THE ELECTRONICS & COMPUTER MAGAZINE JANUARY 1999

£ 2.85

PC TOPICS :
winning projects from our PC software
design contest : m e a s u r e m e n t •
d eve l o p m e n t • c o m m u n i c a t i o n
RF signal level meter
Iridium:
telephone by satellite

ggeneral-coverage
eneral-coverage receiver
receiver
00.15
.15 – 3322 MHz
MHz AM/FM/SSB
AM/FM/SSB
conductance
conductance
meter
meter
home
alarm
alar m
syss tem
sy
The projec t is an advanc ed elec troc ardiograph with
a muc h greater ac c urac y than the elec troc ardio-
graphs used in most of the world ’s hospitals today.
Remarkably, the projec t allows patients to rec ord their
own ECG at home, and send the relevant data to
the doc tor’s offic e by modem.
By Ja c k a nd Ma rk Nowinski
e l e ct r o ca r d i o g r a p h
I n t e r n a t io n a l Fir st P r iz e
The projec t, whic h involves both hard-
ware and software, c overs all the three
themes of the Interna tiona l PC
Software Competition: measurement,
development, and c ommunic ations.
The software is the most instrumental tool
used in the project on account of the
high accuracy it achieves through the
use of signal transforms and real-time
processing of the electrocardiogram
signal supplied by the hardware unit.
As for the first theme, measurement,
the software program is able to graph
and analyze the full signal spec trum
c oming from the ha rd wa re unit.
Through this analysis of the signal, the
software program is able to measure
very c ritic al aspec ts of the elec troc ar-
2 - 1/99 Elektor Elec tronic s EXTRA
diogram (ECG) suc h as the QRS c om-
plex, the frequenc y of the heartbeat
and the number of beats per minute
(no elec troc ardiograph in the world
has suc h a feature built into one
devic e). Due to the powerful instruc -
tion set of fourth and fifth generation of
Intel x86 proc essors, the mathematic al
transforms used for the measurement
of the signal enable the most ac c u-
rate elec troc ardiograph in the world
to be c reated.
This projec t is full of development; first-
ly the hardware and software were
d esig ned a nd d evelop ed from
sc ratc h. A lot of development tasks
took plac e both on the software and
the ha rd wa re. Develop ment will
——————————————— PC TOPICS
va il ab
a
le
wa r e·
so f PC
·o n ·c d
'9 8t- wa r e
'9 9
f t
-r
o m so
always be ongoing on ac c ount of the
software, whic h has the ability to c re-
ate databases for people (patients)
using the elec troc a rd iog ra p h
desc ribed here.
Also, the ha rd wa re is ha s b een
designed to be expandable, and soft-
ware func tion routines are provided to
detec t if the PC proc essor has MMX
instruc tions for future portability and
c ompatibility. In that way, the projec t
c an always take full advantage of the
proc essor when needed.
As for c ommunic ation there are two
ways this projec t c ommunic ates with
the outside world, (1) through a printer
port (parallel port), and (2) through a
modem. The c ontrol program c ommu-
nic ates with the elec tronic hardware
via the printer port in whic h data is sent
ra p id ly in a b i-d irec tiona l fa shion
between the c omputer and the elec -
tronic hardware. Through the printer
port the software is able to c ontrol the
entire elec tronic hardware. The sec -
ond way in whic h the program c om-
munic ates with the outside world is
through a modem. The projec t is pri-
marily intended to be used by people
in their homes. A heart patient with a
c omputer at home would apply the
standard medic al elec trodes to his/her
body and be able to transmit his/her
ECG to a doc tor’s offic e so the doc tor
would then be able to study the ECG
a nd d etermine if med ic a l help is
needed. The ECG signal c an be trans-
mitted in real-time over the modem
and ac c urate up-to-date information
c an then be proc essed by a medic al
doc tor, the software program itself has
the c apability for medic al analysis.
The program
The software used to produc e or c om-
pile the software was Borland C+ +
version 5.01 (with in-line assembly).
The software program is based around
a graphic al-user-interfac e (GUI) of the
authors’ own design, see Figures 1a-
d. All software operations take plac e
mainly in the menu on the left-hand
side of the sc reen and some measure-
ment spec ific operations take plac e in
the graphing window. The func tion of
the software program is to graph an
ECG on the sc reen and if nec essary
transmit it to a doc tor’s offic e (the doc -
tor would have to be using the elec -
troc ardiograph software program to
rec eive the ECG signal). The program
is able to rec eive data from two c han-
nels (more c an be added, but for stan-
dard medic al and home use one/two
c hannel(s) are suffic ient). Both c han-
nels c an be displayed at the same
time, while one may be detec ting the
so-c alled QRS c omplex in the ECG, the
other c an detec t other arrhythmia’s.
Another first for an elec troc ardiograph
is the use of a TIME BASE for an ac c u-
rate interpretation and analysis of the
ECG signal. The other options, X-MAG,
TRIGGER, MODEM a nd FILE a re
desc ribed in the interac tive multime-
dia presentation on the CD-ROM sup-
plied (see end of artic le). To summa-
rize, the X-MAG even further divides
the time base setting by c onstant inte-
ger dividers, the TRIGGER c ontrol but-
ton sets the trig g ering level a nd
MODEM c ontrol button initializes the
modem (along with the telephone
number to be c alled) and tells the pro-
gram to transmit the ECG over the tele-
phone line. In FILE you c an open and
save ECG files and thus help to build a
database that c ould be used in the
future by a medic al doc tor. The entire
graphic s library used by the program
had to be written from sc ratc h, and
the authors also had to c onfigure the
interrupts for the printer port and initial-
ize various types of modems and their
protoc ols. In summary, the func tion of
the softwa re p rog ra m is to g ra p h
inc oming ECG signals (from the hard-
ware unit through the printer port), and
perform a very intense analysis of the
signal and finally save the waveform
and/or transmit it to a doc tor’s offic e;
the software program measures the
ECG signal, develops a database,
and c ommunic ates with the outside
world by transmitting the signal to a
medic al fac ility.

a c

b
d

Figure 1a. This sc reenshot ha s the ECG wa veform a lrea d y p lotted. The c ontrol b uttons on the left m a nip ula te how the inc om ing ECG
signa l is p roc essed. For exa m p le, b y c lic king the right or left m ouse b utton you c a n inc rea se or d ec rea se the tim e b a se on the grid.
Figure 1b. This sc reenshot is like the one a b ove b ut ha s the m ea surem ent fea ture a c tiva ted. The tim e b a se (lower right) is a fac tor
when c a lc ula ting the exa c t tim e (d elta t).
Figure 1c. This sc reenshot shows the p rogra m op era ting und er a d ifferent tim e b a se (100.0 m sec /d iv).
Figure 1d. Mea surem ent results for the im a ge a b ove. Notic e tha t the p ea ks a re fa rther a p a rt on sc reen b ut the tim e b a se is utilized to
p rod uc e a n a c c ura te m ea surem ent.

PC TOPICS——————————————— Elektor Elec tronic s EXTRA 3 - 1/99

 transducer
60 Hz
(50 Hz)
input
+12V
Active
ECG Notch
-12V
Preamp HP LP LP

BATT.
DC - DC A-D CS CS

PC LPT port
+ Converter CLK CLK
CH0
+12V DI DI
CH1 DO DO
LPT
-12V
Interface
SSO SSO
3...16V

992010 - 11
Figure 2. Bloc k d ia gra m of the elec troc a rd iogra p h ha rd wa re.

The hardware
As shown by the bloc k diagram in
Figure 2, the hardware is c omposed
of amplifiers, ac tive filters, an ana-
logue to digital c onverter, opto-isola-
tors, and a DC/DC c onverter and
inverter. A highly ac c urate low-pass
a nd hig h-p a ss filter c omb ina tion
(ac tive Butterworth Fourth-order filter)
was designed and produc ed to elimi-
nate the extraneous noise produc ed
by power lines and skin movements
under the elec trodes. The filter c ombi-
nation has an extremely high roll-off
rate thus making sure that the required
frequenc ies are ac c epted and other
unwanted frequenc ies are rejec ted. A
DC/DC c onverter and inverter were
designed and inc orporated bec ause ic s and PCB artwork for the hardware
c ertain integrated c irc uits require neg- developed by the authors. The c irc uit
ative and higher voltages other than diagram of the ECG input amplifier is,
standard TTL voltages. however, g iven a s a sa mp le in
An analogue-to-digital c onverter (12- Figure 3. The inputs of this c irc uit are
bit) is used to digitize the analogue c onnec ted to standard ECG elec -
ECG signal into the digital domain so trodes as demonstrated in Jac k and
the software program along with PC Mark’s wonderful video c lip in whic h
will be able to rec ognize it, this also they desc ribe the development and
improves the analysis of the signal basic operation of their projec t. Well
later in the program. Opto-isolators worth viewing!
are used to send the digitized signal (992010)
from the hardware to the c omputer via
the printer port (LPT); opto-isolators are All software, sourc e c ode files, sc hem atic
need in this type of medic al equip- files, PCB artwork files and a dem onstration
ment to isolate the hardware supply video (AVI file) as supplied by the authors
voltage from that of the c omputer. m ay be found on a CD-ROM whic h will be
Unfortunately, owing to lac k of spac e it available from the Publishers by early
is not possible to produc e all sc hemat- January 1999.

L1
12V
10µH
C5 C7

100n 100n
J1
R1 R2
200k 110k
2
LEFT
C4 ACTIVE
C1 C2 13 1
INV INP VOUT
12 15
+IN OUTSENSE 1µ NOTCH
100p 470p
J2 R3 R4
9 U1
200k 110k E+
10
JP1 E–
RIGHT LH0038
1 2
C3 D1 D3
3 4 5 11
GAIN1 GUARD
100p 5 6 6 3
GAIN2 OFFSET
7 8 7 4
GAIN3 OFFSET
9 10 8 16
GAIN4 GNDSENSE
D2 D4 11 12

J3 R5 4x BAT85 GAIN 14
330k
JP1 GAIN
GND
OPEN 100
7–8 200
5–6
3 – 4} 400
7 – 8} 500 C6 C8
1–2
9 – 10 1000
100n 100n
11 – 12 2000 L2
12V
992010 - 12 10µH

Figure 3. Circ uit d ia gra m of the ECG inp ut a m p lifier. The c irc uit em p loys a n LH0038 p rogra m m a b le-ga in a m p lifier.

4 - 1/99 Elektor Elec tronic s EXTRA ——————————————— PC TOPICS

This professionally designed 16-c hannel logic so f t wa
'9 8

cd - r om
analyser runs under Windows and is c onnec ted the

re
- '9 so
PC’s parallel printer port. It requires a minimum ft
PCwa r 9e

·a va i
amount of hardware and c osts a frac tion of a c om-
parable stand-alone instrument. A PC-c ontrolled
instrument, it offers ease of c ontrol and many ways of

·
la

n
displaying measured signals. b l e ·o
De sig n b y K. Bö hm e

5 0 -M H z l o g i c a n a l y s e r
F i r s t P r i z e , Ge r m a n y

Main Specification four La ttic e FPGA d evic es typ e

ispLSI1016 from Lattic e. These devic es
➤ Linked to c omputer via EP port (parallel printer interfac e)
appear prominently in the c irc uit dia-
➤ 16 c hannels (3 V or 5 V input swing) grams in Figures 1 and 2. Circ uit IC6
➤ Sampling rate 1 kHz – 50 MHz (or by external c loc k up to 50 MHz) in Figure 2 is busy handling all data
➤ Adjustable pre-trigger from 1/8 to .7/8 traffic on the EP port. The devic e num-
➤ Triggering by CH00, CH15, adjustable bit pattern, or external ber (3 for the analyser) may be set on
➤ Adjustable min. trigger pulsewidth from < = 1, 4, 8, 15 samples two jumpers (K3), and the delay for the
➤ Adjustable trigger edge wait signal, on jumper K4. The IC
➤ Frequenc y output 10 Hz – 50 MHz rec eives an address write c ommand
➤ Output level of frequenc y output 3 V or 5 V. to inform it about the c hip selec t line to
b e set. The releva nt IC is then
addressed by the subsequent data
The instrument is c ontrolled via a virtu- Windows, inc luding c opying the read- read or write c ommand.
al front panel whic h appears on your out into temporary storage, and post- The heart of the analyser is formed by
PC sc reen. Apart from the c ustomary proc essing of measured data by other IC10. This c hip c ontains the entire
user interfac e, the instrument offers all Windows programs. proc ess c ontrol system c onsisting of a
advantages of a PC running under The hardware c onsists essentially of presettable 12-bit up/down c ounter

PC TOPICS——————————————— Elektor Elec tronic s EXTRA 5 - 1/99

Figures 1 a nd 2. In essenc e the ha rd wa re of the Logic Ana lyser c onsists of four isp LSI c hip s from La ttic e.
with dec oding logic . At the start of a
measurement, the pre-trigger value is
loaded, and this is c ounted down to
zero. Onc e at 00, the dec oding logic
disables itself, reverts the c ount direc -
tion, and then enables the trigger c on-
trol. If a trigger pulse arrives at that
instant, the c ounter is reloaded with
the pre-trigger value, and c ounts up
6 - 1/99 Elektor Elec tronic s EXTRA
until an overflow is produc ed. It then c ounter for the minimum trig g er
disables itself, as well as the RAMs and pulsewidth.
their address c ounters. This c onc ludes
the mea surement, a nd the d a ta The c ontrol signals supplied by this
stored in the RAMs may be read by the subc irc uit are:
system. - RAMRD_1: read RAM1
The same IC also c ontains the input - RAMRD_2: read RAM2
multiplexers for the timebase, the trig- - RAM_G: output enable for both
ger sourc e selec tion logic , and the RAMs
——————————————— PC TOPICS
- ACLK: c loc k signal for address
c ounter
- RAM_WR: write signal for both RAMs
- BOE: output enable for input
drivers IC4/IC5
- Input_UB: goes to Re1 and there
c ontrols the volta g e
switc hover for the input
and output drivers (IC4,
IC5 and IC11).
Circ uit IC9 c ontains the dividers for the
variable output frequenc ies, two multi-
plexers for their selec tion, and a 12-bit
c ounter whic h ac ts as an address
c ounter for the two RAMs.
IC1 c ontains an 8-bit multiplexer for
the reading of the two RAMs, the stor-
age registers for the set trigger word,
and a c omparator whic h pulls the
TFOUT output logic high when the lev-
els at the analyser inputs matc h those
set up in the trigger word.
Circ uit IC2 and IC3 are fast RAMs with
a c apac ity of 8 kBytes eac h. The pro-
gram uses about 4 kBytes, an exten-
sion to 8 kBytes is already supported
by the PCB layout.
Circ uits IC4 and IC5 are input drivers
between the inputs and the RAMs. IC11
ac ts as a driver for the signals at the
output soc kets, and at IC10. Relay Re1
PC TOPICS———————————————
allows all driver ICs to work with 3.5 V or
5 V logic swing. Both supply voltages
are provided by IC7 and IC8.
Software functions and
documentation
The 32-bit c ontrol program (written in
Visual BASIC V5) takes c are of all hard-
ware c ontrol and also provides an
easy way of browsing the 4-kByte
memory a rea . Further func tions
inc lude setting two marker lines, out-
putting measurement values, and set-
ting up trigger points and markers
using at the mouse c ursor loc ation.
You c an jump to the marker lines by
means of a mouse c lic k.
Zooming is possible via ‘buttons’, while
an area to be examined in detail may
be enlarged by drawing a rec tangle
with the mouse.
Program settings as well as entire data
files may be stored c omplete with
c omment, for retrieval at a later time.
For doc umentation purposes, the c on-
tents of the ac tive window may be
c opies into temporary storage, from
whic h it may be loaded by other pro-
grams inc luding word proc essors.
All c hannels may be displayed in a
c ertain c olour and they may be given
Elektor Elec tronic s EXTRA
a name. To make sure the c ontrol ele-
ments and the ac tual data display are
quic kly available without having to
jump between partly obsc ured win-
d ows, the wind ows a re d ivid ed
between two register c ards (tabs), and
displayed as fixed elements in a sepa-
rate window whic h also c ontains the
data display.
Apart from desc riptions of the c irc uit
diagram, the c irc uit operation and
program installation (in a Word file),
the doc umentation as supplied by the
author also inc ludes the ac tual c irc uit
diagrams, the c opper trac k layout
and c omponent mounting plan of the
double-sided printed c irc uit board (in
a TIFF file), as well as all sourc e c ode
files a nd sa mp le d a ta files whic h
should enable you to c hec k the oper-
ation of the program.
The c omplete set of doc umentation
files and program files c overing the
use and installation of the program
may be found on a CD-ROM whic h
c ontains a large number of winning
entries from our 1998 Software Design
Contest. This CD-ROM will be available
early January 1999. More details will
be given in the forthc oming February
1999 issue of Elektor Elec tronic s.
(992011-1)
7 - 1/99
The winning design among the Competition entries
rec eived by our Dutc h sister magazine is a
Mic roPasc al c ompiler for mic roc ontrollers from Intel’s
MC51 series. The software enables these mic roc on-
trollers to be programmed in a simple way using the
‘Pasc al’ higher programming language. Helped by a
separate ROM emulator, Mic roPasc al may c onsider-
va i l a bl
ably reduc e software debugging time. a

e ·o
PC

wa r e·
so f t
'9 8 -w' a r e

n ·c d
Softwa re b y J. va n d e Ka m er

99
M i cr o P a s ca l

t
-r

f
o m so
Fir st P r iz e , N e t h e r la n d s

a b les, etc .) is then g a thered a nd

stored together with the identifier. The
examination of the program c ontinues
until an error is enc ountered, or a full
stop (.) is found behind a c ommand.
In the c ompiler, every c ommand is
proc essed as a proc edure. If nec es-
sary, suc h a proc edure may c all itself
(this is c alled ‘nesting’).

During the c ompilation proc ess, the

As the a uthor is rea d y to a d mit,
d esig ning a c omp lete c omp iler
involves a vast amount of c omplex
work. Mr. van de Kamer started off
within a Borland Pasc al environment,
but eventually c hanged to Delphi 1.0,
while the final touc hes to the c ompiler
were made in Delphi 3.0. After about
two years of programming ac tivity
(approximately 750 hours) and an
imp ressive 29,731 lines of sourc e
c ode, the c ompiler was ready in the
form as submitted for the Software
Desig n Contest la unc hed in the
July/Aug ust 1998 issue of Elektor
Elec tronic s.
Compiling is translating
The func tion of a c ompiler may be
c omp a red to tha t of a tra nsla tor.
Commands from a higher program-
ming language are c onverted (trans-
lated) into c ommands from a lower-
level language. During the c ompiling
proc ess, the translator module will typ-
ic ally enc ounter three types of ‘word’:
➜ reserved words suc h as
the c ommands Begin and End;
➜ words representing a value,
for example, ‘1’ or ‘Joe’;
➜ words used as a label.
Comment enc losed in brac es { } is
ignored during the c ompile proc ess.
The syntax of a sourc e c ode file is
c hec ked using a fixed proc edure. The
first word that has to be found is
Program or Init. If not, an error report is
immediately returned. Onc e the right
header is found, the translator will start
to look for the next one, in this c ase, an
identifier. All relevant information on
the program (name, c onstants, vari-
first-time appearanc e of a new c om-
mand c auses the assoc iated mac hine
c ode to be generated. Bec ause the
c ompiler has a flexible struc ture, the
c omma nd s to b e g enera ted a re
stored in a spec ial library file c alled
MCS51.DLL.
Before the ac tual c ompiler operation
starts, the requisite library has to be
loaded into the memory.
Initially the c ompiler does not know the
addresses, interrupts and labels to be
used. Consequently, it will first generate
so-c alled reloc atable (address-inde-
pendent) code. This code is stored as a
file with the extension ‘MPU’ (for
Mic roPasc al Unit). This intermediate
c ode must not be c hanged by the user
bec ause the c ompiler will assume that
it has been generated without errors.
The file format is universal, allowing the
MPU file to be used in c ombination with
other c ontrollers, too.
During the sec ond phase, the file is
‘linked’, whic h means that labels, pro-
c edures and func tions set up in the
sourc e c ode file are c oupled to real
addresses. The result is a file that may
be programmed into an EPROM. For
this purpose, Mic roPasc al supports two
file formats: Intel-hex and CPULink.

8 - 1/99 Elektor Elec tronic s EXTRA ——————————————— PC TOPICS

Memory use
The RAM memory is employed for the
storage of variables, proc edures, a
software ALU (arithmetic Logic Unit), a
sta c k a nd intermed ia te results
(sc ratc hpad)
Memory is filled from the top to the
bottom. For the internal RAM, the top is
$FF, for the external RAM, $7FFFF (pro-
vided 32 Kbytes of external RAM is
used). Global variables are held in this
external memory. One word, for exam-
ple, oc c upies address $7FFFF for the
‘high’ byte and $7FFFE for the ‘low’
byte. A string made up of 10 bytes is
stored in 11 bytes: 10 bytes for the
c harac ters and number 11 to indic ate
the length. The last c harac ter is store
at loc ation $7FFFF, the first at $7FFF6,
and the length indic ator at $7FFF5.

Software ALU
To be able to perform arithmetic oper-
ations using variables with a size larger
than one byte, a software ALU is built
into the program. The size of the ALU is
geared to the largest value supported
by the program. The ALU is divided into
Fig ure 1. Sc reend um p of Mic roPa sc a l in a c tion. The c om p iler offers a sim p le wa y of
two equal sec tions, lo_ALU and hi_ALU.
d evelop ing c od e for m ic roc ontrollers from the MCS-51 fa m ily. The sc reens in this a rtic le
The ALU is an important piec e in the
show the sourc e c od e in a wind ow (introd uc tory illustra tion), a nd the fina l m a c hine
memory. It is used to move variables to
c od e rea d y for p rog ra m m ing into a PROM or EPROM.
and from the stac k, and perform arith-
metic operations.

