Lamp and Fuse Tester Circuit Diagram

Lamp and Fuse Tester Circuit Diagram

WEARIFY   April 03, 2018   1 comment:

Why a lamp tester or fuse tester? Testing cables, wires, lamps… belongs to a repair job and sometimes this becomes too cumbersome since one has only two hands and too often, one has to hold the part being tester and the two probes of an ordinary continuity tester all at the same time.

This fuse and lamp tester enables easy testing of lamps and fuses by using the conductivity of the human body. One of the test probes is connected to the part under test while the other probe is hel dby the normal hand.

Lamp and Fuse Tester Circuit Diagram 

When the lamp or fuse is working properly, your eyes will glow in the dark! Just kidding :) . When the lamp or fuse is working properly, a small amount of current flows through the hand which is enough to switch the transistors and light the LED.

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Reliable Car Battery Tester Circuit Diagram

Reliable Car Battery Tester Circuit Diagram

WEARIFY   April 03, 2018   No comments:

This circuit uses the popular and easy to find LM3914 IC. This IC is very simple to drive, needs no voltage regulators (it has a built in voltage regulator) and can be powered from almost every source. This circuit is very easy to explain: When the test button is pressed, the Car battery voltage is feed into a high impedance voltage divider. His purpose is to divide 12V to 1,25V (or lower values to lower values).

This solution is better than letting the internal voltage regulator set the 12V sample voltage to be feed into the internal voltage divider simply because it cannot regulate 12V when the voltage drops lower (linear regulators only step down). Simply wiring with no adjust, the regulator provides stable 1,25V which is fed into the precision internal resistor cascade to generate sample voltages for the internal comparators. Anyway the default setting let you to measure voltages between 8 and 12V but you can measure even from 0V to 12V setting the offset trimmer to 0 (but i think that under 9 volt your car would not start).

There is a smoothing capacitor (4700uF 16V) it is used to adsorb EMF noise produced from the ignition coil if you are measuring the battery during the engine working. Diesel engines would not need it, but I'm not sure. If you like more a point graph rather than a bar graph simply disconnect pin 9 on the IC (MODE) from power. The calculations are simple (default)

For the first comparator the voltage is : 0,833 V corresponding to 8 V
* * * * * voltage is : 0,875 V corresponding to 8,4 V
for the last comparator the voltage is : 1,25 V corresponding to 12 V
Have fun, learn and don't let you car battery discharge... ;-)

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Mobile phone Circuits to Get Even smaller

Mobile phone Circuits to Get Even smaller

WEARIFY   April 03, 2018   No comments:

Transceivers, appliances such as mobile phones that can send and receive messages, have become smaller and smaller over the last few years, but users are about to experience a new meaning in miniaturisation.

Research at The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST) has successfully combined a unique system architecture and new circuit design techniques to reduce them in size like never before.
Principal Investigator Dr Howard Luong said the handset of a typical mobile phone today may contain between 150 and 300 separate electrical components.

His research group proposed and demonstrated circuit techniques that make it possible to combine many of these components to a single chip and therefore to significantly reduce the size of circuitry (see example in graphic). A US patent has been granted for one of the circuit techniques.

The transformation applies to the CMOS (Complimentary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) manufacturing process, which can produce integrated circuits and systems with the highest integration level at the lowest cost. Applying new techniques to the CMOS process, Dr Luong’s research enables many “off-chip” components to be combined to realize a system-on-chip. “But,” he said, “this integration created great challenges in circuit implementation.” Part of the research was to solve the problems by new circuit design techniques.

“The system architecture and circuitry go hand in hand, he added. “They must both work, or neither will be useful.”
The resulting design gives the highest component integration in the smallest chip area ever reported, said Dr Luong.
In his design, all off-chip components are fitted into a central chip measuring 36 mm with packaging, and 8mm without being packaged.
Dr Luong’s miniaturisation method means appliances will soon be made for even lower cost and lower power consumption in addition to being much smaller in size and lighter in weight.
“With the lowering of cost, size and power, many new and interesting applications will become possible and practical,” he said.
Low-power wireless transceivers, for example, could be integrated into implanted devices such as heart pacemakers to wirelessly transmit and receive information between patients and doctors or monitoring systems.
Wearable mobile phones as small as wrist watches at an affordable price could also become a reality.

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MT8870 DTMF Telephone Dial Tone Decoder Circuit Diagram

MT8870 DTMF Telephone Dial Tone Decoder Circuit Diagram

WEARIFY   April 03, 2018   No comments:

Build a MT8870 DTMF Telephone Dial Tone Decoder Circuit Diagram. This is a  simple MT8870 DTMF Telephone Dial Tone Decoder Circuit Diagram. In this circuit one common DTMF receiver IC is the Motorola MT8870 that is widely used in electronic communications circuits. The MT8870 isan 18-pin IC. It is used in telephones and a variety of other applications. When a proper output is not obtained in projects using this IC, engineers or technicians need to test this IC separately. 

