Loop Antenna at ~60 kHz
rickman wrote in :
The US located beacon added PSK a few years back to make the signal easier to receive. I went Googlong after I wrote that last one. I'd have thought PSK would be harder to detect than AM. So much for what I know. :) I read that wris****ches can detect the PSK signal too, so low power must have been done, with a small antenna too, but I don't knpow what they did so I'll leave it there. About op-amps, I just found it hard to let go of a favourite idea. :) Too many transistors though... Just one thought left that might be a kernel of a new idea: if you have a tiny resonant circuit at 60KHz, with high Q, then the change of phase ought to make some kind of detectable upset, a spike maybe, whose polarity you can use to determine mark or space in the signal. The combination of resonance and short spike duration might give you a usable combination of low power and detectable threshold. I'll stop there because I don't think I have anything you can use.. I'm interested in what you come up with though, especially if it avoids a large antenna. |
Loop Antenna at ~60 kHz
On 10/30/2014 3:20 PM, Lostgallifreyan wrote:
rickman wrote in : The US located beacon added PSK a few years back to make the signal easier to receive. I went Googlong after I wrote that last one. I'd have thought PSK would be harder to detect than AM. So much for what I know. :) I read that wris****ches can detect the PSK signal too, so low power must have been done, with a small antenna too, but I don't knpow what they did so I'll leave it there. About op-amps, I just found it hard to let go of a favourite idea. :) Too many transistors though... Just one thought left that might be a kernel of a new idea: if you have a tiny resonant circuit at 60KHz, with high Q, then the change of phase ought to make some kind of detectable upset, a spike maybe, whose polarity you can use to determine mark or space in the signal. The combination of resonance and short spike duration might give you a usable combination of low power and detectable threshold. I'll stop there because I don't think I have anything you can use.. I'm interested in what you come up with though, especially if it avoids a large antenna. Define large... lol. I'm already looking at a 2 foot diameter which is just a wee bit too large for my wrist watch.. lol. Actually I really don't know how practical this is. The digital approach will depend greatly on pulling a very weak signal out of the noise. Not that the noise is in the signal on the antenna, but noise in terms of poor detection of such a weak signal. I will happily report back if/when I get any sort of results. -- Rick |
Loop Antenna at ~60 kHz
On 10/30/2014 01:27 PM, rickman wrote:
On 10/30/2014 1:02 PM, Lostgallifreyan wrote: rickman wrote in : Before integration comes demodulation. How would you demodulate and integrate in the analog domain on a 100 uW power budget? The signal is PSK. But that is not the real reason. My goal is to show it is possible to do this entirely in the digital domain. Low Vf diode in feedback loop of op-amp? I'm curious though, it's an interesting thought, doing it all in digital equipment, but why? The main drive behind me 'off-shelf' remark is that I suspect the best answer already exists in many forms. I'm curious about what makes a need to keep searching. :) I'm not denying it, far from it, there's usually more than one good way to do something, I'm just not sure what the differentiating factor is in this case. I don't know about "best" but you can buy a time code receiver chip that spits out a demodulated signal to be decoded by an MCU. At that point the data rate is pretty low so an MCU can run at very low power levels, likely dominated by the quiescent current. When you suggest an op amp, we already covered that ground and they aren't low power enough. I'm curious how they amplify the signal in the receiver chip with the whole circuit drawing a very low power level. Motorola's app notes on the old 4000 series CMOS included various analog circuits, including use of a CMOS inverter as an amplifier. I'm enough of a packrat that I keep those things. 4000 series may not be useful in your case, but the circuits or variants of them may apply in newer CMOS implementations. 'Course calling it all digital may be just a game if your input stage is a digital circuit biased to operate in an analog mode. George |
Loop Antenna at ~60 kHz
George Cornelius wrote:
Motorola's app notes on the old 4000 series CMOS included various analog circuits, including use of a CMOS inverter as an amplifier. I'm enough of a packrat that I keep those things. I'm sure this guy (who is coming back on this subject regularly) is not going to consider that low-power. The inverter was driven into the area between switching to '1' and to '0' by using a feedback resistor, and so both output fets are conducting and drawing current from Vcc to Gnd. |
Loop Antenna at ~60 kHz
On 11/3/2014 3:08 AM, Rob wrote:
George Cornelius wrote: Motorola's app notes on the old 4000 series CMOS included various analog circuits, including use of a CMOS inverter as an amplifier. I'm enough of a packrat that I keep those things. I'm sure this guy (who is coming back on this subject regularly) is not going to consider that low-power. The inverter was driven into the area between switching to '1' and to '0' by using a feedback resistor, and so both output fets are conducting and drawing current from Vcc to Gnd. If you I am "the guy", whether or not this is low power enough depends on the power. My understanding is that when operated in the linear mode significant current can flow in a CMOS device. So likely this isn't low enough power, no. I'm very curious about how they do it in the commercial chips. I have seen block diagrams and they show an amplifier as the first part of the chip. Maybe the design really isn't all that low power. Rather than running at low power all the time, they just limit the duty cycle of the receiver. "Atomic" clocks don't need to monitor the signal except for a few minutes each day. -- Rick |
Loop Antenna at ~60 kHz
rickman wrote:
On 11/3/2014 3:08 AM, Rob wrote: George Cornelius wrote: Motorola's app notes on the old 4000 series CMOS included various analog circuits, including use of a CMOS inverter as an amplifier. I'm enough of a packrat that I keep those things. I'm sure this guy (who is coming back on this subject regularly) is not going to consider that low-power. The inverter was driven into the area between switching to '1' and to '0' by using a feedback resistor, and so both output fets are conducting and drawing current from Vcc to Gnd. If you I am "the guy", whether or not this is low power enough depends on the power. My understanding is that when operated in the linear mode significant current can flow in a CMOS device. So likely this isn't low enough power, no. I'm very curious about how they do it in the commercial chips. I have seen block diagrams and they show an amplifier as the first part of the chip. Maybe the design really isn't all that low power. Rather than running at low power all the time, they just limit the duty cycle of the receiver. "Atomic" clocks don't need to monitor the signal except for a few minutes each day. I have several battery-powered "atomic clocks" and all of them enable the receiver only for a few minutes, either every hour or twice a day depending on the particular design. The receiver I have connected to my computer is of course enabled all the time. Many years ago I worked on a "shop-shelf tag" system that used a low frequency receiver in a single-chip design, and it also had a power saving mechanism. The tags (powered by single lithium cell like those used as a BIOS backup battery) were usually in a sleep mode only driving the LCD, and once every so many seconds they briefly enabled the receiver. To run an update, the controller sent a wakeup signal that lasted long enough to get the attention of all tags, then it sent the updates addressed to each tag, and finally an end-of-transmission signal that put everything back into sleep mode. The lithium cell lasted several years, I think. |
Loop Antenna at ~60 kHz
On 11/5/2014 8:29 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
Incidentally, I don't believe using a high impedance loop and amp are good ideas. While there are benefits, my experiences from the marine radio biz convinced me that high voltage is an invitation to problems from condensation, salt fog, and PCB leakage. In other words, it works on the bench, but craps out in the field. I'll probably end up with a large high Q loop, and a separate low-Z coupling loop (i.e. a step down xformer). Not sure why you can't discuss this in the right thread of this group. I've posted my reply to your post in the loop antenna thread. First, I'm not sure what you are talking about connecting high impedance antennas to condensation and salt fog. If you are transmitting, then maybe you could get such high voltages as to attract microscopic objects, but this is a receiver design. Also, the antenna is not high impedance, just the input to the receiver. The transformer I am looking at is a high turns ratio current sensor. It spans the right frequency range and is a nice compact package easy to mount on a PCB. My main concern is lowering the Q because of the loading from the receiver input, especially with the change in impedance as reflected through the transformer. I think when I simulated it, I found the max signal strength came with a 25 or 33:1 turns ratio because with higher turns ratios the Q was spoiled enough to bring the voltage down at the receiver input. This simulation didn't include the effect of the radiation resistance, so I will need to add that in. I expect this will lower the Q as a starting point which means the affect from the receiver input loading will not be as significant, possibly making a higher turns ratio in the transformer more useful. -- Rick |
