Laser Audio Transmitter

Jehhal Liu (jl589), Daniel Zuo

(dyz2)
Shared by:
http://hello-engineers.blogspot.com/

Introduction
Project Details
Design Details
Results
Conclusions
Appendices
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.

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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.
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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.
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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.

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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Souice Coue
5(<-@/#)(1
Tiansmittei: Nain Ciicuit

Tiansmittei Alignment 0nit

Notoi 0pto-isolatoi

Receivei: Nain Ciicuit

Receivei Alignment 0nit

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Souice Pait No. Besciiption 0nit
Piice
Quantity
!"! $%&' ()* -- STK Suu $1S.uu 1
!"! $%&' ()* -- 9v Batteiy $2.uu 2
!"! $%&' ()* -- Soluei Boaiu $1.uu 2
!"! $%&' ()* -- BIP Socket $u.Su S
!"! $%&' ()* -- 1-pin }umpei
Cable
$u.Su S
!"! $%&' ()* -- S.Smm Steieo }ack -- 2
+,)- ./)0123 -- Aujustable clamp -- 1
,4)546724-4893- 22SS4 Reu Lasei Pointei $1.91 2
:)-493893- hs-244 Seivo Notoi $19.9S 1
,1;1<4=893- BPW46 Photouioue $1.u1 S
,1;1<4=893- LNSS8ANFS-
NB
0p-amp $u.S9 2
,1;1<4=893- 16u-1Su4-S-
NB
0pto-isolatoi $u.S2 1
,1;1<4=893- 2NS9u4FS-
NB
NPN Tiansistoi $u.11 1
,1;1<4=893- SS86F-1uS-
NB
1uk Potentiometei $1.14 2
,1;1<4=893- AE9919-NB S.Smm Auuio
Cable
$S.1u 1
)554549723>19?893- LT9S9S-91-
u12S
IR Phototiansistoi $u.6S 1
Total $61.u4

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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)