Introduction Project Details Design Details Results Conclusions Appendices !"#$%&'(#)%" This pioject is a pioof-of-concept uevice that tiansmits an auuio signal using a lasei beam, while iemoving the neeu foi the usei to align the beam themselves. Foi oui pioject, we cieateu a mono-axial tiansmitteiieceivei setup that conveits an analog auuio signal, via a stanuaiu S.Smm jack, anu tiansmits it via a lasei to a ieceivei, which conveits the signal back into auuio. The ieceivei can be iotateu within its hoiizontal plane, anu uses a seivo motoi contiolleu by a miciocontiollei to automatically align it with the ieceivei. The enu iesult is a wiieless auuio signal that cannot be oveiheaiu by othei uevices. +$%,-(# .-#/)01 2/#)%"/0- Light is alieauy becoming a populai means of communication, thanks to fibei optics, which can guiue optical uata much like a wiie tiansmits cuiient. It might seem impiactical, then, to use laseis without a guiuing meuium to tiansmit infoimation. Bowevei, in contexts wheie a physical connection is impossible oi unfeasible, anu the neeu foi a focuseu beam aiises, it woulu seem logical to use lasei light. In paiticulai, fiee space lasei communication has useful applications to militaiy logistics, wheie infoimation on the fiont must be kept limiteu to fiienuly eais, anu giounu-to-aii links aie impoitant. We ueciueu to cieate a simple anu inexpensive pioof-of-concept to uemonstiate the auvantages of this seemingly impiactical scheme. Inspiiation foi this pioject came fiom a uesign in the book uonzo uizmos: Piojects & Bevices to Channel Youi Innei ueek, a book wiitten by Simon Quellen Fielu, in which a laseisolai cell combination alloweu foi the tiansmission of an auuio signal using light. A topic of ieseaich at NIT Lincoln Laboiatoiy (http:www.ll.mit.euunewsfieespace-laseicom.html) inspiieu us to incoipoiate tiacking capability while keeping the pioject buuget affoiuable at a hobbyist level. 3%4)(/0 5#$'(#'$- 0ui pioject is uiviueu into two uistinct sections: auuio tiansmission via haiuwaie, anu alignment contiol via softwaie. The foimei can be accomplisheu once the lattei has succeeueu, making the two tasks mutually uepenuent foi oveiall functionality. The alignment is accomplisheu using a seivo motoi to iotate the tiansmittei until it aligns with the ieceivei. This is uone by uetecting the light emitteu fiom the ieceiveis lasei using a phototiansistoi. The tiansmittei scans ovei its fiee iange until it finus the ieceivei, at which point the tiansmitting lasei is tuineu on anu the auuio signal is pickeu up by an aiiay of photouioues. The uetails of this piocess aie exploieu below. 5/6-#7 /"& 5#/"&/$&1 Since we aie using laseis, the effects of exposuie neeu to be consiueieu. The laseis we useu weie puichaseu commeicially, anu comply with class IIIA powei anu safety specifications, as uesignateu by the ANSI Z1S6.1 consensus. In the 0S, ANSI anu 0BSA stanuaius specify the paiameteis unuei which laseis can be safely opeiateu. Foi a class IIIA lasei, the beams aie geneially not hazaiuous without the use of focusing equipment, though uiiect exposuie to the eye shoulu be avoiueu. With this in minu, we opeiateu the uevice in a plane that lackeu ieflective objects anu was well below eye level. Auuitionally, the tiansmitting lasei is tuineu off when the exact uiiection of the lasei is not known (i.e. when the tiansmittei is scanning the aiea). The ieceiveis lasei is limiteu to be just biight enough to be uetecteu by the tiansmittei, but not at the peak amplituue. 8/$&9/$-:5%6#9/$- ;$/&-%661 The auuio signal sent by the tiansmittei is pioviueu exteinally iathei than via the miciocontiollei, since exteinal uevices iepiesent moie flexibility anu mobility in the infoimation that can be sent. Baving the auuio synthesizeu by the Nega644 woulu iequiie some foim of exteinal memoiy anu a methou of flashing fiom an exteinal souice anyways, so we ueciueu to cut out the miuuleman. The auuio signal is sent via an analog tiansmission insteau of uecouing it into a uigital signal. 0ptical tiansmission is usually uone using with uigital signals, iequiiing haiuwaie foi uecouing at the ieceivei enu. By tiansmitting the analog auuio signal thiough lasei amplituue mouulation, we cut uown on the tiansmittei anu ieceivei haiuwaie by eliminating the neeu foi encouing anu uecouing piocessois. .-1)4" .-#/)01 8/$&9/$- !"#$%&'(()"