Loop Antenna at ~60 kHz
On Wed, 05 Nov 2014 20:50:31 -0500, rickman wrote:
Not sure why you can't discuss this in the right thread of this group. I've posted my reply to your post in the loop antenna thread. Because I prefaced my comments by mentioning that a 60 KHz loop is on my "agenda". I guess that's a bit vague. What I meant to say was that I'm not very well read on the technology involved, a total clutz with LTspice, and I haven't built another loop so I can measure how it acts. In other words, I'm not ready to discuss it (unless you can tolerate my guesswork). First, I'm not sure what you are talking about connecting high impedance antennas to condensation and salt fog. If you are transmitting, then maybe you could get such high voltages as to attract microscopic objects, but this is a receiver design. Well, a 33:1 turns ratio is a 1000:1 impedance ratio. Using 75 ohms as the coax cable and the characteristic impedance, that's 75K ohms. In general, board leakage and conduction problems start around 100K (depending on trace spacing etc), so I suspect you can make it work, at least on the bench. However, in the typical marine atmosphere, with ionic crud in the water, there will be leakage issues. I don't recall the typical sheet resistivity for a standing salt water puddle on a PCB, but I suspect it will be a problem. Of course, you can conformal coat the board, hermetically seal the package, wax dip it, or pot the antenna amplifier in epoxy to avoid the problem. However, the favored method is to design with low impedances and not create new problems with conformal coatings and sealed boxes. There are also some PCB layout tricks that will help. For example, here's part of a book on PCB design issues: http://www.analog.com/library/analogdialogue/archives/43-09/edch%2012%20pc%20issues.pdf See Pg 12-15 to 12-19 on "Static PCB Effects" with examples of PCB guard patterns. Incidentally, my unofficial test for decent design was to immerse the radio in a bucket of genuine San Francisco Bay salt water. If the board continued to operate normally, it passes. If not, I get to spend the evening with the bucket and a megohmmeter looking for the culprit. If you're building this loop as an academic exercise, you can probably ignore all the aforementioned comments on PCB leakage. However, if you're going to sell it, think carefully about such environment problems. Also, the antenna is not high impedance, just the input to the receiver. The transformer I am looking at is a high turns ratio current sensor. It spans the right frequency range and is a nice compact package easy to mount on a PCB. Why not just make it a 40 KHz tuned xformer? You get the same impedance transformation with the added bonus of additional bandwidth reduction (increased Q) to eliminate as much atmospheric and man made noise as possible. It's also much less lossy than a broadband xformer. My main concern is lowering the Q because of the loading from the receiver input, especially with the change in impedance as reflected through the transformer. Well, you're stuck with matching the loop to the receiver input anyway, so there's no way around that with passive components. You can insert an emitter follower to do the impedance transformation. Incidentally, the typical loaded Q for such loops seems to be around 100. Some claim 200 or more, but for small loops, 100 seems to be the target. At 40 KHz, that's a -3dB bandwidth of 200 Hz, which is rather wide for a 1Hz wide WWVB signal. You could probably increase the Q somewhat, mostly be reducing the resistive losses, but that might create drift and tuning accuracy problems. Higher Q is possible, but I suspect will require a much more rigid and beefy design. I think when I simulated it, I found the max signal strength came with a 25 or 33:1 turns ratio because with higher turns ratios the Q was spoiled enough to bring the voltage down at the receiver input. This simulation didn't include the effect of the radiation resistance, so I will need to add that in. I expect this will lower the Q as a starting point which means the affect from the receiver input loading will not be as significant, possibly making a higher turns ratio in the transformer more useful. I can't comment on that without seeing the design. Actually, I'm not sure seeing the design will help as I need to do some more reading before I can understand exactly how it works. 11:30PM. Time for dinner. -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 |