Other points of interest flic t will oc c ur as long as suffic ient interrupt may oc c ur at any moment.
memory spac e remains available. If The interrupt proc edure ensures that
Onc e proc edures and func tions are you run low on available memory, sim- all data of loc al variables, as well as
being used, loc al variables are c reat- ply reduc e the number of variables ALU data, are safely stored before an
ed that only exist within the relevant and/or proc edures being c alled. interrup t p roc ed ure is sta rted . The
proc edure or func tion. Obviously, the When c alling a proc edure it is also internal registers are also kept in a safe
c ompiler has to reserve spac e for possible to c onvey parameters or vari- plac e. At the end of the interrupt, all
these intermediate variables. The sim- ables. If variables are marked with relevant information is retrieved and
plest approac h is to define memory ‘VAR’ they may be adapted within the restored to its original state.
spac e for any proc edure whic h pops proc edure c alled. Interrupts may be used to adapt glob-
up in the program. In prac tic e, this To be able to use interrupts, spec ial ally defined variables. We should has-
results in a lot of wasted memory provisions have to be made in the ten to add, however, that variables
spac e. The present c ompiler first looks c ode. This is nec essary bec ause an larger than one byte c an not be
for the proc edure or func tion whic h
ma y b e exp ec ted to use up the
largest number of variables (in bytes).
For this purpose, a spec ial buffer area
is made available behind the software
Variables and units
ALU. All loc al variables generated by
the program are stored in this area. Type value minimum maximum
The remainder of the RAM memory is Byte numeric al 0 255
available as stac k spac e. Mic roPasc al
works ‘top down’, starting at the high- Word numeric al 0 65535
est memory loc ation ($FF). This system ShortInt numeric al -128 127
had to be adopted bec ause the c on- Integer numeric al -32768 327767
troller uses memory loc ations from $00
Boolean numeric al False True
upwards for its internal registers. The
proc essor’s own stac k is then loc ated Char c harac ter 1 c harac ter 1 c harac ter
immediately above these registers. String c harac ter 0 c harac ters size dependent
Both bloc ks are therefore allowed to
For a string, the size depends on alloc ated memory spac e.
grow towards eac h other as the pro-
When no length is spec ifed, the length is limited to 255 c harac ters.
gram is being exec uted, and no c on-

PC TOPICS——————————————— Elektor Elec tronic s EXTRA 9 - 1/99


Fig ure 2. A sp ec ia l c onfig ura tuon wind ow a llows the c ha ra c teristic s of the MCS-51 sys-
tem (‘terg et system ’) ot b e set up.
proc essed. Larger variables are modi-
fied with the aid of several instruc tions
having a width of one byte. To c om-
munic ate with the main program, it is
therefore rec ommended to use vari-
ables with a width of one byte.
Debugging
Eliminating errors in software is almost
invariably a tedious and time-c onsum-
ing ac tivity. Mic roPasc al has a number
of extra func tions available to simply
the deb ug ging p roc ess. Ad d itiona l
hardware has been designed in the
Fig ure 3. This flow d ia g ra m shows the ing enious m ethod s used b y the c om p iler to
d eterm ine wha t is m ea nt b y a sta tem ent in the sourc e c od e.
10 - 1/99 Elektor Elec tronic s EXTRA
form of a ROM emula tor (size
256 Kbytes). The c irc uit diagram and
PCB artwork for this design may be
found on the CD-ROM whic h c ontains
a number of prize-winning entries from
the 1998 Softwa re Desig n
Competition. This CD-ROM will be pub-
lished early January 1999. The rele-
vant file is c alled ROM emulator.DOC.
During the linking of a program, eac h
debugging loc ation has its own identi-
fic ation (a value between 0 and 255).
This value is saved by the c ompiler,
tog ether with the loc a tion of the
——————————————— PC TOPICS
debugging point (file name and line
number). The debugging proc edure is
implemented in the software by c all-
ing a func tion from the library that first
sends the identific ation, and then the
c ontents of the loc al and global mem-
ory. Mic roPasc al ‘knows’ whic h vari-
ables are visible at the debugging
point marked by the identific ation,
and displays the rec eived value plus
assoc iated variables.
This approac h requires three I/O pins
of the MCS-51 to be given a spec ific
func tion. Two outputs, one c arrying the
c loc k signal, the TxD line, plus one
input employed for handshaking. A
simp le ha nd sha king p rotoc ol is
employed. The c ontroller pulls bit 0 at
the data output logic low, and plac es
a low level on the c loc k line.
Mic roPasc al reads the level and pulls
the ac knowledge line logic low. Next,
the c ontroller pulls the c loc k signal
hig h g a in, whereup on Mic roPa sc a l
does the same with the ac knowledge
signal. The first bit is then transmitted.
This proc edure is c ompleted for all bits
that have to be sent, exc ept the last
one. With this b it, Mic roPa sc a l no
longer supplies an ac knowledge sig-
nal, c ausing the mic roc ontroller to
enter an infinite loop. During this peri-
od, the results may be viewed and
analysed on the PC display. Onc e all
relevant information is known, you only
have to ac tuate the menu option
‘Continue’ to transmit one ac knowl-
edge signal and so get the mic roc on-
troller out of its infinite loop. The pro-
gram is then c ontinues as before.
The primitive handshake was c hosen
to make sure reliable c ommunic ation
is available under all c irc umstanc es.
However, the pric e of three c ontroller
I/O pins may be too high in some
c ases, so that the func tion is optional.
System requirements
Mic roPasc al runs under Windows 95
and requires about 10 Mbytes of hard
disk spac e. If the optional ROM emu-
lator is employed, then you also need
a free bidirec tional printer port.
Mic roPasc al was developed for MCS-
51 mic roc ontrollers and c omes with a
library for these proc essors only. Users
requiring support for other mic roc on-
trollers will have to develop their own
libraries.
(992012-1)
New software to simulate logic c irc uits seems to hit
the streets every month, and most of you will be
aware that logic simulation on a PC is a good alter-
native to wiring up prototypes of digital c irc uits.
By J.P
. Strza lka
Lo g i c Si m u l a t o r 2 .0
F i r s t p r i z e , Fr a n ce
The logic simulation program ‘Simulat
2.0’ was awarded the First National
Prize for Competition entries sent to our
Frenc h editorial department. The pro-
gram is aimed at students, teac hers
and hobbyists wishing to widen their
knowledge of sequential and c ombi-
natory logic c irc uit design.
Simula t 2.0 a llows you to d ra w
sc hematic s of logic c irc uits in a win-
dow displayed on your PC monitor.
Onc e you think the sc hematic is c om-
plete, you launc h a simulation run
using virtual switc hes, displays or other
indic ators and devic es to c ontrol and
visualize the way the logic c irc uit oper-
ates (or not!). Simulat 2.0 is c apable of
handling four sc hematic s at a time.
PC TOPICS ——————————————
Program installation
The program is easy to install under the
Windows 95 operating system.
Selec t ‘Run’ from the Start menu, type
‘X:\setup’, and then press the Return
key, where ‘X:’ is the letter of the drive
sta tion tha t ha s the ‘setup ’ file.
Alternatively, use the ‘Browse’ option to
get assistanc e from Windows 95 in
looking for the setup program. If you
use the Elektor CD-ROM whic h c on-
tains the present projec t, navigate to
the subdirec tory /F/01 where you will
find setup.exe.
The insta lla tion p rog ra m b uild s a
group of three programs. The group is
c alled ‘Simulat’, and it will c ontain
three ic ons. The first ic on in the group
Elektor Elec tronic s EXTRA
a il a
·a v
bl
t wa r e
so PC
e ·o n·c
ft
'9 8 w
- '9a r e
9
f
d-
o
r om s
allows you to ac tually launc h Simulat.
To do so, double-c lic k on this ic on with
the left-hand mouse button. In this way
you start the simulator program.
Schematic capture
The program enables you to c reate c ir-
c uit diagrams. For this func tion it offers
a number of tools that allow users to
inc lude elementary logic elements like
gates, flip-flops, adders, multiplexers,
demultiplexers, timers or c ounters in
your sc hema tic . A ra ther c omp lex
example of such a circuit is shown by
the screendump in Figure 1. This is
actually a counter circuit.
Simulation program
The ‘penc il’ tool allows you to c onnec t
logic gates. Only right angles are pos-
sible for the ‘wires’. To use the penc il,
pic k it from the Tools bar, and left-c lic k
on an input or output of a logic oper-
ator. Next, move the mouse to the
operator you want to c onnec t up, and
then release the mouse button.
The ‘Copy’ utility of Simulat also sup-
ports the use of the Clipboard to c ut,
c opy, delete and paste elements in
your c irc uit diagram.
Simulat has deletion utilities: for logic
operators, c onnec tions and junc tions.
To delete an objec t, selec t the c orre-
sponding utility from the Tool bar.
The sc hematic may be spic ed up a bit
by text with or without a frame. It is pos-
sible to c hoose fonts, c olours and
c harac ter sizes, as well as text orienta-
tion (vertic al or horizontal). The user
may c hoose the frame c olour, shade
11 - 1/99

and the frame type. Frame size is auto-
matic ally adjusted to the amount of
text and c harac ter height selec ted by
the user.
It is possible to write up some c om-
ment with eac h sc hematic . The length
of the c omment text is limited to 50
c harac ters.
Tools
The panoply of utilities found in the
working subdirec tory is c omplement-
ed by a powerful ‘spec ial logic ’ c al-
c ulator whic h is c apable of perform-
ing spec ial func tions like number c on-
versions and shift-right /shift-left opera-
tions. Using binary number notation,
the range of operands is adjustable
from eight bits to double 32-bit words.
In addition, a truth table is available to
help you remember the func tion of the
main logic operators. This useful little
tool pops up on the sc reen if you
selec t the c orresponding c ommand. A
simple mouse c lic k on one of the logic
operator types in the sc roll list instantly
displays the assoc iated truth table and
the c orresponding logic symbol.
Circuit simulation
Ha ving d ra wn a nd sa ved your
sc hematic , you are ready to launc h
the c irc uit simulator. The program will
12 - 1/99 Elektor Elec tronic s EXTRA
test all c onnec tions and display its
findings as the test progresses. Any
error enc ountered in this proc ess, is
made known to you by means of dia-
log ue b oxes. If Simula t d oes not
enc ounter errors, it is possible to oper-
a te the virtua l switc hes, ind ic a tor
la mp s, d isp la ys a nd thumb wheel
switc hes, and so set up and manipu-
late various c onditions to whic h the vir-
tual logic c irc uit responds.
The links in the c irc uit diagram are
shown in different c olours depending
on their logic level. You c an read the
logic level of an operator by left-c lic k-
ing on the operator input or output.
The c ursor will then c hange to a sym-
bol indic ating ‘zero’ or ‘one’.
Simulat 2.0 also c omes with a logic
osc illosc ope c apable of displaying up
to five signals taken from points you
indic ate in the c irc uit diagram. The
osc illosc ope is ‘triggered’ by either a
rising or a falling pulse edge detec ted
on one of the five input c hannels. If the
osc illosc ope trac e is not stable, you
may insert a trigger delay to keep this
virtual instrument sync hronized.
Osc illosc ope trac es may be c opied
onto the Clipboard, or saved in a file.
Furthermore, sc ope trac es may be
sent to the printer to produc e hard
c opy, at a sc aling fac tor you selec t.
Alternatively, Simulat c an c ompute the
sc ale value needed to adapt the size
of the drawing to that of the paper in
the printer.
Logic equations
Simulat allows you to determine logic
equations based on a sc hematic .
The c a lc ula tion b ox id entified a s
‘Equations’ allows you to print equa-
tions that belong with a c irc uit dia-
gram, using a number of options (line
spac ing, separation, page number,
——————————————— PC TOPICS
etc .). Equations may be saved on the
Clipboard or in a file on your disk. It is
also possible to c ompute a partial
equation. To do so, you c lic k on the
c orresponding button shown by the
dialogue box. Simulat then temporari-
ly c loses the box to enable you to c lic k
on the desired logic gate. Onc e that is
d one, the d ia log ue b ox p op s up
again on the sc reen, showing the
logic equation against a red bac k-
ground.
Library
Circ uit elements may be saved in
order to build a library of basic build-
ing bloc ks.
To d o so, you c hoose the op tion
‘Copy’ and then limit the selec tion to
the desired elements by means of a
dashed box. Next, you ac tuate the
c ommand ‘save model to disk’ whic h
may be found in the menu c alled
‘Library’.
Finally, you may selec t the c ommand
‘Load model from memory’. This c aus-
es a c ertain element to be retrieved
from the library and plac ed at the
desired loc ation in the c urrent window.
Utilities & button palettes
The palettes (bars) c ontaining utilities
and buttons allow you to c hange the
appearanc e of the program on the
PC sc reen. Mod ifying the utilities
palette allows you to inc rease the
ac tually visible area in the window
c onta ining the sc hema tic you a re
working on. In this way, you will be
able to see more of your sc hematic .
These palettes may be moved around
to a ny loc a tion you wa nt on the
sc reen. Furthermore, the palettes and
toolbars may be ‘hidden’ to c reate
even more spac e on the sc reen.

Printing
Simula t 2.0 c a n p rovid e a Print
Preview. This dialogue box allows you
to selec t the printable area, the sc ale,
page margins, c ontents of the ID box,
a nd other p rinter c onfig ura tions,
before the print job is started.
The buttons in the dialogue box are
‘repeat’ types, allowing the relevant
c omma nd to b e issued a g a in b y
keeping the c ursor on the button rep-
resenting the desired c ommand.
Compatibility is assured with any print-
er a lrea d y func tioning in g ra p hic s
mode, and driven by other applic a-
tions running under Windows.
To print an ID box with the sc hematic ,
c lic k on the button ‘Cartouc he’. A dia-
logue box pops up whic h allows you to
define the text fields whic h are to
appear in the ID box.
Paper margins may be set in the dia-
log ue b ox ‘Pa g e Setup ’ (‘Mise en
Page’). In the title bar the program dis-
play the paper dimensions and the
printable area. These two values will of
c ourse depend on the printer you
have c onnec ted up to your PC.
Help system
A powerful, c ontext-sensitive help sys-
tem is available.
To g et help , you c lic k on the
‘Contextual Help’ symbol in the button
bar. Next, you c lic k your way through
the Help menu to get to the item you
need help on.
File management
The file management system allows
you to stay organized as far as your
sc hematic s are c onc erned.
The system offers you a number of pos-
PC TOPICS ——————————————
sibilities for c opying, moving, loading,
opening and deleting your sc hemat-
ic s. It also supports displaying file
properties of disk drives, and free
spac e on the hard disk.
Miscellaneous matters
Bec ause Simulat 2.0 runs under the
Windows 95 operating system, you are
able to c opy c omplete sc reens into
the Clipboard, and from there move
them to other applic ations like MS
Write, etc ., in order to c reate doc u-
ments (useful for educ ational/didac tic
purposes).
Simula t 2.0 sup p orts the Multip le
Doc ument (MD) system. The program
allows you to work on four c irc uit dia-
grams simultaneously. The names of
the sc hematic s are displayed in the
‘Window’ menu (‘Fenetre’). You c an
c hange between c irc uit diagrams in
three ways:
- by left-c lic king anywhere in the win-
dow of the sc hematic to be ac tivated;
- by c lic king on the name of the
sc hematic as listed in the ‘Window’
menu;
- by selec ting the ‘Next’ option from
the System menu in a window.
Simulat 2.0 also supports the OLE 2.0
system. The linking and embedding
func tions allow Simulat 2.0 to ac c ept
different data types and objec ts pro-
duc ed with other programs. The main
differenc e between linking an objec t
and embedding it c onc erns the way
in whic h data is stored: embedded
objec ts form part of a sc hematic (i.e.,
Elektor Elec tronic s EXTRA
they are integrated into the file), while
linked objec ts remain stored in the
original (sourc e) file. The sc hematic
then only keeps information relating to
the loc ation of the objec t in the sourc e
file.
Circ uit diagram files may be selec ted
and moved into the simulation win-
dow. Using the file management sys-
tem you ma y p ic k one or more
sc hematic s and drop them in the sim-
ulation window. Onc e the c ursor is on
the p rog ra m wind ow, relea se the
mouse button, and the selec ted files
are loaded into the simulator. Note
that Simulat 2.0 c an only handle four
sc hematic s at a time.
System requirements
You will need to have Windows 95
installed (or a later version). The PC
should have a 386 proc essor or better,
4 Mbytes of RAM, a VGA c ard and a
mouse. Simula t 2.0 req uires a b out
6 Mbytes of free spac e on your hard
disk.
Note: The version desc ribed here supports
a ma ximum of 100 c omp onents. The
author c an supply a larger version.
(992014-1)
13 - 1/99

Temperature Rec order employs a DS1620 transduc er
and an AT89C1051 RISC mic roc ontroller to rec ord
and storing temperature values. The mic roc ontroller
effec tively c onnec ts the transduc er to the serial port
(RS-232) on your PC.
By Jo hn Th. Ko kko ri
t e m p e r a t u r e r e co r d e r
Fir st P r iz e , UK n a t io n a l e n t r ie s
Figure 1. Circ uit d ia gra m of the intelligent interfa c e a nd its c onnec tion to the PC ’s seria l p ort.
Thanks to an Atmel 89C1051 c ontroller
in the p urp ose-d esig ned interfa c e
shown in Figure 1, the system is c apa-
ble of performing temperature read-
ing s a nd storing mea sured va lues
while the PC is off. Also, the ac tual ther-
mometer may be loc ated at quite
some distanc e from the host PC. The
PC, when switc hed on, may request
the temperature readings from the
interfac e, and use them to display a
temperature graph. The interfac e is
built on a small printed c irc uit board
as shown in Figure 2.
14 - 1/99 Elektor Elec tronic s EXTRA
Program description
Temp era ture Rec ord er is a the interval is 10 minutes.
Win95/98/NT a p p lic a tion written in
Visual Basic 5. This program allows you
to selec t the COM Port to whic h the
thermometer is c onnec ted, as well as
define the value of parameter ‘RATE’
whic h is the interval between two tem-
perature readings. This is defined by
the equation
TIME = ( RATE + 1 )* 30 [sec onds]
For example, if RATE is 0, the sampling
——————————————— PC TOPICS
va il ab
a
le
wa r e·
so f PC
·o n ·c d
'9 8t- wa r e
'9 9
f t
-r
o m so
interval is 30 sec onds, and if RATE is 19
Using ‘Rea d Buffer Da ta ’ you c a n
prompt the mic roc ontroller to transmit
its buffer c ontents to the PC. Before
you start the transfer you should enter,
in the ‘Filename’ field, the name of the
file whic h is to c ontain the temperature
readings (see Figure 3). Alternatively,
or you c an c hoose an existing file by
c lic king on ‘File’ and then ‘Selec t File
...’. Having selec ted the file you may
press the ‘Start’ button, whereupon the
disc rete temperature values will be
written into the file. You will also see the
time, date and the value of the last
temperature reading. If you press the
‘Show Graph’ button the system pre-
sents a graphic display of the mea-
surement results.

Installing the program

To install the program you simply run
the ‘Setup’ file.
If you have a different version of Visual
Basic installed on your PC you may
have a problem with the installation. In
that c ase, do not stop the installation.
Onc e Setup has finished, c opy all files,
except ‘Vb c trls.reg ’ from the d isk
‘Temp_Rec / PATCH’, to the Windows
system d irec tory, then run the file
‘Vb c trls.reg ’ from the ‘Temp _Rec /
PATCH’ disk. This will update the rele-
vant files in the system direc tory, and
the program should then work.

All files available!

The software as supplied for the Elektor
Elec tronic s Software Design Contest
inc ludes all the sourc e c odes for the
Figure 2. PCB a rtwork a s sup p lied b y the a uthor.
Temp_Rec Program (in V.Basic 5), the
asm, hex files for the mic roc ontroller
and the PCB artwork and sc hematic
files (Protel files and image files) for the
thermometer.
All software c omponents as supplied
by the author may be found on a CD-
ROM c ontaining winning entries from
the 1998 Software Design Contest. This
CD-ROM will b e a va ila b le ea rly
January 1999.
992013-1

Figure 3. Sc reend um p showing

Tem p era ture Rec ord er in a c tion.

