CIRCUIT CELLAR

High-Current Wiring, Safety, & Fusing p. 30 • Crystal Oscillators Explained p. 70 • New Touch Sensor Gadgetry p. 78
www.circuitcellar.com

THE MAGAZINE FOR COMPUTER A P P L I C AT I O N S

#215 June 2008

COMMUNICATIONS
Build A Call-Monitoring Device
Coding Techniques For An
Interactive System
A Design For Decoding AIS
Transmissions
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Communication
Implement A Ray Tracer
On An FPGA
A Drive System For
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 TASK MANAGER
Communications Hub FOUNDER/EDITORIAL DIRECTOR CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

I n its early days, Circuit Cellar was known as the essential monthly print maga-
zine for computer applications. By the late-1990s, it was known as the essential
Steve Ciarcia
MANAGING EDITOR
Jeannette Ciarcia
MEDIA CONSULTANT
C. J. Abate Dan Rodrigues
monthly print magazine that also offered some useful online content. Today, the WEST COAST EDITOR CUSTOMER SERVICE
name “Circuit Cellar” has various meanings to different people. This was clear in Tom Cantrell Debbie Lavoie
April when I spoke with readers, authors, and advertisers at the Embedded CONTRIBUTING EDITORS CONTROLLER
Systems Conference in San Jose, California. Jeff Bachiochi Jeff Yanco
For some, the name simply meant the interesting print magazine started by Ingo Cyliax
Robert Lacoste ART DIRECTOR
Steve Ciarcia in 1988. For others, it meant the easy-to-navigate, downloadable George Martin KC Prescott
Electronic Edition (EE). Other conference-goers regarded Circuit Cellar as the Ed Nisley GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
company that runs design contests and puts new design kits in the hands of eager NEW PRODUCTS EDITOR Grace Chen
John Gorsky Carey Penney
engineers. Others still referred to Circuit Cellar as the name of the website that
publishes viewable articles, projects, code files, and highly trafficked online forum PROJECT EDITORS STAFF ENGINEER
Gary Bodley John Gorsky
discussions.
Ken Davidson
To each his own, but I like to put it this way: Circuit Cellar is the hub of com-
David Tweed
munication for the entire embedded engineering community. Running this hub
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
is a rewarding yet challenging task for our staff. During the last several months, Jesse Smolin
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based voicemail monitoring system. In “Pump Control,” Richard Wotiz describes AUTHORS
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Nisley’s description of how to connect circuitry directly to an AC power line. On

page 36, Scott Bingham and Yunfan Donald Zhang describe how they imple-
mented a ray tracer on an FPGA.You’ll enjoy Peter Baston’s article if you want to
build a system for receiving and decoding data transmissions (p. 46). On page 54,
Andrew March describes an MCU-based, dot-matrix game that he programmed
in C. Turn to page 62 for Jeff Bachiochi’s article about replacing an old doorbell
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switch with a capacitive touch pad. For information about crystals, turn to page
70, where Robert Lacoste explains the difference between “series” and “parallel”
crystals, and more. Finally, on page 78, Tom Cantrell introduces new touch sen-
sors from Cypress Semiconductor and Silicon Laboratories.
cj@circuitcellar.com
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4 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

 June 2008: Communications
FEATURES
14 Message Acquisition 36 Ray Tracing Made Simple
Ring Signal Detection And Interpretation A Ray Tracer Implemented On An FPGA
Peter Csaszar & Monica Flores Scott Bingham & Yunfan Donald Zhang
20 Pump Control 46 AIS Transmission Decoding
Build A Variable-Speed Drive For Motors Peter Baston
Richard Wotiz
54 MCU-Based Game System
First Place Microchip 2007 Design Contest
A Dot-Matrix Game That Targets C Coding Efficiency
Andrew March
Ring Signal Detection System (p. 14)
AIS Decoding & Vessel Tracking (p. 46)

COLUMNS
30 ABOVE THE GROUND PLANE 70 THE DARKER SIDE
Resistance Soldering Let’s Be Crystal Clear
Ed Nisley Robert Lacoste
62 FROM THE BENCH 78 SILICON UPDATE
Self-Destructive Behavior Touch Me
Processor Action Requires Power Supply Removal Tom Cantrell
Jeff Bachiochi
New Touch Sense Technology (p. 78)

The “Magical”World Of Crystal Oscillators (p. 70)

DEPARTMENTS
4 TASK MANAGER 94 INDEX OF ADVERTISERS
Communications Hub July Preview
C. J. Abate
96 PRIORITY INTERRUPT
8 NEW PRODUCT NEWS It’s All In The Whiskers
edited by John Gorsky Steve Ciarcia

93 CROSSWORD

6 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

 Edited by John Gorsky
NEW PRODUCT NEWS Visit www.circuitcellar.com/npn
for more New Product News.

LOW-POWER WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY STARTER KIT

The JN5139-EK020 IEEE802.15.4/JenNet Starter Kit allows developers with little or no wireless experience to develop
wireless products. The kit simplifies the evaluation and application development of low-power wireless connectivity prod-
ucts using the robust and reliable JenNet networking stack. The Starter Kit provides the flexibility to develop wireless
capability by using JN5139 microcontrollers and modules as wireless processors or coprocessors.
Each node includes a module, which integrates a JN5139 wireless microcontroller, and an antenna. Operating in the
license-free ISM band at 2.4 GHz, the modules have worldwide RF approval and provide a seamless route from concept-
proving and easy application development using the evaluation kits to prototyping and volume production using either
the ICs or modules.
The JenNet stack provides a powerful higher-layer networking solution based on the IEEE802.15.4 standard. It imple-
ments networks ranging from simple point-to-point
systems to large tree or linear networks of devices.
The Jenie and AT-Jenie programmer interfaces sim-
plify access to the commands for building and run-
ning the network, de-skilling the task of designing
the network, and allows developers to concentrate
on designing their applications.
Developers also have free access to a full and
unlimited SDK, which uses the Code::Blocks IDE
with a GNU-based compiler and linker. This pro-
vides a complete development environment and
eliminates the need to purchase additional develop-
ment tools. The AT-Jenie serial interface and Jenie
C programmer’s API are accessed through the SDK
to simplify the design of the application software.
The JN5139-EK020 IEEE802.15.4/JenNet Starter
Kit costs $219.

Jennic
www.jennic.com

EMBEDDED MODULE BASED ON ATOM PROCESSOR

The Catalyst Module combines the Atom processor Z500 companies or a third party create the carrier card to
series and a US15W system controller hub. accompany the Catalyst Module. A full-function carrier
The Catalyst Module, with a system-level power draw board in a Catalyst Module development system is
below 5 W, brings Intel architecture-compatible capabilities available that manufacturers can use to develop their
to applications for low-power environments, so devices can application early in the process.
be enclosed, without fans or heatsinks, while still supporting The Catalyst Module starts at around $300.
the latest multimedia, positioning, and networking capabili-
ties in portable, battery-operated, handheld devices. Building Eurotech, Inc.
on the Catalyst Module platform, manufacturers can build www.eurotech.com
applications in the entertainment, gaming, defense,
medical, and control industries.
With the Intel Atom processor, device manufac-
turers choose from several operating systems, even
bringing desktop operating systems to handheld
units for mobile workers or end users. Microsoft
Windows applications such as XP, XP Embedded,
Vista, and CE extend the OS options manufacturers
can use for their applications. In addition, Linux is
fully supported. Select real-time OS options can be
supported as required.
The computer-on-module design enables manufac-
turers to get to market quickly by separating the
processor module from the I/O carrier card. Manufac-
turers have the flexibility to have Eurotech member

8 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

NEW PRODUCT NEWS
FULLY PROGRAMMABLE SECURE INTERNET SOLUTION FOR M2M APPLICATIONS
The IIEVB-PIC-2128-110/220 evaluation board brings application from network attacks. The CO2128 supports
together the CO2128 iChip and the PIC24FJ64GA006 LAN, Wi-Fi, and all types of dial-up/wireless modems.
microcontroller for application control and secure, reliable The CO2128 includes a fully secure TCP/IP stack, plus
TCP/IP connectivity to LAN and GPRS networks. The upper-layer protocols such as SMTP, POP3, MIME,
marriage of these two devices offers an attractive option to HTTP, WAP, FTP, and TELNET. It includes an integrated
system architects needing to develop and manage an open web server for easy application management.
and flexible Internet-enabled application. With the CO2128, developers can take advantage of 10
Using the evaluation board, developers can quickly and simultaneous TCP/UDP sockets; two listening sockets;
easily develop an IP-enabled embedded system where the SMTP, MIME, POP3, FTP, Telnet, and HTTP/HTTPs
application resides on the PIC24 MCU and the networking clients; a web server with a web site for the application
and security are provided by the and one for configuring the
CO2128 iChip. Working togeth- iChipSec CO2128; and SerialNet
er, the chips offer a significant mode for serial-to-IP bridging.
value proposition for developers Secure Socket iWi-Fi supports
featuring a secure architecture 64-/128-bit WEP encryption,
where all connectivity features WPA1 and WPA2 Wi-Fi encryp-
are isolated from the application. tion, AES-128/256, SHA-
The flexible MPLAB IDE along 128/192/256, 3DES, the
with Connect One’s black-box SSL3/TLS1 protocol for a
solution, where the application secure client socket session,
requests connectivity and securi- and a secure FTP session.
ty services from the iChip via The IIEVB-PIC-2128-110/220
the AT+i command set, greatly evaluation board costs $149.
reduce design time.
The CO2128 also acts as a Connect One
firewall-in-a-chip, protecting the www.connectone.com

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www.circuitcellar.com CIRCUIT CELLAR® Issue 215 June 2008 9

NEW PRODUCT NEWS
TOUGH ETHERNET SWITCH
The SEL-2725 is an unmanaged, Ether-
net edge switch and media converter,
with four wired ports and one fiber-optic
port. You can use the SEL-2725 to build
reliable, safe Ethernet networks in elec-
trical substations, generating plants,
industrial plants, and other mission-criti-
cal sites.
Connect the Ethernet ports of up to
four devices in the same cabinet or
panel to an SEL-2725, using Category 5
shielded, twisted-pair (STP) cable. Use
the fiber-optic port with fiber-optic
cable to safely link the SEL-2725 to a
station Ethernet network. It withstands
vibration, electrical surges, electrostatic
discharge, fast transients, and extreme
temperatures. This switch meets or
exceeds IEEE 1613 (Class 2) standards
for communications networking devices
and drops no packets throughout this
rigorous testing.
The SEL-2725 costs $450.

Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc.

www.selinc.com

SENSOR RESISTS HARSH ENVIRONMENTS TO RELIABLY DETECT OBJECTS

The R-GAGE QT50R is an advanced radar-based sensor for close and long-range presence detection in a broad range
of weather conditions. The QT50R features frequency-modulated technology to accurately monitor or detect objects
while resisting rain, wind, humidity,
and extreme temperatures.
The QT50R uses frequency modu-
lated continuous wave (FMCW) radar
to reliably detect moving or station-
ary cars, trains, trucks, and cargo.
The QT50R detects target objects up
to 15 m away and ignores anything
beyond the setpoint. The IP67-rated
sensor operates at 24 GHz in the
Industrial, Scientific, and Medical
(ISM) telecommunications band, with
no special licensing required.
The QT50R is ideal for outdoor and
challenging environments, making it
well-suited for a wide variety of uses
in locomotive, traffic control, and
many additional applications.
The list price for the QT50R is
$589.

Banner Engineering Corp.

www.bannerengineering.com

10 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

 NEW PRODUCT NEWS
ZigBee RADIO MODULE FEATURES CC2430 TRANSCEIVER PLATFORM
The new Matrix module is based on the CC2430 transceiver platform and
joins other Freescale Semiconductor-based modules in providing a fully-integrat-
ed, drop-in ZigBee radio solution.
Designed for low-cost, low-power networks, Matrix modules are ideal for home
and building automation, industrial control, security, and remote sensor applica-
tions. Output power can be configured up to 10 mW, enabling performance to be
optimized for specific applications. Because they’re limited to 10 mW, Matrix
modules are ideal for regions where regulatory agencies limit transmission power.
The module measures just 23 mm × 29 mm, so it requires little real estate. An
integrated antenna helps reduce total system costs, while an integrated ADC
allows direct connection to analog sensors. Modules ship with point-to-point and
point-to-multipoint software, which streamlines development and gets you
quickly to market.
Matrix modules are FCC, IC, and CE certified, eliminating the time-consum-
ing, uncertain, and often costly certification process. Matrix evaluation kits pro-
vide two modules mounted on self-contained interface boards. These boards can
be optionally battery-powered to enable developers to create and test network
connections under real-world environmental conditions. Matrix evaluation soft-
ware is also included in the kits. Its easy-to-use GUI
interface makes it simple to configure the modules’
settings: transmission channel, network ID,
node ID, transmission power, send and receive
packets, and determine packet error rates.
The Matrix module costs $17.95 in 1,000-piece
quantities.

California Eastern Laboratories

www.cel.com

EMBEDDED V2.0 BLUETOOTH SERIAL MODULE

The Parani-ESD1000 is a Class 1-type embedded Bluetooth serial module
designed for embedding Bluetooth connectivity directly onto the circuit boards
of RS-232-based equipment like security systems, POS, industrial machinery,
and medical devices.
It can be connected to the device via a built-in UART interface and communi-
cate with other Bluetooth-enabled devices such as mobile phones, handheld
computers, and laptops.
The Parani-ESD1000 module incorporates a Bluetooth 2.0 protocol stack with
enhanced data rate (EDR) support that offers increased data transfer rates, and
lower power consumption. The ESD1000 now supports data transfer speeds up
to 921.6 kbps. The module supports General access and Serial port profiles. The
dimensions of this module are 1.93″ × 0.9″ × 0.43″.
With no software required, the Parani-ESD1000 is developed for wireless seri-
al communications. Nominal transmit distance is 100 m and can be extended
up to 1 km using the optional patch antenna. The unit can be configured and
controlled by using typical AT comments.
The benefits of integrating Bluetooth wireless capabilities include eliminating
cable installation cost, and reduc-
ing installation and set up, while
adding wireless device monitor-
ing and diagnostics.
The unit with the antenna
option (antenna and cable not
included) costs $45 in 100-piece
quantities.

Lemos International
www.lemosint.com

www.circuitcellar.com CIRCUIT CELLAR® Issue 215 June 2008 11

NEW PRODUCT NEWS
ROBUST SMART CARD INTERFACE
The DS8113 is a low-power, low-cost, smart card interface. This device performs level translation between a host
microcontroller and a 5-, 3-, or 1.8-V smart card, while supplying up to 80 mA for smart card operation. The DS8113 fea-
tures the industry’s lowest power stop mode, which allows applications to support smart card communication and draw
only 10 nA while the card is inactive. Addition-
ally, it provides ±8-kV ESD protection, thus pro-
tecting applications from damage during card
insertion and removal. Designed to meet all ISO
7816, EMV(TM), and GSM 11.11 specifications,
this robust smart card interface is ideal for finan-
cial terminals, set-top boxes, and other smart
card reader applications.
The DS8113 is a replacement upgrade for
devices with higher power consumption and no
stop mode, such as the TDA8024 and the
ST8024. This smart card interface allows design-
ers to improve the performance of their applica-
tions with few or no changes to the existing
hardware and relatively minor software modifi-
cations. Available in a lead-free, 28-pin SO pack-
age, the DS8113 operates over the –40° to 85°C
extended temperature range.
Prices start at $0.88 (1,000-up, FOB USA).

Maxim Integrated Products, Inc.

www.maxim-ic.com

NEW TWISTED-PAIR IDC CABLE

These new FFTP and FMTP series of twisted-pair IDC nector on the second end and are RoHS compliant.
cable assemblies provide up to 2.5 times the performance Pricing per pin for a cable assembly (connector plus
of traditional IDC flat cable, but at a lower cost than cable) is $0.20 per contact assembly.
mid-data-rate-flex and high-data-rate coax cables. The dif-
ferentially routed assemblies employ 32-AWG 7/40 Samtec, Inc.
tinned, twisted-pair cable with PVC insulation and the www.samtec.com
high-quality, multi-finger 0.050″ (1.27 mm) pitch Tiger
IDC contact system. This is ideal for high-reliability and
high-mating cycle applications.
The female assembly
(FFTP series) is double-
ended with standard
notch polarization and
mates with standard
0.050″ (1.27 mm)
micro, shrouded, and
ejector headers. The
male assembly (FMTP
series) is available
double-ended or with a
transfer end (socket
has notch polarization)
and mates with stan-
dard 0.050″ (1.27 mm)
low-profile and micro
socket strips.
Both assemblies are
available in a choice of
cable lengths with an
optional reverse con-

12 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

NEW PRODUCT NEWS
LOGIC ANALYZER ADAPTER
The LA-BGA88D-FLASH-PSRAM-01 is a logic analyzer adapter, which allows
high-speed operation, simultaneously enabling memory device analysis used in
PDAs, cell phones, digital cameras, and MP3 players using Tektronix logic ana-
lyzer systems. Features of the adapter include shortest possible trace length for
maximum speed, low inductance, low capacitance, blind and buried via, and
rigid-flex PCB design technology. This adapter is designed to interface with
FBGA packages.
The LA-BGA88D-FLASH-PSRAM-01 adapter consists of two parts. The surface-
mount foot is soldered to the target system board in place of a BGA, 0.8-mm
pitch IC using standard
BGA soldering methods.
The probe board plugs into
the SMT base and employs
a PCB with power planes
to deliver all data, address,
control, and clock signals
to Mictor connectors. The
64-MB flash memory with
a PSRAM chip is surface-
mounted onto the male
BGA adapter, which will
plug into the female BGA
socket soldered to the probe board. A typical IC used with this adapter is the
STMicroelectronics flash memory M36W0R6040T1ZAQF.
The LA-BGA88D-FLASH-PSRAM-01 adapter costs $1,275 in quantities of one
to 10 parts, with a lead time of five days. The component parts are also avail-
able individually.

Ironwood Electronics
www.ironwoodelectronics.com

PINK, PURPLE, AND TURQUOISE LEDs

The new InspirationLEDs—available in pink, purple, and turquoise—add impact,
excitement, and product differentiation to all types of electronics equipment.
Potential applications include home electronics, automotive and appliance dis-
plays, medical equipment, or anywhere soft pastel colors are desired—with the
reliability and low-power consumption of LEDs.
These devices achieve their distinctive colors by starting with state-of-the-art,
high-brightness, InGaN-on-silicon chip technology that provides light output at
470 nm. Then, unique phosphor coatings are applied to shift the color to the
desired pink, purple, or turquoise. The parts have an axial intensity of 2,200 mcd
(typical) at an IF of 20 mA and a
viewing angle of 20°. The angle is
defined by the points where light
output is 50% of the on-axis intensi-
ty.
These LEDs come in a standard
T-5mm package with radial leads
and epoxy lenses. The pink LED is
part number SSL-LX5093PC, the
purple is part number SSL-
LX5093VC, and the turquoise is part
number SSL-LX5093TC.
The devices cost approximately
$0.40 each in quantities of 10,000.

Lumex, Inc.
www.lumex.com
www.circuitcellar.com CIRCUIT CELLAR® Issue 215 June 2008 13
 FEATURE ARTICLE by Peter Csaszar & Monica Flores

Message Acquisition
Ring Signal Detection And Interpretation
You’ll never miss another voicemail message with Peter and Monica’s voicemail monitoring
system. Their device monitors the signal from an analog phone line, analyzes it, tracks the
number of calls and messages, and displays the number on a VFD.

I n some institutions, the internal

phone exchange system (aka private
branch exchange, or PBX) offers voice-
mail, but it can’t drive the “Message
Waiting” indicator (typically a flashing
light). In other institutions, the tele-
phones are not equipped with such a fea-
ture. The only indication of unchecked
messages is a distinctive dial tone that
plays when the handset is picked up. In
such systems, some messages aren’t
received on time, which causes a variety
of embarrassing situations. The incom-
ing call indicator of certain caller ID
boxes could serve as a workaround, but
only if the service is supported by the
PBX, which was not the case in our
study. We designed a solution to this
problem for use at Lawrence Technologi-
cal University in Southfield, Michigan.
Our design, code named the Phone
Call Monitoring Facility (PCMF), moni-
tors the ring signal coming through an
analog phone line, analyzes it, and then,
based on the number of rings, tracks the
total number of calls, and calls with the
possibility of a voicemail message (see
Photo 1). We designed the system
around a Microchip Technology
PIC18F4520 microcontroller. Using
Microchip’s C18 compiler, we devel-
oped the firmware entirely in C lan-
guage. In this article, we’ll describe
how we built the system.
VOICEMAIL DETECTION
A classic method used by phone
exchanges to notify users about new
messages is a stutter dial tone. For a few
seconds after the phone is picked up, the
dial tone is interrupted by short pauses.
Voicemail indicators designed for stutter
dial tone detection poll the line to “lis-
ten” to the nature of the dial tone.
Unless “silent” voicemail is supported

a) b)

Photo 1a—This is the fully assembled circuit board, without the display. b—This is the monitoring system in operation. The end user will interact only with the blue Call Count
Reset button.

14 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

Figure 1—The system’s circuitry is fairly simple. The PIC18F4520 microcontroller requires very few external components.
(where a message can be left by
means other than calling the recipi-
ent’s own phone number), it suffices
to poll the line after the phone rings,
or after the subscriber gets off the
phone. However, phone companies
don’t like polling because it keeps
their circuits unnecessarily busy.
A technology that is gaining more
popularity is frequency shift keyed
(FSK) proactive voicemail notification.
In this approach, the phone exchange
sends a burst of data signals, similar to
signals carrying caller ID information,
which is recognized by the FSK receiv-
er on the subscriber’s side.
In addition to these methods, some
PBX systems put a high-voltage DC
signal on the line. This drives a neon
bulb that is typically built into the
phone set.
Our PBX provided only a stutter dial
tone for message indication. Designing
a circuit that reliably detects the stut-
ter dial tone and picks the right
moments for polling is not an easy
task. Instead, we chose a more
straightforward approach: monitoring
ring signals. If the number of rings in a
given call reaches the ring limit (i.e.,
the number after which the call is
automatically forwarded to voicemail),
www.circuitcellar.com
there is a possibility that a message
was left. Mathematically speaking, the
desired ring count is only a necessary
condition for the message. Callers
often let the voicemail kick in, but
hang up before the outgoing message
is over. These false positives are not a
major problem. A bigger criticism of
this method is its inherent false nega-
tives: messages that are left while the
phone was off-hook. However, for a
user who doesn’t use the phone too
often (and for whom this device is
intended), the odds of this situation
remain negligible.
HARDWARE DESIGN
Figure 1 shows the system’s circuitry.
The heart and soul of the circuit is U1,
a Microchip Technology PIC18F4520
microcontroller. We selected the parts
for this design based on a few techni-
cal and educational considerations. As
part of the computer engineering cur-
riculum at Lawrence Technological
University, students gain significant
experience with 16-bit Freescale Semi-
conductor microcontroller devices, such
as the 68HCS12 microcontroller. We
used a PIC microcontroller for this proj-
ect so that we could work with this
chip family’s significantly different
CIRCUIT CELLAR®
Harvard architecture. In addition, we
needed a chip that was widely avail-
able, had enough code space to reason-
ably support firmware development in
C language, had plenty of features for
experimentation, and had a PDIP
packaging that enabled prototyping in
a solderless breadboard. In terms of
the I/O resources, the PIC18F4520 is
more generous than necessary. But due
to our aforementioned needs, it was
our final choice.
One of our primary design goals was to
keep the entire circuit as simple as pos-
sible. Power is supplied from a 9-VDC
wall adapter. The 5 V for the PIC18F4520
and the display is supplied by a 7805
regulator. Although the fundamental
task of the firmware is time measure-
ment performed on the ring signal,
the precision of these measurements
is not critical. Therefore, it is possible
to run the microcontroller from its
internal oscillator, which requires no
additional hardware components
whatsoever.
The microcontroller receives two
input signals: the ring pulses from the
optocoupler (U2) and the Call Count
Reset button. The output peripheral of
the PCMF is a dot-matrix vacuum fluo-
rescent display (VFD1) module, which
Issue 215 June 2008 15
we’ll describe in the next section. The
firmware also drives an LED, referred to
as Heartbeat, in a flashing pattern. In
addition to making the device look more
gadgety, the light’s purpose is to aid diag-
nostics. The same can be said about the
power LED, the Master Reset button,
and the test points. They can be removed
from the production version of the cir-
cuit, but—as Monica experienced first
hand—they provide invaluable help dur-
ing prototyping. In the current design,
the only non-power test point is the out-
put of the optocoupler. The signal was
helpful during the debugging process,
because it showed whether the ring sig-
nal made it through the optocoupler. It
also offered an easy way to insert the
logic-level output of a signal generator
into the circuit to test the firmware
without the need to make actual phone
calls.
RING MY BELL
The detection of phone rings using a
microcontroller requires both hardware
and firmware support. In hardware, the
ring detector circuitry interfaces the ring
signal with one of the microcontroller’s
digital input ports. The timing of the sig-
nal is then analyzed by the ring inter-
preter portion of the firmware, which
can group ring pulses into separate rings
and rings into individual phone calls.
The ring signal is a pure sinusoidal
AC waveform, with a root mean square
(RMS) amplitude of 40 to 100 V and a fre-
quency of 16 to 67 Hz (typically 20 Hz in
the U.S.).[1] Our ring detector follows
the logic of the widespread ring detec-
tion circuitry described in detail in
Julian Macassey’s article “Understand-
ing Telephones,” which appeared in
Ham Radio Magazine in 1985.[2] The
role of C1 is to cut the DC path of the
ring detector and serve as a series imped-
ance in addition to R4. Zener diodes
D1 and D2 make the circuit unrespon-
sive to low-amplitude audio signals and
noise. One half period of the AC ring
signal turns on the optocoupler’s LED,
which with the pull-up resistor R2, pro-
vides the digital input for the microcon-
troller. Aside from being a simple and
elegant solution, electric isolation of the
optocoupler is required for user safety.
LEDs are infamous for having a low
tolerance for reverse bias. The LED
16 Issue 215 June 2008
inside the optocoupler is no exception.
To protect it from the negative half-
cycles of the ring signal, D3 is connect-
ed across to it in the opposite direction.
By making D3 an LED, it can also serve
as a debugging aid that visually indi-
cates the presence of ring signals in the
circuit. In this arrangement, the two
LEDs are “watching each other’s back.”
The values of C1 and R4 are chosen so
ring signals, with extreme amplitude
and frequency values, register with the
microcontroller, but do not damage the
optocoupler. Trimmer potentiometer R1
can be used to fine-tune the sensitivity
of the circuit. (Texas Instruments used
to manufacture a chip specifically
designed for ring detection, the
TCM1520A. However, it’s no longer
available.)
VFD MATTERS
The display is a Noritake GU140X32F-
7003, which is a 140 × 32 pixel graphic
VFD module. It is an elegant, pricey
display intended primarily for high-end
applications such as vending machines,
office appliances, casino equipment,
and more. If designed for mass-market-
ing, a simple appliance such as the
PCMF with this kind of display would
only make financial sense in the gold-
plated, diamond-encrusted edition. The
standard version would probably
employ an LCD module with compara-
ble features. However, due to a gener-
ous donation from Noritake to
Lawrence Technological University, a
couple of these displays were available
for faculty and students to use in
design projects, so it became a natural
choice for our project.
The VFD module is an intelligent
peripheral that includes driver electron-
ics responsible for the low-level opera-
tion of the display panel. Towards a
host, the module offers both asynchro-
nous and synchronous serial interfaces.
The former is semi-compatible with the
RS-232 standard (the same signal tim-
ing, but TTL logic levels). The latter is a
particular implementation of the SPI
bus standard. This project uses only the
display in Character mode, with its
native size of 20 × 4 characters. The
interface supports a long list of com-
mands in addition to displaying ASCII
characters, such as cursor positioning,
CIRCUIT CELLAR®
font magnification, font selection,
scrolling, virtual display area, flashing
display, and more.
For ease of implementation and
debugging, we decided to communicate
with the display using its 8-bit SPI con-
nected to the PIC18F4520’s on-chip SPI
module. Considering that the display
always acts like a slave with certain sig-
nal timing requirements, the microcon-
troller’s SPI is configured as a master,
clocked by 1/64 of the 8-MHz CPU fre-
quency, and follows the SPI standard
Master Mode 11 for data clocking.
Interfacing this VFD module posed a
couple of challenges, adding tremendous
value to the educational content of this
project. (Monica appreciated it a lot, but
only in retrospect.) You may easily refer
to the first problem as “the mother of all
ironies”: the SPI modules on the micro-
controller and the display use opposite
bit orders! Another complication is that,
in certain display commands, the value 0
can occur as a parameter, which is not a
legitimate character in a C-style zero-ter-
minated string, per definition. These
issues are addressed in our firmware by
the putsVFD function. It is dedicated to
sending a string character by character to
the VFD using the WriteSPI function
from Microchip Technology’s MPLAB
C18 compiler library, replacing the API’s
generic putsSPI string function.
One well-known property of a VFD
is its tendency for the infamous
“burn-in” phenomenon. Because the
individual display elements gradually
lose brightness the longer they are
illuminated, a predominant static pat-
tern can reduce the brightness of its
forming elements (in this case, pixels)
more than that of the surrounding
ones. Multiple “screen saver” schemes
have been developed throughout the
decades to address a similar issue with
cathode ray tube (CRT) displays.
The PCMF firmware employs two
strategies. When there are no phone
calls to report, the display is switched to
Power Save mode after 4 s of inactivity.
In this mode, the VFD’s filaments are
also turned off, which, in addition to
saving the pixels, also spares the fila-
ments from extended use and reduces
the power consumption of the entire
device considerably. When phone calls
are captured, the display is switched
www.circuitcellar.com