Loop Antenna at ~60 kHz
On Wed, 05 Nov 2014 23:23:32 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
wrote: Why not just make it a 40 KHz tuned xformer? Somehow, my brain converted the 60 KHz WWVB frequency, to the 40 KHz frequency of the vehicle detection system I'm working on. The frequencies mentioned should be 60 KHz and as usual, my arithmetic sucks. target. At 40 KHz, that's a -3dB bandwidth of 200 Hz, which is rather wide for a 1Hz wide WWVB signal. At 60 KHz, that's a -3dB bandwidth of 600 Hz, which is rather wide for a 1Hz wide WWVB signal. -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 |
Loop Antenna at ~60 kHz
On 11/6/2014 2:23 AM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Wed, 05 Nov 2014 20:50:31 -0500, rickman wrote: Not sure why you can't discuss this in the right thread of this group. I've posted my reply to your post in the loop antenna thread. Because I prefaced my comments by mentioning that a 60 KHz loop is on my "agenda". I guess that's a bit vague. What I meant to say was that I'm not very well read on the technology involved, a total clutz with LTspice, and I haven't built another loop so I can measure how it acts. In other words, I'm not ready to discuss it (unless you can tolerate my guesswork). I'm happy bouncing things off you. I did some reading on this back a year or so ago and feel like I got a lot, but not enough to really optimize it for my application. One thing I was missing was an understanding of the radiation resistance which I now have a formula for and can include in my LTspice simulation when I get to it. I don't quite have a feel for radiation resistance in terms of its effect on the receive antenna, but I'm sure that will come once I look at the equations. I expect it will be small, hopefully small compared to the wire resistance. One thing that gave me fits early on is the calculation of the loop inductance. Seems there are a lot of equations out there and most of the sources don't talk about where they got them or what they assume. I finally got one from Lundin that seems pretty good and covers the widest range of coils I might be using. First, I'm not sure what you are talking about connecting high impedance antennas to condensation and salt fog. If you are transmitting, then maybe you could get such high voltages as to attract microscopic objects, but this is a receiver design. Well, a 33:1 turns ratio is a 1000:1 impedance ratio. Using 75 ohms as the coax cable and the characteristic impedance, that's 75K ohms. Forget 75 ohms. There is no cable. The antenna connects directly to the receiver circuit through the transformer. The characteristics of the antenna are defined by the inductance of the loop and the resonance with the tuning capacitor and the Q. In general, board leakage and conduction problems start around 100K (depending on trace spacing etc), so I suspect you can make it work, at least on the bench. 100k? I will be using up to 10 Megohm parts but even that is not very sensitive to board leakage unless you leave a lot of rosin on the board and it collects dust for a few years. However, in the typical marine atmosphere, with ionic crud in the water, there will be leakage issues. I don't recall the typical sheet resistivity for a standing salt water puddle on a PCB, but I suspect it will be a problem. I won't be in salt spray, it will be in my living room. Still, any aquatic electronics would be in a sealed enclosure. Of course, you can conformal coat the board, hermetically seal the package, wax dip it, or pot the antenna amplifier in epoxy to avoid the problem. However, the favored method is to design with low impedances and not create new problems with conformal coatings and sealed boxes. There are also some PCB layout tricks that will help. For example, here's part of a book on PCB design issues: http://www.analog.com/library/analogdialogue/archives/43-09/edch%2012%20pc%20issues.pdf See Pg 12-15 to 12-19 on "Static PCB Effects" with examples of PCB guard patterns. I am familiar with guarding, but that is not going to be needed with an antenna. The voltage will be very low level even when the Q is optimized, so no appreciable leakage currents. Incidentally, my unofficial test for decent design was to immerse the radio in a bucket of genuine