Friday 28 August 2020

A Few New/Old Projects on the Go.

 

I am always amazed at how one project can lead to several more.  The latest example of this for me was the Signal Generator project my HB Club undertook last year. 

Once that project was completed, I wanted to be able to control the output. So that lead to incorporating the PE4302 step attenuator chip and how to use it. 

Next was instead of calibrating the SigGen and then selecting an output and calculate the output level, I wanted to measure and display the actual reading.  I also wanted to be able to read at least to one decimal point. This led to exploring an alternative to the Arduino Map function and experimenting with a 16bit ADC, ADS1115 chip. It also has led to utilizing an opamp on the output of the AD8307 and seeing if that can help in reading accuracy especially in the area of the 2nd decimal point reading.

Of course, it does not stop there as now I needed to better understand how I2C communications worked.

With all the different boards laying about and a too numerous to count number of interconnecting cables, test leads, power leads, erratic and intermittent performance, I needed to build a test bed.  So here was another project that this time didn’t contribute directly to the project, but I did end up with a good test bed for any future Arduino projects.

In the Altoids tin is the AD8307 board. Opamp to the immediate left and further left is the ADS1115 and Si5351 boards.  The 2 Nanos, LCDs, ADS1115, and Si5351 boards are all connected via I2C. 

More details to follow shortly about how all this pans out.   




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