All counters = 0
1
Ring pulse
EonCount = 0
PulseCount++
RING_GAP
1 1
N N
PulseCount MIN_PULSE?
Y Y
RingCount++
PulseCount = 0
1 1
Figure 2—This is the ring interpreter algorithm and the role of the Call Count Reset button. In the firmware, this
functionality is implemented by the Main loop.
between normal and reverse with
exactly 50% duty cycle. When poten-
tial messages have been detected, the
flashing is done rapidly, so the device
draws immediate attention.
FIRMWARE DESIGN
The most challenging part of the
firmware is the interpretation of the
received ring signal, which eventually
provides the number of rings in the
phone calls. Our algorithm is based on
the measurement of time elapsed
between the ring pulses (more precise-
ly, the half periods that turn on the
optocoupler’s LED).
In the U.S., the ring cadence is
defined as 2 s of ringing, separated by
4 s of silence; however, the different
distinctive ring patterns use periods of
silence shorter than 4 s within the
same ring. The documentation of
cadence for distinctive rings and rings in
different countries is somewhat sketchy.
Based on the tidbits of information we
collected, our firmware assumes that
pulses separated by less than 1.3 s
(called Ring Gap Timeout) belong to
the same ring. If no pulses arrive for
more than or equal to 4.5 s (called Call
Gap Timeout), the current call is con-
sidered over. All other gaps are inter-
preted as silence between rings within
www.circuitcellar.com
Call count reset
Event = ?
Eon
EonCount++ CallCount = 0
EonCount = ? MessageCount = 0
Other
CALL_GAP
RingCount MIN_RING?
CallCount++
N
RingCount RING_LIMIT?
Y ule is a textbook case of a slow periph-
MessageCount++
RingCount = 0
1
the same call. The duration of the rings
is not measured; however, the compile-
time constant RING_MIN_PULSE is
used to define the minimum number of
pulses an admissible ring must contain.
This feature is used to reject fake pulses
if the sensitivity of the ring detector
needs to be increased due to an anemic
ring signal. As a result, the circuit
detects the transients caused by the
phone going on- or off-hook (referred as
“bell tap” in the literature). This may
also be caused by the ticks of pulse
dialing from a vintage phone.
The microcontroller’s Timer1 is
used in 16-bit mode to measure the
time periods between ring pulses; it is
clocked from the internal clock source
through 1:8 prescaling. Because the
accuracy of the measurements is not
highly critical, we used the microcon-
troller’s 8-MHz internal oscillator. This
brings the clock of Timer1 to 250 kHz.
With an overflow cycle time of 262 ms,
this period is referred to as an “eon.”
We also employed the microcontroller’s
Input Capture 1 module as the Timer1-
based “stop watch,” although its read-
ings ended up serving only experimental
and debugging purposes. For the ring
interpreter algorithm, the resolution of
time intervals measured in eons is
sufficient to properly identify the
CIRCUIT CELLAR®
exact nature of the ring pulse gaps.
To provide the most elegant solu-
tion, we decided to take full advantage
of the PIC18F4520’s interrupt system
for event handling. The high-priority
interrupt is associated with the Input
Capture module, signifying the arrival
of a ring pulse. The responsibility of
the interrupt service routine (ISR) is to
reset Timer1 immediately, so time
measurements will be precise even for
short time periods. In this application,
this is not absolutely crucial, but it
may be required in future enhance-
ments. Considering that the VFD mod-
eral (certain commands, such as scroll-
ing, can take up to 100 ms to execute),
clearing the timer in the Main loop
would generally be a bad design. On
the other hand, the response to a
Timer1 overflow has no such particular
urgency. Therefore, this event is imple-
mented as a “silent interrupt,” where
the interrupt flag is set by the timer
module, but the invocation of the cor-
responding ISR is not enabled.
One additional event is the push of the
Call Count Reset button, which is used
to acknowledge that the reported call
numbers are understood and can be reset.
This event could also be handled with a
silent interrupt triggered by the micro-
controller’s INT1 input. However, to
become familiar with the concept of
multi-level interrupts and its implemen-
tation in PIC devices, Monica config-
ured INT1 as a low-priority interrupt.
The operation of the firmware’s pri-
mary functionality is shown in Figure 2.
The corresponding code is implement-
ed by the familiar infinite Main loop,
which serves as the “background
process” in low-complexity firmware
environments. The device also sup-
ports the setting and nonvolatile stor-
age of the Ring Limit. This mode is
invoked if the Call Count Reset but-
ton is pressed during boot-up.
CONSTRUCTION
Due to the large footprint of the dis-
play module, we could have crammed the
entire electronics on a PCB of equal size.
However, we designed our PCB slightly
larger, so the components that need
access or visibility are not covered by the
display’s circuit board. The ExpressPCB
Issue 215 June 2008 17
 (www.expresspcb.com) board layout file
is on the Circuit Cellar FTP site.
The two PCBs are held together by
four #4 screws, utilizing the mounting
holes provided by the VFD module
(see Photo 1b). The distance between
them is defined by the height of the
phone jacks, the tallest components
on the PCMF board. A plastic or metal
casing can also take advantage of the
screws. It is recommended that the
VFD be covered with green translu-
cent acrylic. This improves display
visibility in ambient light.
One interesting challenge was the
fact that the geometry of the VFD
module (except the connector’s header
pins) follows the metric scale (i.e., the
different positions are round values of
millimeters). Fortunately, the
Hundreds of complete ExpressPCB board design software
supports switching between the two
embedded projects. scales and does an impressive job.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
Although working on this project
was an excellent learning opportunity,
the idea itself is not new. Voicemail
indicator devices (albeit less fancy
than this one) are available for less
than $50. However, due to its relative
simplicity, this design was a feasible
task for one student to complete while
Start with demonstrating the entire cycle of prod-
www.circuitcellar.com/ uct development: problem identifica-
tion, idea inception, design specifica-
microchip2007 tion, research of possible solutions,
research of prior art, electronic and
mechanical design, parts selection,
parts procurement, firmware develop-
ment, prototyping/testing, debugging,
circuit board design, production, and
final verification. This project proves
that the devil is indeed in the details,
and that on top of the expected hur-
dles, there are also plenty of unexpect-
ed surprises lurking around (e.g., the
strange behavior of the VFD after a
hardware reset).
Our voicemail monitoring system
works as expected. It has put an end
to missed voicemail messages.
If you want to build on this idea, true
stutter dial tone detection and the imple-
mentation of call logging with time
stamps would be two great opportunities
for improvement. Both of these features
were beyond the intended complexity of
18 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR®
this project, therefore we dropped them
from the initial specifications. I
Peter Csaszar (peterc@ieee.org) is a
senior firmware engineer at Synap-
tics in Santa Clara, CA. Previously,
he worked as an assistant professor
in the Electrical and Computer Engi-
neering departments at Lawrence
Technological University in South-
field, MI. Peter also worked as a sen-
ior software engineer at Motorola in
Schaumburg, IL. His technical inter-
ests include hardware and software
design for embedded systems.
Monica Flores (mfloresky@gmail.com)
earned a degree in Electrical Engi-
neering at Lawrence Technological
University in Southfield, MI. She is
currently working as an electrical
engineer at Johnson Controls Hybrid
Battery Group in Milwaukee, WI. She
has worked as a co-op electrical engi-
neer at DTE Energy in Detroit, MI.
Her main areas of interest are elec-
tronics and embedded systems.
PROJECT FILES
To download code and board layout,
go to ftp://ftp.circuitcellar.com/pub/
Circuit_Cellar/2008/215.
REFERENCES
[1] J. Macassey, “Understanding Tele-
phones,” Ham Radio Magazine, Sep-
tember 1985.
[2] J. Darwood, “Telephone Ring Detec-
tor Circuit,” U.S. Patent 4066848, 1978.
RESOURCES
Mike Sandman Enterprises, Inc.,
“Message Waiting Products,”
www.sandman.com/messwait.html.
Noritake Electronics, www.noritake-elec.
com.
SOURCES
C18 Compiler, MPLAB C18 compiler
library, and PIC18F4520 microcontroller
Microchip Technology, Inc.
www.microchip.com
GU140X32F-7003 VFD
Noritake, Inc.
www.noritake-elec.com
www.circuitcellar.com
Change
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 FEATURE ARTICLE by Richard Wotiz

Pump Control
FIRST PLACE CONTEST WINNER

Build A Variable-Speed Drive For Motors

Richard’s single-phase, variable-speed drive for AC induction motors is an excellent device
for powerful, yet quiet, pump operation. Designed for use with a capacitor-start/capacitor-run
motor, it includes active power factor correction (PFC) and inrush current limiting.

O ver the past few years, I’ve done

various renovations to my house,
including adding a new backyard deck
to support a hot tub. Last year, I final-
ly decided to buy one. I looked for a
self-contained model, and found many
choices with varying numbers of
pumps and jets. They all had automat-
ic control systems to keep the water
properly heated and filtered. I bought a
six-seat spa with 43 jets and a pair of
two-speed, 2-hp pumps.
I was planning on putting the spa
outside of my bedroom, so I was con-
cerned about the volume of the
pumps. I didn’t want to be woken up
if the heat came on at night. The
model I bought was very quiet at low
speeds while heating. But after I used
the spa for a while, I found the pumps
annoyingly loud at high speeds. Also,
the jets were so powerful that I could
enjoy them for only a few minutes at
a time. There were various valves to
control the water flow, but that didn’t
help with the noise. At low speeds,
there wasn’t quite enough water pres-
sure to be enjoyable. An intermediate
speed would have been perfect.
None of the spas I found in my
search had a variable-pump speed con-
trol. I started searching for variable-
speed drives, figuring I’d have to retro-
fit something myself. I found endless
choices for three-phase motors. But
there were few with single-phase out-
puts, and none of them could handle
anything as large as 2 hp. I didn’t want
to deal with the mechanical complexi-
chose it because I needed certain fea-
tures of its PWM controller that aren’t
ty of adapting a three-phase motor to present in the motor control family. I
the existing pumps. The only solution used a three-phase Smart Power mod-
was to design my own electronic ule, consisting of three IGBT half
speed control to work with the exist- bridges with integrated drivers and
ing motor, and so the Spa Pump Con- fault detection, to drive the motor.
troller was born (see Photo 1). The PFC section is a boost regulator
using a MOSFET switch with a
THE BIG PICTURE Microchip TC4427A driver. Two
The Spa Pump Controller is a vari- Microchip MCP6022 dual op-amps
able-speed drive for a 2-hp single-phase provide input and output current sens-
AC induction motor (see Figure 1). It ing. A pair of Microchip MCP9700
includes active power factor correc- temperature sensors in the PFC and
tion (PFC), inrush current limiting, motor drive power sections monitor
and has a control port that interfaces the heatsink temperature.
with a standard spa control system. The drive communicates through an
The motor drive hardware is built optoisolated serial port to a separate
around a Microchip Technology spa interface unit, which is designed
dsPIC30F2020 digital signal controller. around a Microchip PIC16F687 micro-
Although this part is targeted for controller (see Photo 2). It connects
switching power supply systems, I between the spa’s control pack and
Photo 1—This is the drive unit. The dsPIC30F2020 and all of the control circuitry is at the upper right, with all of the
power components below. The line filter and low-voltage supplies are in a separate box to the left. It’s designed to
sit vertically with the three large filter capacitors at the bottom, so they stay as cool as possible.

20 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

 Most of the output drive circuit-
Temperature
Temperature sensor ry is contained in a Fairchild Semi-
sensor MCP9700
MCP9700 conductor FSBB30CH60 Smart
Current Current
Three-
AUX MAIN Power module (see Figure 3). It
Inrush sense PFC sense
230 EMI
current Boost phase has three 30-A, 600-V IGBT half-
VAC Filter converter IGBT
limiter power bridge outputs along with drivers
module
that don’t require isolation for
5V
Power
Op-amp Driver Op-amp their logic-level inputs. The
15 V MCP6022 TC4427A MCP6022 2-hp
supply
15 V One-phase module has separate negative
induction motor
inputs for each output. I put a
I/O ADC, ADC ADC PWM ADC ADC PWM pair of current-sense resistors
CMP
ICSP dsPIC30F2020 UART Optoisolators (R33 and R34) on two of them so
I can measure the currents for
MCLR I/O
ICSP Serial each of the two windings. A
Connector connector third resistor (R35) measures the
Voltage detector MCP121 total motor current and feeds the
LED
module’s short-circuit detect
input.
ICSP PIC16F687 UART

ADC, POWER FACTOR CORRECTION

ICSP
CMP SPI I/O
Serial The PFC is a standard continu-
Connector connector ous conduction mode (CCM) boost
Digital potentiometer
MCP4011 regulator (see Figure 4). It steps up
Buttons
the line voltage to 400 VDC, while
To spa LCD data To spa enabling the input current to fol-
keypad control pack
Power low the input voltage waveform.
5V This provides a high power fac-
tor, similar to a resistive load,
Figure 1—The system is partitioned into two parts. All of the power circuitry is in the drive unit, which appears in the top which puts less stress on the
half of the diagram. The spa interface unit on the bottom connects the drive unit to the spa’s control system.
power grid. A non-PFC system
would draw most of its input
top-side keypad, so the keys can be used pins also have RC noise filters. I sprin- current at the peaks of the AC wave-
to control the pump speed. It monitors kled several optoisolators throughout form, rather than spread out over the
incoming key presses and sends out its the design to reduce noise coupling entire cycle. Many countries have reg-
own as varying analog levels using a and avoid ground loops. This might ulations that mandate a high power
Microchip MCP4011-103E/SN digital seem excessive, but tracking down factor on products such as this with a
potentiometer. It can also modify the intermittent noise problems could
data sent from the control pack to the have taken a long time!
keypad’s LCD. The system is designed to work
Power for the drive unit is supplied with a capacitor-start/capacitor-run
by a pair of offline switching supply motor. The motor has two windings
modules. They provide 5 V for the approximately 90° apart from each
control section and two isolated 15-V other and could be thought of as a
outputs for the PFC and motor drive two-phase motor. One winding con-
sections. The spa interface unit gets nects directly across the line. A start
its 5-V supply from the spa’s control capacitor provides 90° of phase shift
pack. for the other winding during start up
and a run capacitor takes its place
HARDWARE DETAILS after the motor has come up to speed.
The dsPIC30F2020 has all of the fea- A centrifugal switch controls which
tures I need for this application (see capacitor is connected. This type of
Figure 2). It has just enough ADC motor is more efficient than a capaci-
inputs and I/O pins. There is one spare tor-start or split-phase type, both of
pin, but it is not functional in the cur- which use only one winding while
rent mask revision. The entire system running. I needed to control each
Photo 2—The spa interface unit is wire-wrapped on a
operates in an extremely high-noise winding individually, without using
small protoboard and fits in a plastic box that sits next
environment. All of the pins have the capacitors, because the necessary to the spa control pack. Some of the parts were only
Zener surge suppressors, and the input capacitance varies at different speeds. available as surface-mount, so I had to make do.

www.circuitcellar.com CIRCUIT CELLAR® Issue 215 June 2008 21

Figure 2—All of the control circuitry is surrounded by surge suppression and noise filtering. The default jumper settings use the same pins for the ICSP and serial ports. I
found that the serial port didn’t interfere with ICD2 operation, but I had to unplug the ICSP cable to use the serial port.
power consumption of 2.5 kW. Refer
to Olin Lathrop’s article titled “Digi-
tally Control Power Factor Correc-
tion” for a more in-depth introduction
to power factor correction (Circuit
Cellar 174, 2005).
The operating theory of a CCM PFC
is fairly straightforward. The boost
converter operates with two control
loops. A fast inner loop controls the
MOSFET switch duty cycle to main-
tain an input current that is propor-
tional to the instantaneous power line
voltage. This simulates a resistive
load. A slower outer loop gradually
adjusts the average input current over
a long period of time (several power
line cycles) to maintain the output DC
bus voltage at the proper level, which
is 400 V in my case.
The AC input and bus voltages have
101:1 voltage dividers feeding ADC
inputs. A sense resistor measures the
input current (equal to the inductor
22 Issue 215 June 2008
current when the MOSFET switch is
on), which is amplified and sent to an
ADC input. It’s also compared to a fixed
threshold to generate an overcurrent
fault signal. Refer to the PFC_design.doc
file on the Circuit Cellar FTP site for
more details about the PFC hardware
design.
POWER SOURCE
The Spa Pump Controller connects
to a 230-VAC line, and can accept
between 200 and 264 V. It draws up to
12 A RMS at 200 V. I used an EMI fil-
ter with low leakage current to elimi-
nate the possibility of tripping the
spa’s ground fault circuit interrupter.
When power is first applied, the DC
bus capacitors charge up to the peak
line voltage through a pair of surge-
withstand resistors. (Refer to R81 and
R82 in Figure 5.) Once the bus voltage
is high enough, a relay turns on to
bypass the resistors.
CIRCUIT CELLAR®
Low-voltage power for the various
parts of the system comes from a pair
of power supply modules. I chose two
evaluation boards for STMicroelec-
tronics’s VIPer12A line of offline
switcher components, mainly due to
their availability and wide tempera-
ture range of 0° to 80°C. I had to
modify the modules to adapt them to
work with my design. Refer to the
LVPS_mods.doc file on the Circuit
Cellar FTP site for a complete list of
changes.
SPA INTERFACE
I wanted to be able to control the
pump speed using the control keypad
mounted on top of the spa. It has eight
membrane push buttons and a four-
digit LCD with several status icons. It
connects to the main spa control unit
with an eight-wire cable, which I set
out to reverse engineer. Pressing a but-
ton connects a particular tap of an
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 Figure 3—All of the power switching is done by SPM1. Note the numerous RC fil-
ters and the four different ground nodes. The logic, inverter control, and power bus
grounds are each connected together by only a single-tie trace. The analog ground
is kept separate.

eight-step voltage divider to a single-
output wire. The LCD data is sent
using a three-wire SPI, with a block of
13 bytes sent every 16.7 ms. The
remaining wires provide 5 V, ground,
and power for the panel backlight. For
more information, refer to the Inter-
face_Schematic.doc file on the Circuit
Cellar FTP site.
I designed the interface as a separate
board that sits next to the spa control
unit, connecting it and the keypad. It
can interpret user key presses and
modify the data sent to the LCD. It
communicates with up to two drive
units over a logic-level serial port to
control the motor speed. I chose a
PIC16F687 microcontroller because it
had the requisite SPI, UART, and
ADC, as well as enough pins to
accommodate future improvements.
An MCP4011-103E/SN digital poten-
tiometer generates virtual key presses
to send to the spa control. I included a
32.768-kHz crystal and a backup bat-
tery for a real-time clock, another
future enhancement.
DRIVE UNIT SOFTWARE
I wrote the drive unit code in C with
Microchip’s MPLAB 7.5.2 and MPLAB
C30 v2.05. I used an ICD2 for initial
debugging. Later on, I used the electri-
cally isolated serial port to output
debugging data when operating the sys-
tem from line power. The code weighs
in at just over half of the 12 KB of
flash memory, and about 75% of the
512 bytes of RAM. It uses almost all
of the CPU’s processing capacity
while running at 20 MIPS.
I was careful to avoid any potential-
ly hazardous coding practices to
reduce the possibility of a crash, con-
sidering the damage that could result.
There are no loops anywhere in the
code outside of one main loop. There
are no pointer variables (other than
function parameters), and I check for a
nonzero denominator before all divide
operations.
Refer to the Flowcharts.doc file on
the Circuit Cellar FTP site. The main
loop makes repeated passes through a
state machine. When the system is
first powered up, the DC bus capaci-
tors charge up for about 150 ms. Then

24 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

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Figure 4—The PFC converter is the noisiest part of the entire system. I put plenty of filtering around the current sense amplifier (U6) and used a shielded optoisolator to keep
noise from coupling into the control circuitry. I used paired resistors for the voltage sense dividers so a single failure wouldn’t send hundreds of volts into a microcontroller pin.
the inrush control relay is turned on
to bypass the current-limiting resis-
tors and the PFC system is started up.
Once the bus voltage reaches its final
value, the motor drive inverter is
started. The main loop also calls the
serial handler to process any incoming
commands and flashes the LED at a
rate proportional to the motor speed.
In the event of a hardware fault, the
PFC and inverter are immediately
shut down. Only a command from the
serial port or a power cycle can restart
them.
INVERTER PROCESSING
Low-level motor drive processing is
done in the PWM interrupt routine at an
18-kHz PWM rate, which is just above
my hearing threshold and below the
power module’s 20-kHz limit. It gener-
ates the properly phased sinusoidal out-
put signals and captures motor current
samples from the ADC. The waveforms
are generated by incrementing a phase
accumulator by a fixed amount each
interrupt and using that value as an
index into a cosine table. The result is
scaled by the desired amplitude and
adjusted to reduce dead time distortion.
26 Issue 215 June 2008
The dead time is a short gap during
the transitions of complementary
PWM signals where neither output is
on. This gives one IGBT switch in the
three-phase driver module time to
turn off before the opposite one turns
on to avoid a momentary short circuit.
I set the dead time to 3 µs. This means
I’m not controlling the output voltage
for 3 µs twice out of every 56-µs period
(once per transition). This causes dis-
tortion at very high or low duty
cycles, where 3 µs is a significant por-
tion of the on or off time.
To compensate for this distortion,
you can take advantage of the induc-
tive nature of the motor windings. If
current is flowing out to the motor, it
will continue to flow even when both
switches are off, pulling the output
voltage low to ground. If it’s flowing
inward, it will pull the voltage up to
400 V during the dead time. I imple-
mented an algorithm that shifts the
PWM duty cycle by 3 µs just before
the motor current changes direction.[1]
It’s more complicated than simply
waiting for the zero crossing, but it
provides a cleaner signal. Refer to
Duty_adjust() in the Inverter.c file
CIRCUIT CELLAR®
on the Circuit Cellar FTP site for
more details.
The two motor windings are physi-
cally spaced 90° apart from each other.
To get a 90° phase shift between the
voltages across the two windings, the
individual inverter output voltages
need to be driven 180° apart from each
other (see Figure 6). The resulting
winding voltages will be 283-V peak,
or 200-V RMS. This is 3% below the
motor’s 230-V ±10% operating range. I
felt this wouldn’t be a problem and
found that the motor had no trouble
accommodating such a minor
brownout condition.
The magnetic field inside the motor
is actually determined by the winding
currents. You want these currents, not
the voltages, to have the proper 90°
phase shift and appropriate ampli-
tudes. The interrupt routine finds the
phase difference between the main
and aux winding current zero crossing
points (see Listing 1). It also computes
the sum of the square of the currents
(RMS squared). Once each cycle of the
output waveform, the mainline code
looks at these values and adjusts the
PWM phase values as needed to maintain
www.circuitcellar.com
 without any protection, the
bus voltage could exceed
the component ratings.

SERIAL PORT
The drive unit connects
to the spa interface unit
over a serial port running
at 9,600 bps. Both act as
watchdogs for each other.
The drive unit expects to
receive commands at regu-
lar intervals. If not, it
immediately shuts down.
Conversely, the spa inter-
face unit expects to receive
a response to its commands
within 100 ms. If not, it
sends a virtual key press to
the spa control pack to
shut off the pump relay,
removing power from the
drive unit. The commands
are described in the Seri-
al_Commands.doc file on
the Circuit Cellar FTP site.