A quick testing of this IC could save a lot of time in research labs and manufacturing industries of communication instruments. Here’s a small and handy tester circuit for the DTMF IC. It can be assembled on a multipurpose PCB with an 18-pin IC base. One can also test the IC on a simple breadboard. For optimum working of telephone equipment, the DTMF receiver must be designed to recognize a valid tone pair greater than 40 ms in duration and to accept successive digit tone-pairs that are greater than 40 ms apart. 

 MT8870 DTMF Telephone Dial Tone Decoder Circuit Diagram

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Telephone for VoIP gate Circuit Diagram

Telephone for VoIP gate Circuit Diagram

WEARIFY   April 02, 2018   No comments:

A project of Telephone for VoIP gate Circuit Diagram. Calls over the Internet can be in several different ways. For households with a permanent connection to the Internet, it is advantageous to use different IP phones and VoIP gateways that need to function on the computer. Because IP phones are still relatively expensive, they are used more often different VoIP gateway. VoIPgateway is "one end" connected to a network with access to the internet, the "other end" connects a standard analog phone, which is then used in the normal way and that has given a telephone number available from any fixed or mobile phone. Some VoIP gateway router in addition to that we need as well, if we want to access via a modem to connect multiple computers. To my VoIP gateway, we can connect nehomologovaný, self made ​​phone. Instructions for simple phone is the subject of this article.

How to the phone works

Normally the phone line is a DC voltage, usually 50 to 70 V. During the ringtone to this voltage superposed yet AC 50-100 V with a frequency of usually 20 or 25 Hz. "Pick up the 'phone line will pass through the current 20-40 mA. On the phone while the voltage drop occurs several volts (Fig. 1). This voltage can be used to power the circuitry phone. The polarity of the DC voltage is not defined, the phone must function in both polarities. The phone line is when answering the call of a defined impedance, which should be adapted telephone. Line impedance in different countries vary so as the phone purchased in Germany (impedance 220 ​​ohms + 820 ohms in parallel with 220 nF) not in Bohemia (600 ohms) to work optimally. Sometimes differ impedance different networks within the same country, depending on the age and type of telephone exchanges, length and characteristics of the cables.

Fig. 1 The voltage on the raised phone would, depending on the passing stream should be in the area indicated by the letters A to G

The most important part of the phone is a colloquial circuit. The call is transmitted over the line modulation current that flows through the line. The current is modulated on the side panel (VoIPGateway), which transfers the call to the user, and in the device, which is transmitted from the user. The speech circuit is a hybrid circuit that suppresses the signal from the microphone in the earpiece. The hybrid circuit is on the opposite side (PBX, VoIP gateway). The hybrid circuit is usually some sort of bridge, and therefore it is necessary to impedance phone and VoIP gateway (or exchange) have been adapted. It is important especially for VoIP devices, where the influence of digitization and transmission of data over the Internet arises signal delay in the order of tens of milliseconds. Mismatch, especially on the VoIP gateway, there is a very annoying echo.

Fig. 2 Colloquial hybrid transformer circuit. If L1 and L2 have the same number of threads and balancing impedance ZM is equal to the line impedance ZL, the microphone signal in the handset suppressed


Another important part of the circuit for dialing. All modern devices support tone dialing. Ringing circuit to alert the user to an incoming call. Acoustic (bell) or optical signals indicates the presence of ringing voltage on the line. Hook switch is a switch that turns on the circuit colloquial answer the phone.

Specifications

Telephone impedance:	aprox. 600 Ohm.
Recomended line impedance:	real. 600 Ohm.
Operating (off-hook) current:	20 mA (10 to 40 mA.)
Operating voltage:	aprox. 7 V @ 20 mA.
Dialing:	DTMF
"In-use" indication:	3 to 15 V/ aprox. 1 mA
On-hook current:	aprox. 0,01 mA @ 50 V

Phone Circuit Schematic

Fig 3rd Telephone unit schematic

Connection phone in Figure 3 Colloquial circuit with transistors T1 to T3 is connected via a hook switch and bridge DB1 to the telephone line . Diode bridge ensures that electronic circuits are supplied with the correct polarity. If the hook switch is closed, current passes through the transistor T1 lines , which is used as microphone amplifier and transistors T2 and T3 , which amplifies the signal to the receiver. Headphone amplifier operates in class A. The amplitude of the output voltage at the collector of the transistor is about 1 V, which for the purpose of completely sufficient . Headphones or speakers can be used with an impedance of 8 ohms , the amplifier but works better (has lower distortion) with higher impedance load . Trimmer P2 can adjust the gain as needed.

