4/28/23, 1:42 PM Basics of the I2C Communication Protocol

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So far, we’ve talked about the basics of SPI

communication and UART communication, so
now let’s go into the final protocol of this series,
the Inter-Integrated Circuit, or I2C.

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4/28/23, 1:42 PM Basics of the I2C Communication Protocol

You’ll probably find yourself using I2C if you ever

build projects that use OLED displays,
barometric pressure sensors, or
gyroscope/accelerometer modules.

INTRODUCTION TO I2C
COMMUNICATION
I2C combines the best features of SPI and
UARTs. With I2C, you can connect multiple slaves
to a single master (like SPI) and you can have
multiple masters controlling single, or multiple
slaves. This is really useful when you want to
have more than one microcontroller logging
data to a single memory card or displaying text
to a single LCD.

Like UART communication, I2C only uses two

wires to transmit data between devices:

SDA (Serial Data) – The line for the master and

slave to send and receive data.

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SCL (Serial Clock) – The line that carries the

clock signal.

I2C is a serial communication protocol, so data is

transferred bit by bit along a single wire (the
SDA line).

Like SPI, I2C is synchronous, so the output of bits

is synchronized to the sampling of bits by a clock
signal shared between the master and the slave.
The clock signal is always controlled by the
master.

HOW I2C WORKS

With I2C, data is transferred in messages.
Messages are broken up into frames of data.
Each message has an address frame that
contains the binary address of the slave, and one
or more data frames that contain the data being
transmitted. The message also includes start and
stop conditions, read/write bits, and ACK/NACK
bits between each data frame:

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Start Condition: The SDA line switches from a

high voltage level to a low voltage
level before the SCL line switches from high to
low.

Stop Condition: The SDA line switches from a

low voltage level to a high voltage level after the
SCL line switches from low to high.

Address Frame: A 7 or 10 bit sequence unique to

each slave that identifies the slave when the
master wants to talk to it.

Read/Write Bit: A single bit specifying whether

the master is sending data to the slave (low
voltage level) or requesting data from it (high
voltage level).

ACK/NACK Bit: Each frame in a message is

followed by an acknowledge/no-acknowledge
bit. If an address frame or data frame was
successfully received, an ACK bit is returned to
the sender from the receiving device.

ADDRESSING
I2C doesn’t have slave select lines like SPI, so it
needs another way to let the slave know that
data is being sent to it, and not another slave. It
does this by addressing. The address frame is
always the first frame after the start bit in a
new message.

The master sends the address of the slave it

wants to communicate with to every slave
connected to it. Each slave then compares the
address sent from the master to its own address.
If the address matches, it sends a low voltage
ACK bit back to the master. If the address

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doesn’t match, the slave does nothing and the

SDA line remains high.

READ/WRITE BIT
The address frame includes a single bit at the
end that informs the slave whether the master
wants to write data to it or receive data from it. If
the master wants to send data to the slave, the
read/write bit is a low voltage level. If the master
is requesting data from the slave, the bit is a
high voltage level.

THE DATA FRAME

After the master detects the ACK bit from the
slave, the first data frame is ready to be sent.

The data frame is always 8 bits long, and sent

with the most significant bit first. Each data
frame is immediately followed by an ACK/NACK
bit to verify that the frame has been received
successfully. The ACK bit must be received by
either the master or the slave (depending on
who is sending the data) before the next data
frame can be sent.

After all of the data frames have been sent, the

master can send a stop condition to the slave to
halt the transmission. The stop condition is a
voltage transition from low to high on the SDA
line after a low to high transition on the SCL line,
with the SCL line remaining high.

STEPS OF I2C DATA

TRANSMISSION
1. The master sends the start condition to every
connected slave by switching the SDA line from
a high voltage level to a low voltage
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level before switching the SCL line from high to

low:

2. The master sends each slave the 7 or 10 bit

address of the slave it wants to communicate
with, along with the read/write bit:

3. Each slave compares the address sent from

the master to its own address. If the address
matches, the slave returns an ACK bit by pulling
the SDA line low for one bit. If the address from
the master does not match the slave’s own
address, the slave leaves the SDA line high.
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4. The master sends or receives the data frame:

5. After each data frame has been transferred,

the receiving device returns another ACK bit to
the sender to acknowledge successful receipt of
the frame:

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6. To stop the data transmission, the master

sends a stop condition to the slave by
switching SCL high before switching SDA high:

SINGLE MASTER WITH

MULTIPLE SLAVES
Because I2C uses addressing, multiple slaves can
be controlled from a single master. With a 7 bit

address, 128 (27) unique address are available.