SPA INTERFACE CODE

Figure 5—Take a look at the input power and inrush control. The power wiring is all 14 AWG to handle the high current. I didn’t
include input fuses because power comes from the fuse-protected pump output of a spa control pack.
the proper current waveforms. This
dynamic adaptation automatically
adjusts the waveforms to best suit the
actual motor speed and mechanical
loading.
The inverter state machine periodi-
cally checks to see if the motor speed
needs to be changed and adjusts it
accordingly. It also sets the waveform
amplitude according to the V/F control
algorithm, where the motor voltage is
proportional to its frequency. The code
also adjusts the amplitude to compen-
sate for variations in the DC bus volt-
age. Finally, it checks the PWM fault
status and heatsink temperature.
PFC ROUTINES
Most of the PFC processing is done
in the ADC interrupt routine at the
50-kHz PFC PWM rate. I originally
chose 20 kHz because the design start- load during acceleration, but more
ed out using an IGBT switch that was
limited to 20 kHz, but it turned out to overvoltage. An induction motor acts
be unavailable. I ended up using a
The PIC16F687 code was
written in assembly using
MPLAB 7.5.2. It uses only
25% of the 2K words of
flash memory, and 46 of
faster MOSFET and found the faster the 128 bytes of RAM. However, I
switching speed improved perform- expect to fill this up in the future
ance and system stability. I had with user interface features not
already built the inductor for a 20-kHz directly related to controlling the
system, but it worked fine at the high- pump speed. The system runs at the
er speed. default speed of 4 MHz.
The ADC is triggered at the center The code continuously monitors the
of the PWM output pulse and captures
the inductor current, AC input and
DC bus voltages, and heatsink temper- 400 V
Aux 200 V
ature. The code computes the average 0V
180
AC input voltage once each cycle. The 400 V
values are fed to the PFC algorithm Main 200 V
0V
that’s based on Microchip application
400 V
note AN1106.[2] Com 200 V
0V
I also included some interaction
with the inverter section. If the bus 283 V
Aux - Com 0V
voltage gets too far out of range, a flag -283 V
90
causes the inverter to stop changing 283 V
the motor speed until the bus is back Main - Com 0V
-283 V
within the limits. This avoids over-
Figure 6—The individual output pin voltages (top wave-
importantly, it prevents the bus from
forms) are driven 180° apart from each other. This
results in the correct 90° phase shift between the two
as a generator while decelerating, and winding voltages (bottom waveforms).

www.circuitcellar.com CIRCUIT CELLAR® Issue 215 June 2008 27

spa’s keypad for button presses. It
either passes them on to the spa con-
trol pack unchanged or uses them to
initiate speed control commands to
the drive unit. It also taps into the
LCD datastream to monitor various
icons that indicate the state of the
control pack’s relays and can modify
the data to display its own messages.
PUTTING IT TOGETHER
I built the drive system on a PCB
due to the critical nature of the high-
power circuitry layout. All of the
components except for the high-power
semiconductors are on the top side.
Photo 3 shows the bottom side.
Designing the double-sided PCB was
quite a challenge given the various
trace widths and spacings I’d need to
safely handle the high voltages and
currents. I used several ground planes
and lots of space between the low- and
high-power sections. Component
selection took me longer than usual
because I had to make sure every part
could handle the full outdoor tempera-
ture range, even with California’s
mild winters.
I had to make my own PFC induc-
tor, because I couldn’t find anything
that was large enough. I used an
inductor design program from the
Photo 3—The heatsink dominates the back side of the PCB. You can see the smart power module poking out from
underneath. The two black cables run to the temperature sensors located between the heatsink fins on each side.
28 Issue 215 June 2008
Listing 1—This code finds the value of the PWM phase accumulator when the motor current waveform rises
through its 75% point. The signal is extremely noisy, especially near the zero crossing. To combat this, there’s
lots of margin between the rising and falling thresholds, and you average the result over several cycles.
if (isense > iphase->max) iphase->max = isense; // Find max
if (isense < iphase->min) iphase->min = isense; // and min
if (isense > iphase->rising) { // Positive transition
if (iphase->sign & SIGN_NEG) {
if (iphase->rising > iphase->falling + _IPHASE_THRESH) {
// Update running average of relative transition time
stemp = phase_accum - iphase->time.w.hi;
iphase->time.l += (SLONG)stemp << (16L - 4L);
iphase->flag = 0xFF; // Set data valid flag
}
// Set new thresholds to 75% and 50% of waveform span
iphase->rising = (iphase->max>>2)*3 + (iphase->min>>2);
iphase->falling = (iphase->max>>1) + (iphase->min>>1);
iphase->min = 32767; // Re-init min and max
iphase->max = -32768; // for next cycle
}
iphase->sign = SIGN_POS;
}
else if (isense < iphase->falling) // Negative transition
iphase->sign = SIGN_NEG;
Micrometals web site. It enabled me can see some of the construction
to enter the PFC design parameters steps in the Inductor_Photos.doc file
and then it listed the various core on the Circuit Cellar FTP site).
and winding options. I picked a pair The two power supply modules and
of Micrometals E305-8A iron powder the EMI filter fit in a 6″ × 5″ × 4″ metal
E-core halves and a PB305A bobbin. I box, and everything else went into a
wound 80 turns of six parallel larger 12″ × 7″ × 4″ box. I used a lot of
strands of 20-AWG heavy-build mag- polyimide tape to insulate the box
net wire (rather than a single 12 walls from the many nearby live parts.
AWG), insulating each layer with At first, I built up the PCB using dif-
two wraps of polyimide tape. You ferent bus voltage divider resistors, cur-
rent sense resistors, and PFC power
components that were designed for 10%
of the original voltage and current specs.
(Refer to the parts marked with asterisks
in Figures 3 and 4.) That enabled me to
power the system from a 24-V 1-A trans-
former for debugging and loop stability
measurements without risking any com-
ponent damage. I used two 12-V 6-W car
interior light bulbs in series with each
motor winding as a 24-V test load.
After finalizing the hardware, I tried
out the system with an old 0.25-hp,
split-phase AC motor while supplying
power from a 120-V isolation trans-
former and a Variac. I could hardly
believe it when I saw the motor shaft
starting to turn for the first time!
The spa pump motor has the start
and run capacitors mounted on the
outside of the motor casing. I was
able to remove them and connect to
one of the wires from the run capaci-
tor that goes to the auxiliary winding.
This bypasses the motor’s internal
CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com
start switch, so I didn’t have to do
any disassembly to get to the connec-
tions I needed. The main winding
connects directly across the line ter-
minals, so it was accessible without
any modifications.
REFERENCES
[1] R. Valentine, Motor Control Elec-
tronics Handbook, D. Wilson,
“Deadtime Distortion Correction,”
McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, 1998.
Microchip Technology, Inc., 2003.
Venable Industries, “Venable Techni-
cal Paper #13: Testing Power Factor
Correction Circuits For Stability,”
www.venable.biz/tp-13.pdf.

[2] V. Skanda, “AN1106: Power Factor

AHHHHH Correction in Power Conversion
I left room for some advanced fea- SOURCES
Applications Using the dsPIC DSC,”
tures that I’d like to add someday. DS01106A, Microchip Technology, FSBB30CH60 Smart Power module
The spa interface unit has extra 2007. Fairchild Semiconductor Corp.
inputs for pressure sensors, which www.fairchildsemi.com
will control the pump speed based on
pump outlet pressure. This will auto- RESOURCES dsPIC30F2020 DSC, MCP4011-
matically compensate for changes in S. Bowling, “AN984: An Introduction 103E/SN potentiometer, MCP6022 op-
jet settings as individual jets are to AC Induction Motor Control Using amp, MCP9700 temperature sensor,
turned on or off. For now, I’m happy the dsPIC30F MCU,” DS00984A, PIC16F687 microcontroller, and
pushing the up and down buttons Microchip Technology, Inc., 2005. TC4427A MOSFET driver
myself while I enjoy a quiet soak. I Microchip Technology, Inc.
Fairchild Semiconductor Corp., “AN- www.microchip.com
Editor’s note: For more information 9035: Smart Power Module—Motion-
SPM in Mini-DIP User’s Guide,” 2005. E305-8A Inductor core half, PB305A
about the Microchip 16-Bit Embedded
bobbin, and inductor design software
Controller 2007 Design Contest and
O. Lathrop, “Digitally Control Power Micrometals, Inc.
the other winning projects, visit
Factor Correction,” Circuit Cellar 174, www.micrometals.com
www.circuitcellar.com/microchip2007/.
2005.
VIPer12A Offline switcher
Author’s Note: Caution! This project R. Parekh, “AN887: AC Induction STMicroelectronics
uses voltage and power levels that Motor Fundamentals,” DS00887A, www.st.com
could be lethal or cause considerable
damage if not properly respected.
You should have experience working
with high voltages. Take all appropri-
ate safety precautions before
attempting to operate the system
from line power. Make sure there’s
someone else within earshot who
knows how to turn off the power if
something should go wrong. Use an
isolation transformer when connect-
ing the system to non-isolated equip-
ment. Always use a discharge resis-
tor because the bus capacitors will
hold a charge long after power is
removed.

Richard Wotiz earned a B.S.E. in

Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science from Princeton University. He
has run his own hardware consulting
business for the past 17 years, spe-
cializing in consumer products and
children’s toys. You may contact him
at dick601@mystics.org.

PROJECT FILES
To download code and additional files,
go to ftp://ftp.circuitcellar.com/pub/
Circuit_Cellar/2008/215.

www.circuitcellar.com CIRCUIT CELLAR® Issue 215 June 2008 29

 ABOVE THE GROUND PLANE by Ed Nisley

Resistance Soldering
In his last two columns, Ed discussed transformer action and the simulated triac control of an
inductive load. This month, he describes a real-world application: circuitry connected directly
to an AC power line.

H aving investigated transformer

action in my February 2008 column
resistor is “below” the common refer-
ence: positive current into the triac’s
optoisolator and, as a side effect, lights
LED1.
(“Transformers,” Circuit Cellar 211) MT2 produces a negative sense voltage. A separate 5-V wall-wart switching
and simulated triac control of an Remember that you must use an supply provides logic power to the
inductive load in April 2008 column isolation transformer when you con- microcontroller board, so this prototype
(“Triac Behavior,” Circuit Cellar 213), nect line-powered test equipment to has three line cords: logic, drivers, and
now it’s time to put everything togeth- this circuit and that Variac-style trans- the high-current transformer. That was
er and match theory with reality. formers do not provide isolation. easier than trying to combine everything
The circuitry described in this col- The orange rocker switches on the into a single cord and allows independ-
umn connects directly to the AC “front panel” control power to TR1, ent adjustment of the main trans-
power line and, as you can see in the high-current transformer primary, former’s supply voltage through an iso-
Photo 1, the breadboard I built poses a and TR2, the small transformer for the lation transformer. You must plug all
clear and present danger of electrocu- triac driver. Their built-in neon indica- three cords into the same branch cir-
tion. If you’re not familiar with tors show when line voltage is present. cuit to maintain the correct phase rela-
power-line circuitry, this is not the TR2 has unusual output voltages tionships between TR1 and TR2.
place to gain that experience: get that were better-suited to its original IL2 optoisolators have a current
expert help before building anything! microwave-oven application: its 2.6-VAC transfer ratio over 100%, so driving
winding barely suffices for the ±4-VDC them with 15 mA ensures enough out-
POWER CONTROL HARDWARE gate supplies. The 14-VAC winding put current to saturate Q1–Q4. You
The power supply in Figure 1 corre- adequately drives the line-sync can substitute other isolators with
sponds to the SPICE simulation in my
April column. The perfboard with the
two fat caps in the middle of Photo 1
holds most of those components, with
the triac, snubbers, and current sam-
pling resistor mounted on the black
heatsink to its right. I harvested the
power components from a defunct
microwave oven, which led to some
rather ad-hoc mounting solutions.
The coaxial cable connects across
R10, a 100-mΩ sandbox resistor rated
at 5 W, to sample the primary winding
current. The cable shield should con-
nect to the 0-V “common” of the
drive circuitry, not to the power-line
neutral, so that you can plug it direct-
Photo 1—Mounting the components on a plywood base prevents inadvertent short circuits while probing. The Vise-
ly into the oscilloscope. The current Grip clamped on the transformer’s secondary terminals forms a deliberate short that simulates a resistance-solder-
sense will be negative, because the ing joint. Yes, the front of that plywood base is slightly curved: it’s not barrel distortion in the lens.

30 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

lower CTRs if you recalculate the tran-
sistor base and triac gate currents.
Figure 2 shows the straightforward
microcontroller circuitry residing on
the left perfboard in Photo 1. An
Atmel 89C2051 has 2 KB of code
space, just barely enough for this proj-
ect, and its outputs drive 20-mA LEDs
directly.
I had intended to provide serial I/O
for remote control, but the surplus
vacuum-fluorescent display in the
lower-left corner lacked the optional
oscillator that would produce standard
serial rates. As a result, I used a 12-MHz
microcontroller crystal to get 62.5 kbps
and the perfboard has an unused serial
connector and an empty MAX232
socket.
Four Hall-effect keyboard switches
increment and decrement the gate pulse
pattern selection and heating duration.
Unlike ordinary mechanical switches,
these have absolutely no contact
bounce, but their active pull-up outputs
have very little pull-down current. I
added 2.2-kΩ pull-down resistors to get
a valid logic-low input level.
The circuit board includes two 3.5-mm
stereo jacks for external switches. A
“contact” closure indicates that the tip
electrode is firmly pressed against the
workpiece and a “burn” foot switch
activates the heating pulses. Duplicate
www.circuitcellar.com
switches on the circuit board simplified
testing while I was wiring it up.
PHASE TIMING
I filled the 89C2051 with 2 KB of C
code compiled with SDCC and, after I
stomped two nasty picket-fence errors,
everything worked fine. The firmware
is straightforward, but the pulse tim-
ing deserves a mention because it’s
vital to triac triggering.
The timing reference for each cycle
starts when optoisolator OK5 in Figure 1
triggers an external interrupt as the
line voltage rises through 0 V. Saturat-
ing its output transistor requires about
500 µA, which corresponds to an LED
current of 2.5 mA at the TIL116’s
nominal 20% CTR.
The TIL116 has a threshold of about
1.5 V, so it will switch when the volt-
age reaches:
1.9 V = 1.5 V + 2.5 mA × 150 Ω [1]
The 14-VAC winding has a peak
amplitude of 19 V, so it hits 1.9 V at:
⎛ 1.9 ⎞
5.7° = arcsin ⎜ ⎟ [2]
⎝ 19 ⎠
In units of time, that works out to:
5.7°
270 μs = 16.7 ms × [3]
360°
I measured 300 µs from the true
CIRCUIT CELLAR®
zero crossing to the start of the inter-
rupt handler code. Whether that mat-
ters in your application depends on
how fussy you are about getting an
accurate zero-crossing signal, because
the delay can produce a noticeable
glitch at the start of the switched
cycle.
For example, Photo 2 shows a single
half-cycle with a 25-A peak, similar to
the simulation in Figure 1 of my April
column. The 2-ms triac triggering
pulse starts 400 µs after the zero-
crossing point with the line voltage at
25 V, showing the effect of a small
delay.
Just as in the simulation, the volt-
age on the Gate terminal remains at
about 1 V after the end of the trigger
pulse, due to the small Gate current
from the heavy current between MT2
and MT1, then drops abruptly when
the triac shuts off as the current hits
zero.
Unlike the simulation, however,
the actual circuit commutes correct-
ly after the zero point, even though
the voltage across the triac changes
abruptly from nearly 0 to –70 V. The
slight ringing after the transition
shows the circuit is under-damped,
but the triac doesn’t retrigger on that
edge.
Because the transformer presents a
Figure 1—This utterly uneconomic triac
drive circuitry provides close control over
the gate current. I harvested the trans-
formers and triac components from a
dead microwave, so your circuitry will
most certainly differ.
Issue 215 June 2008 31
 Figure 2—An 8051-style microcontroller monitors the switches
and provides precisely timed pulses to the triac drive circuitry.
The VFL display uses a nonstandard serial data rate requiring
a 12-MHz CPU crystal.

highly inductive load, I planned to use from April. The first trigger pulse Firing half-cycles into a real transformer
maximum-voltage switching at 90° occurs at the voltage peak, with suc- isn’t good practice, because the unipo-
into the cycle. For a bit more flexibili- cessive negative and positive pulses lar current draws DC power from the
ty, I set up Timer0 to generate eight maintaining conduction for another AC line-voltage supply and biases the
interrupts per power-line cycle at each complete cycle. The Gate voltage core magnetization. That bias can
45° point. The nominal time between modulation isn’t as crisp as in the cause large transients as a subsequent
interrupts is therefore: simulation, but the effect is still obvi- current of the other polarity drags the
ous. Again, the actual circuit shuts off core flux across the entire hysteresis
1
2.083 ms = cleanly when the triac current hits loop. Although I programmed several
8 × 60 Hz [4]
zero after the final trigger pulse, even half-cycle patterns to match the simu-
I subtracted 20 µs from that value as the triac’s main-terminal voltage lations, they’re just for comparison
to account for the instructions snaps downward. purposes.
between each IRQ event and The firmware distributes
its ensuing timer reload. A triggering pulses over six con-
410-µs Finagle Constant for secutive power-line cycles to
the first delay put the first provide duty-cycle control in
90° output at 2.083 ms after 17% increments. Each six-
the exact line-voltage zero cycle pattern lasts for 100 ms,
crossing, thus aligning the so the transformer thumps at
remaining seven interrupts at 10, 20, or 30 Hz as the triac
their nominal phase angles. switches on and off. An over-
Each zero-crossing interrupt all “burn timer” controls the
resynchronizes the Timer0 power-on duration in incre-
interrupts to eliminate any ments of 100 ms.
accumulated timing error. It’s Each tap on the foot switch
a simple matter of software! produces a single, well-
defined heating event that can
LOOKING AT CYCLES Photo 2—Zero-cross triggering involves a slight delay while the circuitry turns
range from 100 ms (a single
Photo 3 corresponds to the on and the interrupt-handler firmware gets control. Unlike the simulated circuit, six-cycle pattern) up to 255.9 s
simulation results in Figure 3 the triac turns off cleanly when Trace 2, the main current, reaches zero. (probably a mistake!). The tip

32 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

 contact switch must
remain closed; open-
ing it will immediate-
ly cancel the heating
pulses.
The “pattern num-
ber” is an index into
an array of pointers to
lists of patterns: the
half-cycle pulse in
Photo 2 corresponds
to Pattern 1. Patterns
1 through 5 produce
test sequences and
Patterns 11 through Photo 3—Triggering the triac at maximum voltage closely matches the lagging
current waveform found in an inductive circuit.
16 produce 1/6
through 6/6 duty-
cycle controlled heating sequences.
Each pattern list entry contains a
phase number and the corresponding
triac gate drive transistor bit pattern.
When the “phase counter” matches
the phase number, the firmware
copies the bits to the output port driv-
ing the optoisolators. A state machine
ensures that can happen only when
the foot switch is pressed after the
contact switch has been active; the
firmware forces the gate clamp tran-
sistors active at all other times to hold with the secondary shorted showed
the triac off.
For example, Photo 4 shows Pattern
14, the 4/6 duty cycle pattern. The
triac is on during four cycles of the
six-cycle pattern: two cycles on, one
off, two on, and one off. The Gate
drive starts with a high pulse at the
maximum voltage point, then alter-
nates between low- and high-drive.
This combination of transistorized
gate drive circuitry and microcon-
troller logic is utterly uneconomic for
Photo 4—The six cycles shown here have a 2/3 duty cycle: four on, two off.
The second group starts with a distinctly distorted cycle.
34 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR®
a commercial product, but it provides
an extremely adaptable testbed for
triac control experimentation. It’s also
a good way to sanity-check your reac-
tive-load triac switching simulations.
HIGH-CURRENT RESULTS
My Sencore PR57 isolation trans-
former has 3-A continuous and 4-A
intermittent current ratings. The fact
that the high-current transformer’s
primary current was only 7 A RMS
that the PR57 limited the overall cur-
rent and, while the few cycles
required for Photos 2 to 4 didn’t trip
the PR57’s breaker, it did complain
loudly at the abuse.
The high-current transformer’s five-
turn secondary produces 5 V to drive
200 A into a 25-mΩ load, roughly a kilo-
watt applied to the soldering joint. On
the primary side, that would be a
tractable 8 A, less than a typical hair
dryer. The transformer’s 7-A reactive cur-
rent pushes the total
load over 10 A, but
that’s still reasonable.
My parts heap
emitted 45 ft of sur-
prisingly flexible dou-
ble-braid-shielded six-
conductor signal
cable that, with all
the conductors and
shields crimped and
soldered in parallel,
had a resistance of 1
mΩ/foot. I made up a
pair of 7-ft leads by
swaging heavy copper
www.circuitcellar.com

Photo 5—Reworked copper crimp connectors adapt the high-current
cable lugs to the circular electrodes. The graphite block provides a low- rent without joining them-
resistance return path through the brass support plate: those plastic
clamps never get warm.
ring lugs on each end, then flowing
solder into the joint to fill the air gaps
and add mechanical stability. Solder’s
conductivity is so poor in comparison
to copper that a good crimped joint is
mandatory.
Bolting the leads to the trans-
former’s secondary terminals, then bolt-
ing the free ends together produced a
tidy 14-mΩ load. I measured 280 A
with 4.1 V at the secondary terminals,
for a total power of about 1,150 W,
with the high-current transformer
plugged directly into the wall outlet.
On the primary side, the trans-
former drew 12.8 A. The Kill-a-Watt
meter reported 1,470 VA and 1,435 W,
with a power factor of 0.94.
The secondary winding and connect- clamping springs to ensure good con-
ing lugs have about 4 mΩ of resistance
at 280 A, higher than I expected, mak-
ing the loaded output voltage some-
what lower than predicted.
The accuracy and repeatability of all of machinable graphite clamped to a
those measurements is debatable,
because dumping a kilowatt into 14 ft
of cable raises its temperature enough
to change the conductivity from shot
to shot. The numbers fall in the right
ballpark, though, with transformer
losses under 100 W and the high
power factor reflecting the in-phase
primary current.
CAUTION! A few hundred amps
makes the cables twitch in their own
magnetic field and creates an unusual that resistance should be higher than
safety issue. If you normally wear a
finger ring, bracelet, necklace, or
body jewelry, remove it. A metallic
ring in an alternating magnetic field
looks exactly like a single-turn trans-
former secondary winding: a wedding
band can burn your finger off and
www.circuitcellar.com
cauterize the stump in a
matter of seconds. Don’t
put rings in your pocket,
either, unless you want a
leg brand.
ELECTRODES
Soldering a joint requires
connecting the transformer
secondary to the work-
piece through electrodes
that must carry high cur-
selves to the surface. Pro-
duction-line resistance sol-
dering can benefit from custom-made
electrodes, but I build one-off projects
that require more adaptability and less
fixed expense.
Photo 5 shows some simple elec-
trodes made from available materials.
The small electrode in the front is a
copper-plated steel welding rod, the
middle one is a 4-mm copper-plated
carbon gouging rod, and the hulking
rear electrode came from a military-
surplus electric-arc antiaircraft spot-
light. All three connect to the cable
with a 10-32 machine screw.
The gouging rod produces the best
results for small-to-medium parts. I
forged a heavy copper crimp connector
into a ferrule and added steel-wire
tact along the rod. The rod’s tip can be
filed into an appropriate shape to fit
the workpiece.
The other “electrode” is a small slab
brass base plate. The graphite is soft
enough and conductive enough to
avoid burning the bottom of the work-
piece, while eliminating the need to
manipulate two electrodes. The 4-mm
carbon electrode conducts about 150 A
directly to the graphite block; the rod’s
tip glows white-hot.
Although the transformer can deliv-
er a kilowatt, the actual power
depends on the joint resistance. While
the rest of the secondary circuit, it
must also be low enough to create
enough heat. The 5-V secondary will
create only 25 W in a 1-Ω joint and
250 W in a 100-mΩ joint, so pay atten-
tion to cleanliness.
A 50% duty cycle works well for
CIRCUIT CELLAR®
small parts, providing enough heat to
melt solder in a few seconds while pre-
venting the tip from glowing. The con-
troller’s ability to set an exact time and
duty cycle simplifies the whole
process; it’s much better than I could
do by hand.
CONTACT RELEASE
The duty-cycle pattern table occu-
pies 10% of the 89C2051’s 2 KB of
memory, but organizing the informa-
tion that way simplified the inevitable
tweakage. A trivial state machine
tracks the various push buttons and
switches, so the code is fairly straight-
forward. The entire C program, com-
ments, blanks, and all, occupies only
740 lines. How tough can it be?
I must now stuff all that hardware
into a box to eliminate the electrocu-
tion hazard, although mounting a sin-
gle-chip microcontroller alongside a
15-lb power transformer poses some
interesting packaging challenges.
As I learned many years ago, Finagle
Constants adjust offsets, Fudge Factors
adjust first-order terms, and Diddle
Coefficients tweak second-order
terms. Use them wisely. I
Ed Nisley is an EE and author in Pough-
keepsie, NY. Contact him at ed.nisley@
ieee.org with “Circuit Cellar” in the
subject to avoid spam filters.
PROJECT FILES
To download code, go to ftp://ftp.circuit
cellar.com/pub/Circuit_Cellar/2008/215.
RESOURCES
Transformer design using SI units:
Homo Ludens Homepage, “Transform-
ers and coils,” www.ludens.cl/Electron/
Magnet.html.
Wikipedia, “Fudge factor,” http://en.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Fudge_factor.
SOURCES
PR57 Isolation transformer
Sencore, Inc.
www.sencore.com
SDCC Compiler
Source Forge
http://sdcc.sourceforge.net
Issue 215 June 2008 35
 FEATURE ARTICLE by Scott Bingham & Yunfan Donald Zhang

Ray Tracing Made Simple

A Ray Tracer Implemented On An FPGA
Scott and Yunfan implemented a ray tracer on an FPGA.The ray tracer can draw spheres and
planes with reflections, shadows, Lambertian lighting, patterns on planes, and antialiasing.

W hile working on Master’s degrees

at Cornell University, we took a
to render more complicated objects
with sufficient bounding. We used an
+z

course called Advanced Microcon- Altera NIOS II processor to update the +x

troller Design (ECE 576). Throughout sphere table in the hardware. This
the course, we implemented various enabled us to rotate spheres about any +y

FPGA designs on an Altera DE2 board, axis and have them move without
which contains a Cyclone II FPGA adding significant complexity to the
and an array of peripherals, such as hardware. Switches and push buttons
Ethernet, RS-232, and a VGA port. In were used to allow motion of the
this article, we will describe a ray light source, motion of the origin,
tracer implemented on an FPGA that’s rotation of the scene, selection of the
capable of rendering, rotating, and resolution, the level of reflections,
moving spheres and depicting planes. the level of antialiasing, reset, the
Figure 1—This is a 3-D view of the coordinate system
Our initial goal was to realistically option to render planes, and finally that was used in the ray tracer design. x and y form
render and shade spheres with reflec- the telescoping and widening of the planes that are parallel to the screen, while z repre-
tions while navigating through the camera. sents the depth of an object.
scene and enabling the spheres to
bounce and roll around. Once we RAY TRACING where many calculations can occur
achieved this goal, we added antialias- Ray tracing can be implemented in in parallel. The basic idea is to trace
ing and the ability to render planes as software without much difficulty; the path of a photon, through a
well. Planes can be used as polygons however, it is more suited to FPGAs scene, to the eye. Because we are
concerned only with the photons
that hit the eye, we simulate rays
Reset coming out of the eye, through the
Reset
Initialize ray tracer
Send done screen, and into the scene and see
Sphere list signal to
Reflection ray
what objects they hit. The ray picks
Initial ray loaded CPU
Yes
Yes (Hit a sphere?)
End of frame
(Hit a sphere?) up color based on the reflectivity as
Apply No Load spheres from CPU
Launch
No Apply it collides with objects in the scene.
Lambertian reflection Lambertian
lighting New ray Send done
ray lighting Eventually, the ray is stopped
signal to
Initial ray CPU Reflection ray because it misses objects in the
(Hit a plane?) (Hit a plane?) scene or picks up negligible color in
Yes No Set up next ray No Yes
subsequent reflections. Shadows are
Launch Launch (Ray intersection?) Launch Launch
Determine Determine
shadow shadow
color of (More reflections?) color of
shadow shadow determined by shooting rays from
ray ray ray ray
pixel and if pixel and if
pixel done
(Antialiasing?)
pixel done intersection points back toward the
Shadow ray (End of line?) Reflection shadow ray
(Hit sphere before light?) (End of frame?) (Hit sphere before light?) light source or sources in the scene
and seeing if there is an object in the
Figure 2—This is a high-level state machine diagram for the FPGA ray tracer. It shows the decisions the ray tracer way to block the light. Shading is
goes through after reset to display one frame on the screen. also performed by weighting light

36 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

 ow ray is needed. If the ray does not hit
t a sphere, the planes in the scene are
Definition of Ray tHC checked for the closest intersection.
tCA
Origin = R 0 = [x 0 y0 z0 ] RO RD
Direction = R D = [x D yD zD ] oc SR
D SPHERE BACKGROUND MATH
LOC
R (t) = R 0 + R D • t SC Figure 3 gives us the implicit equa-
tion for a sphere. We can test points in
Definition of Sphere our ray to see if they lie on the
Center = SC = [x C yC zC ] sphere’s surface. The algebraic solu-
Radius = s R tion follows. By combining the para-
Surface = SS = [ x S yS z S ] metric expression for the ray with the
implicit equation, we get:
(xS − x C ) ( yS − y C ) + ( zS − z C )
2 2 2
Equation: s R 2 = +
• •
Calculation of Intersection •
t I = intersection distance
t CA = OC • R D •

d OC2 = OC2
The general form of a quadratic equa-
d 2 = d OC2 − t CA2 tion is:
t HC2 = s R 2 − d 2 = s R 2 − d OC2 + t CA2
a • t2 + b • t + c = 0
( )
t I = t CA − sqrt t HC2
In this case:
Intersection = R I = [x I yI zI ] = [x 0 + x D • t I y0 + yD • t I z 0 + z D • t I ]
⎡( x − x C ) ( x I − x C ) ( x I − x C )⎤
Normal = R N = [x N yN zN ] = ⎢ I
sR sR sR
⎥ • • •
⎣ ⎦
• • •