PC TOPICS —————————————— Elektor Elec tronic s EXTRA 15 - 1/99

electronics on-line
datasheets
component documentation
Designing electronic circuits
almost invariably calls for
extensive descriptions of the
operation and typical appli-
cation of the more complex
components in your design.
Although a fair amount of
documentation may be
found in databooks and CD-
ROMs (like Elektor’s
Datasheet Collection Vol. 1 w ith man y man u factu rers. It is, h ow - guage web site of Conrad has been ‘on
ever, not a free service. None the less, it the air ’ for some time at
and 2), the Internet is also a is still of interest to the hobbyist because www.conrad-electronic.com
vast resource when it comes the program may be used on a 30-day
trial basis, and up to 10 datasheets may
it d oes n ot (or n ot yet) offer th e
datasheet service available on the web
to finding datasheets. be downloaded free of charge. site ru n by th e m oth er com p an y in
Th ere are also sites p rovid in g th eir Germany, at
own component databases or links for www.conrad.de/index/html
Th ese d ays, m an y m an u factu rers of that purpose. An example is the Com- Search in g for a p articu lar p art is n ot
electron ic com p on en ts u se In tern et ponent Database Server of the Center easy, and the Conrad catalogue should
sites to offer vast am ou n ts of d ata on for Electronic Design, Communications be u sed alon gsid e th e in form ation on
th eir p rod u cts. Th is service is u su ally an d Com p u tin g (CEDCC) at Pen n web pages.
free of charge and available to anyone. State Un iversity, USA. Cu rren tly, th is Finally, there is Leeds-based Farnell at
Most datasheets are available in the so- server holds mainly Motorola and Har- www.farnell.com/uk/index.html
called PDF form at w h ich can be read ris component datasheets. Th eir w eb site con tain s d atash eets on
an d p rin ted by th e p op u lar Acrobat Component suppliers, too, are starting no fewer than 1500 components, and is
Read er from Ad obe. Th is read er p ro- to offer datasheets by means of online certainly worth a visit.
gram is free of ch arge, an d m ay be services. Alth ou gh th e En glish -lan - (995005-1)
d ownload ed from www.adobe.com/sup-
portservice/custsupport/download.html
O ften , th e m ain p roblem is to locate
th e d atash eet of a p articu lar com p o-
n en t. Th e good n ew s is th at sp ecial
search en gin es are available to h elp
you find what you want. Partminer is
a good exam p le, it m ay be fou n d at
www.partminer.com/partminer/index.html.
Using a helper program (which may be
d ow n load ed free of ch arge), you can
start lookin g for typ e n u m bers an d
descriptions. Partminer then makes the
con n ection s w ith th e relevan t m an u -
facturer sites, and starts looking there.
You can rep ort n ew man u factu rers to
Partm in er for in clu sion in th e search
overview.
An oth er d atash eet search en gin e is
called WebStir. You may find it at
webstir.infoquick.com/iq-home.html.
Like Partminer, this engine offers exten-
sive in formation an d search op tion s

Elektor Electronics 1/99 11

GENERAL INTEREST

home alarm system

programmable burglar deterrent
with a PC interface

Crime in general is
still on the rise, and
having an alarm sys-
tem installed is no
longer a privilege of
the wealthy. This arti-
cle shows that an
advanced alarm sys-
tem to protect your
home and valuables
can be very compact
indeed. Using the PC,
the authorized user is
able to program the
main parameters of
the alarm system.

a t ure s
Ma i n f e PIC17-6F8
b its
4
/s
19,200
d elayed
Proc esso
r: d irec t and r siren
Serial p o rt: relay fo
ts : b uzzer
Inp u
losed
Outp uts: normally c
ation:
User ind ic
n tac ts: one d ialle
r
Alarm c o p tional p h s
Interf a c e fo r o 20 sec ond
ystem s
h to arm s lt): 1 to 255 s ec o n d
Key switc (d efau o nd s
d elay 1 to 99 se
c
Ac tuation :
m e
Siren on ti c tuation d elay:
a
Ad justab le ator
e d ’ in d ic
‘Arm
att ery b a c k-up
B
Design by H. Sommen

Elektor Electronics 1/99

12
By p op u lar d em an d , PIC p rocessors 12V 5V 12V
an d alarm system s are tw o su bjects
which are often covered in this maga-
1 R11
D5
K9

12k
IC3d IC3e RE1
zin e. In th is article, you fin d th e tw o IC3a 8 10
K8 R12 14
com bin ed in a p rogram m able alarm 100k
1
1
2
IC3 1 1 1N4148
C11
system for home construction. Here, a 7
9 11 T3
PIC processor is employed as the logic 470n R13
5V
10k
‘glu e’ betw een th e variou s sen sors
DELAYED
(d etection d evices) an d alarm actu a- IC3 = 4069
BC547
R6

tors. Besides this function, the PIC also 12V

47Ω
h an d les all com m u n ication betw een R9 5V

12k
the alarm system and an (optional) PC IC3b
BZ1

of the IBM/compatible type. K7 R10

3 4 C5
100k 1
Usin g a sim p le RS232 lin k an d a C10
stan d ard termin al p rogram, th e main 100n
T2
470n R5
p aram eters of th e alarm , in clu d in g 10k
alarm time, may be programmed. IMMEDIATE
O p tion ally, th e alarm m ay be 14 BC547
K5 5V
exten d ed w ith a sep arate telep h on e 1 4 6 K4
MCLR RB0
dialler, which allows ‘silent signalling’ 6 D3 7
T1
RB1 R4
to be implemented. The relevant hard- 2 18
RA0 IC2 RB2
8
10k
ware is not discussed in this article, but 7
R2
BAT85 17
RA1 RB3
9
3 1 10
w e in ten d to cover it in a fu tu re issu e 1k RA2 RB4 BC547
8 2 11 DIALER
of Elektor Electronics. A com m ercially 4
D4
3
RA3
PIC16C84
RB5
12
available dialler unit may be connected 5V RA4 RB6 5V D8
9 13
BAT85 RB7
to a dedicated output on the alarm sys- 5
R1 OSC1 OSC2 R15 R14
tem. If the alarm goes off, transistor T1 16 15 5
1k

1k
10k
w ill con d u ct for abou t on e secon d — X1

lon g en ou gh to actu ate an extern al D7

C7 C6 S1
dialler. ON/OFF IC3f 12V
K3
13 12 22p 8MHz 22p
1
THE AP P RO ACH C8 R7

12k
The circuit diagram of the home alarm 470n IC3c
K6
system is given in Figure 1. Th e con - K1 D1 6 5
R8
1 100k
nections to the various alarm detection 12V C9
d evices have been kept as simple and 1N4001 IC1
R3
7805 5V 470n
u n iversal as p ossible. Assu m in g th at
1k

devices with normally-closed (nc) con- TAMPER

tacts are u sed , bu ffer in p u ts (IC3a- K2 D2

IC3d ) are p u lled low via a grou p of C4 C1 C2 C3

1N4001
connection terminals (K3, K6, K7, K8). Bt1
100µ 100n 100n 10µ
63V 63V
A pull-up resistor and a 470-nF afford
ample noise suppression. 980091 - 11

Th e con n ection
point of the main switch Figure 1. The program
(K3) has an extra indica- stashed away in the PIC
tor. If LED D6 is on, the processor allows the
alarm system is arm ed . hardware to be kept very th at all ‘n c’ d etec- w h en you com e h om e, you are
Th is in p u t is th erefore simple indeed. tion d evices are in form ed th at th e alarm w en t off at
best con n ected to a key connected in series least on ce d u rin g you r absen ce. Th e
switch. and to this input. If LED activity can be cleared by pressing
Th e d etection d evice con n ected to any one of the switches is opened, the reset button S1.
terminal block K8 is ‘interpreted’ with d etection loop is in terru p ted , an d th e What remains to be discussed at this
an ad ju stable d elay (for exam p le, 20 alarm is set off. point are the connections of the power
seconds). When the alarm is armed, an The last input is the ‘tamper ’ input. su p p ly an d th e lead -acid battery. Th e
in tegrated bu zzer starts to sou n d to The switch protecting the alarm enclo- power supply (approx. 13 V) has to be
ind icate that a contact in this group is sure is connected to this input. If some- connected to terminal block K1, while
op en ed w ith in th e d elay p eriod . Th is on e attem p ts to op en th e en closu re th e 12-V lead -acid battery goes to K2.
d elay is n eed ed to leave th e bu ild in g while the alarm is in the ‘armed’ state, The battery is kept topped up via resis-
without setting off the alarm. The door this will not go unnoticed because the tor R3. Th e th ree-p in regu lator in th e
you normally use to leave the building alarm will go off. power supply section provides the cor-
is therefore connected to the ‘delayed’ Th e alarm actu ator (for exam p le, a rect su p p ly voltage for th e m icrocon -
input. siren ) is sw itch ed by relay Re1. Th is troller in the alarm control unit.
Wh en you en ter th e bu ild in g, th e relay will be energized for a program- Th e battery u sed in th e alarm sys-
sam e d elay is available to d e-activate mable period when an alarm condition tem should have sufficient capacity to
th e alarm . H ow ever, th e bu zzer w ill is d etected . Th e d efau lt ‘on ’ tim e is power the alarm control unit, the siren
n ot sou n d d u rin g th is p eriod to p re- 180 secon d s. Usin g th e PC, h ow ever, (or flashlight) and the telephone dialler.
vent it giving away the location of the you may set any period between 1 and Th e battery is in corp orated in th e
alarm control unit. 255 seconds. design to ensure that the alarm system
The alarm contacts connected-up to If an alarm condition has occurred, keep s w orkin g w h en th e m ain s elec-
term in al block K7 p rod u ce an in stan t an d th e siren h as been sw itch ed off, tricity system is tampered with by bur-
alarm w h en op en ed . Th e u p sh ot is LED D8 w ill rem ain on . In th is w ay, glars.

Elektor Electronics 1/99 13

 - + K1 T3
S1 BZ1 K2 + - 0 + COMPONENTS LIST
R14 BT1
2 D8
C5 T2 C3 Resistors:

R6
R5
K5 R1,R2,R3,R14 = 1kΩ
R13 D1 D5

D4

R15
R4,R5,R13,R15 = 10kΩ

D3
D2
IC2
R3
R6 = 47Ω

IC1
R7,R9,R11 = 12kΩ

IC3

C1
X1 C4 1-190089 R8,R10,R12 = 100kΩ

R4
ROTKELE )C(

RE1
R10
R12
R8

C2
Capacitors:
R2 980091-1 C1,C2,C5 = 100nF
C6 C7 R1 R7 R9 R11 C3 = 10µF 63V radial
C8 D7
C4 = 100µF 63V radial

C11
K8 DELAY C10
T1
C9 C6,C7 = 22pF
DIAL

K3 ON/OFF

K6 TAMPER
C8,C9,C10,C11 = 470nF

IMM
Semiconductors:
K4

K7

K9
D1,D2 = 1N4001
D3,D4 = BAT85
Figure 2. Copper track layout and compo- D5 = 1N4148
nent mounting plan of the printed circuit D6,D7 = LED, red, high efficiency
board designed fore the alarm system. T1,T2,T3 = BC547

START
3
Repeat = 180

Del_rep = 20 Bit on_off = OFF

Del_rep2 = 20 Is
repeat Y
10
Loopcnt = 0 ?
N
Alarmbit = OFF
Repeat -1 Dial = ON

Siren = OFF
Is Repeat -1
repeat Y
Dial = OFF 0
?
N
On_off = OFF Siren = OFF

RS232on_off = OFF Repeat = 1

Wait 1 sec

Loopcnt +1
Figure 3. Flow dia-
Dial = OFF
gram of the main
program written for
Is
Dial = ON the home alarm sys-
Y
loopcnt
> 250
tem. The relevant
? Siren = ON source code file is
Loopcnt = 249
N available on floppy
Alarmbit = ON
disk.
Is
contact Y
ON Is Repeat = 180
? alarmbit Y
N ON
?
Is Y N
RS232on_off
ON Is
? tamper Y Is
Bit on_off = ON loopcnt Y
N ON
? < 21
N
?
Is N
Y
bit on_off Is Bit on_off = OFF
ON group1 Y Bit on_off = OFF
? ON
N ? Beep 1 second
N Del_rep2 -1
Alarmbit = OFF
Is Del_rep -1
group2 Y Is
Loopcnt = 0 ON del_rep2 Y
? 0
? Is
N Y del_rep
Del_rep = 20 N 0
Bit on_off = OFF ?
Del_rep2 = 20 N

Siren = OFF

980091 - 12

14 Elektor Electronics 1/99

 IC1 = PIC16F84
(order code 986519-1)
IC2 = 7805
IC3 = 4069

Miscellaneous:
K1-K4,K6-K9 = 2-way PCB terminal
block, raster 5mm
K5 = 9-way sub-D socket (female), (C) ELEKTOR
980091-1
PCB mount, angled pins
Bz1 = piezo buzzer, 5V DC
X1 = 8 MHz quartz crystal
S1 = push-button, 1 make contact
Re1 = 12-V relay, 1 change-over con-
tact (e.g., Siemens V23057-B0001-
A002)
PCB, PIC and floppy disk (set),
order code 980091-C
PCB only, order code 980091-1
Source code disk only,
order code 986028-1. resu lts of th ese ‘in terrogation ’ activi- con n ect a real ‘d u m b’ term in al), an d
ties, the processor determines whether select th ese com m u n ication p aram e-
or not an alarm condition has to be sig- ters:
nalled. Because the program has a rel- 19,200 bits/s, even parity, 8 databits and 1
atively simple structure, new features stopbit.
O P TI O N AL are easily ad d ed w ith th e aid of th e ‘Local echo’ should be enabled on the
PC CONTROL source code file, which is available sep- terminal. Press the Return key and fol-
Serial com m u n ication w ith you r PC arately on flop p y d isk (ord er cod e low the instructions on the screen. The
takes place via 9-way connector K5. On 986028-1). new parameters are effective after you
th e p rin ted circu it board , all relevan t Serial commu n ication between th e sw itch th e alarm con trol off an d on
h an d sh akin g sign als are available, PC an d th e alarm con trol u n it is on ly again . Th e screen d u m p in Figu re 4
allow in g a stan d ard (com m ercially possible in ‘stand by ’ mod e, i.e., when sh ow s th e in form ation w h ich sh ou ld
available) RS232 cable to be used. Resis- the switch contact on K3 is open. Run appear on the terminal display.
tor R2 an d d iod es D3 an d D4 con vert a term in al p rogram on you r PC (or (980091-1)
the RS232 signal levels on the interface
in to TTL levels th at can be p rocessed
by the alarm circuit.
Figure 4. The home alarm system is easy to program if
CONSTRUCTION you have a terminal or a PC running a communication
Building this circuit should not present program like Telix, ProComm or HyperTerminal.
problems because a ready-made high-
qu ality p rin ted circu it board (PCB) is
available from th e Pu blish ers (see th e
Components List, and the Readers Ser-
vices page elsewhere in this issue). The
cop p er track layou t an d com p on en t-
mou n tin g p lan of th is comp act board
are given in Figure 2.

S I LI CO N H E ART
The PIC processor in the present pro-
ject underlines the fact that microcon-
trollers allow load s of fu n ction ality to
be combined in a single compact case.
H ere, th e p rocessor ticks at a rate of
8 MHz.
Th e con trol softw are p rogram m ed
into controller ROM consists of a large
loop w h ich is rep eated every secon d .
As shown by the flow diagram in Fig-
ure 3, th e basic stru ctu re of th e p ro-
gram boils down to continuous testing
of bits and/or input levels. Based on the

Elektor Electronics 1/99 15

RADIO, TELEVISION & VIDEO

general-coverage
receiver
part 1: circuit descriptions

This two-
part article
describes an
AM/FM/SSB
receiver for the
frequency range
0.15 – 32 MHz,
which is generally
(but incorrectly)
referred to as ‘the
shortwave bands’.
The receiver is micro-
processor controlled
and avoids many of M a i n Sp e ci f i ca t i o n s
the pitfalls traditionally ➧ Double conversion superheterodyne receiver, 1st IF 45 MHz,
2nd IF 455 kHz
associated with RF ➧ Microprocessor control of synthesizer tuning and other receiver
construction. functions
➧ 150 kHz to 32 MHz tuning range in 1-kHz steps.
➧ Selectable selectivity: 3 kHz (narrow) or 12 kHz (wide)
➧ Internal 6-band preselector with automatic band switchover
➧ 12-key keyboard for frequency entry,
mode and bandwidth selection
➧ 16-character LCD shows receive mode, bandwidth, frequency
and preselector band
➧ Memory for 21 frequencies, incl. bandwidth and mode
➧ Spurious product rejection > 50 dB
➧ Audio output power approx. 1 W into 8 Ω.
➧ Power supply 15 V, max. 400 mA (approx. 90 mA without audio
and LCD backlight)
Design by G. Baars, PE1GIC

Elektor Electronics 1/99

18
The receiver we’re about to describe is
the prod uct of many hours of d esign-
in g, testin g an d p rogram m in g by th e
author, a licensed rad io amateur from
th e N eth erlan d s. Th rou gh ou t th e
design process, the emphasis has been
on rep eatability, ease of con stru ction
an d avoid an ce of m an y of th e p itfalls
com m on ly associated w ith bu ild in g
radio equipment. As many of you will
avow, th e tw o best kn ow n p itfalls are
winding your own coils and non-avail-
ability of specialized test equipment to
align the receiver, or, indeed, any other
RF project you may want to build.
So how are these problems solved?
Well, the present receiver has only one
in d u ctor you h ave to w in d you rself,
an d th e u se of read y-mad e filters an d
1 455 kHz
PRESELECTOR
MIXER 1
RF GAIN
Band
Select
TUNING
rotary
encoder
Keyboard
LCD
transformers in the IF sections obviates
th e n eed for com p lex con stru ction s
an d ad ju stm en ts. If you are a carefu l
bu ild er w ith som e exp erien ce in RF
tech n ology, th en th e receiver sh ou ld
w ork sp ot-on , an d a m in im u m of
ad ju stm en ts is n eed ed to tw eak it for
op tim u m p erform an ce. Th e good
n ew s is th at th ese ad ju stm en ts on ly
require the built-in S meter, your hear-
ing ability, and possibly a voltmeter.
THE CONCEPT
The block diagram of the general-cov-
erage receiver is sh ow n in Figure 1.
The design is that of a double-conver-
sion su p erh eterod yn e receiver w ith a
‘h igh IF’, w h ich m ean s th at th e first
in term ed iate frequ en cy (IF) is w ell
above the highest receive frequency.
Th e an ten n a sign al is first taken
th rou gh a p reselector stage w h ose
Elektor Electronics
m ain p u rp ose is to red u ce th e risk of
in terferen ce an d cross-m od u lation
products caused by very strong signals.
The preselector is manually tuned for
best performance. The second function
of th e p reselector is to m ake th e
receiver input virtually independent of
th e an ten n a u sed : in fact, an yth in g
ran gin g from a sim p le telescop e
antenna to a full-blown ‘beam’ (with a
cable im p ed an ce of 50 Ω) or a lon g-
wire may be connected. Alternatively,
for in d oor u se, con sid er a sm all m ag-
netic-loop antenna such as the superb
DJ8IL design described in the Septem-
ber 1998 issue of Elektor Electronics.
The preselector is followed by a pre-
am p lifier stage w ith m an u ally
adjustable gain. Here, again, one of the
44.545 MHz
IF 1
45 MHz
12 kHz
455 kHz
MIXER 2
3 kHz
VCO
÷ 64
÷ 65
S meter
WIDE
Synthesizer
NARROW
FM
AM
SSB
Figure 1. Block diagram of the general coverage receiver.
The design is a double conversion superheterodyne with
high-side injection for the first LO. The use of a ‘high’ first
IF (45 MHz) guarantees a minimum of in-band generated
spurious products while also reducing the risk of IF break-
through. Note that many functions are controlled by a cen-
tral microprocessor.
most important design considerations
is to keep strong signals away from the
in p u t of th e n ext stage, th e m ixer. If
you are n ew to sh ortw ave recep tion ,
th en rem em ber th at you r m ain con -
cern is not dredging in the noise to get
th e w eakest p ossible sign al into th e
receiver, bu t to keep m u lti-m egaw att
signals out.
Th e local oscillator (LO ) sign al for
the first mixer is supplied by a synthe-
siser circu it w h ich can be tu n ed in
step s of 1 kH z across th e ran ge
45.150 MH z to 77.000 MH z. Th e syn -
th esizer con sists of th e u su al in gred i-
en ts: a VCO (voltage-con trolled oscil-
lator) a p rescaler, an d a loop filter for
1/99
suppression of the reference frequency
(h ere, 1 kH z). Like a n u m ber of oth er
sub-circuits in the receiver, the synthe-
sizer is digitally controlled by a central
microprocessor.
The output signal of the first mixer
is taken through a 45 MHz filter with a
bandwidth of about 15 kHz. The main
function of the filter is to suppress the
image frequ en cy of th e secon d mixer,
w h ich occu rs at 44.090 MH z
(44.545–0.455).
Th e first IF sign al (45 MH z) is h et-
erod yned d own to 455 kHz by means
of the second mixer and the second LO
sign al, w h ich is su p p lied by a crystal
oscillator operating at 44.545 MHz. The
mixer is followed by two bandpass fil-
ters, one with a width of 3 kHz for ‘nar-
FM
DEM.
IF 2
455 kHz
AM
DEM.
SSB DET.
AGC
BFO VOLUME
980084 - 11
row-band’ mode (SSB), and one with a
width of 12 kHz for FM and AM recep-
tion. The gain of all IF amplifier stages
(45 MHz and 455 kHz) is controlled by
an AGC circu it (au tom atic gain con -
trol). Becau se th e AGC voltage is a
m easu re of th e received sign al
stren gth , it can also be u sed to d rive
the S-meter.
Th e last 455-kH z am p lifier d rives
two d emod ulators (for AM/FM recep-
tion ), an d a p rod u ct d etector (for SSB
recep tion .) Th e oscillator in th e p rod -
u ct d etector can be p u lled a little to
allow USB/LSB selection. The relevant
control is labelled BFO (beat frequency
oscillator). Analogue switches are used
19
 C1 C83

2 1 st MIXER 9V
6p8 C2 C4 C6 C8 C10 C12 220p
R9 R12 R67 R15 L12 C21
10n 10n 10n 10n 10n 10n
C20 C104
*

680Ω
100k

47k

68k
L2
D14 100n 0µH56 22p 100n
1mH5

L1 L3 L4 L5 L6 L7 9V
C23

2V1
BB112 L13
0...9V T2 15p R18
L8 L10 C19 1 2
1mH5 0mH82 120µH 18µH 3µH3 0µH68 R7 R8 1k
C15 0...2V8
1M 100k T1 4µH7 4µH7
R10
D2 D4 D6 D8 D10 D12 220p 2V1 3
100n 330k L9 L11 BF961 45M15AU
D1 D3 D5 D7 D9 D11 D13 2V9 1V8
C14 0V 0µH33 0µH22
R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R11
BF961 R13 R14 R16 R17
C3 C5 C7 C9 C11 C13 C16 C17 C18 C22
BB112 100n

330Ω

330Ω

330Ω

330Ω

330Ω

330Ω

33k

15k

33k

180Ω

3k3
P1 P2
50k 50k 10p 10p
100n 100n 100n 100n 100n 100n 100n 100n

PRESELECTOR RF-GAIN C24

Q0 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5
* zie tekst D1...D12 = BA479S
56p

* see text
* siehe Text
* voir texte 9V
L23
5V
R23 R24 R44 R47 100µH
9V C70 C71 C76 C100 C79 C82

270Ω

560Ω
5k6

5k6
L15
SFR455J
R20 C26 R21 100n 100n 100n 10µ 63V 100n 100n
1 2 WIDE VFO R46
C25 2K2 10k 2
5V5 15k 4V6 2V3 5
10n C27 1V7 R22 C67 C69
T5
100n 3kHz 4 3 5
0V2
NARROW
0V
R45 C75 R53 0V/5V
10k 8 IC4 6 8 11
47Ω IN MC MC CLK SCLK

33k
D15 10n D16 100n 100n 12
L14 1 4 1n MB501-L 2V5 C78 DATA SDATA
T6 1 4 10 13
2x
BA182 4T
*
L21
BF245C C68 2V4 IN OUT FIN IC5 EN SENABLE
L16 C77 1n
4V8/0V2

2k2
3 A55GGP 0V 5p6 R55 14
R19 C28 R25 C64 C72 BFR91 5 SW1
3T 1V2 1n NARROW
1 2
2K2 10k 10n MC145156-2
150p R48 15 WIDE
LMC4101 2 5 10n C29 0V2 R26 0V5 SW2
12kHz 4 3 5
0V7
47k 6
0V2/4V8
10k PDOUT
1 7
D17 10n D18 0...8V R54 RA1
7 3 OSC
2V R43 R49 82k IN OUT
9V 2x 6 R52 SYNTHESIZER
9V BA182 47k 12k IC3 19 X3 18
1V