The amplifier is continuously drop of about 1.3 V, the sum of the voltage UBE transistors T2 and T3 and is only slightly dependent on the flowing current. This voltage across the resistor R1 is powered electret microphone . The signal from the microphone passes through C1 to the base of transistor T1 . It amplifies the signal level required to excite the line. Originally, the microphone amplifier much more difficult . But he had unnecessarily high gain and output impedance inappropriate . This simple connection works better . Working point T1 is set resistors R2 to R4 . The microphone amplifier there is a voltage drop of about 3.5 V , the voltage drop can be under current amplification T1 changed 3 to 4 V. Resistor R5 introduced at this stage, a negative feedback regulating the amplification and decreasing distortion. Balancing circuit C6, R6 and P1 suppresses the signal from the microphone in headphone amplifier .

The signal from the microphone is on the collector of T1 opposite phase than the emitter , but the amplitude of the signal at the collector is much greater. Potentiometer P1 can set a condition where the signals from the collector and emitter of the capacitor C7 T1 readings and audio from the microphone in the handset is suppressed. Simplified diagram balancing the bridge is in Figure 4 The setting is very dependent on the impedance of the line. Because VoIP gateway creates a link with the active resistance of 600 ohm and short supply does not create a significant reactive component , the setting is simple and very effective. The signal coming from the gateway or PBX is the collector and emitter of T1 phase balancing circuit and is therefore not suppressed.

Fig. 4th Simplified wiring hybrid (balancing) circuit in the phone

In order to suppress its signal worked well on the VoIP gateway, you need the phone to be defined impedance close to the impedance of the gate, ie 600 ohm. The output impedance of the collector T1 for AC signals, large, almost current source. Impedance of the phone for voice signals are essentially a parallel combination of R6, R1 and about one order larger impedance collector T1. Rectifier bridge through which the signal passes, it will affect the impedance to a minimum.

 Fig 5 Dialer circuit arrangement

For DTMF I did not find any suitable integrated circuit , and generate DTMF signal discrete oscillators would be difficult and impractical . Finally, I modified the DTMF phone dialer . Dialer is a small box with buttons and speaker , generating tones when you press the button corresponding to the relevant figures. It is used for remote telephone answering and for the selective choice of the civil radio stations . The dialer (Fig. 5 ), the signal goes from the integrated circuit via the 22k resistor on the transistor, which drives a small speaker . Transistor speaker and I vymontoval a DTMF signal is connected to the transistor T4 on the phone. After pressing the button, the IO output voltage appears about 1 V with superimposed DTMF signal . Connect the telephone line is very simple, just enough transistor T4 and resistor R7. The change in resistance R7 can adjust the intensity of tone . Speaker of the phone dialer I used it as a handset . Dialer , according to the type of memory to 11 or 13 numbers , but unfortunately it lacks useful the " Redial" to repeat the last number called. I could not deal with power dialer from the phone line , so your phone is a small battery , which is likely to last for many years. The battery has an advantage in that it forgets the stored phone numbers if you disconnect it from the line.

Also, the ringing circuit I did not get special IO . That's why I like bell oscillator is used samovybuzujícím a piezoelectric transducer . The oscillator is fed stream that passes through the ringer capacitor C8 , bridges DB2 , LED2 to LED4 and resistor R14 . The oscillator is operated only in one half , the sound is more significant . In the other half cycle current through diode D1 . The bell must have a dead zone . That there is provided connecting the LED. Ringing voltage amplitude must have at least 10 V to Buzzer began publishing a sound. The phone I used a blue LED with high luminance. These intensely lit even at current several milliamps , which is ringing flow. LED also serves as a visual alarm bell , which could be useful in noisy environments .

The last telephone circuits are busy lamp . Phone I was seeking a second phone in parallel connected to the device at the other end of the apartment . When the phone is " suspended " , the hook switch is switched to the circuit with transistors T5 and T7 . If all telephones on the line hung on the line voltage of 50 to 60 V. The transistor T5 is opened, closed, and T7 LED1 off. The circuit is taken from the line is very little current through resistors R8 and R9 . Shrinks if the line voltage is below 15 V, T5 is closed , opens T7 and LED1 lights up. Transistor T6 T7 gate bias control by the loss of the R11 so that LED1 is energized about 1 mA , which is quite sufficient for display . In the voltage range of 3-15 V line lights LED1 virtually the same. BSS123 transistor has a maximum voltage UDS only 100 V. If the ringtone is this voltage is exceeded. In my phone's built higher voltage transistor has lasted several months . If you're worried about him , you can type BS108 with UDSmax 200 V, but it is not in SMD . The "in use" circuit not be planted, if you indicate you do not need , or can be used alone for another phone .

Mechanical Design

Width of the printed circuit board was designed dimensions dialer , then the length of a "reasonable " distance between the microphone and earpiece. Although the board is a lot of space , most of SMD components . They take up less space and is easier mounting plate is not so much tinkering . Figure motive circuit and layout of components , following table .

