In order to use the I2C bus properly and efficiently, it is important to understand what happens in the hardware on the electric level. This essay explains:
- the hardware setup of an I2C bus
- the requirements for proper operation of the I2C bus
- how to find the cause of problems and how to solve them
It is assumed that the reader understands the protocol basics of I2C and is thus familiar with terms like I2C master and slave, (re-)start and stop conditions and acknowledges.
The current I2C specification has the revision 7.0 and is dated October 2021, you can find it right here https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/user-guide/UM10204.pdf.
The pictures shown in the following sections have been made with Tracii XL 2.0.