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Using 10 bit addresses is uncommon, but

provides 1,024 (210) unique addresses. To connect

multiple slaves to a single master, wire them like
this, with 4.7K Ohm pull-up resistors connecting
the SDA and SCL lines to Vcc:

MULTIPLE MASTERS WITH

MULTIPLE SLAVES
Multiple masters can be connected to a single
slave or multiple slaves. The problem with
multiple masters in the same system comes
when two masters try to send or receive data at
the same time over the SDA line. To solve this
problem, each master needs to detect if the SDA
line is low or high before transmitting a
message. If the SDA line is low, this means that
another master has control of the bus, and the
master should wait to send the message. If the
SDA line is high, then it’s safe to transmit the
message. To connect multiple masters to
multiple slaves, use the following diagram, with
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4.7K Ohm pull-up resistors connecting the SDA

and SCL lines to Vcc:

ADVANTAGES AND
DISADVANTAGES OF I2C
There is a lot to I2C that might make it sound
complicated compared to other protocols, but
there are some good reasons why you may or
may not want to use I2C to connect to a
particular device:

ADVANTAGES

Only uses two wires

Supports multiple masters and multiple

slaves

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ACK/NACK bit gives confirmation that each

frame is transferred successfully

Hardware is less complicated than with

UARTs

Well known and widely used protocol

DISADVANTAGES

Slower data transfer rate than SPI

The size of the data frame is limited to 8

bits

More complicated hardware needed to

implement than SPI

Thanks for reading! Hope you learned something

from this series of articles on electronic
communication protocols. In case you haven’t
read them already, part one covers the SPI
communication protocol, and part two covers
UART driven communication.

If you have any questions or have anything to

add, feel free to leave a comment below. And be
sure to subscribe to get more articles like this in
your inbox!

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55 COMMENTS

rjsheperd on February 13, 2016 at 9:52

pm

Great series of posts. Thanks for

sharing this!

REPLY

harry on February 14, 2016 at 1:32 pm

Thanks for this,u are a genius,i need
simple circuit for invater and power
Bank circuit

REPLY

Dani on February 22, 2016 at 7:18 am

Many thanks. Working with this –
while knowing how it actually works
makes it so much better. Thank you

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4/28/23, 1:42 PM Basics of the I2C Communication Protocol

for taking the time to explain it so

well

REPLY

Sachin Gupta on February 24, 2016 at

5:46 am

Thanks very nice information. I liked

all your articles and the way you
explained all.

Please add for PCIe communication

as well.

REPLY

Manuel Antonio Nava on March

30, 2016 at 2:51 pm

Simple and easy to understand. I

suggest some example to put in
practice

REPLY

再地郎 on March 31, 2016 at 12:31 am

GOOD JOB!

REPLY

Phil Howard on July 3, 2016 at 7:52 am

@TheArduinoGuy not bad, although
the multi-master arbitration part is
very, see; https://t.co/2msABa9WxH

REPLY

Mitek on July 4, 2016 at 8:30 am

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4/28/23, 1:42 PM Basics of the I2C Communication Protocol

Thanks, but can’t find any about

correct I2C initialization (as describe
in NXP document)

REPLY

Nigel on July 5, 2016 at 7:51 am

Great post. Thank you very much !!

REPLY

RAVI on November 22, 2016 at 5:48 pm

SIR THIS IS VERY USEFUL FOR
BEGINERS PLEASE ALSO SEND THE
CAN PROTOCOL ALSO PLEASE
PLEASE
PLEASE ….infinite TIMES….

REPLY

haleem on December 12, 2016 at 10:02 am

Please share CAN article also

REPLY

Bri on August 19, 2020 at 8:14 pm

Here’s a intro tutorial on CAN:
https://www.circuitcrush.com/
can-networking-tutorial/

REPLY

ArchonOSX on December 18, 2016 at

2:38 pm

Step 1 confuses me. You say “1. The

master sends the start condition to
every connected slave by leaving
SCL high and switching SDA to low:”
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and yet the diagram shows the SDA

line going from low to high. Am I
seeing this correctly?