Before you assemble components, prepare the first dialer and attach it to desce.Z dialer remove the battery and remove the hinged cover. Dialer carefully "crack". It should go fairly easily if you start in the corner, to which is attached a chain. Odpájíme the speaker wires from the board dialer and speaker carefully shucks from the bottom of the box. The board dialer vypájíme more transistor in TO92. The board dialer solder short wires to negative (Pad1) and positive (PAD3) terminal electrolytic capacitor and terminal for transistor-based vypájeného (PAD2). Editing is perhaps evident from Figure 9 photos The lower part of the housing dialer yet only tentatively secured to the plate phone plastic rivets (Fig. 10). We remove the box and the board will be filled by phone components.

 Fig. 6th Editing dialer and connection terminals

Phone was originally in a transparent plastic box, which was inside the LED backlight. Its production, however, I not successful, so I made ​​a wooden box. To her I used plywood manufacture of soft wood, obtained from the fruit of hazel. That will free devoted almost everyone greengrocer. From one high hazels get material for a few boxes. Plywood is easily machined and well bonded dispersion adhesive. I eventually recut the box, namořil and přelakoval polyurethane varnish.

 Fig. 7th Mounting boxes dialer

With the change in boxes I had to adjust some components on the board. LEDs were originally all SMD. Finally, there were only SMD LED 2. But it is not visible from the outside, and therefore does not need much light. You can replace the zener diode (3-12 V) or short-circuit, but it increases the sensitivity of the ringing circuit. Other LED in case of 3 mm diameter. It turns out that it is better to use LED with high luminous than type 2 mA of current, because the small stream shines more. Also switch SW1 on the phone "lifting", I moved to the side boards. Deferred phone is on the table laid down the keyboard. LED on the back because they are easy to see and switch is when you pick up the phone available with one touch. Of the joints it can not be soldered to the board just because they do not get tipped soldering iron to solder pad. On the solder contacts because I rozklepl small rivets, which I soldered joints by.

I then links to the rivets inserted the switch and soldered it from the opposite side of the board. Between the switch and the plate I put a piece of insulating paper. The switch can also be placed at any other suitable location in the box and board interconnect wires. Switches P-B143 of the newer series ("silver") are not too good and We turn the lever sometimes lose contact. To fix it so that "packs" pertinax holding plate with pins a little more same hopper. The defect had all the pieces that I had at home. Dimensionally the same switch, but painted black were fine.

 Fig. 8th The top side of the printed circuit board

The power dialer instead of the original articles I used lithium batteries. Do you solder boards phone as housing purchased as the GM and housing that vypájíte of defective motherboards PC that has otherwise placed pins. Piezoelectric transducer is bolted small screws through the PCB to the bottom of the box dialer.
On the microphone I slid the piece of tubing so that the tubing fit snugly inside the box. Thus reducing the acoustic coupling between the earpiece and microphone inside the device.

 Fig. 9th The underside of the plate and box

Fig. 10th The back of the phone with LED switch and a hole for the bell

Animation

Phone use in conjunction with the gateway Linksys Sipura SP2100. In the firewall settings to make sure that in menu / admin / voice / advanced tab you have set up Regional impedance lines FXS Port Impedance: 600 Phone can revive a product as shown in Figure 14 (SW1 closed). You can test with a different phone when line current, measure the voltage on the line and estimate the impedance of the phone - AC voltage test point should be after the switch opens twice. The trimmer P2 dial to maximum resistance (max volume). To attach the microphone sound source (eg mp3 player headphones) and adjust the trimmer P1 so that the sound from the microphone not hear the telephone handset. Try tone. Ringing circuit you can try connecting the phone via a suspended resistor 1 kOhm to AC voltage 24-50 V.

 Fig. 11th test preparation

Conclusion

The phone is in operation for several months and yet it was conceived as a second auxiliary telephone is often used. I have tested it successfully on the public switched telephone network (PSTN), but because I'm not sure whether it meets all required standards, there should not be connected. PSTN to VoIP gateway over a larger voltage when hanging up a more current when the phone is picked up.

List of components
 

R1	4,7 kOhm, SMD 1206
R2	1 kOhm, SMD 1206
R3, R4	22 kOhm, SMD 1206
R5	33 Ohm, SMD 1206
R6	2,2 kOhm, SMD 1206
R7	220 Ohm, SMD 1206
R8, R9	10 MOhm, SMD 1206
R10	330 kOhm, SMD 1206
R11	470 Ohm, SMD 1206
R12	220 kOhm, SMD 1206
R13, R14	10 kOhm, SMD 1206
P1	250 Ohm, trimr PT6V (Piher)
P2	5 kOhm, trimr PT6V (Piher)
C1	220 nF, SMD 1206
C2	10 mikroF/16 V, tantalum., SMD B
C3	1000 mikroF/6,3 V, electrolytic
C4, C5	100 mikroF/6,3 V, tantalum, SMD D
C6	47 mikroF/16 V, tantalum., SMD D
C7	4,7 mikroF/10 V, tantalum, SMD A
C8	220 nF/250 V, foil MKT RM5
	PCB board bcs59

