2.8 - Digital I/O [U3 Datasheet]

The LabJack U3 has up to 20 digital I/O channels. 16 are available from the flexible I/O lines, and 4 dedicated digital I/O (CIO0-CIO3) are available on the DB15 connector. The first 4 lines, FIO0-FIO3, are unavailable on the U3-HV. Each digital line can be individually configured as input, output-high, or output-low. The digital I/O use 3.3 volt logic and are 5 volt tolerant.

The LabJackUD driver uses the following bit numbers to specify all the digital lines:

0-7 FIO0-FIO7 (0-3 unavailable on U3-HV)
8-15 EIO0-EIO7
16-19 CIO0-CIO3


The "F", "E", and "C" designators have little special meaning.  They are just arbitrary letters used to designate different groupings of digital I/O.  The generic designator DIOx is sometimes used to describe any digital I/O from 0 to 19, so for example an alternative name for EIO0 is DIO8.

The 8 FIO lines appear on the built-in screw-terminals, while the 8 EIO and 4 CIO lines appear only on the DB15 connector. See the DB15 Section of this User’s Guide for more information.

Max Current & Overvoltage Protection

All the digital I/O include an internal series resistor that provides overvoltage/short-circuit protection. These series resistors also limit the ability of these lines to sink or source current. Refer to the specifications in Appendix A.

Tri-State I/O

All digital I/O on the U3 have 3 possible states: input, output-high, or output-low. Each bit of I/O can be configured individually. When configured as an input, a bit has a ~100 kΩ pull-up resistor to 3.3 volts (all digital I/O are 5 volt tolerant). When configured as output-high, a bit is connected to the internal 3.3 volt supply (through a series resistor). When configured as output-low, a bit is connected to GND (through a series resistor).

When only lightly loaded, an input terminal will measure about 3.3 volts if measured with a DMM, and thus it can be tough to use a DMM to tell whether a line is set to input or output-high.  A couple tips to tell the difference:

1. Look for a slight change where output-high measures a little higher. For example, a DMM might show 3.300 for input and 3.315 for output-high.

2. Add a load resistor. If you add a 100k from DIOx to GND, it should read about 1.6V for input and 3.3V for output-high.

5 Volt Output

The fact that the digital I/O are specified as 5-volt tolerant means that 5 volts can be connected to a digital input without problems (see the actual limits in the specifications in Appendix A). If 5 volts is needed from a digital output, consider the following solutions:

• Use the LJTick-DigitalOut5V to convert a pair of digital outputs to 5V logic.
• In some cases, an open-collector style output can be used to get a 5V signal.  To get a low set the line to output-low, and to get a high set the line to input (... note that this does not work with timer outputs, e.g. PWM, as they toggle the line between output-low and output-high).  When the line is set to input, the voltage on the line is determined by a pull-up resistor.  The U3 has an internal ~100k resistor to 3.3V, but an external resistor can be added to a different voltage.  Whether this will work depends on how much current the load is going to draw and what the required logic thresholds are. Say for example a 10k resistor is added from EIO0 to VS. EIO0 has an internal 100k pull-up to 3.3 volts and a series output resistance of about 180 ohms. Assume the load draws just a few microamps or less and thus is negligible. When EIO0 is set to input, there will be 100k to 3.3 volts in parallel with 10k to 5 volts, and thus the line will sit at about 4.85 volts. When the line is set to output-low, there will be 180 ohms in series with the 10k, so the line will be pulled down to about 0.1 volts.
• A surefire way to get 5 volts from a digital output is to add a simple logic buffer IC that is powered by 5 volts and recognizes 3.3 volts as a high input. Consider the CD74ACT541E from TI (or the inverting CD74ACT540E). All that is needed is a few wires to bring VS, GND, and the signal from the LabJack to the chip. This chip can level shift up to eight 0/3.3 volt signals to 0/5 volt signals and provides high output drive current (+/-24 mA).
• Note that the 2 DAC channels on the U3 can be set to 5 volts, providing 2 output lines with such capability.

Basic Tests

For basic testing use the Test Panel in LJControlPanel to change the state of a particular DIO while using a DMM to measure the voltage of that DIO versus GND. (Make sure DMM leads are properly connected.)

Below are typical voltages with:

• No load
• 1k resistor from DIO to GND
• 1k resistor from DIO to VS

The values are a little different for FIO versus EIO/CIO as the latter has less series impedance.

Boot-Up Defaults

The power-up condition of the digital I/O can be configured by the user with the "Config Defaults" option in LJControlPanel.  From the factory, all digital I/O are configured to power-up as inputs. Note that even if the power-up default for a line is changed to output-high or output-low, there is a delay of about 5 ms at power-up where all digital I/O are in the factory default condition.  For more information see this forum topic.

Why Are My Digital I/O "High" at Boot-Up?

The implied question here is "why do my DIO boot up as output-high from the factory".  The answer is that per the "Boot-Up Defaults" section above the factory default state for all DIO is input, but since inputs have a 100k internal pull-up they will read 3.3 volts if only lightly loaded.  So likely you are seeing that the state of your DIO is input, not output-high.  Also see the "Tri-State I/O" section above.

Making An Input Read Low By Default

If you want a floating digital input to read low, an external pull-down resistor can be added to overpower the internal 100k pull-up.  4.7k to 22k would be a typical range for this pull-down, with 10k being a solid choice for most applications.

Programming Guidance

The low-level Feedback function writes and reads all digital I/O. For information about using digital I/O under the Windows LabJackUD driver, see our Configuration and Digital I/O pseudocode pages for programming guidance.

Bit-Packed Integers

Many function parameters contain specific bits within a single integer parameter to write/read specific information. In particular, most digital I/O parameters contain the information for each bit of I/O in one integer, where each bit of I/O corresponds to the same bit in the parameter (e.g. the direction of FIO0 is set in bit 0 of parameter FIODir). For instance, in the low-level function ConfigU3, the parameter FIODirection is a single byte (8 bits) that writes/reads the power-up direction of each of the 8 FIO lines:

• if FIODirection is 0, all FIO lines are input,
• if FIODirection is 1 (20), FIO0 is output, FIO1-FIO7 are input,
• if FIODirection is 5 (20 + 22), FIO0 and FIO2 are output, all other FIO lines are input,
• if FIODirection is 255 (20 + … + 27), FIO0-FIO7 are output.