Figuie 1: Tiansmittei ciicuit, ieauy foi opeiation. The tiansmittei is bioken uown into thiee ciicuits. The fiist ciicuit, which is similai to the ieceivei enu, is the lasei auuio tiansmission ciicuit. This tiansmittei woiks by mouulating the amplituue of the lasei baseu on the amplituue of the auuio signal that we aie tiying to tiansmit. The auuio, which is feu to the ciicuit thiough a stanuaiu S.Smm auuio jack, is sent to an auuei ciicuit. The auuei, shown below, consists of two inputs anu a negative feeuback iesistoi that will be summeu togethei. The two connections to the non- inveiting input of the op-amp aie the auuio signal anu a BC bias signal that is geneially kept at aiounu Sv. This voltage can be mouifieu by aujusting a potentiometei. The signal to the inveiting input of the op-amp is half that of the output, which is obtaineu by using a voltage uiviuei of two equal iesistois. This feeuback allows the op-amp to follow the amplituue of the non-inveiting input as it attempts to equate the voltages at the two inputs. The output of the op-amp is sent uiiectly to the lasei. The amplituue of the lasei is piopoitional to the voltage that is applieu to it. The amplituue lineaily follows the voltage up to ioughly 4v, at which point the iesponse is moie exponential. We aie taking auvantage of the lineai iegion of the iesponse to senu a mostly unmouifieu auuio signal to the ieceivei foi playback. The lasei neeus to be tuineu off while the tiansmittei is scanning foi the ieceivei, mainly foi safety anu powei ieasons. To achieve this, the 9v supply to the op-amp is contiolleu by an NPN tiansistoi, which can act as a switch contiolleu by the miciocontiollei.
Figuie 2: Nain tiansmittei ciicuit. Nouulates lasei amplituue baseu on auuio input. The seconu ciicuit in the tiansmittei is baseu on a phototiansistoi that iesponus to ieu light. When vCE of the tiansistoi is set to S volts, the cuiient flowing thiough the tiansistoi is piopoitional to the amount of ieu light that is inciuent upon the uetectoi. The cuiient flows thiough the 1uK iesistoi, iesulting in a measuiable voltage that is piopoitional to the inciuent light. This voltage is feu to the analog-to-uigital conveitei of the miciocontiollei, anu ueteimines whethei the ieceivei anu tiansmittei aie piopeily aligneu anu ieauy foi tiansmission.
Figuie S: Tiansmittei photo uetectoi useu foi alignment puiposes. The last piece of the tiansmittei is the motoi contiolling ciicuit. We aie using a seivo motoi to contiol the uiiection of the tiansmission. The motoi is opto- isolateu fiom the iest of ciicuit, anu paiticulaily, the miciocontiollei. This means that the motoi is poweieu by a uiffeient powei supply, anu has no uiiect connections with any teiminal of the miciocontiollei. The seivo motoi is contiolleu by a pulse, whose length coiiesponus with the uesiieu position of the motoi. Seivos can achieve absolute positioning, while othei types of motois can only be positioneu ielative to the cuiient state. The piecisely timeu pulse is sent thiough a SSu! iesistoi to the input of the isolatoi. The output of the isolatoi is simply the same pulse with a S volt amplituue, which is then sent to the motoi foi positioning.
Figuie 4: Notoi opto-isolatoi ciicuit. Pulse output goes to motoi foi angle contiol. +),)'-)" The ieceivei ciicuit somewhat iesembles the tiansmittei ciicuit. Rathei than a single phototiansistoi, howevei, it insteau uses thiee photouioues, which have much laigei sensitive aieas compaieu to the tiansistoi. Since the iesponse of the uioues uiiectly affects the auuio quality, a moie complex ciicuit is calleu foi. The uioues themselves aie placeu between the two teiminals of an op-amp, whose output voltage is ueteimineu by the cuiient that flows thiough the uioues. 0sing an op-amp insteau of biasing the uioues allows us to utilize a neai-iueal shoit- ciicuit cuiient. With thiee uioues in paiallel, we effectively tiiple the aiea upon which we can ieceive a signal. Aftei amplifying the signal with a seconu op-amp, the iesult is then feu uiiectly to an auuio jack, wheie the signal can be heaiu using any compatible uevice.
