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Audio frequency generator? — Parallax Forums

Audio frequency generator?

ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
edited 2000-04-17 05:33 in General Discussion
Hello everyone,

I'm looking for a good way to generate different audio
tones. Freqout works well, but ties up the stamp so that it can't do
anything else. I want something simple (an oscillator of some type) that
the stamp can turn on and then go about it's business. Does a 555 generate
square waves or sine waves? Any other suggestions?

Duncan

Comments

  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-04-12 06:56
    Duncan:
    You could use a 555, which generates square waves, and pass the square waves
    thru a simple lowpass RC network. The better you filter, the less output,
    so you may need to amplify it, depending on your application.


    555
    R
    Output
    |

    C
    |
    GND
    R & C value depend on frequency..try 1K and ~2uf. If load is high Z, could
    use 10K & ~0.2uf.

    Ray McArthur

    Original Message
    From: <orthner@s...>
    To: <basicstamps@egroups.com>
    Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2000 9:53 PM
    Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Audio frequency generator?


    >
    > Hello everyone,
    >
    > I'm looking for a good way to generate different audio
    > tones. Freqout works well, but ties up the stamp so that it can't do
    > anything else. I want something simple (an oscillator of some type) that
    > the stamp can turn on and then go about it's business. Does a 555 generate
    > square waves or sine waves? Any other suggestions?
    >
    > Duncan
    >
    >
    >
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-04-12 09:09
    An 8038 produces sine waves, the last time I checked. Don't know where
    it's available. Who cares if the signal is a square or a sine wave
    anyway?

    Please check out: [url=HTTP://www.findchips.com/]HTTP://www.findchips.com/[/url] for a source of suppliers.
    Jameco has them for about $4. A data sheet is available also there.

    Leroy

    rjmca wrote:
    >
    > Duncan:
    > You could use a 555, which generates square waves, and pass the square waves
    > thru a simple lowpass RC network. The better you filter, the less output,
    > so you may need to amplify it, depending on your application.
    >
    > 555
    R
    Output
    > |
    >
    >
    C
    > |
    > GND
    > R & C value depend on frequency..try 1K and ~2uf. If load is high Z, could
    > use 10K & ~0.2uf.
    >
    > Ray McArthur
    >
    >
    Original Message
    > From: <orthner@s...>
    > To: <basicstamps@egroups.com>
    > Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2000 9:53 PM
    > Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Audio frequency generator?
    >
    > >
    > > Hello everyone,
    > >
    > > I'm looking for a good way to generate different audio
    > > tones. Freqout works well, but ties up the stamp so that it can't do
    > > anything else. I want something simple (an oscillator of some type) that
    > > the stamp can turn on and then go about it's business. Does a 555 generate
    > > square waves or sine waves? Any other suggestions?
    > >
    > > Duncan
    > >
    > >
    > >

    --
    *******************************************************
    * \\|// *
    * ( @ @ ) *
    *----oOO--(_)--OOo
    *
    * Leroy Hall, Senior N8VRC *
    * Instructor / Trainer -- Computers & Electronics *
    * Email: leroy@f... *
    * Web Page: http://home.fuse.net/leroy/resume.htm *
    * Web Page: http://home.fuse.net/leroy/ *
    * Phone: (513) 697-7539 317 Cherokee Drive *
    * Pager: (513) 691-4361 Loveland, Ohio 45140-2404 *
    * Oooo. *
    * .oooO ( ) *
    * ( ) ) / *
    * \ ( (_/ *
    * \_) *
    *******************************************************
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-04-12 17:13
    Duncan,

    Micro Linear makes an interesting series of sine wave generator chips that
    are serially programmable and very precise. Look up ML2035~7 at
    www.microlinear.com. I don't know if anyone has used them with Stamps...

    > I'm looking for a good way to generate different audio
    >tones. Freqout works well, but ties up the stamp so that it can't do
    >anything else. I want something simple (an oscillator of some type) that
    >the stamp can turn on and then go about it's business. Does a 555 generate
    >square waves or sine waves? Any other suggestions?

    Mike Hardwick, for Decade Engineering -- <http://www.decadenet.com>
    Manufacturer of the famous BOB-II Serial Video Text Display Module!
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-04-12 18:23
    > I'm looking for a good way to generate different audiotones.
    > Freqout works well, but ties up the stamp so that it can't
    > doanything else. I want something simple (an oscillator of some
    > type) thatthe stamp can turn on and then go about it's business.
    > Does a 555 generatesquare waves or sine waves? Any other suggestions?

    "Art of Electronics" table 5.4 lists many VCO (Voltage controlled
    oscillator) chips. One easy possibility if you can use a square wave with
    not too great stability, is the CD4046 PLL chip. It contains a VCO you
    could drive directly through an RC circuit with the PWM command from the
    stamp to program the frequency. Just return from time to time to refresh
    the PWM voltage. At the high end, there are modules on the market that
    can be programmed via RS232 or parallel to sythesize highly accurate,
    stable sine waves.

    -- Tracy Allen
    Electronically Monitored Ecosystems
    http://www.emesystems.com
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-04-13 12:23
    At 01:56 AM 4/12/00 -0400, Ray wrote:

    >You could use a 555, which generates square waves, and pass the square waves
    >thru a simple lowpass RC network. The better you filter, the less output,
    >so you may need to amplify it, depending on your application.

    Thanks Ray, I knew you'd come up with something 8^]. I'd like to use a 555
    but can't see how I can change the frequency with the stamp (I need eight
    tones). Does the RC circuit charge/discharge on every oscillation? I guess
    I could use eight 555's...