Figure 3—These are essential equations to solve in order to determine whether a ray intersects with a sphere.
All vectors in our calculations are normalized. Values are represented in 24-bit fixed points with 12 integer and
12 decimal bits. You can then solve the quadratic
equation for t and find the closet
intersection point, if any. This is
that hits a surface perpendicularly for the closest intersection, if any, exactly what we do. However, we use
greater than light that merely glances with the spheres in the scene. If it our knowledge of the geometry of the
off. The coordinate system we used hits one, Lambertian lighting is situation to come up with a sequence
is shown in Figure 1. Depth is in the applied to give it a color based on the of steps that delays the square root of
z direction. amount of shadow. If the intersection the quadratic equation and offers
Each ray that intersects with an is completely in a shadow, no shad- checks to bail out of the calculations
object shoots a shadow sooner if an intersection
ray and possibly a reflec- is impossible.
tion ray depending on First, we check if the
the switches and weight Definition of Ray ray originates inside the
given to the reflection Origin = R 0 = [ x 0 y 0 z 0 ] sphere by calculating a
ray to be launched. If Direction = R D = [ x D y D z D ] vector from the ray origin
less than 1% of the light R (t ) = R 0 + R D • t to the center of the
will be reflected, a sphere and the square of
reflection ray won’t be Definition of Plane its magnitude:
launched. We also Normal = P N = [a b c] , where a 2 + b 2 + c 2 = 1 OC = SC − R 0
impose the restriction of d is distance from origin [0 0 0] to plane
d OC2 = OC2
a maximum of three Equation: a • x + b • y + c • z + d = 0
reflection rays to limit If dOC2 is less than SR2,
the time spent per pixel. Calculation of Intersection then we know the ray
A high-level state dia-
tI =
(PN • R 0 + d ) originated inside the
gram for the ray tracer is PN • R D sphere. If the ray origi-
shown in Figure 2. At Intersection = R I = [ x I y I z I ] = [ x 0 + x D • t I y 0 + y D • t I z 0 + z D • t I ] nates inside any sphere,
reset, the tracer is ini- we color the pixel black
tialized and the sphere and move on because no
Figure 4—Fewer equations are needed to determine plane intersections. The intersection
list is loaded from the point is used to determine what color to apply when a pattern (e.g., checkerboard) is light penetrates our
CPU. A ray then checks applied to the plane. spheres. Note that this is

www.circuitcellar.com CIRCUIT CELLAR® Issue 215 June 2008 37

 point and the normal:

Shadow vector reuses RI = R0 + RD • tI

Normalize Initial Calculate new direction vector, next
hardware/states of normal
R I − SC
direction direction pixel or antialias ray, combine
ray sphere checking RN =
vector vector color & write to SRAM if pixel done
SR
No, Miss
We check all of the spheres in the
No, Miss sphere list to find the closest intersec-
More More planes
spheres to
No, Hit No
to check?
tion if there is more than one.
check? Doing reflections? Yes, Yes Calculate No, Hit
Yes All direction vectors are normalized
Weight/reflections reflection
Yes
within bound? vector Calculate vd
in our calculations to reduce the num-
Calculate
ber of calculations required. This also
ray from Check if ray helps prevent overflowing when we
ray origin to Yes parallel to
center of plane and No
determine the magnitude of vectors by
Check if in Calculate
sphere and normal limiting the size of the result. The
shadow of shadow
magnitude pointing
own sphere vector
towards ray inverse radius and radius squared are
Yes precomputed and stored in the sphere
Check if ray
Apply Normalize list to save calculation time at the
No originates
from outside Lambertian shadow Calculate vo expense of memory/register usage.
lighting vector
sphere
Yes Calculate
No Yes
t = vo/vd PLANE BACKGROUND MATH
No Check if ray
Normalize
More
hits sphere
Planes, in comparison, require fewer
Calculate spheres to
closest normal check?
Check if
No calculations to determine if there is a
intersection
approach
Yes Calculate in front of ray intersection (see Figure 4). We start
along ray to half courd ray origin
sphere distance with the implicit equation for a plane.
center Check if
squared
Calculate No sphere Yes Given point P = [x y z], then:
normal closer than
Yes Calculate
Check light source
intersection PN • P + d = 0
sphere is in Check
No point
front of ray Yes sphere is in
origin No front of ray By combining the parametric expres-
Calculate origin
Yes
intersection Checker sion for the ray with the implicit
Calculate point Calculate Calculate
board equation for the plane, we get:
half chord ray from pattern/
closest
PN • ( R 0 + R D • t I ) + d = 0
distance ray origin to plane
approach bounds
squared center of along ray to
sphere and sphere
magnitude center Key: We can solve this for tI, the intersec-
Calculate
No Check if ray Yes intersection Common Shadows tion distance, and get:
hits sphere distance
Planes Spheres

tI =
(PN • R 0 + d)
PN • R D
We calculate the denominator first.
Figure 5—This is a detailed version of the ray tracer state machine. The states are grouped by color based on their
If PN · RD equals zero, the ray is paral-
functions. There are states that perform functions that are shared by all states and states dedicated to drawing
shadows, planes, and spheres. lel to the plane and we can disregard
it. Likewise, if PN · RD is positive, the
plane’s normal is pointing away from
not true of shadow rays because they Following that comparison, we cal- the origin and we disregard it in our
may originate (RI) under the surface culate the half-chord distance
because of the limited precision of squared, where the half-chord dis-
our calculations. We ignore the result tance is the distance from the point
of this comparison for shadow rays. found by tCA and the surface of the
1/16 1/8 1/16 1/8 1/8
Next, we calculate the distance sphere:
from the origin to the point along the d 2 = d OC2 − t CA2 1/8 1/4 1/8 1/2
ray that is closest to the sphere’s
t HC2 = s R 2 − d 2 = s R 2 − d OC2 + t CA2
center: 1/16 1/8 1/16 1/8 1/8

t CA = OC • R D If t2HC is negative, the ray misses the

If tCA is negative, then the sphere is not
in front of the ray origin (as defined by
the ray direction), so we know the ray
does not intersect this sphere and can
move on to the next one.
sphere. We then calculate the intersec-
tion distance:
t I = t CA − sqrt t HC2 ( )
Once we have the intersection distance,
we can calculate the intersection
8× 4×
Figure 6—These are the weights that were used in the
4× and 8× antialiasing functions. Antialiasing takes a
weighted average of a pixel and the eight pixels (or four
pixels in the case of 4× antialiasing) immediately sur-
rounding it and uses that as the new value for the pixel.

38 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

 rendering. This is done so planes can-
not block spheres. If we move the ori- a) b)
gin behind a plane, it is not drawn.
This gives the effect of it being a one-
way mirror. When behind it, it
c) d)
appears not to be there. But when in
front, it acts as a normal surface (mir-
rored if the reflection is not zero).
Next, we calculate the numerator
PN · R0 + d and then t. If t is negative, e) f)
the intersection is behind the origin
and therefore not a hit. Again, the
intersection point is calculated:
RI = R0 + RD • tI g) h)

We do not have to calculate the

normal with planes because we
already have it in the plane table in Photo 1—This is an identical scene drawn with various
PN = [a b c], which was used in the levels of antialiasing and reflection.
previous calculations. Also, the nor-
mal is the same for any point on the most of the math using hardware
plane (opposite sign on the other modules. The software, on the other
side), which is not true of spheres.
This also makes planes much quicker
to render than spheres.

REFLECTIONS
Physics tells us that the following
two statements are true:
θI = θR
VR = θ • VI + θ • VN

The angle of incidence equals the

angle of reflection and the reflection
vector is a linear combination of the Photo 2—This is a zoomed-out view of a scene with 13
incident and normal vectors. This can spheres and one light source (white sphere). The frame is
drawn with all of the features except planes turned on.
be transformed into a useable equa-
tion by the following:
cos (θ I ) = cos (θ R )
hand, can compute more complex cal-
culations that are not crucial to ray
− VI • VN = VN • VR
tracing itself. Calculations such as
− VI • VN = α ( VN • VI ) + β
If we set α= 1 , then β = –2 · (VN · VI).
Substituting into our physical law, we
get:

VR = VI − 2 • ( VN • VI ) • VN
The resulting reflection vector VR is
also normalized when the incident
vector VI and the normal vector VN are
also normalized.

SOFTWARE/HARDWARE TRADE-OFF
Many of the functions in the ray trac-
er can be performed by either the hard-
ware or the software. We tried to take
advantage of the hardware parallelism
as much as possible by calculating
Photo 3—Six small spheres are embedded on a larger
green sphere, with two more equally sized purple
spheres farther in the background. The light source is at
the lower-right corner. One purple sphere is experiencing
an eclipse due to the green sphere and is barely visible.

40 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

 Look at the Peripherals
You Can Map to I/O Pins
The Microchip name and logo, the Microchip logo and MPLAB are registered trademarks of Microchip Technology Incorporated in the USA and in other countries. All other trademarks mentioned herein are property of their respective
companies. ©2007, Microchip Technology Inc. All rights reserved.

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MPLAB® ICD 2 PIC24HJ12GP201 18 1 12 2x Analog Comparators
In-Circuit Debugger! PIC24HJ12GP202 28 1 12 10/12-bit ADC

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Microcontrollers • Digital Signal Controllers • Analog • Serial EEPROMs

 SDRAM

NIOS II

8 16 24 24 24 12 12 24 12
sphere color x1 y1 z1 reflect radius r2 R_inv valid rotz done

Switch Address Writeback VGA

18 18
Ray tracer buffer blank Control To monitor
16 Data
4 Key

SRAM

Figure 7—This is a hardware-software interface. The ray tracer communicates with the embedded NIOS II processor with an array of parallel I/O lines. The software runs on
the NIOS II processor and uses SDRAM for its instruction and data cache. The ray tracer communicates with the VGA control via a writeback buffer and SRAM.

sphere movement and rotation are
performed by the software while the
hardware draws the frames. This
maximizes the efficiencies of both
parts so the hardware state machine
can run as fast as possible while the
software does not sit idle waiting for
the hardware. By using a real floating-
point unit, the software also has the
advantage of having a higher precision
than the hardware, which uses a fixed
point.
The ray tracing hardware consists of
a large state machine responsible for
calculating the color of all the pixels.
Pixel data is written to a write buffer,
which coordinates with the VGA con-
troller to access the SRAM. The VGA
controller reads the screen values
from SRAM and sends them to the
VGA DAC along with the necessary
clock and synch signals. The ray tracing
hardware interfaces with the NIOS II
CPU through the sphere table and one
state in the state machine where it
reads values from the CPU.
The detailed state machine is
shown in Figure 5. The initial ray is
normalized over several cycles, which
requires a magnitude calculation, a
square root, and a division. Then for
each sphere, we check whether the ray
origin is inside a sphere. If a ray origin
is inside a sphere, the ray is not drawn
because it would be impossible to see
it. If it is, the pixel is drawn black and
we can move on to the next one. Oth-
erwise, we check to see if a sphere is
in front of the ray and whether or not
it intersects.
If an initial ray does not intersect
with a sphere, it would then be
checked with the plane list. The same
is true for a reflection ray. Also, if a
shadow ray intersects with any sphere
closer than the light source, a shad-
ow is cast on the origin of the shad-
ow ray. Because we are concerned
with the closest intersection, we
must check every sphere after an
intersection is detected, so the clos-
est distance and its intersection
point are stored until all spheres
have been checked. Shadow rays can

42 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

stop once a single intersection has
been found, so they typically take less
time. Also, we impose the limitation
that the light source itself does not
cast shadows. Although the light
source is a single point in space, we
draw it as a small “pure” white sphere
to make it more convincing.
To create a reflection vector, we
must know that the normal to the
intersection point on the sphere’s sur-
face is used to calculate the angle of
incidence and reflection. For planes,
this is trivial because it is already
stored in the plane table. The direc-
tion of the sphere’s normal is easy to
get; however, it takes many cycles to
normalize it. Once we have the nor-
mal and the direction of a shadow vec-
tor, we take the dot product and scale
the color of the intersection accord-
ingly. This creates realistic shadows
that are brighter when the light vector
coincides with the normal. We store
the inverse of the radius in the sphere
table to make normalization slightly
faster by doing a multiply instead of a
divide. Once we have the normal, we
have part of the reflection vector cal-
culations done.
At this point, we need to check
whether or not we want to launch a
reflection based on the number of
reflections so far and the weight of the
reflection. The weight of each object
Image 1 Simple
Eight spheres Full reflection
No plane Full antialiasing
Full antialiasing + reflection
Image 1 Simple
Eight spheres Full reflection
Four planes Full antialiasing
Full antialiasing + reflection
Image 2 Simple
Eight spheres Full reflection
No planes Full antialiasing
Full antialiasing + reflection
Image 2 Simple
Eight spheres Full reflection
Four planes Full antialiasing
Full antialiasing + reflection
Best case
Table 1—A total of 17 scenes were drawn to show the speed of the ray tracers in terms of rays per second and
frames per second. They include four configurations for four different scenes, which all have a resolution of 512 × 480
and a best-case performance (a low-resolution scene of 320 × 240 with no features turned on).
www.circuitcellar.com
intersected with thus far is multiplied rays are shot per pixel and the result-
together so less light reaches the eye ing color from each is summed using
from further intersections. If there is a the weights in Figure 6. The weight
reflection vector, the color produced for 4× antialiasing is also shown in the
from the previous ray is stored and a figure. The effects of antialiasing are
reflection color is added on top of that clear in Photo 1. Photo 1a has no
when the reflection ray completes. We antialiasing or reflections. Photo 1b
check for saturation on any given has 4× antialiasing, followed by 8×
color, so adding more of the color to antialiasing (Photo 1c), followed by
the pixel does not help. This gives the one (Photo 1d), two (Photo 1e), and
realistic effect that you see reflections three (Photo 1f) levels of reflections
better on dark, shiny objects. Antialias without antialiasing, followed by
sub-pixel rays are stored in a special three levels of reflections and 8×
buffer until all of the rays for that antialiasing (Photo 1g), and finally
pixel have been calculated and then three levels of reflections, 8×
they are combined. antialiasing, and planes being ren-
Planes are checked in a similar way dered (Photo 1h).
to spheres, but with more restrictions,
such as xyz bounding and rendering WRITE BUFFER & SQUARE ROOT
plane faces that are on the correct side To decouple the execution of the ray
of the scene (i.e., you can see through tracer from writing to the VGA mem-
the “back” side of the plane). This is ory, we implemented a 64-entry circu-
for performance reasons and the fact lar FIFO buffer to store information to
that we will use only planes as bound- be written to the SRAM. The buffer
ing mirrored surfaces in our scenes. stored both the 18-bit SRAM address
and the 16-bit data to be written. This
ANTIALIASING enabled us to calculate pixels at full
Jaggies appear in images rendered on speed without having to wait on the
a computer screen due to the finite VGA reading of SRAM to store data
pixelation/quantization used. The and move to the next pixel.
solution is to super-sample the image We implemented our own square-
and average the color among adjacent root function by porting a C code
rays. Our antialiasing implementation square-root function that we found
has the option to do either 8× or 4× online into Verilog and modularized it
antialiasing. For 8× antialiasing, nine to do multiple iterations per cycle.[1]
The square-root module used an edge-
Rays per Cycles Rays/sec Frames/ triggered start signal to begin calcula-
frame (25 MHz)/frame second tions. When the correct number of
277,814 12,662,119 548,514 1.974 iterations for the number of submod-
310,175 14,003,794 553,734 1.785 ules was complete, the result was
2,500,295 113,981,083 548,401 0.219 placed on the outputs and a done sig-
2,792,565 126,094,828 553,664 0.198 nal was raised.
490,699 22,300,008 550,111 1.121
1,802,813 78,305,473 575,571 0.319 VGA/SRAM
4,413,303 200,596,329 550,023 0.125 The VGA controller was responsible
16,213,574 704,338,405 575,489 0.035 for fetching pixels to draw on the
353,528 22,544,244 392,038 1.109 screen from the SRAM, producing
547,627 33,850,568 404,444 0.739 synchronization signals, and creating
3,182,440 203,017,700 391,892 0.123 the front and back porches required
4,929,447 304,791,218 404,330 0.082 for VGA displays. We implemented
492,358 28,868,738 426,376 0.866 both 320 × 240 and 512 × 480 (really
1,804,498 102,301,169 440,977 0.244 640 × 480 with part of the screen
4,428,189 259,797,987 426,118 0.096 black) resolutions. The VGA con-
16,225,005 920,108,168 440,845 0.027 troller has two counters, one for hori-
108,422 4,678,168 579,404 5.344 zontal pixels and one for vertical lines.
First, a synch signal (active low) is
produced. After the counter reaches a
certain value, the synch returns high
CIRCUIT CELLAR® Issue 215 June 2008 43
 700,000 2.500
600,000

Rays per second

2.000

Frames per second

500,000
400,000 1.500
300,000
1.000
200,000
100,000 0.500
0
0.000
Simple Full Full Full AA+ Simple Full Full Full AA+
reflection antialiasing reflection reflection antialiasing reflection

Image 1 no plane Image 1 with planes

Image 2 no plane Image 2 with planes

Figure 8—These charts show the performance of the ray tracer for two images with different complexities and at various antialiasing and reflection settings. The performance of
the ray tracer in terms of frames per second decreased greatly when additional features, such as reflection and antialiasing, were turned on.

and the back porch begins. Once the gradient). data on the buses is valid to read. Rotz
back porch is completed, the VGA [7:0] (input) sets the different modes
controller uses the horizontal and ver- NIOS II & FPGA COMMUNICATION for rotating all of the spheres around
tical counters to produce coordinates Several buses are used to interface the x, y, and z axes. Done (input)
for the current pixel being drawn. between the C code running on the means that only when done is high
Once the visible resolution is complet- NIOS II processor and the hardware in will the software send out the sphere
ed, the front porch begins. Following the FPGA. Sphere [7:0] (output) con- information one by one.
the front porch, the process repeats trols the total number of spheres As soon as the hardware gets all of
with a synch signal. Similar actions drawn and the number of spheres that the updated sphere information, it
are taken by the vertical line counter, are currently being drawn. Color [15:0] will draw the frame. In the meantime,
except the clock is the end of a line (output) specifies the color of a sphere. the software will call motion and rota-
rather than a pixel. While the VGA X1 [23:0] (output) is the x location of tion functions to calculate the new
controller was synching, the write the current sphere. All locations are locations of the spheres.
buffer was free to write to SRAM at represented in fixed-point format,
one pixel per cycle. with 12 bits each for integer and deci- SOFTWARE
The coordinates produced by the mal portions. On the software side, The hardware-software interface for
VGA controller were used to access the location needs to be multiplied by the ray tracer is shown in Figure 7.
memory at the word level. We used 4,096 (i.e., 212) so the hardware will The software running on the NIOS II
the lower 9 bits from each of the x get the correct value. Y1 [23:0] (out- has three main functions. It stores the
and y coordinates to index SRAM. put) is the y location of the current list of spheres to be drawn on the
This limited our resolution to 512 sphere. Z1 [23:0] (output) is the z loca- screen, performs motion calculations
pixels wide, but it made indexing tion of the current sphere. Reflect on the spheres, and rotates the camera
easy. Because SRAM can hold 16-bit [11:0] (output) is reflectivity of a angle to enable you to “look around”
words, we used 1 bit to indicate that sphere in a 12-bit integer. Radius the environment. Each data entry for a
a pixel was the light source and 5 to [11:0] (output) is the radius of a sphere sphere contains information such as
represent the red, blue, and green in a 12-bit integer. R2 [23:0] (output) is its location, color, velocity, radius,
content of a pixel. When read back the radius squared of a sphere in a 24-bit and reflectivity. The NIOS II processor
from SRAM, the RGB values were integer. R_inv [11:0] (output) is the was designed as a DRAM controller,
used as the upper 5 bits of the 10-bit inverse of the radius of a sphere in a enabling us to store a large number of
RGB lines going to the DAC. If the 12-bit decimal point. The valid signal spheres and polygons on the DRAM
pixel being drawn was part of the (output) tells the hardware that the without writing a separate memory
light source, the lower bits were set controller. Putting the scene object
high to enable us to produce “pure” Family Cyclone II list on the DRAM frees up the SRAM
white. Otherwise, they were left as 0. Device EP2C35F672C6 for the VGA memory.
Representing each color in 5 bits, Total logic elements 32529/33216 (98%) The motion function software
however, lead to some quantization Total registers 6,348 updates the current location for each
of color. This is most clearly visible Total memory bits 94,688 (20%) sphere by its current velocity. It also
in the Lambertian shading where Total PLL 2/4 (50%) performs boundary and collision
there are small concentric rings of a detection with other spheres. A 2-D
Table 2—These are the FPGA usage statistics from the
shade of the sphere color before sphere-collision algorithm is expanded
compilation report of the final design. In the end, our
jumping to the next slightly different design was limited by the number of logic elements to work in 3-D.
shade (rather than being a smooth available on the FPGA. The rotation function rotates all of

44 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

the spheres in the list about the x, y,
or z axis by a fixed radian every frame.
The rotation is always revolving
around the center (0, 0, 0) in space.
The direction of rotation is controlled
by user input switches.
All of the location calculations in
software are done in floating point.
Whenever the data is ready to be sent
to the hardware, the result is convert-
ed to integers by multiplying the cor-
rect two’s power.
SOPC BUILDER SPECS
We used the highest level NIOS II/f
CPU available so we could send the
sphere list as fast as possible. The
CPU runs at 50 MHz. It has a 1-KB
instruction cache, an 8-KB data
cache, and a line size of 16 bytes.
The data cache is big enough to hold
all of our sphere data without evic-
tions that would force costly DRAM
accesses.
The CPU also has a floating-point
unit for the floating-point calculations
in the software. Logic elements were
used for hardware multiply. The per-
formance of this processor is up to 51
DMIPS.
DESIGN DIFFICULTIES
Our biggest design challenge was
signed arithmetic. We had to explicitly
manage the signs of operands in multi-
plications by making both operands
positive, multiplying, and then fixing
the result’s sign, if necessary. Meeting
the clock-cycle timing requirements
while trying to pack as many calcula-
tions as possible into a given state was
also tricky at times.
Debugging on a per-pixel basis was
also impossible once a large number of
spheres, shadows, and reflections were
added. We mostly had to rely on the
VGA output to see if our changes were
correct.
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Now we will describe some of the
performance statistics of our ray trac-
er. A total of 17 scenes were drawn to
show the speed of the ray tracers in
terms of rays per second and frames
per second. The 17 scenes are listed in
Table 1, which include four configura-
tions for four different scenes, which
www.circuitcellar.com
all have a resolution of 512 × 480 and
a best-case performance (a low-resolu-
tion scene of 320 × 240 with no fea-
tures turned on).
Figure 8 shows our ray tracer’s per-
formance statistics. The number of
rays per second varied between
440,000 and 540,000, depending on
the specific scene. As expected, the
number of spheres and planes both
have a big impact on the performance
of the ray tracer. Certain relationships
can be observed from those graphs.
The number of rays per second is
more affected by the number of
spheres and planes and less by what
features are turned on. On the other
hand, frames per second is mostly
affected by which features are turned
on. For the same scene, when both
eight times antialiasing and three lev-
els of reflection are turned on, the
frame rate can have up to a 30 times
decrease from the standard case.
In the end, we had to limit our
design because of a limited number of
logic elements available to us on the
FPGA. The NIOS II CPU uses about
1,400 to 1,800 LEs, which leaves us
with 33,216 LEs for the ray tracer
hardware. We had to shrink the num-
ber of spheres that can be drawn so
our design could fit on the FPGA.
Table 2 shows the statistics from the
compilation report of our final design.
THINKING AHEAD
Overall, our ray tracer performed
much better than expected. The
graphics look quite impressive on
some of the pictures with full
antialiasing and three times reflec-
tions (see Photos 2 and 3). Because we
used almost every logic element on
the FPGA, we were unable to instanti-
ate multiple tracers or pipeline our
giant state machine. This limited our
frame rate; however, drawing a few
bouncing spheres on the 320 × 240
resolution with 4× anti-aliasing and
full reflections still ran at a reasonable
rate. Adding antialiasing, reflections,
and planes was a better use of the
hardware resources than pipelining
our design. The realistic renderings
we were able to produce support this.
While the tracer draws slowly on the
complicated scenes with many
CIRCUIT CELLAR®
objects, there are no visible artifacts
on the screen.
In the future, we plan to add trian-
gular polygon detection to the plane
hardware. We also intend to use mul-
tiple FPGAs to increase the frame rate
and we will reuse multiply hardware
across multiple stages. Finally, we
plan to pipeline the design on a larger
FPGA to increase the frame rate. I
Scott Bingham received B.S. and
M.E. degrees in Electrical and Com-
puter Engineering from Cornell Uni-
versity. He currently works as a com-
puter engineer for Advanced Micro
Devices in Sunnyvale, CA. You may
contact him at stb25@cornell.edu.
Yunfan Donald Zhang was born in
Beijing, China, in 1984. He received his
B.S. and M.E. degrees both in Electrical
and Computer Engineering from Cornell
University. He is currently working at
Raytheon in Marlborough, MA. His
interests include digital hardware design
and FPGA design. You may contact
him at yunfan_d_zhang@raytheon.com.
PROJECT FILES
To download code and additional files, go
to ftp://ftp.circuitcellar.com/pub/Circuit
_Cellar/2008/215.
REFERENCE
[1] K. Turkowski, “Fixed Point Square
Root: Technical Report No. 96,”
Apple Computer, 1994, www.world
server.com/turk/computergraphics/
FixedSqrt.pdf.
RESOURCES
A. Glassner, An Introduction to Ray
Tracing, Morgan Kaufmann, San Fran-
cisco, CA, 1989.
B. Land, “Ball Bouncing Physics,”
ECE476 Lab 4, Cornell University,
http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses
/ee476/.
SOURCE
DE2 Board and NIOS II processor
Altera Corp.
www.altera.com
Issue 215 June 2008 45
 FEATURE ARTICLE by Peter Baston

AIS Transmission Decoding

Peter created a system that receives and decodes data transmissions from ships and
other vessels via the Universal Automatic Identification System. Built around a Luminary
Micro LM3S811 evaluation board, the decoder displays a “virtual” radar screen, showing
the position of vessels in the area.

A s a ham radio and embedded hard-

ware/software engineer, I have long
Test point

RX DATA
been interested in decoding off-air data Audio from
CMX589A GMSK
RX CLK
LM3S811
U0Tx
To host
RX S/N FT2232C USB
receiver USB
transmissions. From an early interest discriminator
Modem PLLAcq Microcontroller
U0Rx Device controller computer
RXDCAcq
in radio teletype (RTTY) transmis- RXHOLDn
sions, I moved on to DOS programs to
LM3S811 Evaluation board
decode the data from trunked radio
systems and paging systems. When I
Figure 1—This system features a GMSK modem interfaced to an LM3S811 evaluation board.
heard about a new marine data system
carrying ships’ positions, I just had to
have a go at decoding the data! Gaussian minimum shift-keying 161.975 and 162.025 MHz. To receive
The Universal Automatic Identifica- (GMSK) transmissions used by the AIS. the transmissions, a narrow-band FM
tion System (AIS) is a data system that I used a CML Microcircuits CMX589A (NBFM) receiver that is capable of cover-
operates on two frequencies in the modem for this purpose (see Figure 2). ing the VHF marine band is required. I
marine VHF FM band. Ships, and other My complete system, including the used an Icom IC-R7000 communications
fixed installations, make frequent modem and the LM3S811 module, is receiver. This is a fairly old, but very
broadcast transmissions that may be shown in Photo 1. able, communications receiver that
received by other vessels in range. The covers the 25-MHz to 2-GHz frequency
transmissions carry both “dynamic” HARDWARE range. My receiver was modified to
information (i.e., position and speed) AIS transmissions can be heard on two bring the discriminator output out to
and “static” information (i.e., name, frequencies in the marine VHF band, an RCA jack in the rear. This provides
call sign, and more). A decoder receiv-
ing the transmissions can display a
“virtual” radar screen showing the
position of other vessels in the area.
The Luminary Micro LM3S811 eval-
uation board seemed like the ideal
platform for developing an AIS
decoder (see Figure 1). The Stellaris
microcontroller has a low-interrupt
latency, and it is ideal for decoding a
serial stream in software. Also, a USB
COM port is connected to one of the
microcontroller’s UARTs. This is per-
fect for transferring data back to a PC
program with serial data.
In addition to the microcontroller, I
needed a modem to demodulate the Figure 2—This is the CMX589A GMSK modem section.