REPLY

ArchonOSX on December 18,

2016 at 2:45 pm

Step 6 is similarly confusing

as you say “6. To stop the data
transmission, the master
sends a stop condition to the
slave by switching SCL high
before switching SDA high:”
The diagram shows both lines
high already with SDA going
low before SCL. I follow your
written explanation but I
don’t think your diagrams do.

REPLY

Circuit Basics on March 24,

2017 at 6:45 am

You’re right, step 1 could have

been written better. I re-wrote
it and hopefully cleared it up a
bit… In step 6, I think it’s the
direction the bits are being
sent that might be a little
confusing. In the diagrams,
picture the bits travelling
from left to right, so in step 6,
the SCL line switches high
before the SDA line switches
high.

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REPLY

ArchonOSX on December 18, 2016 at

2:48 pm

Otherwise good articles and helpful

explanations. Thanks for the work.

REPLY

Hello World on February 2, 2017 at 9:13

pm

Where is information about clock

stretching? Very useful feature

REPLY

ktr on April 4, 2017 at 10:02 am

awsome article

REPLY

amlendra Kumar on May 11, 2017 at

1:56 pm

Good article on I2C.

REPLY

M Tilak on June 5, 2017 at 7:12 pm

Really helpful

REPLY

Debabrata Ghosh on July 20, 2017 at

3:36 pm

DtcInstall

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REPLY

Brian on September 23, 2017 at 9:12 am

Thanks. This is a very interesting
article. I’m not fully understanding
point 4 however. When master is
transmitting to its chosen slave
would the sda line of all slaves not
be pulled high as they are all sharing
the same line?

REPLY

Johnny on January 23, 2019 at

10:24 am

Have the same question. It’s

like all the other slaves will
also receive the data which is
not meant for them. If it is
correct, is it possible to
transmit data to only one
specific slave with I2C?

REPLY

Imraan on June 1, 2019 at 4:45 am

I also have this same
question. It seems like it’s
possible for devices that are
not selected to also read the
SDA pin because they’re on
the same line. Is this protocol
on the assumption that all
slaves and masters are part of
one system and so none are
trying to steal data?

REPLY

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Colin on September 11, 2019 at 5:58

am

The SDA line, like the SCLK

line, is indeed common to all
devices and so will always be
the same. The key thing is
that only the slave device with
the matching address actions
a write command and drives
the SDA line for a read
command.
I’m sure the OP drew the
diagrams this way to show
the actual data transfer
between the addressed
device and the master for
clarity.

REPLY

chandan bhargav on October 30,

2017 at 7:11 am

good article .i think it is better to

explain about arbitration clock
stretching /synchronization about
why pull ups ….

REPLY

Dodutils on November 21, 2017 at 7:14 am

@framboise314 excellent !

REPLY

Dodutils on November 21, 2017 at 7:26 am

Did I miss it or do you talk about
how to handle communication with

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multiple I2C modules that use same

Address ?

You could add a chapter about I2C

multiplexing and how to handle it
for example with a TCA9548A .

REPLY

chandu on April 16, 2018 at 11:02 am

woow superb ….. its a really basic
concepts of i2c…..

thanks for this website….

go head yaaar.

superb ,nice ,great ……………

REPLY

Monica Patil on September 3, 2018 at

12:03 pm

This article is very good for beginner

to study the serial communication
protocols. The concepts are easily
understood.

REPLY

david on February 18, 2019 at 2:36 pm

Hi Nice article. But waveform of Start
and End conditions need to be
switched :)

REPLY

Vedaant Arya on March 23, 2019 at 8:43

am

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Great article! One thing though:

Under “Single Master With Multiple
Slaves”, while describing how using
a 7-bit or a 10-bit address frame, it’s
written so: 128 (27) and 1024 (210),
while it should be 128 (2^7) and 1024
(2^(10)). I was stuck there for a while
._.