D1	1N4148SMD, SOD80
DB1, DB2	S250,mini DIP bridge
ZD1	BZV55C15SMD, Zener. diode 15 V SOD80
T1, T3	BC817-40, SOT-23
T2	BC807-40, SOT-23
T4 až T6, T8	BC848C, SOT-23
T7	BSS123, SOT-23 (BS108, TO92)
LED1	high intensity 3 mm red LED (it's better than 2 mA LED)
LED2	any 3 mm SMD LED or Zener diode 3 to 12 V
LED3, LED4	high intensity 3 mm blue LED (it's better than 2 mA LED)
MIC1	elektret. mikrofon MCE100
SP1	tiny speaker or headphone 100 Ohm (8 to 100 Ohm), removed from dialer
B1	CR2032 battery and holder
SW1	P-B143, SPST switch
K1	slim RJ11 plug WEBP 6-4 LP
SP2	piezo KPT2038FW
dialer	dialer DTMF 13 or 11

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Solar Powered SLA Battery Maintenance Schematic

Solar Powered SLA Battery Maintenance Schematic

WEARIFY   March 27, 2018   No comments:

This circuit was designed to ‘baby-sit’ SLA (sealed lead-acid or ‘gel’) batteries using freely available solar power. SLA batteries suffer from relatively high internal energy loss which is not normally a problem until you go on holidays and disconnect them from their trickle current charger. In some cases, the absence of trickle charging current may cause SLA batteries to go completely flat within a few weeks. The circuit shown here is intended to prevent this from happening. Two 3-volt solar panels, each shunted by a diode to bypass them when no electricity is generated, power a MAX762 step-up voltage converter IC.

Solar Powered SLA Battery Maintenance Circuit Diagram:

The ‘762 is the 15-volt-out version of the perhaps more familiar MAX761 (12 V out) and is used here to boost 6 V to 15 V.C1 and C2 are decoupling capacitors that suppress high and low frequency spurious components produced by the switch-mode regulator IC. Using Schottky diode D3, energy is stored in inductor L1 in the form of a magnetic field. When pin 7 of IC1 is open-circuited by the internal switching signal, the stored energy is diverted to the 15-volt output of the circuit. The V+ (sense) input of the MAX762, pin 8, is used to maintain the output voltage at 15 V. C4 and C5 serve to keep the ripple on the output voltage as small as possible. R1, LED D4 and pushbutton S1 allow you to check the presence of the 15-V output voltage.

D5 and D6 reduce the 15-volts to about 13.6 V which is a frequently quoted nominal standby trickle charging voltage for SLA batteries. This corresponds well with the IC’s maximum, internally limited, output current of about 120 mA. The value of inductor L1 is not critical — 22 µH or 47 µH will also work fine. The coil has to be rated at 1 A though in view of the peak current through it. The switching frequency is about 300 kHz. A suggestion for a practical coil is type M from the WEPD series supplied by Würth (www.we-online.com). Remarkably, Würth supply one-off inductors to individual customers. At the time of writing, it was possible, under certain conditions, to obtain samples, or order small quantities, of the MAX762 IC through the Maxim website at www.maxim-ic.com.

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2.4GHz WiFi & ISM Band Scanner. Firmware and Sowtware - Part 2

2.4GHz WiFi & ISM Band Scanner. Firmware and Sowtware - Part 2

WEARIFY   October 26, 2017   1 comment:

2.4GHz WiFi & ISM Band Scanner. Description and Schematic Part 1

PIC Firmware

The firmware running on the PIC18F2550 was written for the CCS C compiler and uses the CCS USB protocol stack, which in turn appears to be derived from Microchip code. At the top level it is quite simple, it just repeatedly steps through the frequency range taking readings.

For each frequency it takes repeated readings until it gets what seems to be a consistent value. It then saves that value and moves on to the next frequency. When it has finished running through the band it sends off all readings to the computer over the USB. The CYWUSB6935 chip steps 1MHz at a time and the band is 85MHz wide, so the number of readings sent to the computer is 85. Despite the repeated measurements needed to get a consistent reading the chip achieves quite a good performance, about 4 complete spectrum scans every second.

The firmware and source code for the 18F2550 is available from the download section below.

Windows Software

The software running on the computer was written in Visual Basic 5. It is not particularly sophisticated, for example it keeps polling the USB interface to see if new data has arrived and that uses up a lot of CPU time. But, you don't generally use the scanner for a lot of time and you would not normally be running computer games at the same time, so this inefficiency is not of great importance.

The software on the computer saves the set of readings into an array. When it comes to drawing the spectrum display on the screen it steps through all the saved readings for each frequency looking for the highest reading, and it is that highest reading that it draws on the screen for that frequency. As a new reading is received the oldest reading in the array is discarded. The slider on the screen controls how many readings are saved for each frequency, the default is 350 readings which represents about 90 seconds of data.