San Francisco Bay salt water. If the board continued to operate normally, it passes. If not, I get to spend the evening with the bucket and a megohmmeter looking for the culprit. If you're building this loop as an academic exercise, you can probably ignore all the aforementioned comments on PCB leakage. However, if you're going to sell it, think carefully about such environment problems. I don't think it will ever see duty on a sea vessel. Also, the antenna is not high impedance, just the input to the receiver. The transformer I am looking at is a high turns ratio current sensor. It spans the right frequency range and is a nice compact package easy to mount on a PCB. Why not just make it a 40 KHz tuned xformer? You get the same impedance transformation with the added bonus of additional bandwidth reduction (increased Q) to eliminate as much atmospheric and man made noise as possible. It's also much less lossy than a broadband xformer. What would that entail? My main concern is lowering the Q because of the loading from the receiver input, especially with the change in impedance as reflected through the transformer. Well, you're stuck with matching the loop to the receiver input anyway, so there's no way around that with passive components. You can insert an emitter follower to do the impedance transformation. You aren't in tune with this design. The goal is to minimize power. There won't be a preamp of any kind unless absolutely required. Incidentally, the typical loaded Q for such loops seems to be around 100. Some claim 200 or more, but for small loops, 100 seems to be the target. At 40 KHz, that's a -3dB bandwidth of 200 Hz, which is rather wide for a 1Hz wide WWVB signal. You could probably increase the Q somewhat, mostly be reducing the resistive losses, but that might create drift and tuning accuracy problems. Higher Q is possible, but I suspect will require a much more rigid and beefy design. There is only so much that can be done to increase Q. The wire I am using in the antenna is already pushing the skin effect at 1 mm diameter. If I am reading the equations correctly increasing the number of turns on the loop does increase Q. I am currently looking at 8 turns (50 feet of RG-6) and may increase it to 100 feet (16 turns). But I've already built a support and 16 turns will be hard to add without a redesign. I think when I simulated it, I found the max signal strength came with a 25 or 33:1 turns ratio because with higher turns ratios the Q was spoiled enough to bring the voltage down at the receiver input. This simulation didn't include the effect of the radiation resistance, so I will need to add that in. I expect this will lower the Q as a starting point which means the affect from the receiver input loading will not be as significant, possibly making a higher turns ratio in the transformer more useful. I can't comment on that without seeing the design. Actually, I'm not sure seeing the design will help as I need to do some more reading before I can understand exactly how it works. The equations are pretty simply once I found them (and could trust I had the right ones). Lundin's formula for inductance of a solenoid L = N^2 * a * Correction Factor * μ0 N is the number of turns a is the loop radius in meters the correction factor based on the coil shape is a bit complex but comes to 3.3 ballpark with the loop shape used. μ0 is the permeability of free space He is the effective height of the antenna, an expression of the effectiveness of the antenna in converting the field into a voltage. He = 2pi * N * A / λ, ignoring the orientation factor cos θ. N is the number of turns A is the loop area in meters^2 λ is the wavelength of the 60 kHz signal Inductance and frequency get the reactance which when compared to the total loss resistance yields the Q. Multiply the effective height by the field strength (on the east coast it's ~100 uV from WWVB) to get the antenna voltage. Someone was trying to get me to use an equation based on the magnetic field but I believe once you combine the equations you get the same calculation. Multiply by Q and the transformer ratio and you have the voltage at the receiver input. Wire resistance goes up with the product of N and a, or in other words the length of the cable. The loop inductance goes up with N^2 and a. Effective height goes up with N and a squared (area). So a bigger loop will get a larger signal but the same Q. Adding turns will get a larger signal *and* a higher Q. Obviously the size of the loop has an upper limit based on practicality, but more turns gets improved performance with less impact on the size. -- Rick |
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