Figuie S: Receivei main ciicuit. Reaus uetectoi voltage anu amplifies befoie senuing to auuio jack.
Figuie 6 (left): Receivei lasei ciicuit. 0seu foi alignment puiposes. Figuie 7 (iight): Receivei ciicuit, ieauy to opeiate. 5%6#9/$- The softwaie is uesigneu to be completely inteiiupt-uiiven. Timing is baseu aiounu the ability to contiol an output pin with a piecise PWN output, allowing us to accuiately contiol the motoi foi scanning puiposes. The inteiiupt seivice ioutine is calleu once eveiy five micioseconus. 0pon each inteiiupt, the piogiam upuates its timing counteis, ieaus the output of the analog-to-uigital conveitei when necessaiy, anu peifoims state upuates foi ieceivei tiacking puiposes.
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Figuie 8: Softwaie state machine, useu foi tiansmittei scanning. We use a simple Nooie machine to contiol the actions of the tiansmittei. The uiagiam above outlines its behavioi.
8/$&9/$- >%"#$%0 Thiough oui timing contiol oui haiuwaie is ielatively simple to manipulate. The seivo motoi we useu uses the uuiation of a pulse to ueteimine its angulai position. To contiol this position, we set a pin high, anu tuin it off when a vaiiable amount of time has elapseu. Since the execution of othei instiuctions can have a noticeable effect on the tiue pulse wiuth, this toggling is hanuleu puiely by the timei compaie inteiiupt. Enabling oi uisabling the lasei is as simple as toggling a sepaiate pin. ?##-@A#-& .-1)4"1 We attempteu to implement a hanuful of uesigns that uiunt woik out in the enu. Baiuwaie in paiticulai went thiough a lot. Initially we thought (naively) that a seivo motoi uiu not neeu to be opto-isolateu. 0ui motoi uisagieeu, anu vibiateu eiiatically. The ieceivei went thiough multiple photoieceptive uevices. We weie going to use a solai cell, but saw that the iesponse of a photouioue was goou enough, so we useu one of those insteau. When we saw that the sensitive aiea of the phototiansistoi maue alignment using two of them next to impossible, we switcheu to an aiiay of laigei photouioues. The powei supply foi the motoi was oiiginally anothei 9v batteiy, but we quickly founu that the cuiient it supplieu was insufficient. Lastly, to poui salt on oui wounus, oui custom Nega644 pioto-boaiu mysteiiously uieu once eveiything else hau been completeu, taking oui miciocontiollei with it (oi vice veisa.). We ueciueu to switch to an STK Suu as oui contiol souice, lacking the time oi iesouices to make anothei pioto-boaiu. The tiansmitteis lasei contiol also went thiough seveial iteiations befoie we lanueu on the final uesign. Specifically, the ciicuit uesigneu to the lasei on oi off uuiing the scan stage was mouifieu. 0iiginally, the BC bias input to the auuei woulu be contiolleu by a potentiometei, which coulu be aujusteu to zeio when uuiing scanning. Bowevei this methou was not automatic. We then tiieu to contiol the op-amp supply voltage with an output pin of the miciocontiollei, but founu that supplying S volts causeu ciicuit to be unable to output gieatei than S volts at the output, wheieas we neeueu an auuio signal centeieu at ioughly S.S volts. We also oiiginally hau a B}T that contiolleu a batteiys 9 volt connection to the op-amp supply, but founu that if the tiansistois base voltage was kept at S volts, then the supply coulu not exceeu S volts. We finally implementeu the uesign uesciibeu above anu kept it as oui final uesign. 2-1'0#1 8/$&9/$- +-$6%$@/"(- ?'&)% When uealing with auuio tiansmission, an impoitant consiueiation is how well a iange of fiequencies is pieseiveu in the output. ueneially, the auuible fiequencies iange fiom 2u to 2u,uuu Bz. To that enu, we ian tests compaiing input wavefoims with the signals geneiateu by the ieceivei foi vaiious fiequencies within this iange. An example oscilloscope tiace is shown (baiely) below.