33k
2 2V 2V4
5 5V
C30 C31 C32 D24 C66 D25 4 R50 C65 R51 C74
R68
3k3

C33
R27 9V 1
* C81

47k

56Ω
C73 0V C80
C38 1V5 1MHz
10n 100n 100n 100n MC33171
5k6

100n BAT82 220n

BB509 220n 1µ 16V 40p 100p
100n 16 15 14 12
MIXO MIXO IFIN USSB
1 0V
1V5 RFIN 7
13 IFOUT 5V
IFDEC L18
C34 D20 C47 9V D22
BAT85
1V5 IC1 C53 C54
TCA440 BAT85
100n 11
47p
R35 10p 100n
IFIN 3V3
6
OSC AGC
9
R29
39k
* C48
R32 L19 82k
8
R40
15k
1V4
2k2

MULIN MULIN RFIN AGC MOUT C61 C62

100n 1 4
INA OUTA
8V

5 4 8 2 3 10 LMC4101
C40 C49 1V4
IC2 22n 3n3
2V

D19 UAM UFM 2 5

5V8 INB OUTB 4V3 9V
0...0V5

0...0V6

C39 C55
2V

2V

4p7 100p 7 NE612 6

BAT T3 OSC AN OSC 4V9
1n C41 1n 85 0V
YMCS17105R2 100n
C60 X2
L17 R30 3 CSB455A BFO
X1 C42 BF245C
C35 C37 C36 C44 C45 C46 4V3 0V C59 R41 P4
10n
12k

R31 R33 R34 R36 330k

C50 D21 C51 C52 C56
22p 100n 100n 4µ7 2µ2 3n3 R37 470p 50k
220k

2k2

82k

47k

100n 16V 16V

10n 2n2 22k L20 L22
44.545MHz 1n R42
0µH56 100p C63
T4 D23
P3 1mH 1mH 12V

22k
S+ BS170 R66
BAT85 R38
0...0V3 1Ω
22k
10k 100n
R39
BB509 C96
M1
R28 C57 C58
12V
22k

C43 SIGNAL BS170 220µ 16V

C84
8k2

IC7 UAM T7
100n 100n
0mA1...1mA5
78L05 5V 100n 1V4
100n
0V

+12V R62 9V C97

C85 BS170
USSB T8 3k9 1V4
C101 R61
1µ5
100n 16V
560k

3V5
0V

10µ C86 BS170 R64 R65 C95 0V 1 6V

63V T9 6
UFM 3
2V 12k 47k 8 C99 LS1
T6 5
100n 0V C90 C91 10n IC6
0V

2
IC8 BS170 BF245 0V/5V 5V/0V 0V/5V 220µ
BF961 16V LS1
4
78L09 9V 22n 4n7
7 C98
G2 R56 R57 R58 R59 BC549C
C87 C88 C89 6V
R60 R63
47k

47k

47k

10k

100n
C103 C102 G1 C92 C93 C94 LM386-3
1V4
47k

1k

D P5 8Ω
100n 100n 100n
10µ 10µ 10n 3n9 1n 50k 1W
63V 63V D S G D SSB
S
G S
980084 - 12
AM SSB FM

Figure 2. Practical circuit of the RF sec-

tions of the general coverage receiver.
to feed on e of th e Most of the functions defined in the to the small capacitive load presented
d em od u lator/d etector block diagram will be easy to find back by th e DG MO SFET. Th e p reselector
ou tp u ts to th e in p u t of in this schematic. has six ranges:
th e au d io am p lifier, by
w ay of a ‘sp eech ’ filter 1: 150 – 370 kHz
w ith roll-off p oin ts at 450 H z an d ure 2 m ay look large an d com p lex at 2: 370 – 900 kHz
3.3 kHz. first, its op eration is relatively easy to 3: 900 – 2200 kHz
The microprocessor circuit controls u n d erstan d th an ks to th e p reviou s 4: 2200 – 5400 kHz
the preselector, the synthesizer, the IF description of the block diagram. Let’s 5: 5400 – 13200 kHz
ban d w id th (w id e/n arrow ), th e m od e take the sub-circuits one by one. 6: 13200 – 32000 kHz
selection (AM/FM/SSB, an d th e LCD
(liqu id crystal d isp lay). Its ‘in p u t Preselector The inductive part of the preselector is
d evices’ are a rotary en cod er for th e Th e active elem en t is a typ e BF961 brou gh t to reson an ce by th e cap aci-
receiver tuning, and a small keyboard dual-gate MOSFET, T1, which guaran- tan ce form ed by a p air of varicap
for direct frequency entry and several tees minimum loading of the inductors d iod es, D14-D13. Th e varicap con trol
oth er fu n ction s like ch an n el m em ory in the preselector. PIN diodes are used voltage has a range from 0 to 9 V, and
con trol, m an u al ban d w id th selection to allow th e ou tp u ts of a d ecim al is su p p lied by th e w ip er of th e p rese-
(3 kHz/12 kHz), etc. cou n ter to sw itch th e requ isite in d u c- lector tuning control, P1.
tors on and off. The counter, in turn, is The gain of the DG MOSFET is con-
P RACTI CAL CIRCUIT con trolled by th e m icrop rocessor. For trolled in traditional fashion by means
Drawing a block diagram is one thing, th e sake of rep eatability, read y-m ad e of a direct voltage on gate 2. Although
actu ally im p lem en tin g th e fu n ction s m in iatu re ch okes from th e E12 series the preselector already affords consid-
with real components is quite another. are used in the preselector. Their Q fac- erable su p p ression of u n w an ted fre-
Although the circuit diagram in Fig- tors remain as high as possible thanks qu en cies, th e MO SFET is followed by

20 Elektor Electronics 1/99

an ad d ition al low-p ass filter with two d ou ble-balan ced typ e (DBM) is signal (typically 7 dBm), and the inher-
‘n otch ’ section s, L9-C17 an d L11-C18, employed as the first mixer to guaran- ent conversion loss of about –7 dB. The
for virtu ally com p lete su p p ression tee excellen t large-sign al beh aviou r. p resen t receiver emp loys a DG MO S-
(–50 dB) of image frequencies and out- Th e m ain d is- FET in the first
of band products. ad van tages of Figure 3. The microprocessor control m ixer. As
a passive DBM circuit is based on a PIC16F84. To op p osed to a
1st mixer and synthesizer are th e h igh keep receiver-internal interference to DBM, th e
In m an y u p -m arket SW receivers, a level of the LO a minimum, the PIC is in ‘sleep’ M O S F E T
mode most of the time.

S2 " "
K2 K3 D2

3 SRG4
S6
S1
S6'
S1'
S0'

9 S0 S0' S3 "7"
C1/ D3
6 S5 S5' S1'
R IC4b
S4 S4'
7 5 S0 S8 S8' S4 "4"
1D D4
4 S1 S2'
3 S2
10 S3 S5 "1"
D5
S3'
K4 K5
S10 S10'
S9 S9' S6 "0"
SRG4 D6
1 S11 S11' S4'
C1/
14 IC4a S7 S7'
R
S3 S3' S7 "8"
D7
15 13 S4 S2 S2' S5'
IC3, IC4 = 4015 1D
12 S5 KEYB'
11 S6 S8 "5"
5V D8
2 S7 S6'
KEYB
R9
C9 S9 "2"
R8 C8 10k D9
S7'
SRG4
22k

9 100p
C1/ 100n
6 S10 "#"
R IC3b D10
P1 K1 S8'
7 5 S8 10k
1D
4 S9 S11 "9"
D11
3 S10 S9'
S0
10 S11
S12 "6"
DEN D12
LC DISPLAY

S10'
S1 5V
S2
S13 "3"
S3 D13
S11'
S4
5V S5 16 C14
SERRES
SERCLK

S6 IC2
DEN

S7 8 100n KEYB'
C3 S8

100n
5V
R4 R3
5V
15k

15k

S1
14
ENCODER
IC2
18 6 A 3 74HCT4017
R2 R1 RA0 RB0
D1 17 7 B 2 CTRDIV10/ 0 3 Q0
RA1 RB1 Q0
15k

4k7

1 IC1 8 PRESET DEC 2 Q1

RA2 RB2 1 1 Q1
2 9 PCLK 4 Q2
PIC16 RB3
RA3 2 Q2
3 F84- RB4 10 KEYB 14 7 Q3
1N4148 RA4 & + 3 Q3
4
MCLR
04/P RB5 11 SCLK
SCLK 4
10 Q4
Q4
16 12 SDATA 13 1 Q5
OSC1 RB6 SDATA 5 Q5
15 13 SENABLE 5
OSC2 RB7 SENABLE 6
C2 C1 C4 C5 6
12V 7
15 9
5 CT=0 8
100n 27p 100n 100n
11
9
12
R6 R7 CT≥5
100Ω

150Ω

5V R5 SRG4
1 12V 5V
10k C1/
5V 14
R IC3a 500mW
IC5 IC6
+M +B +12V
+15V D14 7812 78L05
15 13 FM M1 BACKLIGHT
1D FM
12 SSB 400mA
SSB –M –B
16 C6 16 C7 11 AM 1N4001
AM C10 C11 C12 C13
IC3 IC4 2
100n 100n T1
8 8
100n 470µ 100n 100n
25V
BS170
980084 - 13

Elektor Electronics 1/99 21

offers a conversion gain of about 10 dB,
an d it w orks fin e at a relatively sm all
LO signal.
The combination of a synthesizer IC
typ e MC14156-2 (from Motorola) an d
a d u al-m od u lu s (÷ 128/÷ 129 or
÷ 64/÷ 65) d ivid er typ e MB501L (from
Fu jitsu ) form s a p h ase-locked loop
(PLL) whose step size equals the refer-
en ce frequ en cy of 1 kH z, w h ich is
d erived from qu artz crystal X3 by an
on-chip divider. The MC14156-2 is con-
trolled by means of serial information
su p p lied by th e m icrop rocessor. Th e
error sign al su p p lied by th e syn th e-
sizer IC is filtered by a loop filter built
around an opamp type MC33171 (IC3).
Because the 1-kHz reference-frequency
component has to be minimized in the
filter, th e PLL sh ou ld allow for a rela-
tively long lock time. Here, the largest
frequency change of the local oscillator
(45.150 MH z to 77.000 MH z) takes
about 100 ms. Usin g th e single-end ed
‘PDO UT’ term in al of th e MC14156-2
allows the loop filter to be kept simple.
The MC33171 is used here because it is
cap able of su p p lyin g a rail-to-rail
sw in g of th e ou tp u t voltage. Th is is a
must if the VCO based on FET T5 is to
cover th e requ ired frequ en cy ran ge
(th eoretically, 45.15 MH z to 77 MH z)
without ‘dying’ as a result of a low var-
icap con trol voltage. In p ractice, th e
VCO is slightly overdimensioned, cov-
ering a frequency range of 37-85 MHz
w ith a con trol voltage of 0-9 V. Th e
VCO output signal is capacitively cou-
pled to the first mixer (T2) as well as to
a bu ffer stage arou n d T6, w h ich is
d esign ed to d rive th e ECL in p u ts of
the MB501L divider chip.
IF amplifiers, AM/FM demodulators
and SSB detector
Referrin g back to th e block d iagram ,
th e good n ew s is th at all su b-circu its
between the first IF filter and the out-
p u t of th e last IF am p lifier are con -
tained in a single IC, the TCA440. This
old faith fu l from Siem en s con tain s a
preamplifier, an oscillator, an IF ampli-
fier, and an AGC with a dynamic range
of n o less th an 100 d B (w h ich is n o
m ean requ irem en t for SW listen in g).
Th e tw o 455-kHz IF filters for n arrow
(3 kH z BW) an d w id e (12 kH z BW)
reception are connected into and out of
the TCA440 external circuitry by means
of PIN diodes and control signals sup-
plied by the microprocessor. O ther fil-
ters than the Toko types indicated here
m ay be u sed as lon g as th eir in p u t
im p ed an ce is 2.2 kΩ, an d th e resp ec-
tive 3-dB bandwidths are about 3 kHz
(n arrow ) an d 12 kH z (w id e). Th e
TCA440 drives the S-meter directly via
its AGC output. Meters with d ifferent
sen sitivities are accom m od ated w ith
preset P3.
Th e in jection sign al for th e secon d
m ixer is su p p lied by th e oscillator
Elektor Electronics 1/99
inside the TCA440. This oscillator only
needs an external quartz crystal and a
cou p le of p assive p arts to su p p ly a
rock-steady 44.545 MHz signal.
The SSB detector is built around the
familiar NE612 (or NE602), which con-
tain s a balan ced m ixer an d an oscilla-
tor. The latter is connected to an inex-
pensive 455-kHz ceramic filter which is
‘p u lled ’ by a varicap , D23. Th e resu lt-
ing deviation of about ±2 kHz is suffi-
cien t for USB an d LSB recep tion
(upper/lower sideband) if you turn the
BFO control pot.
Th e FM d em od u lator is a classic
ratio d etector w ith a FET am p lifier in
fron t of it. Th is d etector h as been
d esign ed to su p p ly en ou gh ou tp u t
even if an N BFM (n arrow-ban d fre-
quency modulation) signal is received.
N BFM is com m on ly u sed in th e 27-
MHz (11-m) CB band.
Th e AM d emod u lator con sists of a
single diode, D20, which also supplies
the AGC drive signal.
The three tuneable inductors in this
p art of th e circu it are all 455-kH z,
read y-m ad e typ es from Toko. Th ese
u n its con tain in tern al tu n in g cap aci-
tors. Other 455-kHz transformers than
th e on es sh ow n h ere may be u sed , as
long as the primary-to-secondary turns
ratio is 20:1 (in case of L14 an d L18),
an d th e tap is exactly at th e cen tre of
the primary (in case of L19).
Audio signal sections
Three BS170 FETs are used as analogue
switches, feeding either the FM, AM or
SSB sign al to filter/am p lifier T10. Th e
control signals at the gates of the FETs
are, again , su p p lied by th e m icro-
processor circuit. The audio bandfilter
is d esign ed for sp eech at rad io com -
munications quality, i.e., roll-off points
are d efin ed at 450 H z an d 3.3 kH z to
keep out most unwanted noise, and in
the case of SSB, neighbouring stations.
Th e LM386 au d io am p lifier, fin ally,
su p p lies abou t 1 w att in to 8 oh m s,
which is good for a small external loud-
speaker in your shack, or a pair of low-
impedance headphones (preferred by
veteran DXers).
MICROCONTROLLER
SECTION
Th e sch em atic of th e m icrocon troller
section in th e receiver is given sep a-
rately in Figure 3. This circuit also con-
tain s m ost of th e p ow er su p p ly com -
ponents.
Th e m icrocon troller u sed is th e
fam iliar PC16F84 from Microch ip .
H ere, it execu tes a u ser p rogram of
about 1 kBytes from its on-chip RO M.
Th e PIC con troller is su p p lied read y-
programmed by the Publishers.
Th e on -ch ip EEPRO M is u sed to
store an d retain frequ en cies. Becau se
the processor clock does not have to be
p articu larly stable or accu rate, th e
cheapest clock option, an R-C network
(R1-C1), is used. The processor runs at
abou t 4 MH z, h ow ever, it is on ly
‘active’ when its action is required, for
example, when a key is pressed, or the
synthesizer has to be reloaded. To keep
sp u riou s sign als to a min imu m in th e
receiver, th e PIC w ill be ‘asleep ’ m ost
of the time!
Three of the four shift registers type
4015 exp an d th e I/O fu n ction ality of
th e PIC in to a 12-bit sh ift register
w h ich is u sed to d rive th e keyboard
an d th e LCD. Th e keyboard is n ot a
matrix type. As indicated by the circuit
d iagram , each sw itch h as a sep arate
con n ection , w h ile th e oth er goes to a
‘common’ rail. Pressing a key causes an
interrupt which serves both as a wake-
u p call an d a service requ est for th e
‘sleeping’ processor. Turning the rotary
en cod er also gen erates a h ard w are
in terru p t an d cau ses th e p rocessor to
w ake u p . Th e en cod er u sed h ere is a
Bourns type with 24 turns per full rota-
tion . It en ables th e com p lete tu n in g
range of the receiver to be covered —
just keep turning until the LCD shows
th e d esired frequ en cy, an d th en care-
fu lly ad ju st th e p reselector for best
recep tion . Altern atively, typ e th e
d esired start frequ en cy in to th e key-
p ad , an d tu n e from th ere. Th e rotary
en cod er is con n ected d irectly to tw o
PIC I/O p in s. Debou n cin g is effected
by hardware and software.
Th e rem ain in g I/O p in s of th e PIC
are u sed to con trol th e serial syn th e-
siser (RB5, RB6, RB7), and the preselec-
tor, by w ay of d ecim al cou n ter IC2
(RB2, RB3).
The power supply is conventionally
based on 3-pin fixed voltage regulators
from the 78 and 78L series. Three volt-
ages are supplied : 12 V, two times 5 V,
an d 9 V. Th e latter an d on e of th e 5-V
su p p lies are p art of th e main receiver
circu it d iscu ssed above (refer back to
Figure 2). They obtain their input volt-
age from th e 12-V regu lator on th e
m icrop rocessor board . Th e h eaviest
loads on the 12-V rail are obviously the
audio power amplifier IC, the S-meter
ligh tin g an d th e LCD backligh t (if
u sed ). Th e u n stabilized in p u t voltage
should be at least 15 V. An inexpensive
power mains adaptor may be used, but
do note that the receiver may draw up
to 450 mA, so go for a relatively p ow -
erful adaptor.
(980084-1)
The construction, adjustment and operation of
the receiver will be discussed in next month’s
concluding instalment.
23
WHEN ELECTRONICS WAS YOUNG (6A)
In 1837, the first elec- Another important contribution to electrical technology
tric motor was developed (and came from the French physicist Robert Louis Gaston Planté
patented) in the USA by Thomas (1834–89), who in 1859 developed the lead-acid cell, which was the
Davenport. A few years later, in world’s first practical rechargeable or secondary battery. In fact,
1839, the magnetohydrodynamic the lead-acid battery is even today the most widely used recharge-
battery was proposed by Michael able battery in the world.
Faraday in the UK; the photo- In the same year, Michael Faraday discovered that silver
voltaic effect was described in sulphide possesses a high negative temperature coefficient. This dis-
France by Alexandre Edmond covery forms the basis of what are now termed thermistors, that
Becquerel (1820–91), and the fuel is, temperature-sensitive non-linear resistors. The name thermis-
cell was invented by Sir W illiam tor was coined by the Bell Telephone Laboratories of the USA dur-
Robert Grove (1811–96) in the ing their research into materials for these components. Also in that
UK. year, one of the century’s foremost experimentalists, the English
In 1843, the Scottish in- physicist James Prescott Joule (1818–89) described magnetostric-
ventor Alexander Bain patented tion, a phenomenon in which the mechanical dimension of a mag-
what has become known as fac- netic material is altered as the magnetization is varied.
simile reproduction (fax), and in Perhaps the most able theoretician of the 19th century,
1845–47 the German physicist James Clerk Maxwell the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell (1831–79), started his
Gustav Robert Kirchoff (1824–87) (1831...1879) monumental research on electromagnetism in the late 1850s. This
published the two famous laws laid the foundations for the work of the German physicist Heinrich
that are named after him. In 1847, George Boole (1815–64) pub- Rudolph Hertz (1857–94) in discovering radio waves. Maxwell’s
lished his first ideas on symbolic logic, although his major work, In- ‘equations’ (1864) form fundamental laws of theoretical physics
vestigation of the Laws of Thought was not published until 1854. that govern the behaviour of electromagnetic (radio; television)
The kind of symbolic algebra that Boole developed led to Boolean waves in all practical situations. The equations are used to analyse
algebras, which are, of course, of great significance in modern al- the propagation of radio waves in free space, at all sorts of bound-
gebra and computing. ary, and in all guided-wave structures or transmission lines. His
In 1852, thin film technology was introduced by Sir field equations are mathematical formulations of the laws of Gauss,
W illiam Robert Grove. In 1860, professor T J Wray gave a public Faraday and Ampère from which the theory of electromagnetic
demonstration of the mercury arc lamp on the Hungerford Bridge waves can be derived. The Maxwell bridge can be used for the mea-
in London, and in Germany, the physicist Johann Philipp Reis surement of capacitance and inductance. Maxwell’s Rule states that
(1834–74) developed the first microphone. Unfortunately, this mi- every part of an electric circuit is acted upon by a force tending to
crophone was considered a toy and quickly forgotten. move in such a direction as to enclose the maximum magnetic flux.

Eye pattern meter
PC Topics Supplement,
March 1999, p. 13. (992002)
The moving coil meter shown
in Figure 3 should have a sen-
sitivity of 100-200 µA f.s.d.
Electronics Freeware
May 1999, PC Topics Supple-
ment, p. 4 (990011-1)
The correct url for Digital
Works is
http://www-scm.tees.ac.uk/
users/d.j.barker/digital/
digital.htm
Battery capacity
measurement by PC
PC Topics Supplement,
December 1998, p. 14-16.
(982093)
With reference to the circuit
diagram, a number of logic
gates in IC4 have been trans-
posed to improve the PCB lay-
out. Functionally, this is of no
consequence.
However, one track on the
board is missing: that between
pin 2 and pin 8 of IC1
(ADC0804). If this link is
added, C1 is effectively con-
nected and the circuit will work
as described.
Sealed lead-acid battery
charger
May 1999, p. 26-31.
(990037-1)
In Table 2 (Component Values),
the two formulas for R6 should
read
0.45 / I [ohms].
D9 is missing from the parts
list. As indicated in the circuit
diagram, this diode is a type
CORRECTIONS
& updates
1N5401. If the charger always
supplies currents smaller than
about 1 A, diode D9 may also
be an 1N4001 or similar.
General Coverage Receiver
January & February 1999
(980084).
In the preselector section, the
upper varicap diode, D14, has
no dc path. A suggested
method of improving the
behaviour of the varicap (with-
out modifying the PCB) is to
replace capacitor C83 (220pF)
with a wire link.
Flash Designs –
address information
April 1999, New Products,
p. 73.
In the New Products section,
the address and telephone
number of Flash Designs
should be changed to read
Flash Designs, Ltd.,
North Parade House,
North Parade,
Bath BA2 4AL.
Tel. (01225) 448630.
We extend our apologies to
Flash Designs and our readers
for any inconvenience caused
by the incorrect address infor-
mation.
Electronic Spirit-Level
July/August 1998, p. 36
(984038).
In the circuit diagram, all LEDs
(D2 through D10) should be
reversed. The PCB layout is all
right.

