although it’s for Rigol, other scopes support VISA for connection, both over USB and Ethernet (and HP1B/GPIB)
• I2C Communition Protocol | embedded.ninja
  • This is a good primer on I2C. It covers most that you will need to know in a way that is more readable than the spec.
• mu.microchip.com
  • Practical I2C: Introduction, Implementation and Troubleshooting
  • Debugging Techniques for Serial Communications (I2C/SPI/UART)
  • These classes will help get you through probably 80% of the issues you’ll encounter in SW.

Books

I am still searching for good books on this subject. There are many books that include I2C among other subject, but very few dedicated to the subject.

• The Book of I2C – A guide for adventurers
  • Randall Hyde
  • no starch press
  • Covers HW and SW with examples of bit banging, or using libraries. Covers popular SBCs and hobbyist dev boards.
  • The only book I’ve found dedicated to the subject.