Figuie 9: 0scilloscope tiace of input vs. output (smallei signal). At auuible fiequency the coiielation is high. Thiough oui tests we founu that the output fiequency iemains the same as the input, anu that the shape of the signal (a sinusoiu in oui tests) was pieseiveu within the auuible iange. At aiounu SukBz the iesponse time of the photouioue is no longei negligible anu some uistoition can be seen, as shown below.
Figuie 1u: As the fiequency climbs beyonu the auuible iange, the ciicuit has tiouble iesponuing. The ielative attenuation of uiffeient fiequencies was also measuieu. The giaph below shows how the ielative amplituue uepenus on fiequency.
Figuie 11: Receivei!s fiequency iesponse. While high fiequency signals aie tiansmitteu unifoimly, the iesponse uiops off at the low enu. The system acts on a whole as a high-pass filtei with a ciitical fiequency neai 1uuBz. Theiefoie, auuio with heavy bass components will suffei the most while othei components will be laigely unaffecteu.
=%#%$ /"& ?0)4"@-"# The small seivo motoi peifoims aumiiably unuei the loau of the tiansmittei ciicuit, opeiating smoothly anu consistently. Bowevei, the physical connections to the powei supply foi the motoi anu the stk Suu causes the base to sliue on all but the ioughest of suifaces without auhesives. 0nce anchoieu, this is a non-issue. The tiansmittei anu ieceivei align moueiately well. Caie must be taken in placing the ieceivei, as its lasei must point towaius the centei of iotation of the tiansmittei. Even with this satisfieu, theie iemains a uegiee (no pun intenueu) of flexibility in the angle of the tiansmittei while in the L0CK state, which means that the tiansmittei beam can miss the photouioues of the ieceivei as the uistance between the two incieases. When we switcheu to the aiiay of thiee photouioues, the fiequency of this misalignment occuiiing uecieaseu noticeably. Paitial misses can also occui when the beam is between two uioues oi slightly off one of them. The iesult is that uiffeient volumes aie iequiieu in the souice to pievent uistoition. The impact on safety is negligible, howevei, given that the noimal piecautions associateu with laseis aie kept in minu. !"#-$6-$-"(- We founu that the only inteifeience came fiom auuio contamination uue to neaiby electionics. The levels of noise uiu not seem gieatei than what you might heai in cheap auuio piouucts, howevei. 5%6#9/$- +-$6%$@/"(- 0n its own, the softwaie contiolling the tiacking logic woiks without any flaws. The timing of the motoi signal executes consistently, as eviuenceu by the opeiation of the motoi itself. The uevice is capable of tiacking a moving beam faiily well, though it can easily lose a beam that uisplaces consistently fastei than appioximately S uegiees pei seconu. If it guesses incoiiectly which uiiection the beam went, the beam can be lost moie easily. Acquiiing a lock woiks consistently howevei, anu we uiu not witness any occuiiences of false positives in oui testing. B1/C)0)#7 In geneial, the uevice can be successfully opeiateu by anyone with two hanus, functioning eyesight, anu a suiplus of patience. The amount of constant voltage supplieu to both laseis can be manually aujusteu via tiimpots to compensate foi vaiious visibility conuitions, anu the auuio signals can be supplieu anu ieceiveu with anything using a stanuaiu S.Smm steieo jack (though the output is mono). >%"(0'1)%"1 DEA-(#/#)%"1F 2-#$%1A-(#F /"& +%11)C0- !