46 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com


Photo 1—This is my AIS decoder board connected to the Icom IC-R7000 communications receiver.
the linearity and DC coupling required
by the GMSK modulation scheme.
Of course, the receiver also requires a
suitable antenna to be within receiving
range of shipping traffic! Luckily, I live
within 10 miles of the River Mersey,
www.circuitcellar.com
a busy shipping area in northwest
England.
DECODER BOARD
Figure 1 shows the entire system.
Audio from my receiver’s discriminator
CIRCUIT CELLAR®
output is demodulated by the
CMX589A, which outputs clock and
data signals at a rate of 9,600 bps. The
signals are interfaced to I/O pins on
the LM3S811 microcontroller. Other
I/O pins enable you to monitor a
received signal/noise ratio and control
the modem’s acquisition sequence.
UART 0 on the LM3S811 is connected
to a Future Technology Devices Interna-
tional FT2232C USB device controller
on the evaluation board. This appears as
a COM port on the PC, enabling com-
munication with the UART via a stan-
dard communications program.
GMSK DEMODULATOR
Figure 2 shows the GMSK modem
section, which I constructed on strip-
board. I followed the recommendations
given in the CMX589A datasheet.
Note that the CMX589A is a full
modem, enabling both transmitting
and receiving of GMSK signals, but
only the reception section is used in
this application.
The discriminator audio is DC-cou-
pled into the modem with a gain and a
Issue 215 June 2008 47
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SEMICONDUCTORS • PASSIVES • INTERCONNECTS • ELECTROMECHANICAL • POWER
 pin to the microcontroller, but it is
not currently used by the software.
The CMX589A requires a single
supply rail between 3 and 5.5 V. I pow-
ered the circuit from the 3.3-V rail on
the LM3S811 evaluation board, which
is regulated down from the 5-V supply
from the USB port.
INTERFACE TO THE LM3S811
I fitted two strips of 0.1″ sockets to
my LM3S811 evaluation board, enabling
it to plug into headers on my decoder
board. This makes it easy to move the
evaluation board onto other projects, if
required, or to operate it on its own.
Figure 3 shows how I interfaced my
GMSK modem to the evaluation
board. As you can see, I used only a
few GPIO pins. I chose them to avoid
pins already used by peripherals on the
evaluation board.
I defined GPIO pin PD0 as a test
point, which was used to connect an
oscilloscope during debugging. This
allowed me to check that my interrupt

Figure 3—These are the connections to the LM3S811

evaluation board.

DC-level adjusting circuit. This is

designed to give a roughly 1-VPP signal
on the RX FB pin, centered on VBIAS.
Because the discriminator output of my
receiver has a DC offset of around 4 V, I
had to add the DC balance circuit com-
prising RV1 and R5 to achieve the
VBIAS level.
In addition to the 9,600 bps and
clock outputs, the modem has an RX
SN output, giving an indication of the
received signal/noise ratio. This is a
useful test point for monitoring with
an oscilloscope during debugging.
The PLLAcq and RxDCAcq pins
control the start-up and acquisition
sequence of the CMX589A. The pins
are connected to the microcontroller’s
I/O pins and controlled by software.
At initial power-up, both of the pins
need to be low and stay in that state
for at least 1,024 bit times to initialize
the device. Both pins are then taken
high, while no data is received, put-
ting the device into the “acquire”
state with wide PLL bandwidth. As
soon as a packet preamble is detected
and data is received, the PLLAcq pin is
taken low, narrowing the PLL band-
width. When packet reception is com-
plete, the pin is taken high again.
In addition, the RXHOLDN pin
enables the correction of the clock fre-
quency and the DC level to be stopped
during a signal fade. I interfaced the

www.circuitcellar.com CIRCUIT CELLAR® Issue 215 June 2008 49

service routine was running and to
measure the amount of time spent in
the routine.
SOFTWARE
Before writing any code, I had to
understand the low-level coding and
packet structure used by the AIS data.
The information is freely available in
public domain documents.
AIS data is low-level coded using
non-return-to-zero-insertion (NRZI)
coding. This gives a change in level
when a zero is encountered in the data
to be transmitted. To decode the
NRZI, I need to compare each received
bit with the previous bit. If the level
has changed, the decoded data is a
zero; otherwise, it is a one.
Figure 4 shows the AIS packet struc-
ture, which is based on the high-level
data link control (HDLC) protocol. It
is a bit-oriented protocol, which needs
to be processed one bit at a time in
software.
The message starts with a training
sequence consisting of either 24 or 32 bits
of alternating ones and zeros
(1010101….). This sequence is modi-
fied by NRZI coding to 001100110011.
The start of the message is identi-
fied by a start flag (Hex 7E), which is
followed by the message data. To pre-
vent the false detection of flag charac-
ters, the data is subject to bit stuffing.
This means that an extra zero is
inserted after a string of five ones in
the data.
A 2-byte frame check
sequence follows the data.
This is a 16-bit CRC con-
forming to the HDLC stan-
dard. The standard CCITT
polynomial is used (X16 +
X12 + X5 + 1).
The end of the message is
identified by the end flag
(Hex 7E). After the end flag,
buffering time is allowed.
This is to allow for bit stuff-
ing and various radio trans-
mission delays.
PROGRAM STRUCTURE
My code was written
entirely in C. I used the Figure 5—The top trace shows the clock from the CMX589A. The bottom trace
Keil RealView MDK for shows the execution of the receive interrupt handler, which takes about 5 µs on
compilation and debugging. each clock rising edge.
www.circuitcellar.com
Training sequence
Start
Data
flag
Figure 4—The AIS packet structure is based on HDLC.
My program does not use an RTOS. It
relies on simple round-robin processing.
At power-up, the start-up code is
executed. It is contained in the mod-
ule Startup.s on the Circuit Cellar
FTP site. This is standard assembler
startup code that is modified to add
the IntGPIOE handler to the vector
table for GPIO port E interrupts.
The start-up code passes control to
the main() function (in the module
main.c on the Circuit Cellar FTP site).
The function first initializes the
processor and peripherals before enter-
ing the main program loop. As part of
the processor initialization, the PLL
has to be set up, setting the instruc-
tion clock rate used by the processor.
Although the LM3S811 will operate at
up to 50 MHz, I decided to clock my
project at 20 MHz. I suspected that I
did not need the full 50-MHz rate.
Running at 20 MHz will enable me to
move to a low-end Stellaris device in
the future.
The main loop is an infinite loop
that continuously checks if a packet
has been received by the interrupt han-
dler and stored in a FIFO buffer. If so,
the packet is extracted from the FIFO.
Next, the function NMEA_Send() is
called to convert the packet to NMEA
CIRCUIT CELLAR®
FCS
End
Buffering
flag
format and send it out serially.
INTERRUPT HANDLER
The heart of the decoder is the
interrupt handler IntGPIOE() in the
module rxint.c, which is posted on the
Circuit Cellar FTP site. The handler is
responsible for receiving AIS packets
one bit at a time. It is executed on
each rising edge of the clock coming
from the CMX589A modem.
The first job of the interrupt handler
is to decode the NRZI data by compar-
ing each received bit with the last bit.
The resulting data is then shifted into a
16-bit register. The remainder of the
handler is implemented as a state
machine, with five states corresponding
to the progress with receiving a packet.
The current state is held in the rxstate
variable.
The initial state is RX_INIT, which
is entered at start-up. After 1,024 bit
times, this state raises the RxDCacq
and PLLacq control lines going to the
CMX589A and changes the state to
RX_PREAMBLE.
The RX_PREAMBLE state waits for
16 bits of valid training sequence to be
received. It then drops PLLacq, clears
the bit count, and changes the state to
RX_START.
The RX_START state waits
for a start flag (0x7E) to be
received. When found, the bit
count is cleared and the state
is changed to RX_PRELOAD. If
a start flag is not found
within 24 bits, then the
PLLacq is raised again and
the state is changed back to
RX_PREAMBLE.
The RX_PRELOAD state
waits for 8 bits to be
received and preloaded into
the shift register. This
means that when the end
flag is found, you will have
just passed the last bit of the
FCS through the CRC calcu-
lation. After 8 bits, the state
is changed to RX_DATA.
Issue 215 June 2008 51

In_index
Pkt_index
(eight (1,024 bytes)
index
values)
Out_index
Figure 6—The receive FIFO uses indirect pointers and stores
up to eight packets of variable lengths.
The RX_DATA state receives data and
waits for an end flag to be detected. While
data is received, stuffing bits are removed
and each bit is passed through the CRC
calculation. Every 8 bits, a new byte is
loaded into the receive FIFO. When an
end flag is found, the CRC is checked. If
it is good, the new packet is released into
the FIFO for processing by the main loop.
To measure the amount of time spent
in the interrupt handler, my code sets
the test point pin high at the start of the
routine and low at the end. By observing
this pin on an oscilloscope, it is possible
to measure the width of the pulse,
which equates to the time spent in the
routine. With the processor running at
20 MHz, I found that the interrupt han-
dler took about 5 µs to execute every
100 µs, only 5% of the available pro-
cessing time (see Figure 5).
PACKET FIFO
To enable the interrupt routine to
continue receiving while the main pro-
gram is processing, I decided that a
FIFO structure was required to store
received packets. Because the packets
are of a variable length, I chose the
structure shown in Figure 6, which
uses indirect addressing.
The two index values—In_index and
Out_index—point to a table of eight
packet index values, which in turn
point into a 1,024-byte circular buffer.
The two values are used as indirect
pointers to the locations where the
next packet in may be written and the
next packet out read.
52 Issue 215 June 2008
This structure enables up to
eight packets of variable lengths
to be stored, up to a total size of
1,024 bytes. These sizes are fairly
arbitrary and are easily config-
urable by means of #defines at the
start of the module. The fifo.c
Buffer
module on the Circuit Cellar
FTP site contains the functions
necessary to initialize the FIFO
structure, write packets into the
FIFO, and check for and recover
packets from the FIFO.
NMEA OUTPUT
The International Electrotech-
nical Commission’s IEC Stan-
dard 61162-1 specifies a serial
interface between pieces of
marine electronic equipment. It is
closely related to the National Marine
Electronics Association’s NMEA 0183
specification.
A VDM “VHF Data-Link” sentence
has been defined, allowing the entire
contents of a received AIS packet to be
transmitted. I used this format for the
output from the decoder, enabling it to
link to standard PC plotting software.
The VDM sentence is normally
transmitted at the NMEA high speed
of 38,400 bps. Its format is:
!AIVDM,n,m,i,c,s..s,f*hh<CR><LF>
n is the number of sentences needed
to transfer the message (1 to 9). m is
the message sequence number (1 to 9).
i is a sequential identifier used to link
Photo 2—This is a Tera Term screen showing typical AIVDM sentences output by my decoder.
CIRCUIT CELLAR®
multiple messages (0 to 9). c is the
AIS channel number (1 or 2). s..s is
the AIS packet, encoded using a 6-bit
field type. f is the number of “fill
bits” added to complete the last 6-bit
character. hh is a two-character hex
checksum, computed by XORing all of
the characters between the ! and the
*. Depending on the packet length,
one to nine VDM sentences may be
required to transmit it.
The packet data uses an encoding
scheme that splits the binary packet into
6-bit fields. Each field is then assigned to
a unique, printable ASCII character.
My code to encode and transmit
NMEA VDM sentences is contained
in the nmea.c module on the Circuit
Cellar FTP site. When the main loop
has a packet to send, it calls the func-
tion NMEA_Send(), which encodes the
packet according to the 6-bit encoding
scheme. It then calculates how many
VDM sentences are required to send
the packet. The VDM_Send() function
is then called to build and transmit
each required VDM sentence.
OPERATION
I used the Tera Term communications
program to verify the correct output of
NMEA sentences, although any PC-
based serial terminal program could
have been used. Tera Term was set up to
connect to COM4, the port used by the
USB serial port on the LM3S811 evalua-
tion board. Photo 2 shows a typical out-
put of AIVDM sentences in Tera Term.
After checking that the NMEA output
www.circuitcellar.com

Photo 3—This is the ShipPlotter screen showing shipping positions around the River Mersey in northwest England.
from the decoder looked correct, I was
ready to display some real ships’ posi-
tions. There are a number of pieces of
software available that enable NMEA
data to be plotted on a PC. I chose a
package called ShipPlotter by COAA.
ShipPlotter requires a chart for the area
of interest, as well as calibration data,
enabling positions on the chart to be
located by latitude and longitude. I
found a handy chart generator on the
Internet that uses NASA satellite
imagery and created a chart for the
River Mersey area (see Photo 3).
As soon as ShipPlotter was configured
to use the correct COM port, small ship
icons started to appear on the chart.
This was confirmation that my project
was correctly decoding the data and
formatting the NMEA sentences.
AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT
The goal of this project was to show
how off-air AIS transmissions can be
decoded with the aid of a Stellaris micro-
controller. This has been achieved, and I
have learned a lot about AIS and the Stel-
laris range in the process.
There are a number of areas for
improvement. Measurement of the
interrupt processing time has shown
that the LM3S811 still has plenty of
processor cycles available, in addition
to decoding the data. Also note that
www.circuitcellar.com
PROJECT FILES
To download code, go to ftp://ftp.circuit
cellar.com/pub/Circuit_Cellar/2008/215.
RESOURCES
CML Microcircuits, “CMX589A
GMSK Modem datasheet,” D/589A/4,
2002, www.cmlmicro.com/products/
datasheets/Docs/cmx589ad.pdf.
International Electrotechnical Com-
mission, “IEC Standard 61162-1: Mar-
itime Navigation and Radiocommuni-
cation Equipment and Systems—Digi-
tal interfaces—Part 1: Single talker
and multiple listeners,” 2007,
www.iec.ch.
International Maritime Organization,
www.imo.org.
National Marine Electronics Associa-
tion, “NMEA 0183 Standard,” 2002,
www.nmea.org/pub/0183/.
this project has used only a small part
“ShipPlotter chart generator,”
of the I/O and memory on this part.
http://emit.demon.co.uk/map2.php.
The decoder software could form the
heart of a complete display system, Universal Automatic Identification
built around the LM3S811, and drive a System, www.uais.org.
graphical LCD directly.
Adding Ethernet to the decoder
board could produce a dedicated AIS SOURCES
server, making position information CMX589A GMSK Modem
available via the Internet. CML Microcircuits, Inc.
Those are just a couple of ideas. I www.cmlmicro.com
hope this project will inspire you to
ShipPlotter
come up with more! I
COAA
www.coaa.co.uk/shipplotter.htm
Editor’s note: This project received
Honorable Mention in the Luminary FT2232C USB Device controller
Micro Designstellaris2006 Contest Future Technology Devices Interna-
(www.circuitcellar.com/designstellaris tional
2006/winners/1740.html). www.ftdichip.com
IC-R7000 Communications receiver
Peter Baston (pete@petebaston.co.uk)
Icom, Inc.
is an electronic design engineer with
www.icomamerica.com
more than 25 years of experience
developing hardware and software for RealView MDK
embedded systems. He graduated Keil
from the University College of North www.keil.com
Wales, Bangor, with a degree in Elec-
LM3S811 Microcontroller
tronic Engineering in 1979. Peter is
Luminary Micro, Inc.
currently employed as a senior design
www.luminarymicro.com
engineer with Tyco Electronics. When
he is not tinkering with embedded Tera Term terminal program
systems, he likes hill walking and Tera Term
enjoying folk music. Peter holds the http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA0024
ham radio call sign GW0PJA. 16/teraterm.html
CIRCUIT CELLAR® Issue 215 June 2008 53
 FEATURE ARTICLE by Andrew March

MCU-Based Game System

A Dot-Matrix Game That Targets C Coding Efficiency
Andrew built a hand-held, dot-matrix video game that features scrolling scores and sound
effects. You can implement an Atmel AT90S2313 and the C programming language to build
a similar system. This project proves that you can use a modern CPU architecture and an
efficient compiler to produce compact code without having to resort to assembly language to
achieve your desired functionality.

S ome problems in life are easy to

solve. Others, when you first encounter
them, seem truly intractable. For
instance, I recently had to figure out
what to get my 12-year-old god-daughter
Chelsea for her birthday. Solutions
often emerge when you reframe your
problem. So, being an engineer, I
decided that this should be an engi-
neering problem. I call the result
“Chelsea’s Challenge.” The design is
a hand-held LED dot-matrix Pong-like
game—complete with scrolling scores
and sound effects—that’s built around
an Atmel AT90S2313 microcontroller
(see Photo 1).[1]
Despite the fact that the microcon-
troller has 2 KB of program memory, I
coded the software entirely in C
using the WinAVR toolset. This proj-
ect demonstrates how effectively
modern CPU architectures and effi-
cient compilers can work together to
produce compact code without resort-
ing to assembly language to achieve
the desired functionality.
PLAYING THE GAME
The game is held in portrait orienta-
tion between the two players. The
playing screen is a 10 × 14 LED matrix,
which is treated as separate 10 × 7 halves
when scrolling text. At power-up, a title
message (CHELSEA’S CHALLENGE)
scrolls bidirectionally across both
sides of the display as a snappy song
(“Can-Can”) plays. The normal play-
ing screen then appears. It shows two
three-dot paddles at the ends of the
display and a single-dot ball. Each
player has three buttons: Move Paddle
Left, Serve (the center red button), and
Move Paddle Right. Either player can
start the game by pressing a paddle
button to take the ball. Pressing the
middle button serves the ball.
Once the ball is moving, the idea is
to move the paddles left and right to
intercept the ball and send it back to
the other player. The ball bounces off
the paddles at different angles depend-
ing on whether it hits the paddle on
the left, center, or right side. A short
beep sounds every time the ball
bounces off a paddle. If a player misses
the ball, the paddles flash and a modu-
lated tone is sounded. A random cheer
message (e.g., TOP SHOT, EXCEL-
LENT, AWESOME) is then unidirec-
tionally scrolled across the display on
the side of the player who won the
point. The score (e.g., 6–4) then scrolls
bidirectionally across the display for
both players.
The winner is the first player to
reach nine points. After the final score
is displayed, the words GAME OVER
are scrolled bidirectionally across both
sides of the display while more music
plays (“Toreador”). Another game can
begin straight away.
Game play is highly interactive
because two people are holding the
unit at the same time. A physical tus-
sle often develops as players jostle
each other when they stab down on
their paddle buttons, frantically trying
to outfox their competitor with a
tricky return angle.
CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION
Figure 1 shows the system’s key
hardware elements. The microcon-
troller at U1 is a 20-pin AT90S2313
clocked at 8 MHz (see Figure 2). Four
standard 5 × 7 dot-matrix LED modules
are wired together to create a 10 × 14
display. To save AT90S2313 pins, the
display is multiplexed and each row is
turned on individually in a scanning
sequence. To select one of the 14 rows,
the AT90S2313 presents a 4-bit “row-
select” code to the four- to 16-line
decoder at U2 and U3. This causes the
selected decoder output to go low,
turning on one of the PNP high-side
driver transistors at Q1 to Q14, which
connects an entire row of LED anodes
to VCC.
At the same time, the AT90S2313
presents a 10-bit-wide “column-
select” pattern directly to the LED

54 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

 a) b)

Photo 1a—This is the assembled PCB. Player 1 has yellow paddle buttons on the right side of this photo. Player 2 has green paddle buttons. The speaker is on the solder side. b—This is
the boxed game. The enclosure lid has been replaced with a sheet of red perspex. The circuit board’s height was chosen so the switches protrude only slightly above the surface.

cathodes. A low in the bit pattern that cyclically calls the main game The background loop is interrupted
grounds the cathode it is connected to, routine and updates the display. Dis- every 10 ms by the AT90S2313
causing the LED in the selected row to play updating is done either in Message Timer0, which serves as the system’s
light up. Directly driving the LED mode by the routine show_msg(), “tick timer.” The tick timer governs
cathodes takes full advantage of the which refreshes all 14 rows, or in Pong the execution rate of the music player
20-mA current-sink capability of the mode by the routine show_pong(), and message scrolling routines, which
AT90S2313’s port pins. Cycling which refreshes only the three rows must be called at regular intervals to
through the rows is repeated rapidly so containing the two bats and the ball. ensure a constant music tempo and
the eye, due to persistence of vision,
perceives the entire display to be oper-
ating at once. Display multiplexing
10 x 14 LED M a t r ix
uses 14 of the 16 decoder outputs. The ma d e fr o m fo u r 5 x 7 dis p la y s
Four- to 16-lin e
fifteenth output turns off the display (LED1–L ED4)
de c o d e r (U 2,U3)
when changing the “column-select”
patterns. This avoids ghosting artifacts
caused by the slow turn-off times of
14
the high-side driver transistors.
Because there are so few pins on the
H ig h -sid e
AT90S2313, six of the 10 “column- dr iv e r s
(Q 1– Q 14)
select” port pins are periodically repro-
grammed as inputs to read the states of
the push button switches that share Swit c h
en a b l e
the port pins. To prevent the switches
from interfering with the display, they
are diode isolated and enabled by
selecting the sixteenth decoder output,
P u s h bu t t o n s
which guarantees that all display rows (S1–S6)
are disabled when switches are active.
The AT90S2313 port pin (PB3) drives 10 C o lu m n 4 Row
se le c t se le c t
the piezoelectric speaker directly. The
signal waveform is automatically gen-
erated by the AT90S2313’s Timer1, as I A T90S23 13
will describe in the next section. For (U 1)

portability, four AAA batteries power P ie z o

sp e a k e r
the game by dropping diode D7. 8.00 0-MHz
Cr y s t a l

SOFTWARE
At the highest level, the software is Figure 1—The design features a few key hardware elements: the microcontroller, the display, the row decoder/driv-
structured as an endless while loop er, and the push buttons.

www.circuitcellar.com CIRCUIT CELLAR® Issue 215 June 2008 55

 Figure 2—Note how the rows of the display are controlled by
high-side driver transistors, which must supply current for up
to 10 LEDs at a time.

56 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

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fluid text scrolling. The tick timer
interrupt service routine also updates
scheduling timers for less time-criti-
cal routines that run in the back-
ground.
The main game routine play_pong()
is coded as a state machine using a
switch statement (see Figure 3).
This approach involves partitioning
the game logic into separate phases
or states and deciding on the rules
for transitioning from one state to
another. The chosen states were
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58 Issue 215 June 2008
START_UP (show title message and
play opening tune), NEW_GAME
(display bats and ball, reset score),
SERVE_BALL (wait for serve, allow
serve selection), PLAY_BALL (update
moving bat and ball positions, check
for missed ball, and display cheer
message if point won), and
CHECK_GAME (check for end of
game or give new serve to player
who won the point).
Two players hold the game, so the
messages must be displayed in a way
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CIRCUIT CELLAR®
that can be read from both sides. My
solution divided the display into
halves (see Figure 4). The first player
sees his own message scroll from left
to right in the lower half of the dis-
play, while an apparently upside-down
message scrolls from right to left in
the upper half. The second message is
the right way up for the other player.
Normally, the same message is
scrolled across both halves. However,
cheer messages scroll only on the side
of the player who won the point. The
bitmap for the text message is gener-
ated by the scroll_msg() routine,
which is called at the regular tick
timer rate to ensure smooth motion.
A drawback associated with the mes-
sage-scrolling feature is the amount of
memory needed to store character
fonts. Because each 5 × 7 character
requires 5 bytes, the full alphabet plus
digits consumes 180 bytes. To claw
back a few bytes, a modified ASCII
sequence was used to avoid storing
font codes for unused characters. (The
font for “W” is placed where the
unused “B” font would have gone.
“X” is in place of “J,” and “Y” is
issued instead of “Q”).
Music and sound effects (the ball hit
and miss tones) are generated by the
play_tune() routine, which reads
musical “scores” encoded as a table of
note frequency and duration pairs.
The note frequency value, which rep-
resents the half-period duration of the
audio tone, is written to the
AT90S2313’s Timer1 output compare
register. Timer1 is configured to con-
tinuously count up to this value, then
auto-clear to zero, and repeat. Every
time the counter reaches the output
compare register value, it toggles the
state of the AT90S2313’s port pin PB3.
The resulting square wave generated
on this pin drives the speaker directly.
The note duration value read from the
note table initializes a note timer vari-
able that is decremented at the system
tick rate every 10 ms. Once the note
timer reaches zero, Timer1 Toggle
mode is disabled for a brief period of
silence before another note frequency
and duration pair are read from the
note table. This cycle repeats until a
note frequency of 255, denoting the
end of the tune, is read from the table.
www.circuitcellar.com
Although Timer1 is a 16-bit timer, to
conserve memory, only the high byte
for the output compare register is Start * S croll title text
stored in the note table. The lower up * In itiate “Can-Can” tune

byte is always written as zero, which

has a small impact on pitch accuracy.

DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT
Code for this project was developed New * Reset scores
game
with the WinAVR suite of open-source * Serve defaults to Player 1

development tools for AVR microcon- Either score == 9

trollers. WinAVR includes an AVR Game over

version of the GNU C compiler (avr-

gcc), a C library package (avr-libc), and
a device programmer utility (avrdude). * Give next serve to * If score = 0–0,
point winner Check Serve
let players decide
It comes with a Windows-based text * If game over, initiate game ball
who serves first
“Toreador” tune Neither score = = 9
editor called Programmer’s Notepad, Point winner serves again
which also serves as a basic IDE.
Once WinAVR is installed, you need Player with ball
presses their
to edit the makefile that is called by Point won Serve button
Programmer’s Notepad to launch the
Play
compiler and device programmer in ball
order to customize the compiler and
device programmer options to suit * Update bat and ball positions
your target microcontroller. Atmel’s * If point won, scroll cheer message

AVR Studio 4 IDE was used for debug-

ging and code inspection instead of Figure 3—To make the game implementation easier to manage, the control logic was coded as a state machine
the debugger (gdb) supplied with with a C switch statement.
WinAVR. This is possible because of
the avr-gcc linker’s ability to generate
object files in ELF format, which are the software description, getting all of used to promote C coding efficiency
compatible with AVR Studio 4. the code to fit in the 2 KB of flash and minimize code size.
memory on the AT90S2313 may seem As a starting point, take the time
C CODING EFFICIENCY doubtful at first. But with care, a sur- to get acquainted with the tools you
A goal from the outset of this proj- prising amount of functionality can be are using. Most compilers support
ect was to write the software entirely crammed into a small microcon- various options for code optimiza-
in C without resorting to assembler. troller. In this section, I will describe tion. Generally, these options are
Given the list of features outlined in some of the tricks and techniques aimed at a smaller code size or faster
execution speed. An improvement in
one direction will generally force a
trade-off in the other. For example,
T e x t s c r o l lin g d ir e c t io n f o r Pl a y e r 2 an optimization technique called
loop unrolling improves speed by
converting loops into repeated blocks
of code. This avoids the overhead of
maintaining a loop variable and hav-
ing to execute a branch instruction
at each iteration. Clearly, this kind
of compiler behavior is undesirable if
you want to minimize code size.
Because the AT90S2313 executes
nearly 1 million instructions per 1 MHz
of clocking frequency, foregoing
speed in return for a smaller code
T e x t s c r o l lin g d ir e c t io n f o r Pl a y e r 1
size won’t be a problem in most
applications. In a gcc compiler, opti-
Figure 4—The text is displayed simultaneously in two orientations because players face each other from opposite mization options are set by command-
sides of the game. line switches. By default, optimizations

www.circuitcellar.com CIRCUIT CELLAR® Issue 215 June 2008 59

are off. To force the compiler to mini-
mize code size, make sure the –Os
option is included on the command
line. In the WinAVR environment, the
optimization level passed to the avr-
gcc compiler is controlled by the
value assigned to the OPT variable in
the makefile.
At the end of compilation, avr-gcc
prints a list of statistics showing
code size and RAM usage so you can
easily monitor memory consump-
tion. The assembly language pro-
duced by the compiler can be
inspected by looking at the listing
file (.LST). WinAVR also produces an
extended listing file (.LSS), which
conveniently shows lines of C code
interspersed with the assembler
statements they generate. The C-to-
assembler correlation can also be
observed by opening the ELF format
debugging file produced by WinAVR
in AVR Studio 4. Although we are
not coding in assembler, it’s impor-
tant to understand the “cost” of each
C statement in terms of assembler
instructions generated. Any C code
that produces reams of assembly lan-
guage may need to be reworked.
I will now focus on coding tech-
niques. The first efficiency “rule” is to
use small data types wherever possible.
Because the AT90S2313 is an 8-bit
microcontroller, use char variables
instead of int. There are two rea-
sons for this. First, 8-bit char vari-
ables take up just 1 byte of RAM
storage, while 16-bit int variables
take up 2 bytes. Second, assigning
values to a char variable requires
fewer bytes of code than the same
assignment for int variables because
int variables have to be processed in
two steps: first the least significant
byte and then the most significant
byte. If multiplication and division is
required within a loop, consider
whether the calculation can be rewrit-
ten using iterative addition or subtrac-
tion to avoid compiling in lengthy
math subroutines. Take particular
care when using float data types.
They not only take up many bytes of
RAM, but also require memory-hun-
gry library routines to manipulate
them.
CPU architecture has a great bearing
60 Issue 215 June 2008
on C code efficiency. Unlike earlier
CPUs with just one or two accumulators
for manipulating data, the AVR fami-
ly RISC CPU has 32 general-purpose,
memory-mapped working registers
(R0 to R31). The avr-gcc compiler
uses many of these, but some (R2 to
R17) are available for the program-
mer. They can be used as ordinary C
char variables if declared with the
compiler register directive. Here is
an example declaration:
register unsigned char game_state
asm("r9");
The declaration causes the compiler to
treat register R9 as the unsigned char
variable game_state. Declaring fre-
quently used variables as register vari-
ables can reduce code size dramatical-
ly. This is because normal variables
must be moved first from RAM to a
working register where they can be
manipulated and then moved back to
RAM, if changed. Using register vari-
ables avoids the need for the compiler
to generate the extra assembler
instructions needed to move the vari-
able back and forth because the vari-
able is permanently in a register. Typi-
cally, it won’t be possible to store all
variables in registers, so careful
thought and experimentation will be
needed to select the best combination
for the smallest code size. While regis-
ter variables are feasible on the AVR
with its large register file, CPU archi-
tectures with few machine registers
will not benefit as much from this
technique.
As I’ve mentioned, using large data
types implicitly causes supporting
library routines to be compiled in,
which bloats the code. The program-
mer may also explicitly call library
functions, which poses a similar risk
of inflating code size. Although
library routines are normally coded
efficiently, more complicated library
functions should be used with care.
For example, the formatted print
function printf is supported by a
raft of formatting routines, such as
conversion of integer binary numbers
to decimal, hexadecimal, and octal
representations, which can take up
more code space than desired. A good
CIRCUIT CELLAR®
strategy is to compile the code with
and without the function call to see
what effect it has on code size. In cer-
tain circumstances, it might be better
to write your own specialized code
rather than use a highly generalized
library routine.
So, is all of this extra bother worth
the effort? To quantify the potential
for code size reduction, the Pong-like
game software was compiled using
avr-gcc at each available level of opti-
mization, both with and without the
use of register variables (see Table 1).
For the default scenario without com-
piler optimizations and all variables
stored in RAM, the code size was
3,550 bytes—much too big to fit in
the target microcontroller. By opti-
mizing compilation for size and allo-
cating 15 char variables to registers,
the code size shrank 42% to 2,044
bytes. This fits in the target microcon-
troller with 4 bytes to spare! Clearly, in
this case, the code size reduction was
crucial to a successful outcome. Note
that Table 1 emphasizes compiler behav-
ior and does not emphasize the gains
achieved from following the coding
style recommendations given earlier.
CONSTRUCTION & PROGRAMMING
Artwork for the double-sided PCB is
available in PDF and Gerber formats
on the Circuit Cellar FTP site.
Because only through-hole compo-
nents are used, assembly is generally
straightforward. Just use the Part-
slist.doc and Componentoverlay.pdf
files posted on the Circuit Cellar
FTP site. When mounting LED1 to
LED4, make sure they are perfectly
straight and level. When soldering
Q1 to Q14, press them down firmly
to ensure they are below the display
surface. Note that U2 and U3 face in
different directions. The piezoelec-
tric speaker is attached to the under-
side of the PCB with a dab of hot
melt glue after the finished board has
been tested.
The programming file UPONG.HEX
is available on the Circuit Cellar FTP
site. Although the AT90S2313 can be
loaded on a dedicated programmer unit
before it is soldered down, a conven-
ient feature is its in-system program-
mability. The avrdude programming
www.circuitcellar.com
 Compiler optimization Code size (bytes)
Level Type RAM Variables[1] Percent change Register variables[2] Percent change
0 No optimizations 3,550 0% 3,224 –9%
1 Speed, size, compile time 2,548 –28% 2,246 –37%
2 Speed, size 2,414 –32% 2,102 –41%
3 Speed 3,682 4% 3,114 –12%
s Size 2,340 –34% 2,044 –42%

Notes: The compiler is avr-gcc version 3.4.3. The shaded cell is baseline for percentage comparisons.
[1] Variable (data) storage = 51 bytes of RAM only
[2] Variable (data) storage = 15 char variables in registers plus 36 bytes of RAM

Table 1—The table shows how code size is affected by the various compiler optimization levels, as well as the impact of putting variables in registers.

utility supplied with the WinAVR
package works nicely under Windows
98 with the simple printer port cable
shown in Figure 5. (Note that some
versions of Windows do not allow
direct access to the printer port.) To
program the AT90S2313, temporarily
solder the cable wires to the five
specified test points at the base of
push button S1 on the underside of
the PCB, apply power, connect the
cable to the PC, and invoke avrdude
with the following command line:
avrdude -p at90S2313 -P lpt1 -c
bascom -U flash:w:upong.hex:i
Programming takes only a few sec-
onds. When finished, disconnect the
cable from the PC, remove power,
and desolder the temporary connec-
tions. The game should spring to life
when power is restored.
Achieving C coding efficiency
comes at the cost of programmer effi-
ciency because more care (and time)
has to be taken to monitor the com-
piler’s output and adjust your coding
style to achieve the smallest code size.
Like any skill, this gets easier with
practice. For some projects, it might
be easier to migrate to a microcon-
troller with more code memory. How-
ever, there will often be situations
where the hardware design is fixed
and new features or bug fixes have to
fit in the available memory. In other
cases, production volumes may be so
high that the hardware cost savings of
using a part with a smaller memory
justifies the one-off programmer effort
to minimize code size. Under these
circumstances, C coding efficiency is
paramount.
If you want to explore the topic fur-
ther, David Spuler’s book, C++ and C
Efficiency, is worthwhile—and, come
to think of it, so is a happy 12-year-
old! I
Andrew March (amarch@three.com.au)
is a systems engineer at Silverbrook
Research in Sydney, Australia, where
he works on next-generation inkjet
printing technologies. He holds a
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engi-
neering from the University of Wol-
longong (New South Wales, Australia)
and an MBA from Curtin University
(Perth, Australia).
PROJECT FILES
To download code, go to ftp://ftp.circuit
cellar.com/pub/Circuit_Cellar/2008/215.

REFERENCE
[1] Atmel Corp., “AT90S2313: 8-bit AVR
J1
1 Microcontroller with 2K Bytes of In-
14
2 R1 PB5 (MOSI) System Programmable Flash,” Rev.
15
3
330 0839I, 2002, www.atmel.com/dyn/
16
R2 resources/prod_documents/DOC0839.
4 RST
17 330 PDF.
5
18
6 R3 PB7 (SCK)
19
7
330
RESOURCE
20
Solder flying leads to marked test points
8 D. Spuler, C++ and C Efficiency: How
under S1 from solder side of PCB
21
9 to Improve Program Speed and Mem-
22
10 ory Usage, Prentice Hall, Upper Sad-
23
11 PB6 (MISO) dle River, NJ, 1992.
24
12
25
13 SOURCE
DB25-M GND
AVR Studio 4 IDE and AT90S2313
microcontroller
Figure 5—The flying leads are temporarily soldered to test points on the bottom of the PCB under S1. They are Atmel Corp.
removed after programming. www.atmel.com

www.circuitcellar.com CIRCUIT CELLAR® Issue 215 June 2008 61

 FROM THE BENCH by Jeff Bachiochi

Self-Destructive Behavior
Processor Action Requires Power Supply Removal
Fed up with corrosion? Eliminate the contacts. Jeff replaced his old doorbell switch with a
capacitive touch pad using only the pair of wires available at the door. If you are not in the
market for a new doorbell, this solution could work well in a different project.

I was frustrated for the last time. If I

hadn’t been walking by the door, I
never would have known that my
neighbor was standing outside patient-
ly waiting for me to show. When I
asked why he hadn’t rung the door-
bell, he assured me he had. This was-
n’t the first time contact corrosion had
affected my ding-a-ling. What could I
do besides replace the oxidized con-
tacts again?
Sure, I could just go to the hardware
store and buy another replacement,
but what fun is there in that? I’ve
played around with a number of touch
projects in the last few years, so using
a capacitive sensor isn’t new. My past
projects have included devices that
were developed specifically for capaci-
tive front ends. The Quantum
Research Group built its company
around QProx devices. You may have
noticed a number of companies that
have recently realized the impact that
this technology has made on product
design. While some manufacturers
such as Atmel, NXP Semiconductors,
Renesas Technology, and STMicro-
no-brainer, there are other aspects to
this project that add some intrigue.
Take a look at the doorbell circuit to
get a better idea of the problems
involved. Most doorbells consist of
solenoids that run off of a low-volt-
age 14-VAC transformer handling up
to 1 A of current. When energized,
the solenoid’s plunger whacks a bar
of metal. Like a note on a xylophone,
the bar vibrates when struck. A nor-
mally open (NO) push button at the
door energizes the solenoid in the
house by completing the circuit.
Some doorbells have a second bar of a
different length that is whacked on
the return of a second solenoid’s
plunger. The solenoid’s circuit gives
the “ding-dong” for one door, while
R1 = R2 = R3
VDD
R1
R4 R2
R3
the previous solenoid allows for only
a “ding.”
This project is not designed to
replace the old solenoid-based doorbell
with an electronic one, but it is
designed to use only the pair of wires
available at each door. Now it should
be clear that not only does this project
use low-voltage AC, but when a door-
bell button is pushed, it creates a
short across the pair of wires and can
no longer provide power. So, this proj-
ect must be powered from AC, control
AC, store some power, and provide a
contactless input.
RC OSCILLATOR
The basic premise for this circuit is
a resistor/capacitor oscillator, where
CP0A
CP0 +
CP0 -
Comp

electronics have licensed the Qprox

patented technology, others like
Switch
Cypress Semiconductor, Microchip
MCU
Technology, and Silicon Laboratories
demonstrate how to harness capaci-
tive touch technology using standard
Figure 1—The RC network charges and discharges (via a comparator’s output) are providing continuous oscilla-
I/Os on a microcontroller.
tion. When RC charges above a 2/3-VCC reference, the comparator’s output goes low, removing the charging volt-
While using a touchpad to replace age and effectively changing the reference voltage to 1/3 VCC. When RC discharges below the new reference, the
a doorbell switch may seem like a comparator’s output goes high, which begins a new charging cycle with a reference of 2/3 VCC.

62 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

Figure 2—The circuit here must continue to run when its AC source is shorted out by the TRIAC across its AC input. Stored power in C1 will enable the microcontroller to exe-
cute even when it gates the TRIAC to turn ON for 0.5 s. C5 is a capacitor formed by PCB traces that act as the touch sensor input that will initiate the TRIAC shorting the AC.

the resistor and capacitor are fixed
and produce a fixed frequency. The
capacitor is made up of two fixed
plates (usually PC traces) that have
an inherent value. The fixed value of
a capacitor will be affected by an
object (usually a finger) that comes in
close proximity to the plates. The
object looks like additional capaci-
tance in parallel with the fixed
plates. Parallel capacitors look like
an increase in the plate size so the
capacitance goes up.
Although there are ways to make
an oscillator without a microcon-
troller, some standard peripherals can
simplify the circuitry. The most sim-
ple circuit uses a comparator as the
active part of the oscillator. Figure 1
shows how the circuit is configured.
The RC junction hangs on the nega-
tive input to the comparator, with the
free end of the capacitor connected to
ground, while the free end of the
resistor is connected to the compara-
tor’s output. The comparator’s output
can swing between ground and VCC.
The positive input to the comparator
is connected to the midpoint of equal
resistors (R2/R3), creating a voltage

www.circuitcellar.com CIRCUIT CELLAR® Issue 215 June 2008 63

divider of 0.5 VCC. Howev-
er, an additional resistor
of equal value (R4) is con-
nected between the com-
parator’s positive input
and its output. When the
comparator’s output is
high (VCC), the resistor
(R4) is in parallel with the
upper resistor (R2), caus-
ing the divider to create
2/3 VCC at the positive
input to the comparator.
When the comparator’s
output is low (ground),
the resistor (R4) is parallel
to the lower resistor (R3),
causing the divider to cre-
ate 1/3 VCC at the positive
input to the comparator.
The comparator’s output
remains high until the
voltage on capacitor C
exceeds 2/3 VCC. C is
charged via R from VCC. It
takes only about one
time constant (τ) to rise Photo 1—This photo shows the relative sizes of the input capacitor C1 necessary to provide 15 mA of current for the circuit when the
to 2/3 VCC, so use τ for AC is available (100 µF) versus unavailable (3,300 µF).

64 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

Photo 2—The corroded contacts of this standard doorbell switch suggested this circuit, which produces the same result, shorted out 14 VAC (applied power to the doorbell
solenoid inside the house). The required capacitor’s size resulted in a larger enclosure for the button.

your calculations. That’s τ = R × C. cycle consists of one charge and one or 50 kHz.
Using friendly values of R = 100k discharge time, the oscillator period Once the oscillator is running, it
and C = 10 pF, τ = 1 × 106 × 1 × 10–11 will be 2 × 10 µs. The oscillator fre- will charge and discharge between 1/3
or 1 × 10 –5 s (10 µs). Because one quency is therefore 1/period = 1/20 µs, and 2/3 VCC. The frequency will be

66 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

higher than the initial time from
ground (power up) to 2/3 VCC. In fact,
my circuit runs at about a 100-kHz
rate. Because instruction cycles are 1 µs,
that’s only 10 instructions per period.
It would be tough to see a small
change in frequency because the res-
olution is 1 µs or 10%. Instead of
looking for changes in frequency,
count periods over a longer period of
time. Assuming that the period of
one cycle is 20 µs, if you count peri-
ods for 20 ms, you can increase the
resolution from 10% to 0.01%. This
is a trade-off of time for resolution.
In this project, you don’t need
microsecond response time so this is
a good trade-off.
This application will use a timer
for generating the counting periods
and a second timer (in the Count
mode) to keep track of the number of
periods (comparator toggles). The
timer must be long enough to give
adequate resolution but short enough
so the associated counter will not
overflow. In this case, the counter is
16 bits, so based on a 20-µs period, it
will take over 1 s to overflow, which
fits the requirements.
When the timer overflows (I’m
using 64 µs), two things happen with-
in the interrupt. The period count is
compared to an average period count
to determine if the difference is
greater than a predefined value (vari-
able span). A flag is set if the new
value (plus span) is less than the aver-
age value (extra capacitance increases
the period, reducing the total count).
The flag is cleared if the new value
(minus span) is greater than the aver-
age value (removing the extra capaci-
tance decreases the period, increasing
the total count).
The average value is calculated by
adding a number of past count values
saved in a ring buffer. Small count
changes, due to environmental effects,
will be adjusted for by this moving ref-
erence (average). Larger changes will
be seen as an object at the sensor.
Therefore, the variable span is critical
to enabling the application to deter-
mine an object’s presence at the capac-
itive sensor. Naturally, you would like
the total capacitance of the sensor to
change as much as possible, so the
www.circuitcellar.com
change in period will be easy to
detect. While the capacitor will be in
the picofarad (pF) range, the actual
value on the capacitor will depend on
many factors.
Silicon Laboratories’s application
note titled “Capacitive Touch Sense
Solution” (AN338, 2008) shows the
results of using different trace pat-
terns and spacing as a capacitance
sensor on a PCB. The effective capaci-
tance (in the range of 1 to 9 pF) is larg-
er as the trace-to-trace spacing is
reduced, or the total length of the
traces increases. This is what you’d
expect from analyzing how a fixed
capacitor is constructed. (The capaci-
tance increases as the surface area of
the capacitor’s plates increase or as
the inter-plate spacing decreases.) The
bare PCB has air between traces. To
keep objects from coming into physi-
cal contact with the sensor, insulation
may be added on top of the sensor.
The thickness and makeup of this
material will affect how the object can
interplay with the sensor. As you
might think, the thinner the material,
the larger the influence an object will
have on the sensor’s capacitance.
Interestingly, a covering of glass and
plastic can be twice as thick as FR4
(the material used in most PCBs)
without having a significantly differ-
ent impact.
However you design your sensor, it
will need to be calibrated in some
way. The calibration determines
what the variable span will be. The
value will be more critical if the
capacitive difference between idle
(no object) and loading (object pres-
ent) is a smaller number. A small
span may false trigger, while a large
span may have a problem triggering.
The value can be determined empiri-
cally if you have an in-circuit emula-
tor. This enables you to see what
kinds of count values the circuit will
see during idle and loading by halt-
ing execution and checking vari-
ables. Otherwise, you can build in
calibration routines based on a pro-
cedure using an input pin. If you
place an object (finger) on the sensor
and short out an input pin, the spe-
cial count can be stored as a loaded
reference count. Removing the object
CIRCUIT CELLAR®
and the jumper enables the idle sen-
sor’s count to be measured and the
span value to be calculated based on
the differences. You will most likely
want this value to be saved into non-
volatile memory, so span will be a
semi-permanent value.
MAIN
Now that you have access to a flag
that indicates the state of a capacitive
sensor, what do you need to do?
Although there is only one require-
ment—control of a TRIAC to short
out the two wires—you may want to
make this distinctive. Although out-
put devices will require additional
currents (covered later), they can
make the project unique. Sound and
light are the outputs of choice here.
But, start with the TRIAC gate signal.
The main loop has two tests. The
first test checks the CFG input and
runs a calibration routine if you
request it (by shorting the CFG input
to ground). The second test checks
the Flags register for the Button bit.
A logic 1 indicates that an object has
been sensed and the button pushed
routine is executed. The main rou-
tine loops endlessly 99% of the time
(except for the Timer0 interrupt that
records the sensor periods and deter-
mines object proximity).
The calibration routine turns on
the red LED, indicating that you
should place your finger on the sensor.
After about 3 s (allowing you time to
cover the sensor), an average period
value is saved as ButtonONH/L. The
red LED is turned off and you should
remove your finger from the sensor.
After about 3 s (allowing you time to
clear the sensor), an average period
value is saved as ButtonOFFH/L. The
difference between the two values is
the amount the period counter
changes. This value, or a fraction of it,
will be used as the SpanH/L variable
that is saved in EEPROM for future
use in determining if a threshold has
been crossed and the Flags.Button
bit must be set or reset. When the cal-
culation is finished, the calibration is
complete and the red LED is flashed to
let you know that execution is now
looping, ready for something else to
do.
Issue 215 June 2008 67
 Back in the main loop, if the
Flags.Button bit has been set, you
get to perform your lot in life. For
this project, it’s not a lot. You will
turn on a TRIAC for 0.5 s. This is
sufficient time for the AC to drive
the solenoid in the doorbell and alert
anyone within earshot that someone
requires assistance at the front door.
The STMicroelectronics Z0405DE
TRIAC is a 400-V 4-A device capable
of being driven directly from a micro-
controller. In this circuit, all of the cir-
cuitry is insulated from the user, so an
optoisolated gate driver is not neces-
sary (see Figure 2).
Note: Although all of the circuitry
is powered by low-voltage AC and iso-
lated by the doorbell transformer,
some caution should be exercised
when working with the circuitry.
Some insulation must be used
between the sensor element and any
object used to sensor proximity. This
is an important consideration because
it will most likely be the weather-
proofing barrier as well.
You might see a few doorbell
switches with lights on them. For
the most part, that’s as extravagant
as these devices get. A couple of
LEDs will not only light up this proj-
ect, but also give some feedback to
the user. A red LED is used as a
power or idle indicator (and used in
the calibration routine). The LED can
be turned off when a button push is
recognized. I decided to add a green
LED that turns on during the button
pushed routine. This will stay on
during the TRIAC firing and for an
additional few seconds to indicate
that something has happened. (With
no physical button to push, there
isn’t any mechanical feedback.)
Note: No feedback is a big disadvan-
tage of nonmechanical switches.
To make this project standout, I
implemented a piezoelectric beeper
to give you additional feedback.
Although most piezoelectric devices
have a sweet spot (i.e., some frequen-
cy that will produce a maximum out-
put level) they can be used to pro-
duce a variety of output tones. You
must drive the devices with a fre-
quency, so you get to be as clever as
you want. A two-toned beep-boop is
68 Issue 215 June 2008
about as close as you can get to the
actual doorbell chime. However, if
you want to personalize your ring
tone, be my guest.
POWER
The Microchip Technology
PIC16F610 microcontroller I used for
this project has a cousin, the
PIC16HV61x. The HV device has an
internal voltage regulator, but because
I didn’t have one of those handy, I had
to add an external regulator. I used a
78L05, which has 5 mA of quiescent
current. (That’s the current used by the
regulator to do its job even with no
output load.) Because this circuit is
going to be totally cut off from the
source for a minimum of 0.5 s (the
time the TRIAC is shorting out the
feed wires), every drop of wasted power
will come back to haunt me later.
Referring back to Figure 2, the 14-VAC
power is rectified and charges capacitor
C1. The amount of current necessary
for the circuit to continue to run with
the AC shorted out by the TRIAC will
come from this capacitor. So, its size
will be dependent on the circuit’s cur-
rent draw.
By adding a two-pin jumper between
C1 and the regulator’s input, I could
measure various currents in the circuit.
With no microcontroller installed, I
measured less than 3 mA. With the
microcontroller installed and execut-
ing code, this rose to 5 mA. An LED
adds 2.5 mA and the TRIAC’s gate
drive adds another 6.5 mA. That’s
approximately 15 mA of total load cur-
rent required to run the circuit. When
the TRIAC turns on for 0.5 s, C1 needs
to supply 15 mA of current for at least
0.5 s.
If you’ve ever designed a linear
power supply, you know that recti-
fied AC charges up the capacitor and
the load discharges it. If there is no
load, the capacitor will charge up and
remain charged. A load will dis-
charge the capacitor. Because AC is
only charging the capacitor when its
voltage exceeds the voltage on the
capacitor, while the load is continu-
ously trying to discharge it, the
capacitor’s job is to charge fast so it
can sustain sufficient charge and
allow the regulator to do its job.
CIRCUIT CELLAR®
When half-wave rectification is used
(as in this circuit), the charging is
further limited to every other half
cycle. The formula for determining
how big the capacitor should be is
based on the current required by the
load I, the time for a charge cycle, dt,
and the amount of ripple (the differ-
ence between the maximum voltage
during charging) and the minimum
voltage (during no charging), dv:
dt (seconds)
C ( farads) = I ( amps) × [1]
dv ( volts)
In this circuit, you need to supply
0.015 A (I). The charging period is
0.017 s (dt at 60 Hz) and the mini-
mum voltage must remain higher
than the minimum input voltage to
the regulator (in this case 7 V). So
with a rectified peak of approximately
14 V, that would be a difference of
approximately 7 V. This leaves no
wiggle room for conditions such as
lower-than-normal AC voltage, so you
might want to use a factor of two or
four to improve the performance. I’ll
use a 2-V dv for this example:
0.017 0.000255
C = 0.015 × = =
2 2 [2]
0.00012275 = ~100 μF
At 60 Hz, a good rule of thumb is
6,000 µF/A for half-wave circuits and
3,000 µF/A for full-wave circuits. In
this circuit, a 100-µF capacitor is
required to allow operation while AC
is being applied to the input.
What happens when the TRIAC is
turned on, shorting out the input to
the circuit and leaving nothing to
charge up the capacitor? With your
15-mA draw on the capacitor, it will
not get charged during the next dt so it
will continue to discharge from 14 to
12 V. The next dt it will discharge fur-
ther from 12 to 10 V, and then 10 to 8 V,
and 8 to 6 V. In just four periods, the
regulator will fail to regulate and the
circuit will shut down (providing the
regulator’s output falls below the reset
voltage of the microcontroller). Four
periods is only 67 ms. You need to
operate a minimum of 500 ms before
power is restored (the TRIAC is turned
off).
The same formula is used to solve
this new dilemma. Now the dt is 0.5 s,
www.circuitcellar.com
assuming you want to remain at the
2-V ripple level:
0.5 0.0075
C = 0.015 × = =
2 2
0.00375 = ~ 3,300 μF
You might look at this and say, “Yah,
so.” Remember that you’re only asking
for 15 mA of current and you need to
keep everything as small as possible to
fit into the space available for this proj-
ect, a doorbell button. Let’s take a look
at the size difference between a 100-µF
25-V capacitor and a 3,300-µF capacitor
(see Photo 1). The 3,300-µF capacitor has
33 times the capacitance of the 100-µF
capacitor. Volume wise, it is approxi-
mately 50 times greater:
V = π × r2 × h
2
⎛ 6.5 mm ⎞
V = 3.14 × ⎜ × 18 mm =
⎝ 2 ⎟⎠
0.190 cm3 (100 μF)
2 ideas in brainstorming sessions. I
⎛ 18 mm ⎞
V = 3.14 × ⎜ × 38 mm =
⎝ 2 ⎟⎠
9.7 cm3 (3,300 μF)
That’s about as big as all of the
other components combined! When I
substituted a 2,200-µF capacitor for
the original 100 µF, the measured
voltage on C1 was 12.5 V with rough-
ly 0.1 V of ripple (the dv improved
because C increased). When the
TRIAC shorted, I saw the 12 V dis-
charge to 10 V over the 0.5 s the
TRIAC was shorting the input.
Because the program execution calls
for a few additional seconds of wait-
ing and beeping, C1 has a chance to
charge back up before the button can
be pushed again. This prevents dis-
charging C1 further due to repeated
requests for the TRIAC to remain or
retrigger for additional periods.
PUT 10 lb INTO A 5-lb SACK?
I made my prototype with through-
hole parts. With the increased size in
C1, I can’t fit this circuit into the origi-
nal doorbell’s enclosure. Photo 2 shows
the original doorbell switch, the
through-hole prototype, and an alter-
nate enclosure. Even going to surface-
mount parts won’t allow this to fit into
the original doorbell button enclosure.
C1 is too large. There are two alterna-
tives: reduce the load current or split
www.circuitcellar.com
the capacitance into multiple (smaller)
capacitors. While I could probably
reduce the current by one-third by
selecting an alternate regulator and
[3] using modulation on the LED, I’ll set-
tle for a slightly larger button housing.
I found an enclosure in a box of odds
and ends that will work well and does-
n’t look too bad. It already has a cutout
area or almost 1 sq. inch that will be
perfect for a touch sensor. The large
sensor area can also provide room for
LEDs behind the label, environmental-
ly sealing the front surface.
Even if you find replacing your inex-
pensive button with this circuit a bit
outlandish, there are a number of
technologies and methods used here,
which I believe you can store away for
a rainy day. Sometimes a proposed solu-
tion will offer insight that far exceeds
its usefulness or practicality in that
solution. That’s why there are no stupid
[4]
Jeff Bachiochi (pronounced BAH-key-AH-
key) has been writing for Circuit Cellar
since 1988. His background includes
product design and manufacturing. He
may be reached through the magazine
(jeff.bachiochi@circuitcellar.com) or his
web site (www.imaginethatnow.com).
PROJECT FILES
To download code, go to ftp://ftp.circuit
cellar.com/pub/Circuit_Cellar/2008/215.
RESOURCES
T. Perme, “AN1103: Software Handling
for Capacitive Sensing,” DS01103A,
Microchip Technology, Inc., 2007.
Silicon Laboratories, Inc., “AN338:
Capacitive Touch Sense Solution,”
2008.
SOURCES
PIC16F610 Microcontroller
Microchip Technology, Inc.
www.microchip.com
Z0405DE TRIAC
STMicroelectronics
www.st.com
CIRCUIT CELLAR® Issue 215 June 2008 69
 THE DARKER SIDE by Robert Lacoste

Let’s Be Crystal Clear

Many electronic devices are enhanced by crystals, but do you know why? Robert
explains why there are usually small capacitors around a crystal, the difference
between “series” and “parallel” crystals, and more.