104 Elektor Electronics 7-8/99

TEST & MEASUREMENT

RF decibel meter
wideband with large measuring range

So m e p a r a m e t e r s
Frequency range 100 kHz – 110 MHz with an error < 1 dB
100 kHz – 200 MHz with an error ≤ 2 dB
Decibel range 32 – 117 dBµ with an error at 10 MHz ≤ 1 dB
Scaling 10 mV dB–1
Input impedance 50 Ω

An RF decibel (or power) meter is an indispensable instrument in any

radio workshop. Unfortunately, accurate, wideband models are fairly
expensive, and home-constructed ones are generally not sufficiently
sensitive and/or are very temperature-dependent. These drawbacks are
overcome by a device from Analog Devices which has recently become
available: a low-cost DC–500 MHz, 92 dB logarithmic amplifier that
enables an accurate, not too expensive RF decibel meter to be con-
structed. A few small modifications make the meter also suitable for low-
frequency measurements.
Design by P. Bolch

Elektor Electronics 1/99

26
CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION IC2
5V 78L05 > 9V
Th e circu it d iagram of th e d ecibel
meter in Figure 1 stands out by its sim-
1
* zie tekst
C3 C6
p licity, w h ich is d u e to th e Typ e
AD8307 monolithic demodulating log-
* siehe Text
2µ2 10V 10µ 63V

arith m ic am p lifier, IC 1, from An alog * see text

Devices. * voir texte R3
10Ω0
Th e m easu ran d (qu an tity to be C2
measured ) is applied to pin 8 (INP) of
100n
IC 1 via in p u t socket K1 an d cap acitor
7 6
C1. The capacitor ensures that no direct ENB IC3
voltage can reach th e IC. Th e secon d K1 C1 P2 5
8 5 2 7
input of the IC, pin 1 (INM) is linked to +IN IC1 INT
25k 6
10n
the earth line via capacitor C4. The val- 1
AD8307 4 3 R7
OUT 8
–IN
u es of C 1 an d C 4 are ch osen to give a R6
1
4
*

5k62
low er lim it of th e frequ en cy ran ge OFS
CA3140
3 2
below 100 kHz. R1 R2 R5 P1 M1
+
Resistors R1 and R2 ensure that the C4 C5

100Ω

100Ω
in p u t im p ed an ce of th e m eter is th e *
10n R4 100n
usual value in RF equipment of 50 Ω. A 10Ω0
5k

p arallel n etw ork is u sed to m in im ize 990008 - 11

any parasitic properties of the resistors.
It is recommended to use
SMT (surface mount tech- Figure 1. The circuit
nology) resistors. diagram of the deci-
Sin ce th e resistors are bel meter is centred cuit to be used as a low- rep laced by a 1 µF, 10 V tan talu m
in parallel with the input on the AD8307 from frequ en cy d ecibel cap acitor (+ ve term in al to p in 4).
terminals, any direct volt- Analog Devices. meter. Resistors R1 and Finally, a 1 µF, 10 V tantalum capacitor
age p resen t on th e in p u t R2, as well as capacitors m u st be fitted betw een p in 3 of IC 1
signal will cause a poten- C1 and C4, are then not (+ ve term in al) an d earth . Wh en th is
tial d rop across th em . If th is cau ses a used. Instead, pin 8 of IC1 is linked via modification is carried out, the meter is
problem, a coupling capacitor of about a parallel network of a 10 µF, 10 V tan- n o lon ger u sable as an RF d ecibel
0.02 µF m ay be in serted betw een th e talum capacitor and a 4.7 kΩ resistor in meter, of course.
input socket and the resistors, but this series w ith a 680 p F cap acitor to th e
w ill restrict th e frequ en cy ran ge to input socket, while pin 1 is connected D I S P L AY
about 30 MHz. to earth via an identical series-parallel The display may be a digital multimeter,
Th e ou tp u t of IC 1 is essen tially a n etw ork. Also, cap acitor C 5 m u st be bu t, alth ou gh th is is accu rate, it is n ot
cu rren t th at cau ses a p oten tial d rop
across a 12.5 kΩ internal resistor which
is available at output pin 4. Series net- Figure 2. The decibel meter is best built on this
work R6-P 1 is in parallel with the inter- printed-circuit board which is, however, not
n al resistan ce to m od ify th e scale fac- available ready made.
tor, which is 25 mV dB–1 in the absence
of an external circuit.
Cap acitor C 5 averages th e ou tp u t 1-800099 990008-1 990008-1
sign al to en su re a stable d isp lay. Its
valu e d ep en d s on th e ap p lication : a
2 ROTKELE )C( C3 IC2 (C) ELEKTOR
+
C2

larger capacitance gives a more stable,

0

C1 R3 C6
but slow, display; a smaller value is rec-
ommended for fast sweeping.
R1
R2

IC1 IC3
Preset P2 permits parallel shifting of
T

C4
the characteristic to give an attenuation P2
R7

of up to 14 dB or an amplification of up
R4

to 26 dB between the input socket and R6

- M1+
R5

P1
p in 8 of IC 1, p rovid ed th at R5 = 0. C5
Resistor R5 p rovid es a n arrow in g of
this preset range.
Th e p u rp ose of resistor R4 is to
d ecou p le th e ou tp u t of IC 1 from th e Parts list C3 = 2.2 µF, 10 V, tantalum
rem ain d er of th e circu it an d so Resistors: C5 = 0.1 µF. metallized polyester
enhance the response ratio of small sig- R1, R2 = 100 Ω, SMD C6 = 10 µF, 63 V, tantalum
nals. R3, R4 = 10.0 Ω
R5, R7 = see text Integrated circuits:
O w in g to th e h igh ou tp u t im p ed - R6 = 5.62 kΩ IC1 = AD8307AN (Analog Devices)
an ce of IC 1, bu ffer am p lifier IC 3 is P1 = 5 kΩ (4.7 kΩ) multiturn upright IC2 = 78LO5
essen tial to en able a low-im p ed an ce preset potentiometer IC3 = CA3140E
load such as a moving-coil meter to be P2 = 25 kΩ multiturn upright preset
linked to the circuit. potentiometer Miscellaneous:
Regulator IC2 ensures a stable sup- K1 = 50 Ω BNC socket for board
p ly lin e for IC 1. Low-p ass filter R3-C 2 Capacitors: mounting
C1, C4 = 0.01 µF, SMD Enclosure
reduces any interference on the supply
C2 = 0.1 µF, SMD
line.
A small modification enables the cir-

Elektor Electronics 1/99 27

 level meter AD8307 (f = 10 MHz) Figure 3. Transfer
3 1200

1100
characteristic of the
decibel meter at
1000
10 MHz.

900
output voltage [mV]
800

700
used. Keep all wiring as short as possi-
ble, however.
600 If op eration u p to 30 MH z on ly is
500 n eed ed , IC 1 m ay be in serted in a
400
socket, bu t for u se at h igh er frequ en -
cies th e circu it sh ou ld be sold ered
300 d irectly on to th e board . Th is is best
200 d on e after all oth er comp on en ts h ave
100
been fitted an d th e board h as been
checked thoroughly. This measure is to
0 p rotect th e AD8307, sin ce th is is n ot a
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
input voltage 990008 - 13c cheap component.
Sin ce th e m eter is an RF u n it, it is
clear th at it sh ou ld be fitted in an
earth ed m etal en closu re. Th e p ow er
supply should, of course, not be fitted
Level (dBµ) Level (dBm) Uo(10 MHz) (mV) Uo(110 MHz) (mV) in the same enclosure. Another impor-
tan t asp ect is th at th e 9–15 V su p p ly
10 –97 281 282 voltage should be ‘clean’. It is advisable
15 –92 282 283 to u se feed th rou gh cap acitors at th e
20 –87 285 285 p ow er lin e in p u ts an d m easu rem en t
25 –82 294 294 output.
30 –77 312 313
35 –72 353 356 CAL I B R AT I O N
40 –67 397 400 The meter circuit should be calibrated
45 –62 450 450 with a suitable RF signal generator or,
50 –57 497 496 in an emergency, an AF signal genera-
55 –52 550 544 tor with calibrated attenuator.
60 –47 596 590 Ap p ly a sign al at a frequ en cy of
65 –42 650 641 10 MH z an d a level of 60 d Bµ (1 m V
70 –37 695 686 r.m.s.) to the input of the meter circuit.
75 –32 750 737 Using a digital multimeter, measure the
80 –27 795 783 voltage at p in 3 of IC 3, in crease or
85 –22 847 833 reduce the output of the signal gener-
90 –17 895 881 ator by exactly 10 d B an d tu rn P 1 to
95 –12 948 933 cause a change in the multimeter read-
100 –7 994 980 in g of 100 m V. Th e absolu te valu e of
105 –2 1049 1033 the output voltage is not significant.
110 +3 1090 1078 N ext, ap p ly a sign al at a level of
115 +8 1143 1132 exactly 60 dBµ to pin 8 of IC1 and turn
120 + 13 1185 1178 P 2 until the meter indicates 600 mV.
125 + 18 1218 1188 If th e requ isite equ ip m en t is avail-
able, th e calibration p rocess can be
rep eated at a n u m ber of frequ en cies
The output at 200 MHz for an input of 99 dBµ is 948 mV for greater versatility of operation.
The output at 300 MHz for an input of 100 dBµ is 942 mV If a signal generator is not to hand,
ad just P 1 until the resistance between
its wiper and earth is 1383 Ω measured
w ith a d igital m u ltim eter. Fin ally,
adjust P 2 to obtain a voltage of 1.627 V
at pin 5 of IC1, again measured with a
easily calibrated. 100 mV dB–1, so that an input signal of digital multimeter.
A m ovin g coil m eterin g n etw ork 100 dBµ results in an output voltage of
with series resistor R7 facilitates recog- 1 V. SOME PROPERTIES
n izin g an y d rift su ch as en cou n tered , Figure 3 shows the transfer character-
for in stan ce, d u rin g calibration , bu t CONSTRUCTION istic of th e d ecibel m eter at 10 MH z.
does not make reading it easy. Th e m eter circu it is best bu ilt on th e The measurement range with an error
Measu rem en ts w ith sw eep fre- p rin ted -circu it board sh ow n in Fig- smaller th an 1 d B exten d s from abou t
qu en cies can , of cou rse, be d isp layed ure 2, bu t th is is n ot available read y 30 dBµ to around 115 dBµ. Over a large
on an oscilloscope. m ad e. As m en tion ed earlier, som e of p art of th is ran ge, th e error stays well
Th e d ecibel meter ou tp u ts a d irect the components should be SMDs (sur- below 0.5 d B. Th e error rises rap id ly
voltage that is directly proportional to face mount devices) as specified in the outside the measurement range, which
th e in p u t sign al. Th e d isp lay is cali- com p on en ts list. If th e circu it is con - is typ ical of th e con version p rocess in
brated in d Bµ (d ecibel referred to stru cted on p rototyp in g board , stan - IC1.
1 m icrovolt). Th e scale factor is d ard com p on en ts m ay, of cou rse, be Wh en th e frequ en cy is in creased

28 Elektor Electronics 1/99

(th e w ell-calibrated p rototyp e can be
used up to 110 MHz), the transfer char-
acteristic sh ifts sligh tly d ow n w ard s,
but retains the linearity shown in Fig-
ure 3. A number of characteristic values
at 10 MH z an d 110 MH z are given in
Table 1.
If measurements over only a limited
ran ge are n eed ed , th e frequ en cy-
d ep en d en t sligh t sh ift of th e tran sfer
ch aracteristic m ay be n egated d u rin g
th e calibration so th at a sligh tly m ore
precise meter reading is obtained.
Measurements carried out with the
p rototyp e at frequ en cies of 200 Mh z
and 300 MHz at a stable input level of
100 d Bµ sh ow th at th e circu it m ay be
used without any problem at these fre-
quencies.
[990008]

Figure 4. The finished

prototype decibel
meter.

A D8 3 0 7 The input is fully differential at a moderately high imped-

The Type AD8307 monolithic logarithmic amplifier is
intended for a number of applications, among which
• Conversion of signal level to decibel form
• Transmitter antenna power measurement
• Receiver signal strength indication (RSSI)
• Network and spectrum analysers (up to 120 dB)
• Signal level determination down to 20 Hz
• True decibel AC mode for multimeters
Its operation is based on the progressive compression
(successive detection) technique, providing a dynamic
range of 92 dB to ± 3 dB law-conformance and 88 dB to
a tight ± 1 dB error bound at all frequencies up to
100 MHz.
The device is very stable and easy to use. It needs a
supply voltage of 2.7–5.5 V at 7.5 mA, corresponding to a
low power consumption of 22.5 mW at 3 V. A fast-acting
CMOS-compatible control pin can disable the AD8307 to
a standby current of not more than 150 µA.
Each of the cascaded amplifier/ limiter cells has a small
signal gain of 14.3 dB with a –3 dB bandwidth of 900 MHz.
ance (1.1 kΩ in parallel with 1.4 pF).
The device provides a basic dynamic range extending
from about –75 dBm (decibel referred to 1 mW) to around
+ 17 dBm. A simple input-matching network can lower this
range to –88 dBm to + 3 dBm. The logarithmic linearity is
typically within 0.3 dB up to 100 MHz over the central por-
tion of this range, and is degraded only slightly at
500 MHz. There is no minimum frequency limit: the
AD8307 may be used at audio frequencies down to DC.
The output is a voltage-scaled 25 mV dB–1, generated by
a nominal current of 2 µA dB–1 through an internal 12.5 kΩ
resistor. This voltage varies from 0.25 V at an input of
–74 dBm (that is, the a.c. intercept is at –84 dBm, a 20 µV
r.m.s. sinusoidal input), up to 2.5 V from an input of
+ 16 dBm. This slope and intercept can be trimmed with
external adjustments. For instance, with a 2.7 V supply, the
output scaling may be lowered to 15 mV dB–1 to permit uti-
lization of the full dynamic range.
The AD8307 has good supply insensitivity and temper-
ature stability of the scaling parameters. The combination
of low cost, small size, low power consumption, high
accuracy and stability, large dynamic range, and a fre-
quency range from DC to UHF make it useful in numerous
applications requiring the conversion of a signal to its deci-
bel equivalent.
Further information on the Internet:
www.analog.com/AD8307

Elektor Electronics 1/99 29

 TEST & MEASUREMENT
conductance tester
with DIY sensor
Conductivity in the sense
it is used in this article is
the ability of a substance
such as water to conduct
electric current. It is
expressed in terms of
current per unit of applied
voltage. It is the reciprocal
of resistivity. Conduc-
tance is the reciprocal of
resistance and is mea-
sured in siemens. It is
therefore the ratio of the
current through a sub-
stance to the potential dif-
ference at its ends.The
tester described in this
article is intended for
assessing the quality of
water, based on the acid-
ity or alkalinity (pH), by
means of a measurement
of the conductance of the
water.
Design by P. Baer
30
INTRODUCTION
Water with a very high pH is not good
for fish, plants or making tea or coffee.
This is the reason that many aquarium
owners, orchid growers, horticulturists,
an d m an y oth ers u se d istilled or fil-
tered water. Water filters are very pop-
ular in domestic use, where the quality
of tap water is suspect. However, water
filters themselves present a risk of ger-
min ation , requ irin g good atten tion to
clean lin ess (bottle n eed s th orou gh
washing at least once a week).
A very en viron m en t-frien d ly w ay
of obtaining low-pH water is the use of
rainwater, but this depends heavily on
th e area w h ere th e rain w ater is col-
lected . Su ch w ater m ay be tested for
low pH, that is, low conductivity, with
the present tester.
Th e p H of w ater is a logarith m ic
in d ex of th e h yd rogen -ion con cen tra-
tion in the water. It is given by
p H = log 10 (1/[H + ])
w h ere [H + ] is th e h yd rogen -ion con -
centration. A pH below 7 indicates acid-
ity and one above 7, alkalinity, at 25 °C.
C O N D U C TI VI TY AN D
CO N D U CTAN CE
Conductivity (or specific conductance),
bein g th e recip rocal of resistivity, is
m easu red in th e sam e w ay as resis-
tance and expressed in S m –1 (siemens
per metre); its symbol is σ. At constant
temperature, the value of conductance,
sym bol G, of a su bstan ce d ep en d s on
th e cross-section al area, A, in m 2 , th e
length, l, in m, and the conductivity, σ,
in S m –1:
G= σ A / l. S (siem en s)
This equation can be used with a solid
as well as with a liquid substance.
Th e sen sor u sed in th e p resen t
tester con sists of tw o an n u lar elec-
trod es having a cross-sectional area of
1 cm w h ich are sp aced 1 cm ap art.
These dimensions make the calculation
of the cond uctance of the water being
tested straightforward.
Pure water, sold as distilled water, as
used, for instance, in electric irons, lead-
acid batteries and for horticultural pur-
p oses, h as a con d u ctivity of 1×10 –3
S m –1, so that the present meter would
Elektor Electronics 1/99
 Probe
1
9V
LCD1 8 12 16 3.5 DIGIT 9V
DP3 DP2 DP1

R7 D3
BT1 C6
C11

20k
37
AC
9V 38
OF 100n
28
100n 39 2P T4
X
2 1
Y BP
3 K 40 R8
BAT C2 C4
BC557B

22k
C3 T3
10µ 330n
G3

G2

G1
E3
D3
C3
B3
A3

E2
D2
C2
B2
A2

E1
D1
C1
B1
A1
F3

F2

F1
63V
9V 32 31 9 10 11 29 30 27 26 13 14 15 24 25 23 22 17 18 19 20 21 220n
R1 R3 BC547B

1M
R6
21 20 19 22 17 18 15 24 16 23 25 13 14 9 10 11 12 7 6 8 2 3 4 5 D2
470k

10k
R2
G3
F3
E3
D3
C3
B3
A3

G2
F2
E2
D2
C2
B2
A2

G1
F1
E1
D1
C1
B1
A1
BP
POL
AB

1 1M
31 V T1
IN HI 36 C5 T2
REF HI 330n R5
P1 IC1 C1
100k
37 ICL7106
TEST 35 100n BF
10k REF LO

4M7
32 245A BC547B
30 COMM R4
OSC 1

OSC 2

OSC 3

C REF

C REF

IN LO D1

BUFF
26
A/Z V

INT
40 39 38 34 33 29 28 27
R9 R10
1N4148
C7 C8 C9 C10
100k

47k

100p 100n 470n 220n

980104 - 11

Figure 1. Circuit diagram of the

m easu re 10 µS (equ ivalen t to a resis- The test voltage is taken from across conductance meter.
tan ce of 100 kΩ). Wh en th e w ater R2-R3-C 3. Du rin g th e n egative h alf-
becom es less p u re, th e resistan ce period of the backplane voltage, tran-
between the electrodes drops, and the sistor T1 links the test voltage to earth.
value of conductance rises. Normal tap In essence, therefore, this FET operates is the test voltage, and U ref is the refer-
w ater h as a con d u ctan ce of abou t as a clocked synchronous rectifier with- ence voltage). Preset P 1 provides com-
1 mS, and sea water, 100 mS or more. ou t a th resh old voltage an d con se- p en sation for com p on en t an d sen sor
quent non-linearity. tolerances.
THE TESTER Th e d irect test voltage so obtain ed
From th e above, it is clear th at th e is d irectly p rop ortion al to th e resis- THE SENSOR
tester m u st be cap able of m easu rin g tance of the water. It must, however, be To make the sensor, two rings of brass
resistance or conductance. This seems in verted to p rovid e a test d isp lay in or other easily soldered metal, a 15 cm
simple enough: take a constant current siem en s. In th e p resen t circu it th is is len gth of RG58U coaxial cable, an d a
source, insert the sensor in a potential ach ieved by ap p lyin g th e test voltage heavy-duty soldering iron are needed.
d ivid er an d ap p ly th e voltage across to th e referen ce voltage in p u t (REF. Th e brass rin gs sh ou ld h ave an in n er
th e sen sor via an an alogu e-to-d igital HI)of IC1 and a constant voltage to the
converter (ADC) to a suitable display. test input pins (IN HI and IN LO). This
Un fortu n ately, th e reality is n ot so resu lts in th e d isp lay sh ow in g U C/U T,
sim p le, sin ce th e resistan ce of a flu id instead of, as normal, U/U ref. (U C is the Figure 2. Parts required for con-
must be measured with an alternating constant voltage across pins 30, 31, U T structing the sensor.
in stead of a d irect cu rren t. Th is is
becau se a d irect cu rren t w ou ld cau se
electrolysis which after a while would
distort the sensor electrodes. 2
The tester, whose circuit diagram is RG 58 U
shown in Figure 1, therefore uses a rec-
tangular current. This enables the ADC
to d rive th e liqu id -crystal d isp lay
(LCD) via pin 21, the backplane voltage
terminal.
The backplane voltage is used to solder braid
cover with
silicon cement
switch, via transistor T2, constant-cur- here
rent sink T3-D 2-R6, which is combined
with constant-current source T4-D 3-R7.
Capacitor C4 is charged and discharged
in rhythm with the backplane voltage at disc of brass
a rate of 100 mA. Because of this or other easily d = 10 mm
soldered metal
arrangement, the 100 µA current from
the source is absorbed by the sink when
the capacitor is being discharged. Con-
sequently, an alternating current of solder conductor cover with
± 100 µA flows through the tester, which of coax cable here 6 mm silicon cement
causes a potential drop of ± 100 µV Ω–1 13 mm
980104 - 12
across the resistance, that is, the water.