All this means that the delay has a "memory" and one high reading will hang around for 90 seconds until it is flushed out. This is done because devices normally hop around in frequency and it would be hard to see what frequencies were popular unless there was some way of holding on to the reading for a while. You can see this in action when there is a noise spike. That spike would remain on the screen for (say) 90 seconds then disappear. But a device that communicated on that frequency (amongst others) would in most probability revisit that frequency within the 90 second period and that would place a new high value into the array of values for that frequency.

By adjusting the slider you control the size of this array and consequently the amount of time that it would take to flush a reading out. Smaller numbers flush more quickly, larger ones take more time. You can pause the display by clicking on the Pause button. Clicking on it again will clear the array and start a new collection. This is also a handy way of clearing everything to restart with a fresh display.

The Export button will export the current set of readings to a .csv file which can be loaded into a spreadsheet like Excel.

As usual, the software and source code is available for download below.

C# Version of the Software

A reader, Jim McCullers in the USA, took up the challenge of porting the desktop software to a more modern environment. The code he wrote compiles under Microsoft Visual C# 2010 Express (the free version) and is also available for download below.

He did not make any major changes to the structure or look but created a new version of the MPUSBAPI to suit C# and made it into a class. The mpusbapi.dll module must be in the same directory folder as the executable so you will notice that he has copies in both the debug and release folders.

Plugging It In

Because the scanner uses standard USB it can be connected to any computer, although the software is written only for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

Before you plug the scanner in you must install the software first. This is available in the download section below. Failure to install the software first will result in Windows identifying the scanner as an "Unidentified Device".

During installation of the software a device driver is installed and it is this that helps Windows identify the scanner. After you have correctly installed the software and plugged in the scanner you should see the device show up under "Other Devices" in Device Manager as shown on the left.

When you fire up the desktop software (ISMScanner.exe) you should see the message in the software window stating "Connected to Geoff's 2.4GHz Scanner". If you get "Scanner not found" then the scanner is not plugged in or not working.

Downloads

Firmware - HEX programming file v1.0, Firmware - source code v1.0 - download
Windows software v1.0 Installation (Visual Basic Version), Windows software v1.0 Source code (C# Version), Windows software v1.0 Source code (Visual Basic Version), Windows driver for Vista and Win 7 32/64 bit systems - download

Sourced By : W3 Circuits

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2.4GHz WiFi & ISM Band Scanner. Description and Schematic Part 1

2.4GHz WiFi & ISM Band Scanner. Description and Schematic Part 1

WEARIFY   October 26, 2017   1 comment:

Have you ever wondered exactly what is going on in the 2.4GHz WiFi and ISM band around your house. What channel is it best to set your wireless router to? Why are you getting such poor performance across your WiFi network? Is your neighbour on the same frequency?

Just what is out there? This neat little gadget will sniff the airwaves and give you a graph of the signal strength vs frequency across the entire band. It connects to your computer by USB 2.0 and with the companion Windows software you can display the spectrum or save the raw data to an Excel compatible file for some more number crunching.

It uses just two significant components, a radio module from Cypress Semiconductor and a PIC microcontroller from Microchip. Total cost to build it should be less than US$30.

The 2.4GHz Band

The 2.4GHz ISM (Industrial Scientific Medical) band is often called the WiFi band because it is used for WiFi networking (ie, 802.11 b/g/n). This band is unlicensed, meaning that you and anyone can transmit on it. As a result it has been used by a multitude of products including video transmitters, portable telephones, Bluetooth devices, wireless keyboards, toys and so on. Because you cannot see what is going in the band on you can experience strange behaviour from your wireless gadget. All of a sudden your wireless keyboard skips characters, is it because someone is using a portable phone on the same frequency?

The biggest victim is WiFi networking. This needs a lot of bandwidth, is always transmitting and is sensitive to interference. This is why people often cannot get a decent range from their wireless network and give up in disgust.

This scanner will draw a graph on your computer screen showing you the activity across the band and indicate the best frequencies to use. If you use a laptop you can also wander around and identify the culprits that are clogging the airwaves.

How It Works

Internally the scanner is very simple. It just contains a radio receiver and a microcontroller…

The radio receiver is the Cypress CYWUSB6935 Radio SoC (System on a Chip). This is a complete low power radio transmitter/receiver chip for the 2.4GHz band and is controlled by a microcontroller over a synchronous serial (SPI) interface. The microcontroller can write to various registers in the chip to set things like operating frequency and can read other registers to retrieve data from the chip.

This chip is designed to operate over the 2.4GHz band and has the ability to listen on a frequency for any other devices that may be already using the frequency. This is to help the microcontroller select a suitably free frequency before transmitting. The chip reports the signal level as a number typically up to 30, with zero representing no signal. We use this facility in this project - simply put, the microcontroller instructs the module to step to a frequency and measure the signal level at that frequency, when done it steps the chip to the next frequency and instructs it to measure the signal level there. And so on, right across the band.