W elcome to the Darker Side. I still

consider myself reasonably young, but
I remember when my dad bought one
of the first inexpensive electronic
watches. The display was made of
seven-segment red LEDs, so I had to
press a button to read it. Although the
batteries drained after a couple of
weeks, it was still a great innovation.
As you know, such a watch is based
on a crystal oscillator.
Crystals remain important. Many of
the electronics that you use on a daily
basis, from MP3 players to wireless
devices, probably wouldn’t be possible
without the time stability of crystals.
Although they are very common, they
are often misunderstood. For example,
do you know why there are usually
small capacitors around a crystal? Do
you understand the difference
and explained in Paris, France, in
1880 by Pierre and Jacques Curie.
(The former became the husband of
Marie Curie, and they later discov-
ered small things like radioactivity,
but that’s another story.) The under-
lying physical principle is quite sim-
ple (see Figure 1). As usual, the first
real-life application was for the mili-
tary. Paul Langevin used it as a trans-
ducer to create ultrasound for the first
sonar system during World War I.
According to the Encyclopedia Univer-
salis, the first quartz-based oscillator
was built in 1918 by Walter G. Cady,
and that was the first of many. During
World War II, the United States built
more than 50 million quartz-based
oscillators for its transmitters![1]
The piezoelectric phenomenon is at
microscopic scales. Unfortunately, you
will never see a crystal size change
when it is electrically excited. A few
volts on a quartz crystal corresponds to
an electricity charge of a couple of pico-
coulombs, which translates into forces
in the Newton range (100 g), which
translates into displacements of a few
micrometers only. Quartz manufactur-
ers know how to cut a crystal to opti-
mize its performances for a given appli-
cation. The cuts are normalized in
regard to the crystal structure (named
X-cut, Y-cut, CT-cut, AT-cut, and
more). But you usually won’t need to go
into this level of detail because you are
Pressure applied

between a “series” and a “parallel” Nonsymetrical crystal

crystal?
This month, I will try to answer
these questions and a couple of others.
Follow me into the magical world of
crystal oscillators.

PIEZOELECTRICITY
Some crystals, quartz in particular,
are piezoelectric devices. Piezoelec-
tricity is on the border between elec- Equilibrium
tricity and mechanics: If you press a
piezoelectric device, a voltage will More << + >> on left:
Voltage appears
appear between its sides. Conversely,
if you apply a voltage between two of
Figure 1—Piezoelectricity appears when a crystal is not fully symmetrical. Look at the simplified figure on the left. With-
its faces, its physical size will
out any pressure, these atoms are centered and the overall electrical field is null. If you press vertically on the crystal,
change. you will slightly change its shape (right), the electrical charges will no longer be symmetrical, the left side will be a little
Piezoelectricity was first demonstrated more positive than the right, and a voltage will appear. Conversely, if you apply a voltage, the crystal will distort itself.

70 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

on the electrical side.
Crystal
X1

THE ELECTRICAL MODEL

Quartz shrinks or inflates depending
on the voltage. So, if you apply an AC
Equivalent circuit
voltage with a specific frequency to its
two terminals, you will enable the L1 C1
R1
crystal to reach its mechanical reso-
nance (either longitudinal vibration
resonance or a more complex shearing
C2
resonance depending on the crystal
cut). At that precise frequency, the
current flowing through the crystal
will be in phase with the excitation
signal and the crystal will electrically Simplified, at serial resonance
behave as a small resistor, R1. If you
move the frequency around the reso- L1 C1
R1 1
FSERIES =
nance frequency, the crystal will 2π × L1 × C1

behave as a series R1/L1/C1 network,

in parallel with a loading capacitor C2
(see Figure 2). C1 is called the motion-
Simplified, at parallel resonance
al capacitance, and it models the
behavior of the quartz at resonance L2
R1
with L1. C2 is nothing more than the
parasitic capacitance between the two ⎛ C ⎞
FPARALLEL = FSERIES ⎜ 1 ⎟
⎝ 2C2 ⎠
terminals of the quartz.
C2
The values of these equivalent com-
ponents make quartz a very uncom-
mon RLC network. Most megahertz-
range crystals have an inductance (L), Figure 2—The equivalent circuit of a crystal is a series L1/C1/R1 resonant circuit in parallel with a parasitic capaci-
tance C2. Such a network has a minimum impedance when the L1/C1 network is at resonance (series resonance)
not in nanohenries, but from 0.1 to 1 H.
and at a maximum impedance when L1/C1 behaves as a large inductance L2, which oscillates with the parasitic
The series resistance (R) is hundreds of capacitance C2 (parallel resonance).
ohms, and the motional capacitance
(C) is in femtoFarads (yes, 0.001 pF),
providing a quality factor of more than oscillators. That also explains why Finally, the parasitic capacitor C2 is a
100,000. Because the quality factor of you can’t replace quartz with equiva- more usual value, a couple of pico-
a network is equal to the bandwidth lent discrete components. Just try to Farads.
divided by the central frequency, this buy a 1-H inductor with parasitic For low or high frequencies, the
helps to build precise and stable capacitance below 1 femtoFarad. crystal is equivalent to the capacitor

a) b)

Photo 1—This is the transmission response of an 8-MHz crystal oscillator (a), as grabbed on a Hewlett-Packard 3585 spectrum/network analyzer (b). The minimum impedance
corresponds to the maximum transmission, here at 8,000,250 Hz. This point is followed by a minimal transmission (maximal impedance) a couple of kilohertz higher and then several spurious
resonances are visible.

www.circuitcellar.com CIRCUIT CELLAR® Issue 215 June 2008 71

C2, because the impedance amplitudes. These reso-
of C1/L1/R1 is high. How- nances are parasitic reso-
ever, when you increase the nances generated by other
frequency, you will reach vibration modes of the crys-
the resonant frequency of tal often linked to mechani-
L1 and C1 (FSERIES) at some cal discontinuities. These
point. At this frequency, usually can be disregarded
the crystal will behave like because your oscillator will
a simple low-value resistor be designed to lock on the
R1: this is its minimum main resonances.
impedance. If you continue
to increase the frequency, PARALLEL OR SERIES?
the crystal will behave like This simple experiment
a larger inductor, up to a highlights an extremely
virtual open circuit. It will important concept: there are
finally reach the behavior two usable resonance fre-
of the capacitor C2 (see quencies for a given crystal.
Photo 2—The addition of a 20-pF capacitor in parallel to the crystal (bottom curve)
Figure 2). It’s easier to see doesn’t change the frequency of the series resonance compared to the quartz alone The first one, the series res-
it rather than describe it, (top curve). However, the parallel resonance is now far closer to the series one, 500 Hz onant frequency FSERIES, is
so I hooked my Hewlett- away compared to 12 kHz. This is clear with the formula provided in Figure 2. If C2 the intrinsic resonance fre-
Packard 3585 network ana- gets higher, both frequencies get closer. quency of the crystal L1/C1
lyzer on a standard 8-MHz and it corresponds to a min-
crystal. The plot is shown in Photo 1. series resonance (minimal impedance) imal impedance. The second resonant
You can do the same with a good at 8.000250 MHz. It then has a maxi- frequency, FPARALLEL, is a little higher in
and stable sweeper generator and an mum impedance at a frequency frequency and corresponds to a maxi-
oscilloscope, but an actual network around 12 kHz higher. Some tens of mum impedance. This is the reso-
analyzer makes life easier. As you can kilohertz higher, the crystal shows nance of the R1/L1/C1 network,
see, my test crystal shows a clear other resonances, but with lower which behaves here as a high-value
inductor, close to an open circuit,
with the parasitic capacitor C2 (see
Figure 2). There isn’t a “series cut” or
“parallel cut” crystal; all crystals are
the same. However, a crystal built to
be used at its parallel resonant fre-
quency is adjusted a little below to
compensate for the small difference
between FSERIES and FPARALLEL.
There is another fundamental differ-
ence between Series and Parallel Reso-
nance mode. As shown in the formu-
las provided in Figure 2, the series res-
onant frequency is independent from
the value of the parasitic capacitor C2.

Figure 3—Here is the basic HC-mos gate-based oscil-

lator that I built on a small protoboard for the experi-
ments provided in this article. A Parallel mode crystal
oscillator can’t be simpler.

72 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

You can still adjust the fre-
quency of a series-made crys-
tal oscillator by adding series
inductors or capacitors,
which will slightly change
L1 or C1, respectively. How-
ever, for the Parallel mode,
the value of the parasitic
capacitor C2 is influencing
FPARALLEL, as shown in the
equations. Moreover,
because this capacitor is
between the two terminals
of the quartz, any external
loading capacitor is also
influencing it because both
capacitors will be in parallel.
Photo 3—This screenshot is a bit blurry, but I think you’ll still find it useful. The top
Thus, the oscillation fre- curve is the output of the oscillator (8 MHz as planned). The two bottom curves
quency should be unstable show signals measured on both ends of the crystal. It’s clearly 180° out of phase
depending on external cir- or so, as expected.
cuits. However, there is a
trick.
Look again at the equations in Figure 2. very low impedances and CMOS oscil- specified for the crystal you are using,
If C2 becomes higher and higher, then
FPARALLEL frequency becomes closer and
closer to FSERIES. It is easy to show this
with the network analyzer.
Refer to Photo 2. The addition of a
20-pF capacitor in parallel with the
crystal doesn’t change the series reso-
nant frequency. However, the parallel
resonance is reduced from 12 kHz to
500 Hz away from FSERIES, making it
more resistant to external variations.
That’s why a crystal in Parallel mode
is always used with an external paral-
lel loading capacitor. And that’s why a
crystal manufacturer always indicates
the value of the external capacitor if
the given crystal is designed to be
used in Parallel mode in its specifica-
tions. If you load it with a capacitor of
a different value, your oscillator sim-
ply won’t oscillate exactly at the value
stamped on the crystal body.
By the way, the experimental setup
used for Photo 2 is also a good way to
calculate the C1 motional capacitor of
a crystal: measure the frequency varia-
tion of the parallel resonance with a
given external capacitor and deduce
C1 from the equation in Figure 2. This
is called the pullability method.
HCMOS PIERCE OSCILLATOR
Now let’s examine a classic quartz-
based oscillator. Nearly all CMOS-
based oscillators use parallel resonance.
www.circuitcellar.com
8-MHz crystal and a pair of
74HC00 gates (see Figure 3).
Let’s go through each compo-
nent around the crystal.
First, the ubiquitous C1
and C2. The two capacitors
form the external loading
capacitor I just described.
Rather than use a single
capacitor across the termi-
nals of the crystal, it is more
stable to use two capacitors
each between a terminal and
the ground. They act as a sin-
gle capacitor because they are
connected in series, at least
from the point of view of the
crystal, and stabilize the
oscillation more efficiently
than a single floating capaci-
tor. Their value must be
Why? Because a series mode means twice the loading capacitor that is
lators are happier with large imped- usually around 20 pF each, because
ances. Moreover, series resonance is the overall capacitance of two C
more sensitive to temperature and capacitors in series is C/2. The value
component variations. I built an oscil- of the capacitors must also be trimmed
lator on a prototyping board around an to account for all of the parasitic
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CIRCUIT CELLAR® Issue 215 June 2008 73

Photo 4—If you capture the start-up behavior of my test crystal oscillator with an oscilloscope, you may conclude
that it is stabilized after about 12 µs. This is true regarding amplitude but not frequency. Horizontal scale is 2 µs/div,
the top curve is the quartz output, and the bottom is the logic gate output.
capacitors because you need to get
exactly 8 MHz.
Because you are in Parallel Reso-
nance mode, the crystal will show
maximal impedance and a phase shift
around 90°. The HCMOS inverter pro-
vides a phase shift around 180°, plus
some propagation delay through the
HCMOS gate. An oscillating loop
must provide a 360° phase shift
through the loop, so a little more
phase shift should be added. The
resistor R2 helps here. It adapts the
input impedance of the crystal to a
higher value and then shifts its oper-
ating point to a frequency where its
phase shift is 180°. R2 also helps
reduce the risk of spurious oscilla-
tions. As a starting point, the value of
the resistor should be close to the
impedance of the loading capacitor at
the working frequency (1/(2π × F × C),
giving around 2 kΩ. The resistor also
avoids loading the output of the logic
gate with a strange load as a crystal
directly connected would.
Finally, the resistor R1 is just help-
ing to keep the NAND gate in its lin-
ear region: the logic gate is used as
an inverting analog amplifier and not
as a pure logic gate. The value of R1
is not critical, but it should be high
enough to reduce power require-
ments (and because the input imped-
ance of a CMOS gate is very high),
usually between 100 kΩ and a couple
of megaohms.
Photo 3 shows the waveforms meas-
ured on the output of this oscillator as
well as on the two terminals of the crys-
tal. As expected, there is nearly a 180°
phase shift between the two terminals
of the crystal. The output frequency
was measured at 8.0021348 MHz. Why
not exactly 8 MHz? Because I have
wired it on a protoboard, long wires
are connecting the crystal and the
logic gates, adding parasitic capacitors
and inductors everywhere. Starting
from this basic schematic, what hap-
pens if you change a component’s
value? As expected, increasing C1 or
C2 decreases the oscillating frequency.
For example, adding 10 pF reduces the
frequency to 8.0016469 MHz. The
resistor R2 also has an effect on the
frequency. Increasing it to 10 kΩ
reduces the oscillating frequency to
8.0017738 MHz. However, this
change degrades the stability of the
output. The standard deviation of the
output frequency increased from
0.249 to 1.678 Hz, but this is more
difficult to see without an exotic

a) b)

Photo 5a—A Hewlett-Packard 5372A time interval analyzer enables you to capture the frequency behavior of the crystal at start up. b—Here the frequency first jumps to 40 MHz or so
and gets down and locks to 8 MHz after only 241 µs (marker position). Time is on the horizontal axis and frequency is on the vertical axis from 0 to 100 MHz. A nice instrument, isn’t it?

www.circuitcellar.com CIRCUIT CELLAR® Issue 215 June 2008 75

measurement tool. I will good idea for a future proj-
cover this later. ect around your preferred
microcontroller.) By the
OSCILLATOR STARTUP way, you can find inexpen-
It is also interesting to sive TCXO-integrated prod-
check the behavior of the ucts if you need a low-fre-
oscillator when its power quency oscillator like a
supply is switched on. It is standard 32-kHz-based
easy to do. Simply hook RTC. Look at chips such as
an oscilloscope on its out- the Maxim Integrated Prod-
put, trigger it on the rais- ucts DS32B35, which pro-
ing front of the power sup- vides a 2PPM stability from
ply, and voila, you have 0° to 40°C for a couple of
the screenshot shown in bucks.
Photo 4. The startup If you need an even
behavior is a little chaotic, greater stability over tem-
but after around 12 µs the perature, you must go with
output signal amplitude is Photo 6—This is what happens if a 50-mV/1-Hz “noise” is added to a 5-V power supply: the more expensive one:
stabilized. So, you will the frequency of the crystal oscillator is gently following the same shape as the power sup- oven-controlled crystal
conclude that the startup ply voltage. Don’t be confused by the graph. This is not a time domain oscillograph but the oscillators (OCXOs). The
time of the oscillator is 12 output frequency of the oscillator over time. Each vertical division is a 2-Hz variation. idea is simple. Heat the
µs. You will be wrong, but crystal to a fixed tempera-
it is not easy to see why with an delay will never be a couple of ture so it will no longer drift if the
oscilloscope. microseconds. Be prepared to wait, or ambient temperature changes. That is
I am a lucky engineer. My consult- use something other than a crystal. easy to say, but it is more difficult to
ing company has some pretty cool test (RC oscillators or even ceramic res- do, especially for power or cost-
equipment. In particular, I have a onators are orders of magnitude quick- restricted applications.
Hewlett-Packard 5372A frequency and er to start.) But temperature is not the only fac-
time interval analyzer (see Photo 5). tor that could impact your frequency.
The unusual box is a powerful univer- IS IT STABLE? Do you want another cool experi-
sal counter. It can obtain frequency or Now the crystal oscillator is started ment? I’ve added a little noise on the
time measurements quickly and up to and stays on 8.000 MHz. You know clean 5-V powering logic gates-based
millions of measurements per second that this is also a little false, don’t 8-MHz oscillator. That is not a lot of
(and display either their variation over you? noise, just a 50-mVPP,1-Hz sine added
time or their statistics). First, its actual frequency will drift to the 5 V, so a power supply moving
Let’s connect it to the oscillator out- with the ambient temperature. The slowly from 4.95 to 5.05 V. Is there a
put and trigger it when VCC is shape of the temperature to frequency visible impact on the output frequen-
switched on. The result is the plot in curve is not the same for different cy? Time to switch on my 5372A ana-
Photo 5, which shows the output fre- crystal cuts, but manufacturers ensure lyzer again. It generates what you see
quency of the oscillator on the vertical that the variation is minimized in Photo 6. The output frequency
axis and time horizontally. At the around the ambient temperature. In a closely follows the power voltage sine
right of the graph, around 240 µs after nutshell, you can expect variations curve, with a ±3-Hz variation! Not a
start up, the oscillator is well settled around 1 to 10 PPM when the ambient large error, but this can still be a
at 8.000 MHz; but during these 240 µs, temperature changes by 10°C.
the oscillator output went anywhere There are two solutions if you need
from 0 to 40 MHz! This is the intrin- a far more stable oscillator. The first
sic stabilization time of the oscillator. one is to add a circuit that will meas-
The conclusion is that you shouldn’t ure the actual ambient temperature,
use the output of a crystal oscillator and slightly tune the quartz oscillator
during a couple hundred microsec- with external components like varicap
onds. And this is why microcon- diodes, based on some knowledge of
trollers usually include oscillator the theoretical temperature to fre-
startup timers, just to be sure not to quency error. Such oscillators—which
overclock the silicon during this stabi- are called temperature-compensated
lization time. crystal oscillators (TCXOs)—will pro-
The oscillator design can be opti- vide stabilities of 0.1 to 0.5PPM per
Figure 4—The addition of a 24-MHz band-pass filter
mized with a good selection of exter- 10°C. The correcting circuitry can be made with C1 and L1 transforms the 8-MHz oscillator
nal components, but this mandatory either analog or digital. (DTCXO is a shown in Figure 3 into a 24-MHz overtone oscillator.

76 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com


Photo 7—A cystal can also be used in Overtone Resonance modes. Using
the same test setup as the one used for Photo 1, this is what happens when
you look at the crystal impedance significantly higher than its fundamental fre- tricky on the bench.
quency. A third-order resonance is clearly visible around 24 MHz, three times
8 MHz.
problem for some applications.
Temperature and supply voltage are the fundamental frequency. Refer to
usually the first contributors to oscil-
lator problems, but they are not
alone. Remember that quartz is a
piezoelectric device. If you stress it
mechanically (e.g., with vibrations),
there could be a visible change in the
output frequency. On some RF
designs, even sound waves can gener-
ate visible spurious modulations of
the output (the so-called “nasty
microphonic effect”). So, high-g
designs usually have some concerns
with crystals.
LET’S OVERTONE
Finally, the impedance of a crystal
over frequency, as shown in Photo 2,
gives a beautiful resonance. But what
happens at higher frequencies? The
answer is in Photo 7. A crystal also
has overtone resonance frequencies,
usually close to three times, five
times, or even seven times its basic
frequencies. It is possible to use a
crystal in such an overtone mode to
build higher-frequency oscillators. It
is important to understand that the
overtone modes are not electrical har- why you should minimize wirings,
monics of either FSERIES or FPARALLEL;
they are mechanical overtones where
the crystal is oscillating in more com-
plex mechanical ways. The conse-
quence is that the third overtone fre-
quency is not exactly three times
higher than its base frequency, even if
www.circuitcellar.com
it is close. That’s also
why you can buy
crystals specifically
built to operate in
overtone. First, their
construction is opti-
mized to enhance the
overtone resonances,
but they are also
tuned to provide the
exact desired fre-
quency in the over-
tone mode.
Building an over-
tone oscillator is theo-
retically simple, but
it is usually a little
Let’s look at the theo-
ry first. Just add a
band-pass filter circuit
in series with the crystal that will damp
Figure 4 where my dear logic-gated oscil-
lator is modified to oscillate on the third
overtone (more or less 3 × 8 = 24 MHz).
The C1/L1 network acts as a resonant
band-pass filter with a center frequency
of 25 MHz (i.e., 1/(2π × √(L1 × C1)). The
actual measured frequency was
23.95966 MHz—as expected, close but
not equal to three times the funda-
mental. What makes an overtone
oscillator tricky are the parasitic com-
ponents, which are increasingly diffi-
cult to manage. Here I had to remove
the 20-pF capacitors to help it oscillate
where I wanted as the parasitic com-
ponents started to be significant as
such a high frequency. Anyway, with a
couple of experimentations you should
get it right.
WRAPPING UP
Here we are. I hope that your ideas
are now clearer on crystals, parallel
versus series modes, overtones, and
more. You should now understand
why you shouldn’t forget to put these
two capacitors around your crystal,
and why you should have a clean
power supply.
Don’t hesitate to read through the
documents and articles listed in the
Resources section of this article.
They will provide you with addition-
al details about these topics.
CIRCUIT CELLAR®
Crystal oscillators are fun. They
are not black magic, even if they are
sometimes on the darker side. I
Robert Lacoste lives near Paris, France.
He has 18 years of experience working
on embedded systems, analog designs,
and wireless telecommunications. He
has won prizes in more than 15 inter-
national design contests. In 2003,
Robert started a consulting company,
ALCIOM, to share his passion for inno-
vative mixed-signal designs. You can
reach him at rlacoste@alciom.com.
Don’t forget to write “Darker Side” in
the subject line to bypass his spam filters.
REFERENCE
[1] P. Voyelle, “Piezoélectricité,” Ency-
clopedia Universalis, Corpus 14, 1985.
RESOURCES
Dove Electronic Components, Inc.,
“Crystal Oscillator Reference,”
www.doveonline.com/oscillator/more-
on-crystal-oscillators.php.
Fairchild Semiconductor Corp., “Applica-
tion Note 340: HCMOS Crystal Oscilla-
tors,” AN005347, 1983, www.fairchild
semi.com/an/AN/AN-340.pdf.
M. Haque and E. Cox, “Use of the
CMOS Unbuffered Inverter in Oscilla-
tor Circuits,” Application Report,
SZZA043, Texas Instruments, Inc.,
2004, http://focus.ti.com/lit/an/szza043/
szza043.pdf.
Hewlett-Packard, “Fundamentals of
Quartz Oscillators,” 200-2, 1997,
http://cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/
pdf/5965-7662E.pdf.
Wikipedia, “Crystal oscillator,” http://en.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_oscillator.
T. Williamson, “Oscillators for Micro-
controllers,” AP-155, Intel Corp., 1983,
ftp://download.intel.nl/design/mcs51/
applnots/23065901.pdf.
SOURCE
5372A Frequency and time interval
analyzer and 3585 network analyzer
Hewlett-Packard
www.hp.com
Issue 215 June 2008 77
 SILICON UPDATE by Tom Cantrell

Touch Me
If you haven’t used touch sensors in your designs, you will soon.Tom explores the new touch
sensors from Cypress Semiconductor and Silicon Laboratories. Traditional keypads and
touchscreens beware!

L ast year, during my visit to the

Sensors Expo, I concluded that touch
to acquire the entire company![2] limitations and then just assume it’s
When it comes to placing bets, I’d good for everything else.
sensing was one of the hotter topics say the $130 million ($88 million up Mechanical switches have funda-
on the show floor (“I Sense, Therefore front, up to $42 million later) that mental advantages over a touch
I Am,” Circuit Cellar 207, 2007). Atmel is paying is definitely upping switch that will never go away, start-
Over my years covering the high- the ante. I imagine that’s an opinion ing with the fact that they are pas-
tech sector, I’ve noticed that where shared by Quantum’s other licensees, sive and require no power for opera-
there’s smoke, there’s either mirrors such as Renesas Technology and tion—no “electrical” power that is, a
or a fire, and the touch sensing mar- STMicroelectronics. point brought home by the EnOcean
ket is definitely the latter. “energy harvesting” (i.e., mechani-
How hot is touch? You really don’t IF THE CAP FITS cal-to-electrical energy conversion)
have to look further than Apple. What applications is touch good self-powered switch technology I
They not only designed touch sens- for? The generic answer, “human covered a while back (“Harvest
ing into their popular iPods, but with interface,” is so all-encompassing Time,” Circuit Cellar 209, 2007).
their new “iTouch” products, they’re that it’s easier to identify touch’s When it comes to energy, there’s no
even designing it into their brand.
Capacitive sensing works for both
keypads and touchscreens, so predic-
tions call for it to find its way into
just about every portable road-war-
rior gadget (phones, PDAs, and
more).[1]
The touch sensing parts from
Freescale Semiconductor and Analog
Devices that I covered back in Issue
207 were just the start. At this point,
virtually everyone in the MCU busi-
ness is in the game and putting new
touch chips on the table.
The action has even moved from
the fab to the boardroom. Back in
September 2007, Atmel made a deal
to license technology from capacitive
touch sensing specialist Quantum
Research Group (see Photo 1). I guess
Atmel liked what they saw because I
just came across a press release Photo 1—You can get hands-on—err, make that fingers-on—with new touch sense gadgets from (left to right)
announcing that they’ve now decided Quantum Research, Silicon Labs, and Cypress Semiconductor.

78 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

a) Photo 2—Express is a simple way to develop simple applica-
b)
tions. Just (a) “draw” your program, (b) define object proper-
ties, (c) transfer functions, (d) debug with a simulator, and
download to flash memory when you’re done.

d)

c)

free lunch, just different ways to

divvy it up.
On the other hand (no pun intend-
No other PCB-design tool gives you ed), the ostensible “passive” advan-
tage for a mechanical switch does
more value per dollar come with a bit of a catch-22. If
Boards designed under EAGLE are developed in one-man there isn’t enough juice left in the
businesses or in large industrial companies. Most of the top
companies are our customers. The crucial reason for selecting battery to monitor a touch switch,
EAGLE is not usually the low price, but rather the high-end there likely isn’t enough to do any-
functionality along with the ease of use. And EAGLE users thing useful anyway.
appreciate the outstanding level of support, which at
CadSoft is always free of charge, and is available New Version A touch switch also can’t serve as an
without restriction to every customer.
These are the real cost killers! EAGLE 5.0 a)
Version 5.0 is even easier to use, especially for Schematic Capture • Board Layout
beginners, due to an enhanced user interface. Autorouter

Windows Linux Mac

® ® ®
for
Version 5.0 Highlights
>
Stand-alone schematic editor available.
>
Automatic signal/contact cross
references using frame coordinates.
>
Right-mouse click for more consistent
Windows UI. b)
>
User-definable attributes for parts.
>
Schematic sheet management.
>
Hiding approved DRC and ERC errors.
>
PRINT preview and text-searchable
PDF output.
>
Improved search engine for help.
>
And much, much more.