Elektor Electronics 1/99 31

 +9V 0 Parts list
3

H1
FIX2

Probe Resistors:

R7
LCD1 C2 C3
C11 R1 = 470 kΩ

980104-1
1 D3 R2, R3 = 1 MΩ

R3
T4 R4 = 4.7 MΩ
R5, R9 = 100 kΩ
IC1

R1
R6 = 10 kΩ

R6
R8
D2 R7 = 20 kΩ

R2
R4
C1 C4 T3 R8 = 22 kΩ
ROTKELE )C(
1-401089

T1
R10 = 47 kΩ
P1 = 10 kΩ preset potentiometer
C5 T2
1

C8
C7
R5 Capacitors:
C10 C9
R10 R9

FIX3
C1, C6, C8, C11 = 0.1 µF
FIX4

D1
C6 P1
C2 = 10 µF, 63 V, radial
C3, C10 = 0.22 µF
C4, C5 = 0.33 µF
C7 = 100 pF
C9 = 0.47 µF
(C) ELEKTOR
980104-1

Semiconductors:
D1 = 1N4148
D2, D3 = LED, green, 3 mm
T1 = BF254A
T2, T3 = BC547B
T4 = BC557B

Integrated circuits:
IC1 = ICL7106CPL (Maxim)

Miscellaneous:
LCD1 = 3.5 digit liquid-crystal dis-
play (note that IC1 and LCD1 are
available as a set)
Figure 3. The printed- BT1 = 9 V dry battery with clip
d iam eter of 6 m m an d circuit board for the in g each oth er) sh ou ld 1 off switch with on contact
an ou ter on e of 13 m m conductance tester. th en be covered w ith Enclosure as appropriate
to give th em an effec- silicon cement. PCB Order no. 980104-1 (see Read-
tive area of ju st u n d er ers Services towards the end of
1 cm 2. The inner diameter allows them CONSTRUCTION this issue)
to ju st fit over th e in n er con d u ctor of The remainder of the tester is best con-
th e coaxial cable, w h ose ou ter in su la- stru cted on th e p rin ted -circu it board
tion must be removed over a length of sh ow n in Figure 3. Min d th e p olarity
about 15 mm from one end and 10 mm of th e d iod es an d electrolytic cap aci- Conductivity a t 20 °C
of th e exp osed braid cu t off. Th e tors. The IC should be soldered directly
rem ain in g 5 m m of braid m u st be to the board to allow the display to be Silver 1.6 × 10–8 S m–1
fold ed back over th e ou ter in su lation fitted directly above it.
Copper 1.7
of the cable. This ensures that the two Connect a stand ard potentiometer
brass rin gs are abou t 1 cm ap art (see across the test inputs and check that the Aluminium 2.8
Figure 2). The inner core of the coaxial display shows corresponding conduc- Tungsten 5.6
cable is then soldered to the outer brass tance values when the potentiometer is Nickel 6.8
rin g an d th e braid to turned from, say, 10 kΩ Iron 10
th e in n er rin g. Th e Figure 4. The com- to 1 kΩ. Steel 18
ou ter su rfaces of th e pleted prototype Wh en all is w ell, fit Manganin 44
rings (but not those fac- board. th e com p leted board Carbon 3500

in to a su itable en closu re in w h ich a

cu t-ou t for th e d isp lay h as been p ro-
vided. Connect the sensor to the probe
terminals as shown in Figure 4. Do not
forget an on/off switch.

F I N AL LY …
The tester has a range of 50 µS, which
corresp on d s to a resistan ce of 20 kΩ
an d a m axim u m test voltage at IC 1 of
2 V. This value will be displayed when
th e tester, or rath er, th e sen sor, is d ry.
Th e u p p er lim it of th e test ran ge
(1999 µS) is set by the characteristics of
IC1. Note also th at th e basic error of 5
p er cen t in creases sligh tly w h en th e
test ran ge is given an u p p er lim it of
more than 1000 µS. [980104]

Elektor Electronics 1/99 33

POWER SUPPLIES

DC-DC
step-up converter
no-iron converter for mobile
charging of low-power battery packs

The voltage step-up converter described in

this article is a transformerless design
based on just one integrated circuit
and a handful of passive parts. Effi-
ciency is excellent given the sim-
plicity of the circuit, which requires
no modifications for any input volt-
age between 6 V and 12 V, for output
voltages of about 10 V and 22 V
respectively.

One of the most frequently used appli-
cations of voltage step-up converters is
that of a battery charger using the 12-
V veh icle battery as its in p u t p ow er
sou rce. After all, to ch arge a battery,
you n eed a voltage w h ich is alw ays
greater th an th e m axim u m voltage
su p p lied by th e battery w h en fu lly
charged. So, charging a 12-V NiCd bat-
tery p ack as u sed in , say, a p ortable
m obile rad io or a lap top com p u ter
from th e car battery calls for a circu it
th at in creases (‘step s u p ’) th e 12-V
input voltage to, say, 20 V or so which
may be applied to the charger circuit.
N ot so lon g ago, it w as p ractically
im p ossible to d esign DC-DC step -u p
converters without recourse to special
tran sform er tech n iqu es u sin g th e
in verter p rin cip le: u se th e in p u t volt-
age to power an oscillator which drives
a step-up transformer; next, rectify the
Design by W. Zeiller high voltage at the secondary. Such cir-
cu its are typ ically bu lky an d n ot terri-
bly efficient, although there are notice-
able exceptions.
Tod ay, most step-up converters are
tailor-m ad e sw itch -m od e p ow er su p -
p lies (SMPSUs) based on p u rp ose-
d esign ed ICs. Th e d esign p resen ted
here is an exception in that it employs
a low-cost au d io p ow er am p lifier IC,
the TDA2822M.
S TE P U P TH E VO LU M E
Lookin g at th e circu it d iagram in Fig-
ure 1 you will n ot fail to n ote th e sim-
p licity of th e circu it. Basically, th e
in p u ts an d ou tp u ts of th e tw o am p li-
fiers in th e TDA2822M are cross-cou -
pled by capacitors C2 and C7 to cause
a (controlled) amount of oscillation. In
fact, you are looking at a double AMV
(astable multivibrator) acting as a push-
p u ll oscillator/ch arge p u m p d rivin g a
classic d iod e-based voltage mu ltip lier.

Elektor Electronics 1/99

40
Simp le as it may be, th e circu it acts as 12V 12V
a reason ably efficien t voltage d ou bler 1
(theoretically, that is).
Through their output capacitors (C4 D1
C12 C11
2
an d C9) an d associated d iod e p airs 100n 1000µ
2x
(D1-D2 an d D3-D4), am p lifiers IC1a R1
SB130
16V
7
and IC1b alternately contribute to the 33k
1
C4

en ergy (ch arge) bu ilt u p in ou tp u t C1

8
R3 470µ D2
capacitor C10. This energy is available 22n C2 25V

4Ω7
for u se by th e load con n ected to th e
22n
converter output terminals. C5 C3 12V
IC1
Th eoretically, th e in p u t voltage is TDA2822M
47n
doubled, but there are derating factors. C7
100n D3

Firstly, th e ou tp u t tran sistors of th e 2x

C6
TDA2822M are n ot id eal d evices an d 5 22n
C9
SB130
cause a small voltage loss. Add to that R2 22n
3

the voltage drop across the diodes and 33k

6
R4 470µ D4
25V
you will appreciate that an input volt-

4Ω7
age of 12 V produces an output voltage 4
of just 22 V instead of the theoretically C8 C10

expected 24 V. Unfortunately, the out- 100n 1000µ

16V
p u t voltage d rop s a little m ore w h en
th e con verter is actu ally load ed , bu t 980073 - 11
that will not be a problem in most bat-
tery ch argers th an ks to
th eir in tern al regu lator Figure 1. This transformerless DC-DC Figure 2. Copper track
circuits (for constant cur- step-up converter is based on a stereo layout and component
rent or constant voltage). power amplifier IC, the TDA2822M. Here, overlay of the printed cir-
The oscillator operates the two opamps are wired as a cross- cuit board designed for
at a frequ en cy of abou t coupled double AMV driving a traditional the converter (board not
2 kH z. Th is valu e diode-capacitor voltage doubler. Switch- available ready-made).
d ep en d s to som e exten t ing frequency is about 2 kHz.
on the actual supply volt-
age and the load current.
The Boucherot networks at the ampli-
+

fier ou tp u ts, R3-C3 an d R4-C8, m ay 2

H1

H4
D3
D1

C11 C1

(C) ELEKTOR (C) ELEKTOR

com e as a su rp rise h ere becau se th ey
typ ically occu r in au d io am p lifiers
C3 C12

w ere th ey serve to ‘straigh ten ’ lou d - R3

C4

C7

sp eaker im p ed an ces. H ere, th e m ain

R1

purpose of the networks is to stabilize

th e con verter w h en th e d iod es are
IC1

C5
C8

switching.
C2

R2

CONSTRUCTION
C9

R4
980073-1
1-370089
980073-1

The circuit is best built on a printed cir-

cu it board of w h ich th e cop p er track
C6 C10
D2
D4

H6

layout and component-mounting plan

H3

H2

are given in Figure 2. Con stru ction

+

sh ou ld be a p iece of cake, th e board

being single-sided, and only common-
or-gard en com p on en ts are u sed . Do
make sure, however, that the following only. Because of its 8-pin DIL enclosure,
p arts are m ou n ted th e righ t w ay it is the only version that can be used on COMPONENTS LIST
around on the board: this printed circuit board.
Resistors:
- electrolytic cap acitors C4, C9, C10,
R1,R2 = 22kΩ
C11; P E RF O RM AN CE R3,R4 = 4Ω7
- diodes D1, D2, D3 and D4; The maximum continuous output cur-
- integrated circuit IC1. rent that can be supplied will be about Capacitors:
H avin g fin ish ed th e sold er w ork you 300 m A. Th e n o-load cu rren t con - C1,C2,C7,C7 = 22nF
should subject the board to a thorough su mp tion of th e con verter is betw een C3,C8,C12 = 100nF
visual inspection, and correct any obvi- 6 an d 8 m A. A p rototyp e of th e con - C4,C9 = 470µF 25V radial
ous errors before you power up for the verter was put through its paces in our C5 = 47nF
C10 = 470µF 40V radial
first time. d esign laboratory, w ith th e follow in g C11 = 1000µF 16V radial
If difficult to obtain locally, the type results:
SB130 d iod es m ay be rep laced by Semiconductors:
alm ost an y oth er m ed iu m -p ow er Uin Iin Uout Iout Efficiency D1-D4 = SB130, BYR745 or BYW29
Sch ottky d iod e cap able of p assin g at 6V 0.22 A 10 V 0.1 A 80% IC1 = TDA2822M (SGS Thomson)
least 1 A. In th e p rototyp e, th e w ell- 12 V 0.44 A 21.3 V 0.21A 85%
known BYW29 was tried and found to
give good results, too. Not spectacular, but not bad either for
Finally, be sure to use the TDA2822M such a simple design! (980073-1)

Elektor Electronics 1/99 41


function is to buy the 100
components you mention from,
say, Philips Semiconductors
(not ‘Phillips’), and then sell
them to you. You may object to
this, but it is the simple and
whole purpose of retail busi-
ness: buy in volume quantities,
sell as one-off. Stippler Elek-
tronik have a UK outlet also:
Viewcom Electronics, so if you
prefer to Buy British that is the
way to go. C-I Electronics are
fully set up to deal with credit
card payment, advertise and
correspond in English, so with
them too borders are virtually
non-existent (within the EU).
By the way, you do not mention
the type number of the IC you
were after — we may have
been able to help you with
pointers in the right direction.
Capacitors, then. Our design
department advises that where
no particular make, style or
DC-DC
Step-Up Converter
January 1999, 980073
Electrolytic capacitors C4 and
C9 are shown with the wrong
polarity in the circuit diagram,
Elektor Electronics
dielectric material is men-
tioned, the part is indeed so
uncritical that any one the
types you mention will work
without problems. In case of
doubt, guidance may be
obtained from the photographs
included in the article, or sim-
ply ask us!
Tachometer — inductive
pick-up?
Dear Editor — your article cov-
ering a DIY tachometer (Elek-
tor Electronics October 1998)
states that ignition pulses are
picked up inductively. I think
this is misleading. To be able
to generate a voltage induc-
tively, a changing magnetic
field has to be sent through the
inductor. There is no such field.
The magnetic field caused by
the ignition current does not
pass through the coil but
Figure 1. The relevant PCB lay-
out is all right.
Portable
Sound-Pressure Meter
January 1998, 970085
3/99
appears at a right angle from it.
So in fact we are looking at
capacitive coupling at the ‘hot’
side of the coil.
K. Williams
If we doze off from time to
time, there’s always someone
to prod us awake! Of course
you are right. Our apologies for
this slip of the pen.
PC-Controlled light Dim-
mer — watt’s up?
Dear Editor — I was delighted
to see the PC-controlled 32-
channel light dimmer in the
December 1998 magazine.
With some surprise I noticed
that the maximum power per
channel is only 275 watts. As
far as I know, the smallest the-
atre spotlight weighs in at
500 watt. Are you aware of any
opto-triacs for higher power, or
CORRECTIONS
The text alongside Figure 5
should be changed to read:
Measure the potential UREF1,
across pins 4 and 7 of IC2 and
then connect a voltmeter
across pins 4 and 7 of IC3.
53
READERS’
Letters
is there another way to
increase the power in each
channel?
K. Verstraeten
The problem is not caused by
the opto-triacs, because with
sufficient cooling these are
capable of passing up to 8 A
(approx. 1900 W). However,
suppressor choke L1 has a
highest rating of 10 A, and this
value is also the safe limit for
the PCB tracks and the PCB
terminal block. The 500-watt
lamps you mention may be
controlled by adding not more
than four opto-triacs per PCB,
and increasing the fuse ratings
to 2.5 A (slow).
To still be able to use 32 chan-
nels, simply use more PCBs (in
this case, eight), connected in
parallel to RS232 port on your
computer.
& updates
Tachometer
October 1998, 980077
In the parts list and the circuit
diagram, the value of R1
should be corrected to read
2.2 kΩ.
GENERAL INTEREST
RadioText
Radio Teletext
now also in Europe
Some European broadcasting organizations
have introduced, or are introducing, an
improved version of the Radio Teletext service
inaugurated in the United Kingdom by a num-
ber of commercial radio stations in the late
1980s. Like the UK Radio teletext service,
RadioText is separate from, but in addition to,
RDS (Radio Data Services). The RadioText data
are carried on a 76 kHz sub-carrier (UK Radio
teletext: 69 kHz), FM (FSK) modulated at
16 Kbit/s (UK: 5 Kbit/s) with the FM carrier devi-
ated by ± 5.5 kHz (UK: ± 7.5 kHz). Sony has
designed a receiver, Textman, specially for the
reception of the RadioText service.
By our Editorial Staff
42
INTRODUCTION
Th e Rad io Data System (RDS) is a
European system for broadcasting dig-
ital data on VHF/FM transmitters. The
sp ectru m of th e VH F/FM sign al is
shown in Figure 1. Receivers equip-ped
w ith RDS d ecod ers d ecod e th e d igital
data which may include automatic tun-
ing, station identification, service iden-
tification, accurate time, a radio paging
service, and much other information,.
The RDS specification was adopted
by th e Eu rop ean Broad castin g Un ion
(EBU) in 1984 and is now implemented
on most European VHF/FM broadcast
transmitters.
In form ation at a d ata rate of
1.1875 Kbit/s in grou p s of 104 bits is
superimposed on to a 57 kHz sub-car-
rier locked to th e 19 kH z stereo p ilot
ton e. Th e fin al mu ltip lex (L+ R sign al,
19 kHz pilot tone, L–R signal on a sup-
p ressed 38 kH z su b-carrier, an d th e
RDS sign al) frequ en cy m od u lates th e
main carrier.
Each of th e grou p s of 104 bits in to
which the bit stream is d ivid ed is sub-
divided into four blocks of 26 bits. Each
block con tain s a 16-bit in form ation
w ord an d a 10-bit ch eckw ord for,
Elektor Electronics 1/99
am on g oth ers, error d etection an d a
Amplitude
degree of error correction.
1 Stereo pilot tone
D ATA R AD I O C H AN N E L 'S' channel
In the early 1990s, the American com- L-R L-R
p an y Digital DJ in trod u ced a sp ecial
d ata service, called Data Rad io Ch an -
HSS (high speed subcarrier)
nel – DARC – for VHF/FM broadcasts.
Th e system w as d evelop ed by th e RDS
NHK Science & Research Laboratories
in Tokyo. Note that this is not based on
the American Subsidiary Communica-
tions Authorization (SCA) system that
15 kHz 23 kHz 53 kHz 76 kHz 95 kHz
d ates from th e early 1980s an d on 19 kHz 38 kHz 57 kHz Frequency
which the UK Radio Teletext service is
990016 - 11
based . Th e system h as been accep ted
by th e In tern ation al Telecom m u n ica-
tions Union (ITU) as a standard. Figure 1. Spectrum of a
It is in terestin g to n ote th at th e ru n n in g Workben ch VHF/FM signal that con- p lay. Th is m ean s th at
DARC occu p ies a ban d of 16 Kbit/s, of Digital DJ. After tains the normal stereo th e w aitin g tim es
w h ich is more th an ten times as w id e encoding, the signal is audio signals, the RDS when leafing through
as the RDS channel (1.1875 Kbit/s). sen t in accord an ce data channel, and the p ages on TV Teletext
The DARC is broadcast in the USA with the USEP emula- Data Radio Channel— are n ot en cou n tered
to su p p ort n ormal rad io p rogrammes tion p rotocol to th e DARC. w ith Rad ioText.
with Programme Associate Data (PAD). m ain tran sm itters via Becau se of th e error
This service enables programme infor- a microwave network correction , p ages can -
mation , su ch as n ames of p erformers, and a DARC encoder—see Figure 3. n ot be m u tilated : a p age is received
cast lists, station id entification, and so either in good order or not at all.
on, to be displayed on the liquid-crystal RAD I O TE XT Th e resolu tion of th e LCD on th e
display (LCD) of a suitable receiver or, Most data on the RadioText service are Textman receiver is seven lines each of
by mean s of ap p rop riate software, on derived from the local television’s tele- n ot more th an 21 alp h an u meric ch ar-
the monitor of a computer. text service but, although this latter ser- acters. Grap h ics, su ch as logos, m ay
vice con tain s th ou san d s of p ages, also be displayed. All information is, of
D A R C T E C H N O L O G Y. RadioText will be limited to a few hun- course, in black and white.
In th e DARC, d ata are carried on a d red . Th ese p ages will be tran smitted In Eu rop e, as in th e UK an d USA,
high-speed sub-carrier of 76 kHz—see again an d again , Rad ioText is p rimarily
Figure 1. rep eated every few of interest to commer-
Figure 2. Typical broad-
In form ation at a d ata rate of minutes. The Textman cial broadcasters, since
casting control room
16 Kbit/s is su p erim p osed on to th e or oth er su itable where data can be pre- th e service is free (so
76 kH z su b-carrier w h ich , bein g th e receiver stores all th e pared for dissemination far) to th e recip ien t
th ird h arm on ic of th e 19 kH z stereo in form ation before it via the VHF/FM radio an d m u st, th erefore,
pilot tone, is readily locked to this tone. can be seen on the dis- network. be p aid for by ad ver-
Th e fin al m u ltip lex,
in clu d in g th e L+ R sig-
n al, th e 19 kH z p ilot
tone, the L–R stereo d if-
feren ce sign al on a su p -
p ressed 38 kH z su b-car-
rier, an d th e DARC sig-
n al, frequ en cy
modulates the main car-
rier at ± 5.5 kHz.
Th e m od u lation fac-
tor is 0.1. The level of the
h igh -sp eed su b-carrier
m ay be in creased to
–20 d B to red u ce an y
crosstalk from th e m ain
carrier.
After error correc-
tion s an d oth er n eces-
sary m an ip u lation s, th e
bandwidth of 16 Kbit/s is
red u ced to 8 Kbit/s, via
w h ich abou t 1000
alphanumeric characters
per second can be trans-
mitted.
Th e d ata su p erim -
p osed on to th e h igh -
speed sub-carrier is gen-
erated via a com p u ter

Elektor Electronics 1/99 43

 and car radios.
3 Th e Son y receiver looks like th e
fam ilar Walkm an ™ w ith con trols for
DARC Transmitter
five p reset tran sm itter. It h as a black
Encoder
an d w h ite d isp lay w ith associated
m en u con trols. Its in tern al m em ory
USEP
en ables im p ortan t m essages to be
stored for some time.
A d raw back of th e receiver is th at
DARC an earp iece h as to be u sed sin ce th e
Transmitter
Encoder lead of this forms the antenna without
Microwave w h ich , of cou rse, th e receiver w orks
USEP
network badly or not at all.
Th e receiver m ay be u sed all over
Europe and, with a suitable configura-
Workbench
Uni-directional
tion menu, in North America.
Digital DJ
Th ere is an au tom atic p ow er-off
facility which ensures that the batteries
DARC Transmitter
are n ot exh au sed w h en th e u ser for-
Encoder
gets to switch off the receiver.
An FM d ata con trol on th e fron t
990016 - 12
panel enables the FM d ata d ecod er to
be disabled when no data services are
Figure 3. Diagram of a u sed . If th e receiver is u sed as a stan -
broadcasting network d ard p ortable receiver, th e d ata
that transmits Radio- d ecod er is sw itch ed off au tom atically
Text data.
tisers. H ow ever, th e of the receiver. after twenty minutes.
Textman is already pro-
vid ed w ith facilities th at en able ser- TE XTM AN S RF- D R2000 F I N AL LY
vices to be paid for before they can be Th e on ly receiver cu rren tly com m er- If the RadioText information is dissem-
displayed. cially available for th e recep tion of inated via low-power local transmitter,
The RadioText service may eventu- Rad ioText is th e Son y Typ e the system may be used to give drivers
ally also be used for rad io paging, but SRF-DR2000 Textman. The ICs used in p arkin g in form ation in car p arks, or
at p resen t th ere are n o d efin ite p lan s th e receiver are Son y d esign s, w h ich d raw th e atten tion of cu stom ers in a
for th is. N everth eless, each Textm an are n ot (yet) available to oth er O EDs. department store to special offers, and
receiver is alread y p ro- Wh en th ey becom e, so. At m u sic festivals, visitors m ay be
vid ed w ith a u n iqu e th e Rad ioText facility ad vised via rad io of th e n am es of th e
Figure 4. The Type
cod e, w h ich can be m ay also be bu ilt in to performers and, indeed, what is being
SRF-DR2000 Textman
accessed via the menus receiver from Sony. mains-operated tuners performed. [990016]

Elektor Electronics 1/99 45

 GENERAL INTEREST

The Iridium Network

Mobile telephony via satellite

Proliferation of mobile
phones is already a fact,
but worldwide mobile tele-
phone communication has
become possible only with
the advent of the Iridium
Network. The network is a
joint venture between US
organizations Motorola
and Lockheed Martin Cor-
poration, and the Russian
Krunichev State Research
Space Centre. The first
satellites were launched
towards the end of last
year; when fully opera-
tional, the network will
embrace 66 satellites in
various orbits around the
earth at a height of some
780 kilometres (470
miles). This fairly low orbit
is dictated by the relatively
low power of mobile INTRODUCTION to remember.
phones. Irid u m is th e first tru ly w orld w id e Basically, th e system w orks as fol-
functioning satellite telephone system. low s. A call from a m obile p h on e is
Th e n am e ‘Irid iu m ’ w as ch osen transmitted to the nearest Iridium satel-
becau se th e origin al con cep t of th e lite, from where it is relayed to another
n etw ork en visaged 77 satellites an d satellite in the system which is nearest
iridium, a metallic element of the plat- th e call’s fin al d estin ation . From th is,
inum family, is number 77 in the Peri- th e sign al is beamed d own to an oth er
od ic System . Alth ou gh th e fin al n et- cellular phone or a traditional line tele-
w ork w ill con sist of 66 satellites (p lu s phone.
six sp are), th e n am e w as retain ed , Not many people may have noticed
probably because the element at num- it, bu t th e first Irid iu m satellite w as
ber 66 of the Period ic System, d yspro- taken in to op eration al u se a cou p le of
siu m , a m em ber of th e rare-earth months ago. With this, a concept that at
By our Editorial Staff group, is a rather more d ifficult name its birth 11 years ago was d u bbed ‘sci-