We actually do not use the transmit/receive function, which is normally the chip's main purpose in life.

The microcontroller used in this project is the Microchip PIC18F2550 which integrates the complete USB 2.0 functionality. The microcontroller sets the radio chip to a frequency, reads the signal level from the chip, stores the value in its internal memory and steps on to the next frequency. This continues until the complete 2.4GHz band is covered. The 18F2550 then sends the data off to your computer using USB and your computer, using custom software, displays the resultant spectrum.

Physically the scanner is just a small box hanging on the end of a USB cable.

The Circuit

The circuit is the simplest part of this project. Click on the image or go to the download section at the bottom of this page for a full scale drawing.

2.4GHz WiFi & ISM Band Scanner Circuit Diagram

The PIC 18F2550 microcontroller is a 28 pin part with a built in USB 2.0 interface. As mentioned before, the chip integrates everything connected with the USB including a 3.3V regulator, memory buffers and the USB transceiver. All that you need to do is to connect the USB cable to pins 15 and 16 of the chip and place a capacitor on pin 14 to help smooth the inbuilt 3.3V supply.

The clock for the microcontroller is derived from the 20MHz crystal with the two 15pF capacitors providing the correct loading for the crystal. Internally within the 18F2550 the 20MHz is divided by 5 to give 4MHz and then used to synchronise a phase locked loop (PLL) oscillator running at 48MHz. This is the main clock used within the microcontroller and is used to drive both the USB interface and the CPU. Running at 48MHz this is a speedy little chip so we do not have any issues with performance.

The ISCP connector is there so that I could reprogram the 18F2550 without pulling it out of its socket. It is mostly used for prototyping so you can leave it out if you want. Note that the 10K resistor on pin 1 of the 18F2550 is still needed to pull the reset line high.

Power for the circuit is drawn from the +5V supplied by the host computer on the USB cable. The whole circuit only draws a few tens of milliamps so it is not a significant load. This 5V is dropped to about 3V by three 1N4001 diodes to provide power for the Cypress CYWUSB6935 chip which is mounted on a small PCB (the CYWM6935 module). Each diode will drop about 0.7V resulting in a total voltage drop of about 2V. This is a crude way to derive a 3V supply but it is low cost and does the job without any hassles.

The CYWUSB6935 chip has protective diodes on its inputs, which clamp the signal line to its power supply (3V). This means that we can drive it with 5V signals from the microcontroller with series resistors to limit the current. This is the purpose of the 3.3K resistors, they limit the current in the clamping diodes to less than a milliamp when the PIC's output goes to 5V.

CYWM6935 Module

The CYWUSB6935 chip comes in a tiny package designed for machine assembly and is virtually impossible for a mortal wielding a soldering iron to solder. Fortunately Cypress have assembled it into the CYWM6935 module along with two aerials, a crystal and a few capacitors. The connector used in the module is still rather tiny and non standard (or rather it does not use the 0.1" grid that we know and love), but it can be soldered to. For details of the CYMUSB6935 chip and CYWM6935 module go to here.

Parts Listing

    1 x Microchip PIC18F2550-I/SP microcontroller programmed with the firmware available in the download section at the bottom of this page.
    1 x Cypress CYWM6935 radio module,
    1 x 20MHz crystal
    3 x 1N4001 silicon diodes
    4 x 3.3K resistors (quarter or half watt)
    1 x 10K resistor (quarter or half watt)
    2 x 15pF ceramic capacitors
    1 x 100nF multilayer ceramic capacitor 1 x 220nF polyester capacitor
    1 x 100uF electrolytic capacitor (6V or higher)
    1 x 28 pin IC socket
    1 x USB cable with a type A connector on one end
    1 x UB5 jiffy box

Sourced By : W3 Circuits

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2.4GHz WiFi & ISM Band Scanner. Assembly, Using the Scanner - Part 3

2.4GHz WiFi & ISM Band Scanner. Assembly, Using the Scanner - Part 3

WEARIFY   October 26, 2017   1 comment:

2.4GHz WiFi & ISM Band Scanner. Description and Schematic - Part 1 

2.4GHz WiFi & ISM Band Scanner. Firmware and Sowtware - Part 2

Assembly

Because the circuit was so simple I took the easy way out and assembled it on a piece of veroboard. Nowadays I would design my own printed circuit board (see custom PCBs).

Rather than finding a connector for the Cypress module I simply soldered single core hookup wire directly to the connector pins. This supported the module and allowed me to position it away from the microcontroller to minimise interference.

The USB cable was made from a standard USB cable with type A and B connectors, I just cut off the B connector and soldered the wires directly to the veroboard with half an inch of heatshrink tubing to keep it neat. That left the type A connector at the other end, ready to plug into the computer.

Note that the red and black wires in the USB cable are +5V and ground respectively. You should check these with a multimeter before soldering them in. The green wire is normally D+ and goes to pin 16 of the 18F2550 while the white is D- and goes to pin 15. The shield does not have to be connected.