@A$%G-@-"#1 0ui final piouuct neaily met oui initial expectations. We uiunt expect the auuio quality to be as goou as it was given the ielative ease of uesigning the ciicuits, but the unieliable natuie of the alignment was something we haunt anticipateu, anu uiunt have a solution ieauily available foi. The softwaie took less giief anu miseiy than we thought, anu geneially woikeu without much cajoling. With these points in minu, theie aie a few things we woulu have uone uiffeiently. The softwaie coulu be expanueu to allow foi the tiansmission of a uigital I0 stieam, using the RS2S2 capabilities of the Nega644 anu moie symmetiy in the tiansmitteiieceivei mouules. This woulu allow us to tap moie of the potential of the miciocontiolleis anu bioauen the usefulness of the uevice. As foi haiuwaie, we founu that consiueiing eveiy uevice as if the opeiating conuitions weie iueal cost us time anu money that coulu have otheiwise been moie piouuctive. Not consiueiing the aiea of the phototiansistois, foi example, was an avoiuable oveisight. Auuitionally, with moie time anu an expanueu buuget we coulu ueal with the alignment issue anu builu on it: with moie investment in optical haiuwaie the laseis coulu be secuieu with moie piecision, anu theii beams coulu be bioaueneu anu ie-collimateu. Auuitionally, with a moie costly gimbal setup anothei uimension coulu be auueu to the iange of the uevice, anu with infiaieu imaging we coulu make the alignment piocess moie accuiate. The last-minute failuie of the pioto-boaiu came as a heavy blow to us late in the game. Being moie piepaieu foi the woist might have saveu us some giief if weu sampleu moie than one Nega644 anu maue moie than one pioto-boaiu. 5#/"&/$&1 0ui laseis aie always opeiateu at powei levels equal to oi less than that of theii oiiginal uesign. To ieuuce the chances of stiay beams, the tiansmittei is uisableu until it acquiies a lock. Auuitionally, the laseis themselves scattei a faii amount of ieu light fiom theii cavities, making theii opeiation obvious. uiven these factois, anu the low powei of the laseis themselves, we believe we have followeu the lasei safety stanuaius. !"#-00-(#'/0 +$%A-$#7 >%"1)&-$/#)%"1 All of oui coue is oiiginal, anu the uesigns foi oui ciicuits weie not taken fiom an outsiue souice. Since the iuea foi lasei signal tiansmission is alieauy a laige pait of many applications, we aie confiuent that oui uevice uoes not infiinge upon the intellectual piopeity iights of othei paities. Beaiing that in minu, we uo not feel oui uevice meiits a patent claim. The iesults of the pioject, while somewhat novel, aie not exactly unheaiu of anu uo not meiit publication, save as a BIY. D#<)(1 Refeiiing to the IEEE Coue of Ethics, we believe we have acteu iesponsible as electiical engineeis to the extent that oui pioject allows. By following stiict piecautions in using oui laseis, we have avoiueu safety iisks to ouiselves anu otheis. Since oui woik was inuepenuent of outsiue paities anu puiely in the inteiest of fun anu leaining, we avoiueu conflicts of inteiest anu biibeiy, as well as slanuei oi intellectual uishonesty. Lastly, we hope that oui uevice is able to uemonstiate to otheis the capabilities anu limitations of optical communication. 3-4/0 >%"1)&-$/#)%"1 Since oui uevice is a low powei setup that piouuces minimal inteifeiing noise, theie aie no legal issues at hanu.
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2-6-$-"(-1 Nega644 Bata Sheet (http:instiuct1.cit.coinell.euucouisesee476AtmelStuffmega644full.puf) LNSS8 0p-amp Bata Sheet (http:instiuct1.cit.coinell.euucouisesee476labss2uu9LNSS8.puf) LT9S9S-91-u12S Phototiansistoi (www.leutechusa.comuatauatasheetsLT7-9XLT9S9X-91-u12S.puf) BPW46 Photouioue (http:www.vishay.comuocs81S24bpw46.puf) BS-422 Seivo Notoi (http:www.imagesco.comseivomotoisBS-422.html) Inspiiation foi this uevice came in pait fiom the book !uonzo uizmos: Piojects & Bevices to Channel Youi Innei ueek,! by Simon Quellen Fielu. It!s an excellent intiouuction into vaiious useful scientific phenomena. (http:www.amazon.comuonzo-uizmos-Piojects-Bevices- Channelup1SS6S2S2u6) NIT Lincoln Laboiatoiy is woiking on a similai, but much moie complex, concept foi long-iange lasei communication. (http:www.ll.mit.euunewsfieespace-laseicom.html) Thanks go to Auam Shapiio, who pioviueu some honest feeuback to oui initial iuea anu pioviueu a useful stanu foi oui ieceivei. Auuitional thanks to the following paits venuois (you can sample most of the components we puichaseu foi fiee if you aie patient): (http:www.uigikey.com) (http:www.jameco.com) (http:www.uealextieme.com)