Elektor Electronics 1/99

46
ence fiction’ by many, became reality. vid e vid eo, in teractive
Man y asp ects of th e n etw ork are m u ltim ed ia, an d d ata
new (at least as far as non-military use services.
is concerned). Another system of the
• Instead of some large geostationary fu tu re, Microsoft’s
satellites, it uses a fairly large num- Teled esic, is p lan n ed to
ber of smaller ones in low orbits. become an Internet satel-
• All satellites are in commu n ication lite network.
with each other and so form a truly A qu ite d ifferen t
worldwide network. ap p roach is th at of
• Mobile p h on es an d p agers an y- Ellip so, w h ich is
where in the world can be accessed in ten d ed for com m u n i-
d irectly by th e relevan t satellite, cations over the northern
w h ich m ean s th at th e system is h em isp h ere, su p p le-
in d ep en d en t of terrestrial in fra- m en tin g terrestrial ser-
structures. vices. Th is n etw ork w ill
• Th e system is com p atible w ith all use highly-elliptical orbit
current terrestrial mobile telephone (H EO ) satellites, th e
networks, such as GSM (Global Sys- h eigh t of w h ose orbit
tem for Mobile Communication) in w ill vary from 500 km
Eu rop e, IS-95 in th e USA, PDC in (300 m iles) to 8 000 km
Japan, and others. This means that (almost 5 000 miles).
from now on a GSM user can com-
municate with an IS-95 user (which THE IRIDUM
until recently was impossible). N E T WO R K
• An Irid iu m su bscriber can be con - Th e Irid iu m system
tacted from anywhere in the world em braces 66 op eration al Figure 1. The 66 opera-
on just one number – which may be an d six sp are satellites. It tional satellites in the
his/her current mobile phone num- is planned to have a life of Iridium Network use u p - l i n k
ber. 5–8 years. To enhance the six different orbits to 29.1–29.3 Ghz).
reliability of the system, a provide worldwide Th e gatew ays p ass
LE O / M E O VS G E O n u m ber of ad d ition al communications. th e in form ation to
Until Iridium became operational, civil satellites h ave been p u t th e relevan t terres-
satellite com m u n ication s w ere con - into orbit, which enable a trial n etw ork (an d
d u cted alm ost exclu sively by geosta- n u m ber of con trol cen tres to m on itor convert the used protocol if necessary)
tion ary (GEO ) satellites abou t 36 000 th e m ovem en ts an d w orkin g of th e an d also man age an d store an y in for-
km (alm ost 22 000 m iles) above th e operational satellites in their orbits. The mation for relay to Iridium pagers. The
earth . Excep tion s w ere, for in stan ce, m ain m on itor cen tre in Lan d sd ow n , European gateway is at Fucino in Italy.
th e television satellites in th e form er Virgin ia, USA, is su p p orted by fixed Communication between the oper-
Soviet Un ion w h ich , to cover th e monitor stations in North Canada and ation al satellites an d th e p rovid ers of
extreme n orth of th e cou n try, were in Hawaii, and a transportable one in Ice- the mobile phone and pager services is
highly elliptical orbit. land. in th e L-ban d : 1616–1625.5 MH z. Th e
Th e Irid iu m N etw ork is th e first Each satellite is in con tact in fou r sam e frequ en cies are u sed for th e u p
civil commu n ication system th at u ses d irection s w ith oth er satlelites in th e an d d ow n lin ks, w h ich allow s th e
satellites in low-earth orbit (LEO ) and system in the Ka-band (18–30 GHz). same components to be used for trans-
med iu m-earth orbit (MEO ), w h ich lie Th e satellites are lin ked to th e ter- mitter and receiver.
between 700 km (425 miles) and 10 000 restrial n etw orks by tw elve gatew ays As an asid e, th e u se of L-ban d
km (about 6 000 miles). (earth station s) on fou r con tin en ts. downlink frequencies is likely to cause
The difficulty with using high-orbit Three or four 3-metre diameter rotary problems for rad io astronomers, since
satellites is n ot so m u ch th e requ isite p arabolic an ten n as track th e h igh - they are very close to one of the spec-
high (transmitter) power or more sen- speed (29 000 km/h – 17 500 mph) satel- tral lines (1612 MHz – the others are at
sitive receivers in th e m obile p h on es lites and transfer voice and data infor- 1665, 1667, an d 1720 MH z)) of th e
(w h ich w ou ld becom e m u ch larger), mation . Commu n ication betw een th e hydroxyl molecule (HO), which is one
but rather the signal delay, particularly control satellites and the gateways is in of th e most imp ortan t frequ en cies for
in th e case of d igital equ ip m en t. Th e the Ka band (down-link 19.4–19.6 GHz; radio astronomers.
only satellite telephone service prior to
Irid iu m w as via th e geostation ary
In m arsat satellite w h ich u ses equ ip -
m en t th e size of a briefcase an d Name of system Operator Satellites Planned for
requ ires th e an ten n a to be d irected at Inmarsat Inmarsat 12 GEO Late 1999
the satellite. As Inmarsat will continue Globalstar Global Star 64 LEO Late 1999
their GEO service, they have indicated ICO ICO Global 12–15 MEO 2000
that the user equipment will be drasti- Communications
cally reduced in size. Spaceway Hughes 12–20 GEO 2000
O th er p lan n ed system s – see Communications
overview in Table 1 – will, however, use Celestri Motorola 63 LEO/GEO 2001
LEO and MEO satellites. Odyssey TRW/Teleglobe 12 MEO 2001
Th e LEO satellites in th e Irid iu m Skybridge Alcatel Alsthom 64 LEO 2001
N etw ork orbit th e earth in abou t 100 Teledesic Microsoft 288 LEO 2002
m in u tes. Motorola’s fu tu re system , Ellipso Mobile 17 HEO 2002
Celestri, is planned to use LEO as well Communications
as MEO satellites. This system will pro-

Elektor Electronics 1/99 47

 MOBILE PHONES
AN D PAGE RS
Th e m obile p h on es an d p agers are
m an u factu red by Motorola an d
Kyocera. Th e m obile p h on es are very
similar to those used on GSM networks
an d are able to op erate n ot on ly w ith
th e Irid iu m stan d ard , bu t also on a
n u m ber of oth er stan d ard s, su ch as
GSM and IS-95.
Th e tw o d esign s are qu ite d issim i-
lar. Th e Motorola p h on e is p rim arily
intended for use in the Iridium system,
which can be expanded by an optional
cassette (which can be slotted into the
p h on e) for u se in terrestrial m obile
p h on e services. Each d ifferen t stan -
d ard requ ires a d ifferen t cassette, for
in stan ce, in Eu rop e, a 900 MH z or
1800 MH z GSM m od el; in th e USA,
Africa an d Ru ssia, an 800 MH z IS-95
version.
Figure 2. Assembly of the nearly 700 kg weighing satellite Th e p h on e w eigh s
at the Motorola-SATCOM plant in Chandler, Arizona. Note about 450 grams. In satel-
the triangular cross-section of the carrier structure which lite service, its average
is made of reinforced man-made fibre. tran sm it p ow er is
645 mW, but there is a link
m argin of abou t 15.5 d B.
Th e cu rren t p rice, in clu d in g on e cas-
sette, is about $US3,000.
Th e Kyocera d esign is qu ite d iffer-
en t, alm ost th e op p osite of th e
Motorola p h on e. Its h an d set, w h ich
weighs only 80 grams, is intended pri-
m arily for u se in terrestrial m obile
p h on e systems. If commu n ication via
satellite is requ ired , th e h an d set is
inserted into a special ‘docking station’:
th e com bin ation w eigh s 450 gram s.
Wh en th e u ser travels from an area
with a different service standard, a sec-
on d h an d set is n eed ed . Th e d ockin g
station an d batteries can be u sed irre-
spective of which standard prevails.

PAG I N G VI A I R I D I U M
Th e Irrid iu m Netw ork is n ot on ly th e
first global m obile telep h on e service,
but it also offers the first paging service
that ensures accessibility anywhere in
th e w orld w ith ou t a m obile p h on e or
w ith th e m obile p h on e sw itch ed off.
Th e m essage sen d er n eed n ot kn ow
w h ere th e recip ien t is as th is is au to-
m atically establish ed by th e Irid iu m
system (p rovid ed , of cou rse, th at th e
pager is switched on). The Iridium Pag-
ing Service allows alphanumeric mes-

Figure 3. The
Kyocera Iridium
phone cosists of a
handset intended for
terrestrial services
which is transformed
into a satellite mobile
phone by inserting it
into a ‘docking sta-
tion’ with L-band
antenna.

48 Elektor Electronics 1/99

sages of up to 200 characters as well as obtain in formation on th e Irid -
numerical ones of up to 20 ciphers. The iu m service, an d p ossibly rele-
p ager sp ecification s embrace in tern a- van t h an d sets, from th eir cu r-
tional graphic characters and LED dis- ren t p rovid er. Billin g for th e
p lays. Th ere is an op tion al p ossibility Iridium service is through these
of sen d in g a m essage to grou p s of providers. Also, they retain their
ad d resses. Th e batteries last for abou t cu rren t mobile p h on e n u mber.
30 days. People who do not want to use
terrestrial mobile phone services
O P E R AT O R S AN D can take ou t a satellite-on ly
P R O VI D E R S mobile phone contract, and this
Although the design of the equipment service issues numbers starting
w as carried ou t by Motorola an d th at w ith th e in tern ation al cod e
of th e satellites by Lockh eed Martin , 8816.
the Iridium Service is operated by Irid- [990003]
ium LLC. This is an international con-
sortium of communication companies
an d oth er in d u strial organ ization s,
including Motorola, Lockheed Martin,
British Aerosp ace, IN MARSAT, an d Figure 4. Iridium
oth ers, w h ich h ave in vested in th e pager and mobile
d evelop m en t an d m arketin g of th e phone from
Iridium service. Motorola. The
The consortium has representatives phone has an inter-
in 15 cou n tries all over th e w orld . At changeable fre-
th e tim e of w ritin g, it h ad con clu d ed quency module for
abou t 300 agreem en ts w ith service a number of mobile
p rovid ers an d roam in g p artn ers, phone standards
w h ich togeth er rep resen t m ore th an and needs an addi-
100 million customers in 122 countries. tional L-band
Fu rth er agreem en ts in m ore th an 100 antenna unit for
cou n tries are con fid en tally exp ected operation in the
Iridium Network.
within the first few months of this year.
Users of current mobile phones can

Th e I r i d i u m Sa t e l l i t e s
Each of the 66 operational and fourteen spare and control
satellites built so far weighs 689 kilograms (just over 1500
pounds) and is 4.5 metres (just under 15 ft) long. Its power
is provided by two wing-shaped panels almost 6 metres
(20 ft) long that are fitted with gallium-arsenide solar cells.
The triangular carrier structure is made from reinforced
man-made fibre.
The solar generator charges a 22-cell nickel-hydrogen
battery, which becomes the power supply when the satel-
lite is in the shadow of the earth (about half the 100 minute
orbiting time).
The average transmitter power is 660 W. The central
electronics circuits are based on ASICs (Application Spe-
cific ICs). The computing power of the multi-processor net-
work is about 100 mips (million instructions per second).
At full load, up to 11,000 telephone conversations can be
handled simultaneously.
The RF stages of the transmitter and receiver are based
on MMICs (Monolithic Microwave ICs), while the amplifiers
in the receiver use low-noise GAS-FETs.
Communication in the Ka-band to other Iridium satel-
lites is carried out by four antennas (two North-South and
two East-West) on frequencies between 23.18 GHz and
23.38 GHz.
Direct communication with mobile phones and pagers
takes place in the L-band between 1616 and 1626.5 MHz via
three main antennas and 16 spotbeams.
Communications with the gateways is via four movable
antennas in the Ka-band (downlink 19.4–19.6 Ghz and
uplink 29.1–29.3 GHz).
All antennas consist of flat panels and use state-of-the-
art technology.
As mentioned earlier, the 80 satellites were designed
and manufactured by Lockheed Martin. This company has
to date built more LEO satellites than any other organiza-
tion in the western world. In spite of all this experience,
there were a number of failures, and these set back the
overall program by about six months.
Most of the satellites are launched in groups of five by a
Boeing Delta II Rocket from the Vandenberg launch pad in
California.
Some satellites were launched in groups of seven by a
Russian Proton Rocket from the Baikonur Kosmodrom site
in Kazakhstan.
Some satellites will be launched by China, but the Great
Walls Industries Corporation’s ‘Long March 2C/SD’ rock-
ets can accommodate only two satellites at a time.
The spare satellites will be launched by Delta II and
Long March 2C/SD rockets. At the end of last year, seven of
the 14 spare and control satellites were already in orbit.

Elektor Electronics 1/99 49

 TEST & MEASUREMENT

multiburst
generator
video test signal from two ICs

In many instances,
suspect television
receivers and moni-
tors can be tested
with a simple test pat-
tern generator as
described in this arti-
cle. The circuit pro-
posed in this, which
consists of only a
handful of compo-
nents, generates a
series of test bars, the
so-called multiburst.

INTRODUCTION in g d ifferen t frequ en cies at a level of

Although mod ern television receivers
an d m on itors are h igh ly im m u n e to
n oise an d in terferen ce, th ere w ill
always be a need for a test pattern gen-
erator. Th e com p act circu it p resen ted
enables many of the basic functions of
a television receiver or m on itor to be
checked. Owing to its simplicity, it pro-
vid es on ly a black-an d -w h ite p attern ,
of course.
DESIGN
C O N S I D E R AT I O N S
Th e sim p le test p attern of grey bars,
called a m u ltibu rst, gen erated by th e
Design by W. den Hollander circuit consists of a wave train contain-
420 m Vp -p (average valu e 650 m V).
Th e m u ltibu rst en ables th e frequ en cy
response, and certain other properties
of the system on test to be measured. In
a p rop erly ad ju sted receiver or m on i-
tor, all com p on en ts, w ith th e p ossible
exception of the 5.8 MHz burst, may be
p resen t. Th e referen ce bar an d th e 2T
p u lse are rep eated in lin e 330, so th e
p u lse rep etition rate (p p r)of th ese
important test signals is 50 Hz.
Th e m u ltibu rst also en ables th e
video amplifiers, sync(hronization) se-
p arator an d ou tp u t am p lifiers to be
tested.
Disregarding the power supply, the

Elektor Electronics 1/99

52
gen erator is based on tw o ICs: an in - 5V
system programmable logic assembly)
and a VCO (voltage-controlled oscilla-
1 C6

100n
C8

100n
C9

100n
tor). Th e circu it d iagram is sh ow n in
Figure 1. 21 39
R14
820Ω
32 40
5V
CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION 33 41
R11
The in-system programmable IC (IC1) 34
IC1 CS
7

1k2
35 14 C7
con tain s 36 m acrocells an d a total of CB
36
800 gates. In the present application, it 37 29 R10
100n
D0 270Ω
is u sed to gen erate th e syn c(h ron iza- 38 28 R9
IC2 16
D1 560Ω
tion ) sign al, CS, th e blan kin g sign al, D2
26
1k
R8 R15
15 7 1
CB, an d th e con trol voltage for th e CX PP

2k2
25 R7 C3
16 D3 1k5 2
Φ P1 C4
VCO. 17 D4
22
2k2
R6
PLL 13
20 R5 1n 6 P2
The sync signal, which meets inter- 30 D5 3k0 CX
8p2
19 R4 3 T1
national standards, is available at pin 7 1
D6
18
3k9
R3 9
CIN
4
R13
D7 4k7 VCOIN VCOUT 2k2
of IC 1, an d from th ere ap p lied to ou t- 2 12 14
SIN
put amplifier T1 via resistor R14. 3 13 11
R1 ZEN
15 BC547B
The blanking signal, manifested by 4 XC9536-15- 27 R12 12 10 R18
R2 DEMO
PC44 75Ω

1k5
6 31
a logic low level at pin 14 of IC1, is used INH
8 42
to d isable th e oscillator in IC 2 d u rin g 9 44 C5
5 8 R16 R17
P1 74HCT4046
the sync pulse.

1k8

100Ω
10 23 500Ω
As shown by the timing diagram in 11 24
10p

Figure 2, a p u lse ap p ears at each of CLKI CLK

ou tp u ts D 0–D 7 d u rin g th e lin e p eriod 5 43 IC3

R1 D2
> 8V 7805 5V
(64 µs). These pulses are converted into 10M
a staircase con sistin g of d irect voltage R2 R19
2k2

1N4001
step s. Th e staircase sign al is u sed to

2k7
X1
C12 C11 C10
control the VCO in IC2 via pin 9, result-
C1 C2 D1
in g in a frequ en cy-m od u lated ou tp u t 10MHz 220µ 330n 10µ
signal – the multiburst – at pin 4 of IC2. 22p 22p 25V 63V

The central frequency of the VCO is 980095 - 11

d eterm in ed by th e valu es of R12 an d
C3 and the setting of P1. With values as
specified and P 1 adjusted for a central Figure 1. Circuit dia-
frequ en cy of 1 MH z, th e ou tp u t fre- gram of the multiburst
quency rises in eight steps to a value of Th e circu it is p ow - generator. ure 4 (available read y-
10.5 MHz. ered by a sim p le su p - m ad e – see Read ers
Th e d .c. op eratin g p oin t of ou tp u t p ly w h ose ou tp u t is Services tow ard s th e
amp lifier T1 is d etermin ed by th e val- stabilized at 5 V by regu lator IC 3. end of this issue).
ues of R15 and R16. The video and sync Diod e D 2 p reven ts d am age th rou gh IC 1 sh ou ld be p laced in a su itable
sign als are su p erim p osed on th is via in ad verten t in correct p olarity of th e socket: mind the polarity. Do not over-
R13, R14 an d C 4. Th e am p lifier is input voltage. Diode D 1 is a supply-on look the wire bridge alongside R10.
designed to have an output impedance in d icator. Th e in p u t voltage m ay be
of 75 Ω at an output voltage of 1 Vp-p . d erived from a sim p le m ain s ad ap tor TESTING
The important signals in the circuit with an output of 9–12 V. When the generator has been built and
are summarized in Figure 3. In this dia- in sp ected th orou gh ly, sw itch on th e
gram, the sync signal, on to which the CONSTRUCTION mains supply to the ad aptor. Connect
ou tp u t sign al of th e VCO is su p erim - The generator is conveniently built on an oscilloscop e to th e ou tp u t an d
posed, is on the top line. The blanking the printed-circuit board shown in Fig- adjust P 1 so that the lowest frequency
sign al is on th e secon d lin e an d th e
staircase con trol voltage for th e VCO
on the third.
Th e ou tp u t sign al of th e gen erator
is on th e bottom lin e. Th is sh ow s
clearly th at at th e on set of each h ori-
2
630 640 650 660 670 680 690 700 710 720 730
zon tal lin e, th at is, every 64 µs, th e
oscillator is disabled.
N ote th at th e irregu larities on th e CS

screen images are cau sed by th e sam- CB

pling process of the oscilloscope used. D0

D1

D2

D3

D4
Figure 2. The in-system
programmable IC gen- D5

erates a number of dig- D6

ital signals that are the D7
basis of the output test
signal. 630 640 650 660 670 680 690 700 710 720 730
980095 - 12

Elektor Electronics 1/99 53

 is 1 MHz.
3 Th e gen erator is in ten d ed for test-
in g television receivers or m on itors
th at h ave a field frequ en cy of 50 H z
an d 625 lin es p er p ictu re. If d ifferen t
frequ en cies are d esired , th e valu e of
resistors R3–R10 sh ou ld be altered as
required.
Note that, in contrast to proprietary
multiburst generators, the present one
does not provide a sinusoidal output.
[980095]

980095 - 14

Figure 3. Oscillogram of
the signals at four loca-
tions in the generator.