The final touch was to drop the assembly into a standard UB5 "jiffy" box with a notch cut out for the USB cable to pass through.

Using the Scanner

With nothing running in the immediate vicinity you will just see background noise, as shown in the screen shot below.

Note that the vertical scale is not calibrated to any particular scale. In fact the scale is just the signal level "factor" reported by the Cypress radio module.

The base level signal represents the noise in the air and in the radio receiver part of the module.

The screenshot below shows a WiFi 802.11n wireless router running on channel 1 and located about 12 metres from the scanner. As you can see the 802.11n (and for that matter 802.11g) routers spread themselves over six channels.

That is the good thing about using channel 1 and 13 for your WiFi setup, you get some unused channels on one side where your spectrum can spread into.

But, using channel 13 has its own problems.

The spectrum on the next screenshot is identical to the one above but this time my microwave oven was heating up dinner. Incidentally, the microwave oven was nothing special, just a domestic model and about 10 metres from the scanner.

As you can see, it totally blotted out the higher frequency end of the band. All microwave ovens seem to use this part of the band and you cannot blame the microwave for their activity, as this was part of the reason for setting up the 2.4GHz ISM band in the first place. Avoiding the microwave oven interference and having some free spectrum on one side is the reason why channel 1 is the best choice for your router (assuming your neighbour has not got there first).

Finally, the screenshot shows a Bluetooth mouse communicating with a computer.

Bluetooth hops all over the 2.4GHz band as it finds the best spots with the minimum of interference. Spikes all over the spectrum is a good indicator of Bluetooth activity.

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Use A DAC To Bias Your Varactor Diode

Use A DAC To Bias Your Varactor Diode

WEARIFY   October 26, 2017   No comments:

Varactor (or “varicap”) diodes are used primarily in radio-frequency (RF) circuits to provide a capacitance that can be varied by changing the applied voltage. These types of diodes often are used for tuning circuits, such as RF oscillators and filters found in wireless applications like wireless microphones and radios. Designers, then, should know about the benefits of using a nonvolatile digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to provide the biasing voltage of a varactor diode used as a voltage-controlled capacitor.

The varactor diode is operated under reverse bias, which creates a depletion zone around the P-N junction. Changing the level of the reverse bias changes the thickness of the depletion region and, thus, the effective capacitance of the diode. Increasing voltage causes a decrease in capacitance.

Varactor diodes are specified with a nominal capacitance value and the range of capacitance that can be achieved with a maximum and minimum voltage level. Increasing the bias voltage range increases the capacitance range available, but designers can also look for varactors with a larger capacitance- to-voltage ratio.

A convenient solution for creating a varying bias voltage is to use a DAC. Most DACs have an output voltage range of 0 V to +5.5 V. If a higher voltage bias is required, though, then a high-voltage DAC can be used. However, it may be more cost-effective to use a low-cost, high-voltage operational amplifier in a non-inverting configuration to provide level shifting of the output voltage from a common 5.5-V DAC.

              The LC-tank circuit portion of a voltage-controlled oscillator allows for FM modulation in wireless microphones and radios. Its back-to-back varactor configuration minimizes the effects of RF modulation.

Using a DAC does introduce sources of potential error. The varactor is affected by any form of amplitude variation of the bias voltage, resulting in an undesired shift in capacitance. Deterministic errors can be accounted for when using the microcontroller to program the DAC output voltage. The primary sources of error that should be considered include varactor nonlinearity, offset errors, and DAC integral nonlinearity (INL). RF modulation may also be caused by voltage induced from a noise source – perhaps from an antenna in the system. The figure shows an LC-tank circuit portion of a voltage-controlled oscillator. This circuit allows for FM modulation in the aforementioned wireless microphone or radio.

Here, a back-to-back varactor configuration minimizes the effects of RF modulation. If a varying signal is injected, the bias across one diode increases as the other decreases, keeping overall capacitance unchanged. Note that the two diodes are in series with each other, so capacitance is half of a single varactor setup.

To also prevent RF signals from affecting the circuitry outside the tuning circuit, the bias voltage is fed through an isolation resistor or an RF choke. There are other benefits to using a DAC to bias a varactor diode. For example, multiple-output-channel DAC devices can be used in a multistage application. Additionally, in a four-channel DAC, three channels could potentially be used for separate band-pass filters for low-, mid-, and high-frequency filtering. The fourth output could be used for offset voltage calibration elsewhere in the circuit, or it could be turned off when it isn’t in use. Space and design time can be saved by avoiding having to set up separate biasing schemes.

Some DACs, such as the MCP4728, also offer on-board nonvolatile memory, which can store configuration data such as output-voltage levels and channel status (on/off). This enables the device to be reset or powered up into a known set state, which could allow a pre-programmed tune to be stored. The tune could be recalled when a desired event or input occurs or when power is lost and restored.

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