REPLY

Jack on March 28, 2019 at 4:33 pm

When you state the SCL goes “high”
or “low”, does this basically mean it is
“ON” or “OFF”? It’s just a clock signal
at a specific frequency based on a
crystal? No data is sent over this line;
it’s just the set clock frequency? And
what is a typical frequency?

Since polarity and phase cannot be

set as with SPI, would this not be a
disadvantage? Are these parameters
sometimes adjusted for better
communication, and thus SPI might
be a better choice over I2C ?

REPLY

George Whitaker on March 30, 2019

at 11:55 pm

HI: I have spent several day trying to

get the I2C network to work with no
luck. I am trying to connect a RTC
3231 and a 16X2 lcd display.Each will
work seperatly but when I connect
both of them, the RTC works but the
display doesn’t.
Appreciate any help you can offer.

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4/28/23, 1:42 PM Basics of the I2C Communication Protocol

George Whitaker
[email protected]

REPLY

Sreedhar on April 8, 2019 at 6:11 pm

Explanation is very good. But in I2C,
7-BIT addressing, 10-BIT Addressing
Explanation is not there.

REPLY

rANOJAN on May 16, 2019 at 8:04 pm

NICE

REPLY

KRuPA on June 9, 2019 at 8:57 am

Great work. Can you please post
such articles on CAN?

REPLY

Abdul Haseeb on July 10, 2019 at 8:34

am

Grateful information…

REPLY

KETUL on September 4, 2019 at 6:33 am

Nice article. But waveform of Start
and End conditions need to be
switched :)

REPLY

Anurag on September 22, 2019 at 4:19 pm

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Simple and great article. thanks

REPLY

Madhav on October 7, 2019 at 5:23 pm

Can you add I3C as well. i3C is very
new . But just want to glimpse of it.

REPLY

Mallika on November 12, 2019 at 11:28 am

Very useful information.Very clear
and perfect.
Thank u for posting this topic

REPLY

Dinesh on November 25, 2019 at 11:38 am

Very Useful Stuff.
I need the know how to trigger the
sensors using I2C commands also
need clarification to set the delay
using I2C in my project.
Please share your response.
Thank you !!!

REPLY

Ankit Satpati on December 30, 2019 at

6:49 am

what about usb protocol?

REPLY

Ramendra Hazarika on January 16,

2020 at 2:18 am

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Sir, my humble thanks for a

tremendous article. Great piece of
Technical knowledge dissemination.
Request you as well as other
knowledgeable members to advise
how to know target device address.
Does the target device, in my case, a
memory ic, an eeprom of 25 series,
have a fixed address, or is given one?
Pls help me out. Thanks

REPLY

Curie Gupta on April 16, 2020 at 10:04

am

Very nicely explained. Kudos to the

author!

REPLY

Arslan Ahmed on April 25, 2020 at

8:34 am

nice article on i2c communication

REPLY

Hariprasad Bhat on June 29, 2020 at

5:03 am

In the Start & STOP cases, the SDA

line is represented wrongly
Start: SDA goes high to low (In the
diagram, it is low to high)
Stop: SDA goes from low to high(In
the diagram, it is high to low)

REPLY

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Junters on December 29, 2020 at

11:31 am

Notice the direction of

transmission. In the
diagram,the right is ahead of
the left.

REPLY

Maulik solanki on August 14, 2020 at

9:35 am

Nice Article about I2C

communication, I have used it in my
college time.
Its very helpful for my metro project.

Thanks
Aakash patel

REPLY

gamage on February 8, 2021 at 11:48 am

Nice article & got the clear
understanding of the I2C protocol.
thank you a lot….

REPLY

frank on March 29, 2021 at 6:42 pm

In step 1) – Both SCL and SDA are
going from low to high. But
explanation says the opposite. Am I
not reading the signals correctly.
Could you please explain it.

REPLY

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thesegotoeleven on August
1, 2021 at 2:03 pm

Read the signal from right to

left. In this article, the
waveforms are shown in the
opposite sense that you
would see on an oscilloscope.
I had the same issue.

REPLY

Mousa on December 13, 2021 at 7:44 pm

Thanks for this information.

REPLY

ojoshiro on February 22, 2022 at 8:51 pm

Much appreciated. Very helpful.
thank you very much!

REPLY

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