Pick the level that is right for you — c)

pay only the difference for upgrades!
Light Standard Professional
Max. number of Standard and Light Editions
1 99 999
schematic sheets have full functionality except
Max. board size 4x3.2 inch 6.4x4 inch 64x64 inch for the limitations mentioned
Max. # of signal layers 2 4 16 in the table.
Layout or
Schematic Editor $249 $498 You can use EAGLE Light for
evaluation and non-commercial
Layout and
$498 $996 applications without charge.
Schematic Editor
Download it from our web site. Photo 3—A touch sensor’s baseline adaptation algorithm
Layout Editor and $498 $996
Autorouter is key for dealing with vagaries of the application and the
Layout Editor and environment, so expect to spend some time fine-tuning.
Schematic Editor
and Autorouter
$49 $747 $1494 www.cadsoftusa.com You can see adaptation in action in this photo sequence
800-858-8355 using the Cypress proximity. With the object (ruler) out of
range, the LED glows red (a). It then turns green when the
CadSoft Computer, Inc., 19620 Pines Blvd., Suite 217, Pembroke Pines, FL 33029 object moves close enough (b). But wait a few seconds
Hotline (954) 237 0932, Fax (954) 237 0968, E-Mail: info@cadsoftusa.com and the adaptation algorithm, which expects to deal with a
Windows / Linux / Mac are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp. / Linus Torvalds / Apple Computer, Inc. quick touch, will increase the baseline and “un-detect” the
object, turning the LED red again (c).

82 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

electrical link, at least in the conven-
tional sense. If you want to connect a
signal from here to there, a mechani-
cal switch is the way to go.
Similarly, a mechanical switch has
the ability to “remember” its state
while a touch switch is just
“momentary.”
Better yet, said state of a mechani-
cal switch can be determined by tac-
tile or visual means. By contrast, a
separate mechanism (e.g., a screen
update, an audio click, or a blinking
LED) is required with a touch switch
to provide feedback and confirmation
to a user that their input has been
recognized.
Let’s use a bad example to make a
good point by considering a hypo-
thetical application where “touch”
and (makes) “sense” don’t go togeth-
er. Herewith for your consideration
is my brainstorm for a high-tech DIP
switch.
The touch contacts and a chip to
monitor them are just the start. You
need a battery or an otherwise un-
interruptible power source to match
www.circuitcellar.com
the passive (i.e., no power required)
capabilities of a low-tech DIP switch.
You would also need relays to estab-
lish a true electromechanical connec-
tion. Preferably, you would use relays
that enable visible determination of
the on/off state. Otherwise, you’d
need to add LEDs or some such as a
visible indicator.
So, if your grand plan is a new-age
DIP switch, touch sensing isn’t for
you (but maybe psychiatric care is).
Otherwise, read on.
EXPRESS YOURSELF
Let’s start by taking a look at the
latest touch sense offering from
Cypress Semiconductor. They were
among the first to target the touch
market with their flash-programma-
ble and analog-capable PSoC chips.
As an aside, I notice Quantum (now
Atmel) is suing Apple over their lat-
est iPod touch technology that is
said to utilize Cypress chips.[3] There
is no better proof that you and your
technology have arrived than when
you start getting sued.
CIRCUIT CELLAR®
Boardroom and legal machinations
aside, Cypress makes it super easy to
give touch a try with their new
“PSoC FirstTouch” starter kit. You
can hardly go wrong considering the
kit is only $29.95 and includes
everything you need to give touch
(and other applications like tempera-
ture and light sensing) a whirl.
The kit also includes the novel
PSoC Express “visual programming”
tool, which I’ve covered before
(“Code Like the Wind World Tour,”
Circuit Cellar 200, 2007). Let’s get
one thing straight: Express is by no
means the Holy Grail of program-
ming, some kind of World-Beyond-C
nirvana. It can handle neither big
projects nor those that require blaz-
ing real-time performance. Of course,
the same could be said of the PSoC
chip itself, which can hardly be
described as “big” or “high-perform-
ance” in this era of multi-core 64-bit
uber-silicon. Both Express and the
PSoC recognize the reality that it’s
econoboxes and pickup trucks, not
Ferraris, that make the embedded
Issue 215 June 2008 83
world go round.
Anyway, there’s no doubt that
Express gets you on the air fast. If you
haven’t done it before, installation of
the software is a little clunky because
it relies on Microsoft .NET, which
adds a layer of complexity. The fact
that I already had older versions of
Express and .NET on my PC caused a
little head scratching during the
install since my PC gyrations didn’t
exactly follow the path outlined in the
rather terse instructions. Lucky for
me, things sorted themselves out. It
wasn’t more than a few minutes
before I had the demo setup up and
running.
When it comes to “programming,”
Express makes things easy by doing as
much automatically as possible.
Obviously, there’s a trade-off in that
ridding yourself of the responsibility
of handling the gory details means you
also give up the freedom to tweak any-
thing and everything you want.
Rather, the Express way of doing
things boils down to choosing from a
library of predefined “objects” and
specifying the “parameterizable”
aspects of their operation with point-
and-click forms. The only real
“thought” required to create an
Express program involves defining the
control and data linkages between the
predefined objects.
Let’s go through the “Proximity
Detector” demo program that comes
with the FirstTouch starter kit. The
Express “program” is as simple as the
application itself, which just switches
an LED from red to green when an
object gets within striking distance
(see Photo 2).
After cutting and pasting the touch
sensor and LED objects from the
library, the next step is to define the
“properties” for the touch sensor (see
Photo 2a). They specify various switch
tuning parameters such as threshold,
noise, hysteresis, debounce, and base-
line drift (see Photo 2b).
The Express library offers alternative
touch sense implementations to
choose from, including “sigma-delta”
(aka “CSD”) and successive approxi-
mation (aka “CSA”) conversion tech-
niques. CSD uses more PSoC
resources than CSA (i.e., it generally
calls for a higher-end PSoC), but it has
a couple of advantages (moisture and
temperature tolerance) that may prove
compelling in harsh/outdoor environ-
ment applications.[4]
The next step is simple enough. Just
define the “transfer function” that
connects the proximity detector to the
LEDs (see Photo 2c).
Once your “program” is finished,
hit the Build button. It takes only a
minute or two for Express to generate
the PSoC software and hardware con-
figuration, schematic, datasheet, and
even the bill of materials. At that
point, you can run a simulation if you
like before taking the final step of
flashing the PSoC (see Photo 2d).
Of course, this is just a toy demo. In
real life, expect to spend time tweak-
ing the touch sense properties and
hardware (e.g., PCB contact layout).
The fact is, a touch sensor is not the
same as a mechanical switch, and it’s
a challenge to design hardware and soft-
ware that completely hide the difference.

64-KB Flash memory

4-KB RAM

CIP-51 8051 Port I/O configuration

Power on
reset/PMU Controller core
Digital peripherals
Wake 64-KB ISP Flash
program memory UART
Reset Port 0
Timers 0, drivers
C2CK/RST Debug/ 256-byte SRAM 1, 2, 3
programming Priority
hardware 4,096-byte XRAM crossbar
Integrated PCA/ decoder
LDO regulator WDT
C2D
CRC SMBus
Engine
VDD/DC+ VREG SPI 0, 1 Port 1
Analog Digital
power power SYSCLK SFR drivers
Bus Crossbar control
GND/DC- Precision
24.5-MHz Analog peripherals
oscillator
VBAT DC/DC 6-bit
Converter Low-power IREF0
IREF
Integrated 20-MHz
DC/DC boost GND oscillator
Internal External Port 2
converter External VREF VREF drivers
XTAL 1 VDD
oscillator VREF
XTAL 2 circuit 10-bit A
M Temp
300-ksps sensor
XTAL 3 U
smaRTClock ADC X
oscillator GND
XTAL 4
CP0, CP0A
System clock CP1, CP1A Burst mode
configuration 10-bit ADC
Comparators with fast wake-up
internal VREF

Precision 2% 24.5-MHz oscillator Two comparators with up to

Low-power 10% 20-MHz oscillator 23 touch sense inputs
32-kHz smaRTClock oscillator

Figure 1—These plan “.9” parts aren’t from outer space, they’re from Silicon Laboratories, and they pack a big analog punch (up to 23 channels) into a tiny footprint and
power budget.

84 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

 For example, you can “trick” the
proximity detector baseline adaptation
algorithm by “creeping up on it” (see
Photos 3a, 3b, and 3c). Other gotchas
to watch out for include “finger-on
startup” (i.e., touch contact during
baseline establishment) and “stuck
on/off” contacts.
All of which highlights how Express
is ideal for experimenting and proto-
typing. You get to spend your time
and brainpower on the fundamentals
instead of “coding.” Later, you can
carry your work forward into the con-
ventional (i.e., “C,” ASM) PSoC tool-
chain, taking full advantage of the
experience gained working with
Express.
PLAN .9 FROM OUTER SPACE
Look up in the sky—it’s a bird, it’s a
plane, it’s a UFO!
No, I’m not talking about little
green men from Mars. Long-time read-
ers know that “UFO” means
“Unidentified Fifty-One.” Yes, we’re
talking about yet another incarnation
of the venerable 8051 (aka “The MCU
That Wouldn’t Die”). Say hello to our
new little friends: the C8051F9xx line-
up from Silicon Labs, which has been
christened with the marketing
moniker “.9” (see Figure 1).
Ironically, the march of silicon
poses a challenge for embedded
MCUs. Each new generation of fab
process cuts the core voltage, which is
great for reducing power consumption,
but not for real-world interfacing. To
address the problem, both the Cypress
and Silicon Labs parts include on-chip
switch mode controllers that turn the
chips into mini-me step-up DC/DC
power supplies. That’s what the
Silicon Labs “.9” pitch is all about
(i.e., the chip can run down to 0.9 V
by generating its own 1.8-V (core) and
3.3-V (I/O) supplies).
Some say Plan 9 From Outer Space
is the worst movie every made.[5]
Actually, I thought it was bad enough
to be funny, which makes it better
than a lot of movies, which are just
bad enough to be bad. But make no
mistake, I say “Plan .9 From Silicon
Labs” delivers some of the best 8-bit
MCUs ever.
The core itself is still recognizable
www.circuitcellar.com
Photo 4—Low-voltage and minimal power consump-
tion give designers the flexibility to choose between a
one-battery cell configuration to reduce cost, size,
and weight or a two-cell configuration for a longer
battery life.
as a ’51, but as with other UFOs, it is
one that’s benefited from 30 years
worth of Moore’s Law. Most apparent
is the fact that raw performance is
improved by roughly a factor of 10.
Plan .9 parts execute most instruc-
tions in one or two clocks compared
to the dozen clocks or more for the
original.
It’s recognizable as a ’51 alright,
but only if you bring a magnifying
glass. Small has never been more
beautiful than when it allows you to
cram so much intelligence into so
little board space. Thanks to the lat-
est QFN package, a 32-pin part is a
mere 5 mm (less than 0.25″) on a
side. If you can get by with a 24-pin
part, the QFN footprint shrinks to
just 4 mm × 4 mm. Also offered is a
traditional 32-pin LQFP package,
which is larger, though hardly impos-
ing at 9 mm × 9 mm.
The packaging and ones-and-zeros
features are interesting, but it’s ana-
log where the MCU action is. On the
surface, the 10-bit, 300-ksps ADC
seems pretty middle of the road,
especially considering Silicon Labs
makes other parts in the high-resolu-
tion stratosphere (e.g.,16-, 20-, and
even 24-bit converters). But look a
little closer at the datasheet and
CIRCUIT CELLAR®
you’ll find features that stretch the
analog mileage you can squeeze from
the chip.
For example, there’s a sampling
mode that accumulates the results of
up to 64 conversions in a burst. In
essence, it’s an automatic (i.e., no-soft-
ware overhead) oversampling capabili-
ty built into the chip. As you may
recall from DSP class, oversampling
gives a designer the flexibility to
trade-off speed for higher resolution.
Using a 16- or 64-conversion burst,
the ’9xx 10-bit ADC delivers perform-
ance as good as or better than 12-bit
units on other MCUs.
Behind the scenes, there is an
army of analog servants including
multiple trigger options, precision
voltage and current references, auto-
matic threshold detection, low-power
and wakeup options, a temperature
sensor, and two comparators, all
fronted with a 23-channel analog
mux.
The 0.9-V capability has the poten-
tially compelling benefit of allowing
single-battery operation. It may not
seem like a big deal, but when you’re
talking about some inexpensive pock-
et gadget, the reduction in cost, size,
and weight can be noticeable.
Low voltage also means low power,
and I mean really low power, as in a
fraction of a milliamp per megahertz.
Silabs has a nifty little power estima-
tor utility program that allows you to
plug in various battery configurations
and application scenarios (clock rate,
sleep/wake duty cycle, and more).
Photo 4 is a screenshot of the simula-
tion for a once-per-second data logger
application. Over 10 years from a sin-
gle AAA—that’s what I’m talking
about!
STEP UP TO THE PLATE
Though quite general-purpose in
most respects, the new Silicon Labs
parts have some tweaks under the
hood that are specifically designed to
support touch sense applications. The
same goes for tools, with a touch
sense starter kit leading the way. It’s
$36.90 for a two-piece setup compris-
ing a USB plug-in toolstick plus a
touch daughter card or just $19.90 for
the daughter card itself which, once
Issue 215 June 2008 85
 requires only a few hundred
bytes of code (and that includes
initial calibration) and a frac-
tion of a percent interrupt
overhead.
As for the capacitive switches
themselves, what size, layout,
and overlay materials (e.g., glass,
Plexiglas, Mylar, plastic, and
FR4) are best? Kudos to Silicon
Labs for studying the issue thor-
oughly, so the rest of us don’t
have to (see Figure 2).[6]
ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING
No doubt capacitive touch
sense is a major trend that has
a huge impact for traditional
keypad and touchscreen appli-
cations. It’s coming to a phone,
MP3 player, PDA, and more
near you soon, if it is not
already there. I imagine it
won’t be long before creative
designers start to explore ideas
Figure 2—This isn’t some crazy eye chart, but rather a vari-
ety of potential touch switches. Naturally, switch sensitivity that go well beyond the tradi-
increases with size, but layout and packaging also matter. tional. For instance, who says
Measurements performed by Silicon Labs indicate that circu-
all of the “keys” on a gadget
lar layout is far superior. Depending on the specific overlay
material and thickness, the sensitivity (i.e., percent change in have to be lined up in a flat lit-
capacitance caused by a finger touch) of a circular layout tle square. Form should follow
(i.e., row four) is typically two to five times higher than any function, and now it can.
grid variant.
Going even further, I’m
intrigued by the idea that this
programmed, is capable of stand-alone technology gives designers the ability
operation. to gift their applications with a
The journey from a capacitive touch “sense of touch.” For instance, I
switch to ones and zeros starts with recently read that Dean Kaman (of
the pins and front-end to the analog Segway fame) is hard at work creating
multiplexer. There you’ll find a specif- artificial limbs offering hope for the
ic “touch sense” configuration option future that seems to be quickly evolv-
that includes the resistors, which han- ing from science fiction to science
dle the “R” part of the “RC” relax- fact.[7] So, wouldn’t the ultimate cul-
ation oscillator equation. That’s a very mination of the quest for an artificial
welcome feature because it complete- limb include “skin” that could truly
ly eliminates the need for any external “feel”?
components beyond the switches Once again, the challenge and
themselves. opportunity of a new technology
The comparators have features like presents itself. And once again, I’m
programmable hysteresis and the sure designers will rise to that chal-
ability to work in concert with the lenge with inventions that will
on-chip timers. There’s nothing indeed “touch” our lives in many
going on here that couldn’t be han- ways. I
dled in software, but having the chip
take care of the grunt work is a luxu- Tom Cantrell has been working on
ry that leaves more MIPS and code chip, board, and systems design and
space for bigger and better things. marketing for several years. You may
With the hardware support, adding reach him by e-mail at tom.cantrell@
touch sense to your application circuitcellar.com.
86 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR®
REFERENCES
[1] Walker Mobile, “The Future of
Mobile Touch,” 2007, http://walker
mobile.com/The_Future_of_Mobile_
Touch.pdf.
[2] Atmel Corp., “Atmel to Acquire
Quantum Research Group,” Feb. 6,
2008, www.atmel.com/dyn/corporate/
view_detail.asp?ref=&FileName=Quantum
Announcement_2_6.html&SEC_NAME=.
[3] The Macintosh News Network,
“Quantum Sues Apple Over iPod
Clickwheel,” Jan. 22, 2007, www.macnn.
com/articles/07/01/22/quantum.sues.
apple/.
[4] R. Seguine, “Capsensing: CapSense
Device and Method Selection Guide,”
Cypress Semiconductor Corp., 001-14459,
2007.
[5] The Internet Movie Database, Plan
9 From Outer Space, www.imdb.com/
title/tt0052077/.
[6] Silicon Laboratories, Inc., “AN338:
Capacitive Touch Sense Solution,” 2008,
www.silabs.com/public/documents/tpub_
doc/anote/Microcontrollers/Small_Form
_Factor/en/AN338.pdf.
[7] S. Adee, “Dean Kamen’s ‘Luke
Arm’ Prosthesis Readies for Clinical
Trials,” IEEE Spectrum, February
2008, http://spectrum.ieee.org/feb08/
5957.
RESOURCE
Quantum Research Group (Atmel),
“QProx capacitive touch sense tech-
nology,” www.qprox.com.
SOURCES
CY8C21xxx Microcontroller and
express development tool and
FirstTouch starter kit
Cypress Semiconductor Corp.
www.cypress.com
C8051F9xx “.9” MCU and toolstick
with touchsense daughtercard
Silicon Laboratories, Inc.
www.silabs.com
www.circuitcellar.com
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88 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com
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90 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com
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A Social Networking Site for
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92 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com
 CROSSWORD
1

2 3

6 7

8 9

10

11

12 13 14

15

16

17 18

19

Down
1. The “L” of an LC circuit
3. No affinity for H2O
4. Magnetic mineral used for navigation
5. 1015
6. A long, shallow depression
10. A device that periodically reverses current in
an electric motor and maintains current flow
in a generator
13. The place in orbit that is farthest from the
Earth
14. A charge for using a mobile phone when
you’re outside your service area
18. A low-pressure sodium lamp
The answers are available at
www.circuitcellar.com/crossword.
Across
2. Assigning a “friend” to new employees when they are hired to
acquaint them to the company
7. A mobile phone that combines some capabilities of a PC, including
Internet connectivity
8. A device that restrains voltage transients
9. 10,000 lux
11. A circuit that mutes a receiver when an input signal is below a
certain level
12. The “C” of an LC circuit
15. Sn
16. 0.001 inches
17. English physicist and inventor (1783–1850) who designed the first
electromagnets. Think: electric motor
19. Voltage falls, lights dim

www.circuitcellar.com CIRCUIT CELLAR® Issue 215 June 2008 93

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87 AAG Electronica, LLC 87 FDI-Future Designs, Inc. 39 Luminary Micro 88 Reach Technology, Inc.

66 AP Circuits 90 FlexiPanel Ltd. 89 MCC (Micro Computer Control) 79 Renesas Technology

92 All Electronics Corp. 92 FlyPCB China Co., Ltd. 90, 91 Micro Digital, Inc. 95 Saelig Co.

88 Apex Embedded Systems 83 Grid Connect, Inc. 92 Micro Digital, Inc. 91 Schmartboard

9 Applied Micro Training 88 Hagstrom Electronics 41 Microchip 73 Sealevel Systems

7 Atmel 89 HI-TECH Software LLC 92 microEngineering Labs, Inc. 11 SEGGER Microcontroller Systems LLC

25 Bitscope Designs 34 HobbyLab LLC 57 Mouser Electronics 5 Spark Fun Electronics

65 CWAV 88 ISP Micro 88 Mylydia, Inc. 1 Sunstone Circuits

82, 88 CadSoft Computer, Inc. 33 IMAGEcraft 23 NKK Switches 91 Systronix

63 Calao Systems 91 Intec Automation, Inc. C2 NetBurner C3 Tech Tools

29 Comfile Technology, Inc. 87 Ironwood Electronics 3 Noritake Co., Inc. 80, 81 Technologic Systems

87 Crossware Products, Inc. 64, 66 JKmicrosystems, Inc. 69 Nurve Networks LLC 90 Technological Arts

87 Custom Computer Services, Inc. 91 JKmicrosystems, Inc. 90 Ontrak Control Systems 89 Tern, Inc.

19 Cypress Microsystems, Inc. 48 Jameco 72 PCB-Pool 56 Tibbo Technology, Inc.

87 DLP Design 69 Jeffrey Kerr LLC C4 Parallax, Inc. 89 Tin Can Tools, LLC

69 Decade Engineering 42 Keil Software 90 Phytec America LLC 13 Total Phase, Inc.

34 Designnotes 58 LPFK Laser & Electronics 2 Pico Technology Ltd. USA 92 Trace Systems, Inc.

83 EMAC, Inc. 34 Lakeview Research 92 Pioneer Hill Software 91 Triangle Research Int’l, Inc.

89 Earth Computer Technologies 88 Lawicel AB 40 Pololu Corp. 64 WCSC (Willies Computer Software Co.)

90 Embedded Developer 9, 88 Lemos International 91 Pulsar, Inc. 50 Wiznet

49 ExpressPCB 63 Linx Technologies 47, 74 Rabbit, A Digi International Brand

47 ezPCB 89 Loadstar Sensors, Inc. 89 Rabbit, A Digi International Brand

Preview of July Issue 216 ATTENTION ADVERTISERS

Theme: Internet & Connectivity August Issue 217
Internet-Enabled Alarm Clock Deadlines
Internet Information Retrieval: A Design For Targeting And Displaying Web Site Content Space Close: June 11
PSoC Design Techniques (Part 1): Advanced Analog Routing Material Close: June 20
Card Reader USB Theme:
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Launch Control: Build A Coil Gun Controller And Launcher BONUS DISTRIBUTION:
Sound Effects Processing Hot Chips; Flash Memory Summit

LESSONS FROM THE TRENCHES Living & Working Off The Grid (Part 1): Planning & Design Call Shannon Barraclough
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FROM THE BENCH Electric Motor Technology: Theory, Construction, And Usage 860.875.2199
SILICON UPDATE MIPS For The Masses: A Look At The PIC32 e-mail: shannon@circuitcellar.com

94 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com

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 PRIORITY INTERRUPT
by Steve Ciarcia, Founder and Editorial Director

It’s All In The Whiskers

S peaking as someone who has been on both sides of the fence and still intimately involved in electronics, let me just say that I certainly find it a lot
easier to talk about embedded technology than wade through the muck and mire of compliance and certification that electronics manufacturers deal with
today. When I used to own a manufacturing business (sold nine years ago), my one certification/testing nightmare with conductive spray coatings for
EMI/RFI shielding convinced me that dealing with government edicts can be a real pain in the tush.
Twenty years ago, electronic manufacturing success simply involved a good product idea, some production samples, and lots of advertising luck. All
it took were a few large production orders and yet another flourishing company was born. Unfortunately, for today’s entrepreneur, the global economy has
changed both the dynamics of producing a product and the logistics of marketing it. The concept of a single entrepreneur personally soldering boards
together for shipment to a customer in the next town and transitioning that U.S.-compliant product to a mass-produced item serving the global economy
has gotten a whole lot more complicated. All the other countries have their fingers in the compliance-and-regulation soup now, too.
Presented in February 2003 by the European Union (EU) and mandatory as of July 2006 (China instituted a similar but stricter version in March 2007),
suppliers of electronic materials have been making significant changes to their products to comply with the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS)
Directive. The regulation restricts the use of six materials: cadmium (Cd), hexavalent chromium (Cr (VI)), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), polybrominated
biphenyls (PBB), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE). Basically, you can’t ship products to these countries that include more than a prescribed
amount of these substances.
A few minutes on the search engines will tell you all the materials and products affected by these restrictions, but the most significant one affecting
the embedded control community has to be lead solder—or, more importantly, lead-free solder. I have a bit of manufacturing experience, so when I say
that arbitrarily replacing good old 60-40 tin-lead with lead-free solder has a whole lot of problems, believe it. Certainly, the regulations were conceived for
environmental concerns, but there was a fundamental misconception that the electronics industry could easily switch from tin-lead solder chemistry to
pure tin (or alloys of tin, silver, and copper) with the only difference between classic solder and lead-free solder being the melting point. Bad idea!
Replacing tin-lead with pure tin appears to have been a big mistake and the environmental motivation may have faulty logic. First of all, avoiding lead
because it leaches into our environment may be true for paint and gasoline, but there is little evidence that the lead in solid form on PCBs migrates into
the ground the same way. Also, the added resources necessary for increased tin, silver, and copper mining and smelting are a poor trade when compared
to the fact that most lead solder is derived from recycled products.
Toxicity issues aside, the real problem with lead-free solder is that it just plain doesn’t work as good as tin-lead solder. Regardless of the multitude of
substitute alloys that have been tested so far, current lead-free tin solder chemistry has this nasty propensity to spontaneously grow tin “whiskers” that
can become long enough to short adjacent traces. Typically microscopic in size, some whiskers have been almost as long as a centimeter and, at 30 mA
current capacity, disastrous to digital circuitry. If you think problems from whisker shorts are irrelevant or inconsequential, ask the Swiss watch company
Swatch about the $1 billion they spent in 2006 recalling short-circuited watches. Or research what happens when a nuclear power plant shuts down
because a steam pressure monitor shorts out, which is what happened at the Connecticut-based Millstone 2 nuclear power plant in April 2005. Lead-free
solder is also considerably more brittle and therefore susceptible to fractures and open connections, too. As a company owner, these are certainly not
“features” you want in a “parts and labor” warranted product that is shipped to the other side of the world.
To my knowledge, the U.S. hasn’t specifically outlawed the use of lead solder (a quick check over at www.jameco.com shows a variety of lead and lead-
free solders available), but like BMW and Mercedes making cars that meet California emissions and U.S. crash test regulations, the desire to participate in
the global market ultimately dictates product ingredients that meet everyone’s regulations. If you’ve bought a car, a TV, or a computer since 2006, regard-
less of nationality, it most assuredly uses lead-free solder. And, of course, we all got extended warranties because we expect a lower MTBF. ;-)
Seriously, the issues with lead-free solder are both a goal for future chemical research as well as a logical motivation for reassessing a bad regula-
tion. The irony of the situation is that the European Union has already exempted military hardware and critical communications gear from using lead-free
solder because they know it affects reliability. Even Swatch has received an exemption that allows it to go back to using lead solder.
The path for small businesses and entrepreneurs is a bit grayer. Certainly, developing a product that becomes a mass-market item is every engineer’s
goal, but be careful that you design and manufacture it to meet the intended customer destination. To add insult to injury, if making the PCB isn’t enough
aggravation, try shipping it to China. There, even the packing materials have to meet stringent RoHS certification. As for me, I’m just going to stay down
in the Circuit Cellar making Sn-Pb soldered prototypes and not even think about all the directives, certifications, and regulations. ;-)

steve.ciarcia@circuitcellar.com

96 Issue 215 June 2008 CIRCUIT CELLAR® www.circuitcellar.com