Parts list
Resistors:
R1 = 10 MΩ
R2, R6, R13, R15 = 2.2 kΩ
R3 = 4.7 kΩ
R4 = 3.9 kΩ
R5 = 3.00/3.01 kΩ
R7, R12 = 1.5 kΩ
R8 = 1 kΩ
R9 = 560 Ω
R10 = 270 Ω
R11 = 1.2 kΩ
R14 = 820 Ω
R16 = 1.8 kΩ
R17 = 100 Ω
R18 = 75 Ω
R19 = 2.7 kΩ
P1 = 500 Ω preset

Capacitors:
C1, C2 = 22 pF
C3 = 0.001 µF
C4 = 8.2 pF
C5 = 10 pF Figure 4. Printed-circuit
C6–C9 = 0.1 µF, ceramic board for the multiburst
C10 = 10 µF, 63 V, radial generator.
C11 = 0.33 µF
C12 = 220 µF, 25 V, radial
+
0

D2
H4

H1

Semiconductors: IC3 C10

C11

D1 = LED, high efficiency, red 4

D2 = 1N4001
C9

R19
T1 = BC547B R11
C12

R3
R4
Integrated circuits: R5
R1

IC1 = XC9536-15-PC44 (Xilinx); avail-

C6

R6
able ready programmed under R7
IC1

Order no. 986520-1* R8

IC2 = 74HCT4046 R9
R2

R10
IC3 = 7805
C8
C1

Miscellaneous:
P1

C2

X1
C4
D1

X1 = crystal, 10 MHz R14

PCB Order no. 980095-C*
C3

R13 R15
Diskette with Jedec source file: Order
no. 986029-1*
R18
R17

IC2
R16
T1

* (see Readers Services towards the

C7

R12
end of this issue)
C5

OUT1

ROTKELE )C( (C) ELEKTOR

H3

H2

1-590089 980095-1
T

980095-1

Elektor Electronics 1/99 55

 The content of this note is based on information received from manufacturers in the
electrical and electronics industries or their representatives and does not imply prac-
APPLICATION NOTE tical experience by Elektor Electronics or its consultants.

fluorescent lamp
starter
2-chip set from SGS-Thomson

ST Electronics (formerly SGS-Thomson) have INTRODUCTION

earlier this year brought out a 2-chip starter,
the EFS (Starlight) Kit, which, in conjunction
with four additional passive components, can
be used as a direct replacement of the glow
switch starter. The kit comprises a driver and
an ASD™, which contains a power switch, and
a power supply for the driver. The driver is
programmed to ensure efficient ignition of the
fluorescent tube.
An SGS-Thomson Application
Expanded by G. Kleine
A low p ressu re flu orescen t lam p n or-
mally consists of a glass tube, 38 mm in
d iam eter an d betw een 600 m m an d
2400 mm long. The tube is filled with a
n oble gas at a p ressu re of n ot m ore
than 4 per cent of atmospheric pressure
and also contains a drop of liquid mer-
cury. The interior surface of the tube is
coated with phosphor which converts
th e u ltraviolet ligh t p rod u ced by th e
discharge into visible light.
At each en d of th e tu be are elec-
trodes that serve alternately as cathode
an d an od e sin ce th ese lamp s are u sed
in a.c. circuits.
The cathodes of a hot-cathode fluo-
rescent lamp consist of a coiled filament
coated w ith bariu m-oxid e th at is h eld

Elektor Electronics 1/99

56
 NCC
a
1 ballast 2 9

Tube lamp status

State 1 off/ignited

La
zero preheat Preheat
Shunt 4 crossing counter 2 Select
240V
50Hz over-
current

counter current
approx. 60V 8 ignition 13 G2
source
attempts

14 G1
VCC 12 under-
voltage

ballast I glow
11 3 5 6 7 8 10

1 14
!
3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 = GND
GND
SO14
La

240V TUBE
50Hz 3

7 8
b 980101 - 12a

G1 1
driver
Figure 2. Internal ON/OFF
block diagram of (a) G2 5

1.3 kV Clamp
the driver and (b)
ballast the ASD™ in the
Starlight Kit. VCC 2 power
supply
La

240V th e cath od e an d also to red u ce th e
50Hz
starting voltage.
Th e tu be cath od es are h eated by
p assin g a cu rren t th rou gh each fila-
approx. 1kV
ment, which causes a large number of
electron s to be em itted by th e oxid e
coating. Assuming sufficient voltage is
ap p lied across th e tu be, a glow d is-
ballast charge is set up through the noble gas
w h ich excites or ion izes th e m ercu ry
atoms throughout the tube and estab-
lishes a mercury-arc discharge.
La
A fluorescent tube requires a ballast
(u su ally a ch oke) to lim it th e cu rren t
240V
50Hz through the tube, a starter for preheat-
in g th e cath od e filam en t. In m an y
cases, th is is com p lem en ted by a
approx. 80V power-factor-correcting capacitor.
As th e arc cu rren t in creases, th e
voltage drop across the choke rises, so
that the potential across the tube drops
Figure 1. Operation of until a balance is reached.
a fluorescent tube Th e sim p lest an d m ost frequ en tly
with traditional starter u sed startin g d evice is th e starter
switch. sw itch . Wh en th is is closed , a cu rren t
flows through the ballast and the two
cathodes in series, whereupon, as soon
as th e cath od es reach th e em ission
temperature, local ionization is set up
in place by nickel support wires. and the ends of the tube begin to glow.
An od es in th e form of m etal strip s Th e starter sw itch is th en op en ed
or wires attached to the support wires rap id ly, an d th e resu ltin g ch an ge in
are used in high-load ing tubes, but in cu rren t cau ses a large cou n ter-e.m .f.
low-load in g tu bes th e su p p ort w ires across the coil, which is applied across
act as anodes. th e tu be an d is su fficien t to cau se th e
The noble gas serves to red uce the arc to strike.
rate of evaporation of the barium from Th e op eration s ju st d escribed are
4
GND
G1 1
VCC 2
Tube 3
GND 4
G2 5
Pentawatt HV
( TO220) 980101 - 12b
illustrated in Figure 1.
Automatic starter switches permit a
heating current to flow for a predeter-
mined time before they open and pro-
duce the striking pulse. The traditional
starting switch is a glow type, in which
th e sw itch con tacts are m ou n ted on
bim etallic strip s th at ben d tow ard s
each other when they are heated.
In m an y cases, bim etal starters
h ave been , or are bein g, rep laced by
electron ic starters. Cu rren t electron ic
starters for flu orescen t lam p s u se a
u n id irection al sw itch , like a MO S
tran sistor or GTO (Gate Tu rn O ff)
th yristor. Sin ce a starter is a bid irec-
tion al sw itch it is n ecessary to u se a
rectifier brid ge and , in ad d ition, 2 or 3
d iod es in series w ith th e GTO to get
th e n ecessary sw itch -off effect. Th e
w h ole sw itch is con trolled w ith an
an alogu e tim er bu ilt arou n d a sm all
SCR (Silicon Controlled Rectifier). The
sw itch in th e n ew kit from ST Elec-
tron ics is a bid irection al typ e, w h ich
su bstan tially red u ces th e n u m ber of

Elektor Electronics 1/99 57

 ballast allel, th e strikin g p u lse is ap p lied
3 R1a
d irectly to th e tu be. Th e electrom ag-
47k n etic en ergy of th e ballast is th en d is-
R1b
ch arged th rou gh th e tu be an d th e

47k
R2 R1c ASD™.
La 1k 56k Th e ASD con tain s an au xiliary
1 3 p ow er su p p ly for th e d river, a p ow er
240V 14 1
50Hz clam p in g d evice (1350 V) an d a bid i-
18...70W 9 DRIVER 13 5 ASD rectional switch (Figure 2b).
U2 14V U1
12 2
A fluorescent tube requires a mini-
3,5,6,7, 2
Br1 mum level of energy to be ignited, but
4
8,10,11 * C1
22µ
4
th is en ergy d ep en d s largely on th e
R3 Br2 16V temperature of the tube. The lower this
tem p eratu re, th e less en ergy, an d th e
1
/4 W
more difficult it is for the tube to ignite.
* see tekst 980101 - 13 Th e en ergy, E, stored in th e ballast, L,
is directly proportional to the ISO :

Figure 3. Basic appli- E = LISO 2 / 2.

cation diagram of the
EFS (Starlight) starter. additional components and the power
losses (on ly on e forw ard voltage
in stead of 5 or 8 d ep en d in g on th e
u n id irection al version ).
4 B AS I C AP P L I CAT I O N
A block diagram of the driver is shown
in Figure 2a.
The bidirectional power switch per-
forms two functions:
• preheating the tube;
• igniting the tube.
Du rin g th e p reh eatin g p eriod , th e
ASD™ con d u cts h ard . Th e tu be is
sh ort-circu ited by th e starter, an d th e
current flows through its filaments. In
th is con d ition , th e tu be can n ot ligh t,
bu t th e tem p eratu re of th e filam en ts
rises steadily.
At the end of the preheating period,
th e filam en ts of th e tu be are h ot
Figure 4. Track layout en ou gh to em it electron s in to th e gas
of the PCB for the an d to p erm it th e gas ign itin g. Th e
Starlight Kit. (200%) ASD th en switch es off th e p reh eatin g
current. At that moment, the ballast is
equ ivalen t to a cu rren t gen erator
where I = ISO (ISO = switch-off current).
5 While the ASD switches off, the starter
voltage in creases. Th e am p litu d e of
th is h igh -voltage sp ike is clam p ed by
th e ASD (U BR ≈ 1350 V). Sin ce th e
power switch and the tube are in par-
Th is m ean s th at th e requ ired en ergy,
an d th u s th e ISO , is a maximu m at th e
minimum temperature. Results based
on exp erim en ts sh ow th at it is n eces-
sary to switch off a cu rren t of 350 mA
to strike a 58 W tube at –20 °C (with the
voltage clamped at 1300 V).
So, the best way for a tube to strike
in d ep en d en tly of tem p eratu re is to
keep th e ISO at a m axim u m over th e
whole temperature range. In practice,
the ISO is maintained at 350 mA at tem-
p eratu res below –10 °C an d th en
allow ed to d rop grad u ally to abou t
180 mA at + 75 °C.
AU X I L I ARY P O WE R
S U P P LY
To reduce the number of components,
an au xiliary p ow er su p p ly is in corp o-
rated in th e ASD, w h ich w orks
directly from the mains. A capacitor at
th e ou tp u t of th e su p p ly is ch arged at
th e begin n in g an d en d of each p osi-
tive h alf-cycle of th e m ain s voltage.
Du rin g th e p reh eat p eriod , a p art of
the current flowing through the ASD is
used to charge the output capacitor, so
th ere is n o lin e cu rren t d istortion .
Wh en th e tu be is ign ited , th e cap aci-
tor is p eriod ically rech arged by th e
ASD to allow m on itorin g of th e tu be
by th e starter kit.

F U N CTI O N AL
DESCRIPTION
A functional diagram is shown in Fig-
Recommended components: ure 3. At sw itch -on , an in tegrated
Under Voltage Lock Out (UVLO) func-
R1 = 150 kΩ, 1/2 W, SMD tion resets th e d river as lon g as th e
R2 = 1 kΩ or 2 kΩ (see text) 0.5 W supply voltage stays below a safe level.
SMD
R3 = 0.39 Ω, 1/4 W
Th e ign ition sequ en ce begin s w ith
All resistors 5% th e p reh eat p eriod . Tw o d ifferen t
period lengths are available:
Capacitors:
C = 22 µF, 16 V, 10% • if pin 2 is connected to ground, the
Figure 5. Component preheat period is 1.5 s;
Integrated circuits: • if pin 2 is connected to V CC, the pre-
layout of the PCB for
See Table
the Starlight Kit. (200%) heat period is 2.5 s.

58 Elektor Electronics 1/99

Du rin g th e p reh eat p eriod , th e d river actions must be carried out to avoid a
maintains the ASD in the full on state, supply short circuit. 6 C ballast

m akin g th e starter equ ivalen t to a

closed switch.
At th e en d of th e p reh eat p eriod , F I N AL LY …
La
the starter ignites the fluorescent tube. Wh en th e board h as been fitted in a
To th is en d , th e d river con tin u ou sly glow type starter case, insert it into the 240V elektronic
m on itors th e cu rren t th rou gh th e relevant connector on the tube holder. 50Hz starter

starter. Wh en th e cu rren t reach es th e Wh en th e lam p is sw itch ed on , it

sw itch -off level (350 m A), th e d river sh ou ld ign ite at on ce. If it d oes n ot,
turns off the ASD. This causes a high- lenghten the preheat time.
voltage pulse to be induced across the If increasing the preheat time does
tu be, w h ich is lim ited by th e ASD n ot h elp or if in stead of th e eigh t 980101 - 14

breakdown voltage of 1350 V. attem p ts at ign itin g th e tu be th ere is

Th e d river sen ses th e state of th e
tube (on or off). When the tube fails to
strike and remains off for eight periods
of th e m ain s voltage, a n ew p reh eat
period, shorter than the first, is begun,
follow ed by a n ew ign ition attem p t.
The driver will try to fire the tube eight
times. If none of these attempts is suc-
cessful, the driver is set to the standby
mode, and the whole starter stops until
the mains is switched off and then on
again.
Once the tube is ignited, the driver
stays in the standby mode, but contin-
u es to m on itor th e state of th e tu be.
Th e ASD ap p lies a sh ort h igh -voltage
on ly on e, th e tu be m ay h ave an in te-
gral series com p en sation cap acitor as Figure 6. Some fluo-
shown in Figure 6. In such a case, there rescent tubes have an
is only one attempt at igniting the tube, integral series com-
but this should be sufficient. pensation capacitor.
Th ere is an arran gem en t for tw o
sp ecial tu bes in series, th e so-called
tw in tu be con figu ration , as sh ow n in
Figure 7. Th is u ses tw o starters, bu t
ballast
on ly on e ballast. Th e ST Electron ics
starter can be used in this arrangement
7
if th e valu e of R2 is in creased to 2 kΩ.
If in this configuration the tubes do not
La1
ign ite, tu rn on e of th e starters 180° in
its socket. elektronic
[980101] starter 1

pulse of 1 mJ at the beginning of each

positive mains half-cycle. If the mains
voltage drops briefly, the tube turns off
momentarily, but the short pulse is suf- 240V
ficient to sustain the arc in the tube, so 50Hz
avoid in g th e n eed for a n ew ign ition
sequence.
La2
Du rin g n orm al op eration of th e
tube, the short pulse is masked by the elektronic
tube cond uction. If the mains is inter- starter 2
ru p ted for som e tim e, th e lam p is
sw itch ed off com p letely an d a n ew
ignition sequence is started as soon as
the mains voltage is restored.
980101 - 15

CONSTRUCTION
Th e com p lete starter m ay be bu ilt on Figure 7. Twin tube
the printed-circuit board shown in Fig- configuration.
ures 4 and 5. This fits nicely in the case
of a defect glow type starter.
The components are SMD (surface-
mount d evice) types. Start the sold er-
ing with the resistors, then the capacitor,
and finally the two ICs. EFS Starlight Kit EFS1 EFS2 EFS3
The preheat time must then be set:
pin 2 is the preheat time select pin. To Tube rating (W) 36–58 18–70 18–125
select a 1.5 s preheat time, drill and cut Umgebungstemperatur [°C] 5 to 75 –20 to 75 –40 to 85
the V CC to pin 2 at the metallized hole. Twin tube serial connection Yes Yes Yes
To select a 2.5 s preheat time, drill and Driver (U2) EFS1-A EFS2-A EFS3-A
cu t th e GN D to p in 2. Eith er of th ese ASD™ (U1) EFS1-1 EFS2-1 EFS3-1

Elektor Electronics 1/99 59

 WHEN ELECTRONICS WAS YOUNG (1)
At the threshold of a new millennium: started. Although the work of Gray and Fry was im-
portant, as was the invention of the first capacitor, or
a look back over centuries past Leyden jar, in 1745, by von Kleist (and, almost a year
later, by Muschenbroek at the University of Leyden in
Standing at the threshold of a new millennium, it is a
the Netherlands), but these were still concerned with
sobering thought to reflect that static electricity has
static electricity. Electronics as we know it is the sci-
been known for almost 2500 years: the Greeks discov-
ence and technology of the conduction of electricity,
ered that friction on amber (Greek: ελεχτρον – elec-
that is, the movement of electrons, in a gas, vacuum,
tron) by fur gave rise to attractive forces. However, the
or semiconductor. The conduction of electricity in
word electron was not used until 1897 when J J
other materials or substances is really the domain of
Thomson discovered the electron as we know it.
electrical technology.
Electrical technology and its offspring electronics
The study of electricity started so ably by 18th cen-
have had, and still have, a tremendous impact on
tury pioneers like Gray, Fry, Muschenbroek, and von
human society. Today, it would be difficult to imagine
Kleist, led in 1800 to the invention of the dry battery
a world without electric lights, radio, television, tele-
by Alessandro Volta, followed in 1803 by Ritter’s in-
phone, cars (no ignition), lifts, aircraft. Of course,
vention of the rechargeable battery. Since the supply
without electricity there would still have been trains,
of electric power provided by such batteries is impor-
(mechanical) computers, and other appliances. The
tant to electronics, the year 1800 seems a good start-
development of electrical technology and, later, elec-
ing point for a short overview of the history of elec-
tronics may be compared with that of hieroglyphs,
tronics although, strictly speaking, almost all of that
cuneiform, and printing.
history really belongs to ‘our’ century: the 20th.
Static electricity was not studied for many centuries
Over the coming months, we shall have a look at a
after its discovery until the early 1700s, when Gray
number of milestones in the history of electronics and
distinguished between conductors and insulators and
the men and women who made it all possible.
Fry found that electricity can be positive and negative.
It is difficult to say when the history of electronics [995008]

Elektor Electronics 1/99 63

Elektor Electronics

M B5 0 1 L AD 8 3 0 7

I nte grate d C ircuits I nte grate d C ircuits

Spe cial Function, Pre scale rs Ana logue
D ATA S H E E T 1 /9 9 D ATA S H E E T 1 /9 9

MB501L Application example AD8307 A single supply voltage of 2.7 V to 5.5 V at 7.5 mA is
Two Modulus Prescaler General Coverage Receiver, Low-Cost DC-500 MHz, 92 dB Logarithmic Amplifier needed, corresponding to an unprecedented power
Elektor Electronics January & February 1999 consumption of only 22.5 mW at 3 V. A fast-acting
Manufacturer Manufacturer CMOS-compatible control pin can disable the AD8307
Fujitsu. Internet: www.fujitsu.com Analog Devices, One Technology Way, P.O. Box 9106, to a standby current of under 150 µA.
Norwood, MA 02062-9106, U.S.A.
Internet: www.analog.com.
1/99

Product Description Pin assignment

The Fujitsu MB501L is a two modulus prescaler used
in a frequency synthesizer to make a Phase Locked
Loop (PLL). It will divide the input frequency by the
modulus of 64/65 or 128/129 The output level is 1.6V
peak to peak on ECL level.
Features
- High Operating Frequency, Low Power Operation
1.0 GHz at 150mW typ. (MB501)
1.1 GHz at 50 mW typ. (MB501L)
- Pulse Swallow Function
- Wide Operation Temperature TA = –40°C to + 85°C
- Stable Output Amplitude VOUT = 1.6 Vp-p.
- Complete PLL synthesizer circuit with the Fujitsu
MB87001A, PLL synthesizer IC
- Plastic 8-pin Standard Dual-In-Line Package or space
saving Flat Package
65
Input signal amplitude vs. input frequency
Features
- Complete Multistage Logarithmic Amplifier
- 92 dB Dynamic Range: –75 dBm to + 17 dBm
To –90 dBm Using Matching Network
- Single Supply of 2.7 V Min at 7.5 mA Typical
- DC-500 MHz Operation, ±1 dB Linearity
- Slope of 25 mV/dB, Intercept of –84 dBm
- Highly Stable Scaling Over Temperature Functional block diagram
- Fully Differential DC-Coupled Signal Path
- 100 ns Power-Up Time, 150 µA Sleep Current
Applications
Conversion of Signal Level to Decibel Form
Transmitter Antenna Power Measurement
Receiver Signal Strength Indication (RSSI)
Low Cost Radar and Sonar Signal Processing
Network and Spectrum Analyzers (to 120 dB) Pin configuration
Signal Level Determination Down to 20 Hz

True Decibel AC Mode for Multimeters

SW MC Divide Ratio
H H 1/64 Application Example
H L 1/65 RF Decibel Meter, Elektor Electronics January 1999.
MB501/501L
L H 1/128
L L 1/129 Product Description (excerpt)
Note: SW: H = VCC, L = open The AD8307 is the first logarithmic amplifier in an 8-
MC: H = 2.0 V to VCC
L = GND to 0.8 V
lead (SO-8) package. It is a complete 500-MHz mono-
lithic demodulating logarithmic amplifier based on the
progressive compression (successive detection) tech-
nique, providing a dynamic range of 92 dB to ± 3 dB
law-conformance and 88 dB to a tight ± 1-dB error VOUT vs. input level (dBm) at various frequencies.
bound at all frequencies up to 100 MHz. It is extremely
stable and easy to use, requiring no significant exter-
nal components.
Block diagram
✃
AD 8 3 0 7 M B5 0 1 L

1/99
I nte grate d C ircuits I nte grate d C ircuits
Ana logue Spe cial Function, Pre scale rs
D ATA S H E E T 1 /9 9 D ATA S H E E T 1 /9 9
Recommended Operating Conditions
AD8307 Specifications (VS = + 5 V, TA = 25ºC, RL ≥1MΩ, unless otherwise noted) Value
Parameter Symbol Unit
Parameter Conditions Min Typ Max Units Min Typ Max

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS Supply Voltage VCC 4.5 5.0 5.5 V

Elektor Electronics
Input Range (±1 dB Error) Expressed in dBm re 50 Ω –72 16 dBm Output Current IO 1.2 mA
Logarithmic Conformance f ≤100 MHz, Central 80 dB ±0.3 ±1 dB Ambient Temperature TA –40 + 85 ºC
f = 500 MHz, Central 75 dB ±0.5 dB Load Capacitance CL 12 pF
Logarithmic Slope Unadjusted 1 23 25 27 mV/dB
vs. Temperature 23 27 mV/dB
Logarithmic Intercept Sine Amplitude; Unadjusted 2 20 µV
Equivalent Sine Power in 50 Ω –87 –84 –77 dBm
vs. Temperature –88 –76 dBm
Input Noise Spectral Density Inputs Shorted 1.5 nV/√Hz
Operating Noise Floor RSOURCE = 50 Ω/2 –78 dBm
Output Resistance Pin 4 to Ground 10 12.5 15 kΩ
Internal Load Capacitance 3.5 pF
Response Time Small Signal, 10%-90%,0 mV-100 mV, CL = 2pF 400 ns
Large Signal, 10%-90%,0 V-2.4 V, CL = 2 pF 500 ns
Upper Usable Frequency 3 500 MHz
Lower Usable Frequency Input AC-coupled 10 Hz
AMPLIFIER CELL CHARACTERISTICS
Cell Bandwidth –3 dB 900 MHz
Cell Gain 14.3 dB
INPUT CHARACTERISTICS
DC Common-Mode Voltage Inputs AC-Coupled 3.2 V
Common-Mode Range Either Input (Small Signal) –0.3 1.6 VS–1 V
DC Input Offset Voltage 4 RSOURCE ≤ 50Ω 50 500 µV
Drift 0.8 mV/ºC Typical application example
Incremental Input Resistance Differential 1.1 kΩ
Input Capacitance Either Pin to Ground 1.4 pF
Bias Current Either Input 10 25 mA
POWER INTERFACES

66
Supply Voltage 2.7 5.5 V
Supply Current VENB ≥ 2 V 8 10 mA
Disabled VENB ≤ 1 V 150 750 µA

NOTES
1 This may be adjusted downward by adding a shunt resistor from the Output to Ground. A 50 kΩ resistor will reduce

the nominal slope to 20 mV/dB.

2 This may be adjusted in either direction by a voltage applied to Pin 5, with a scale factor of 8 dB/V.
3 See Application on 900 MHz operation.
4 Normally nulled automatically by internal offset correction loop. May be manually nulled by a voltage applied between Pin 3

and Ground; see APPLICATIONS.

Specifications subject to change without notice. Test circuit
✃