    Thanks, Duncan
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-04-13 13:07
    At 04:09 AM 4/12/00 -0400, Leroy wrote:

    >An 8038 produces sine waves, the last time I checked. Don't know where
    >it's available. Who cares if the signal is a square or a sine wave
    >anyway?

    Audio tones are sine waves. I checked the datasheet for this device and it
    looks great. I'll order some today...

    Thanks, Duncan
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-04-13 19:37
    Duncan:
    I don't know of a simple, "clean" way to set multiple tones with a 555. It
    can be done, (like turning on 1 of 7 additional transistors), but it should
    be compared to other approaches. I would check out some of the other ICs
    that were posted in response to your message. For example Mike Hardwick's
    suggestion:

    Micro Linear makes an interesting series of sine wave generator chips that
    are serially programmable and very precise. Look up ML2035~7 at
    www.microlinear.com. I don't know if anyone has used them with Stamps...

    A serially programmed chip may allow sending one serout command, after which
    the stamp can do other work.

    or Tracy's suggestion: CD4046 PLL chip, using the VCO. This would require
    periodic updates to the PWM voltage.

    Eight 555's would be simple to set up, but lots of hardware.

    Ray McArthur


    Original Message
    From: <orthner@s...>
    To: <basicstamps@egroups.com>
    Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2000 7:23 AM
    Subject: Re: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Audio frequency generator?


    > At 01:56 AM 4/12/00 -0400, Ray wrote:
    >
    > >You could use a 555, which generates square waves, and pass the square
    waves
    > >thru a simple lowpass RC network. The better you filter, the less
    output,
    > >so you may need to amplify it, depending on your application.
    >
    > Thanks Ray, I knew you'd come up with something 8^]. I'd like to use a 555
    > but can't see how I can change the frequency with the stamp (I need eight
    > tones). Does the RC circuit charge/discharge on every oscillation? I guess
    > I could use eight 555's...
    >
    > Thanks, Duncan
    >
    >
    >
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-04-13 20:49
    On Thu, 13 Apr 2000 orthner@s... wrote:

    > At 04:09 AM 4/12/00 -0400, Leroy wrote:
    >
    > >An 8038 produces sine waves, the last time I checked. Don't know where
    > >it's available. Who cares if the signal is a square or a sine wave
    > >anyway?
    >
    > Audio tones are sine waves. I checked the datasheet for this device and it
    > looks great. I'll order some today...

    Um...No.

    In traditional electronic synthesis, Audio tones can be sine, triangle,
    square, usually with filters on the top of them. for "real" sounds,
    they're often much, much more complex. This is where the popular
    "wavetable synthesis" comes from"

    Sean T. Lamont, CTO / Chief NetNerd, Abstract Software, Inc. (ServNet)
    Seattle - Bellingham - Vancouver - Portland - Everett - Tacoma - Bremerton
    email: lamont@a... WWW: http://www.serv.net
    "...There's no moral, it's just a lot of stuff that happens". - H. Simpson
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-04-14 03:52
    At 12:49 PM 4/13/00 -0700, Sean wrote:
    >
    >In traditional electronic synthesis, Audio tones can be sine, triangle,
    >square, usually with filters on the top of them. for "real" sounds,
    >they're often much, much more complex. This is where the popular
    >"wavetable synthesis" comes from"

    So I can generate eight distinct, clear tones with positive-going 0-5v
    square pulses? This would simplify things a bit...

    Duncan
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-04-14 16:37
    I would like to suggest two possible solutions of varying complexity.
    The first is a chip called a "melody tone generator". It generates all
    of the musical scale frequencies by inputing a digital address. This
    may require quite a few stamps pins. It used to be sold by radio shack
    but I don't know where you's get one now.

    The second solution is quite fancy. The AY3-8910 is a 3 channel
    ASDR synthesizer chip. You program the Attack, Delay,Sustain,
    and Release values into the chip to create an audio waveform.
    With 3 channels, you can mix to create complex layered sounds.
    The chip has a simple digital interface, the programming is left
    to the end user. Good Luck.
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-04-14 21:03
    On Thu, 13 Apr 2000 orthner@s... wrote:

    > At 12:49 PM 4/13/00 -0700, Sean wrote:
    > >
    > >In traditional electronic synthesis, Audio tones can be sine, triangle,
    > >square, usually with filters on the top of them. for "real" sounds,
    > >they're often much, much more complex. This is where the popular
    > >"wavetable synthesis" comes from"
    >
    > So I can generate eight distinct, clear tones with positive-going 0-5v
    > square pulses? This would simplify things a bit...

    Yes. It's a bit more "tinny" of a sound.


    Sean T. Lamont, CTO / Chief NetNerd, Abstract Software, Inc. (ServNet)
    Seattle - Bellingham - Vancouver - Portland - Everett - Tacoma - Bremerton
    email: lamont@a... WWW: http://www.serv.net
    "...There's no moral, it's just a lot of stuff that happens". - H. Simpson
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-04-17 05:33
    Thanks everyone for their input on this (Tracy, Leroy, Ray, et. al). I'm
    using a 555 timer and selecting different resistors with the stamp. Simple,
    cheap and works great. For any application requiring higher precision, I
    think the serial VCO's would be better - I'm getting approx. 1% variation
    in frequency. For audio tones it works fine!

    Thanks again, Duncan

    (Don't know what I would do without this list)
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