Technical Summary

Node Circuit

Main function - To transmit the FM chirp signals that will be received by the Band receiver.

Supply Voltage 18 V (±9 V)

Current 26 mA
Power Consumption 486 mW
Range (max) More than 3 m (SNR = 16 dB at 3 m)
PCB dimensions 7.5 cm X 10.5 cm
Table 1 Hardware summary
Note: The maximum range is between the node and band (since these are not oriented in the same way. Node-to-node, the
orientation is the same). Measurements above 3 m have not been made yet. The typical range for ultrasound is around 10
m. From these measurements we can expect the range to be at least 5-6 m.

Node System

Figure 1 Node system diagram

The ultrasound receiver receives the signal from the master. The bandpass filter gets rid of unwanted
frequencies. The precision half-wave rectifier leaves only the positive side of the signal. The smoothing circuit
converts the signal into a DC voltage to be measured by the CC3200. The sine-wave generator produces a sine
wave that is amplified before being transmitted.

Bill of materials

Component Quantity
400ST120 Ultrasound transmitter 1
400SR120 Ultrasund receiver 1
TL084CN Op-amp 2
LT1010 Buffer amplifier 1
TLE2426 Voltage splitter 1
1N4148 diode 2
100 µm capacitor 1
 Resistors 19
Capacitors 9
FR-4 board 1
Table 2 Bill of materials

Linear FM chirp

The linear FM chirps will be transmitted at frequency channels of bandwidth of 1 kHz. Within the channel the
frequency is increased in steps of 0.2 kHz. Between each frequency channel there is a 0.5 kHz guard band. The
frequency channels are

a) 38 – 39 kHz
b) 39.5 – 40.5 kHz
c) 41 – 42 kHz

The chirps are produced using the CC3200 PWM modules. The flow chart below presents the pseudo code to
produce the chirp signal

Receive command from the hub

Setup and initialise PWM

modules and interrupt timer

Change the instantaneous

frequency every 6 ms

After 30 ms

De-initialise PWM modules and

stop interrupt timer

Figure 2 Pseudo code for the chirp signal

The PWM signal has an offset and is a square wave. The desired sine wave signal is produced by feeding the
PWM output into a passive bandpass filter.

Receiver Side

The receiver side of the nodes plays a role in the grouping protocol of a set of nodes. In a room, there will be
three nodes- one master node and another two slave nodes. The master will transmit a signal and if the slaves
receive them, they will inform the hub that they are in the same room.
Connectivity

The nodes will be connected to the hub and to other nodes via Wi-Fi which is provided by the CC3200 in-built
Wi-Fi modules.

Powering the Microcontroller

The CC3200 microcontroller will be powered using 2× AAA batteries as per described in the datasheet. The
reason a different power supply is used is because the power consumption varies quite significantly. At this
prototyping stage we prioritised getting a functioning system over optimised portability.