The Analog Interface Module, shown in Fig. 1, provides two Analog to Digital (A-D) conversion de- vices, two Digital to Analog (D-A) conversion devices, a comparator, various buffers, and an analog meter. intended to demonstrate a variety of analog interface concepts using limited-precision monolithic devices and could be used to prove feasibility where higher accuracy is required. All components are configured on the board for a 0 to 10 volt range. The Diagram of Fig. 2 shows the major functions on the board as well as giving a schematic identification of the 1/0 pins on the board. ‘The schematic diagram is the last figure ofthis repor. D-A Converter - Resistor Ladder One type of D-A Converter is represented by an Analog Devices ADSS8. It uses a resistor network to add binary weighted values from a reference (on the chip) to an output current. This is converted to a volt- age and scaled to 10V full scale by an op amp (also within the IC). It is an 8 bit converter which puts out 0 volts when the input is all 0's and puts out +10 volts with all T's input. Each bit change produces a change of about 40mV(10v/256 levels), The output voltage settles tty 2v +5y blue looms violt red black 2 Analog Interface Block Diagram The Micro Lab Analog Interface Module Fig. 1 Analog Interface Board in about 1 microsecond. ‘The ADSSS has an internal latch (transparently en- abled on the lab board) which makes it suitable for rect interface to a microcomputer bus. It can also oper- ate off only 5 volts (0 to 2.56 volt output range). A741 operational amplifier is added, along with 7407 TTL buffers, for protection, (ADSS85_ cost about "$7.50 each in Dive quantity of 25). Other D-A techniques Aside from the resistive-ladder type of conversion, there are at least two other techniques which involve a single bit stream and an analog integration component, The first gnd involves a _—_frequency-to-voltage MAconvert conversion where the input from the Esta e80y- Computer i a varablefequeney pulse twain with the higher frequency producing the higher voltage output. This could be done with a different configuration of the LM331. do ‘The second technique, commonly used for high-resolution audio output as in digital audio or CD players, is called signa-delta conversion. It entails a bit stream driving a one-bit converterWhich feeds an integrator. A stream of 15 drive the output high and a stream of 0s drive it low. An alternating stream of 1s and 0s would produce a mid- range value. In both cases the rate of change is limited but there can be very real benefits to a system that is 1/0 pin lim- ited or aiming to minimize hardware costs. Comparator ‘A National Semiconductor LM 311 comparator is included to allow the D-A Converter to be used under microcomputer control as an A-D Converter. The mi- ‘ro can_adjust the digital input of the D-A until the re- sulting D-A output voltage crosses over the unknown ‘analog voltage. At that point the digital input is the ‘equivalent of the unknown analog voltage. There are three common methods the computer can use to find the “cross over” point: 1)ramping - counting up one count at atime 2)suecessive approximation - trying the most sig- nificant bit, either including or zeroing the bit based on the comparator response, and working down to the least significant bit, 3)tracking - trying the most recent value and ad- justing up or down to find the new value. The first method could take anywhere from 1 to 256 tries to find the crossover. Method two always re- quires 8 trials to establish the value (for an 8 bit resolu- tion). Method three can take as few as 1 or 2 tries if the voltage being measured is changing slowly compared to the measurement frequency. ‘The comparator puts out a logic 1 when the un- known is less than the D-A voltage or a 0 when it is greater. Because of the high gain and about 30mV of hysteresis, a rapid transition occurs when the voltages cross over, and the device never considers “equal” as an output option. Analog Meter ‘The voltmeter can be switched between displaying. the analog input (from a pot on the board or from an external input) or the analog output from the D-A con- verter. It is omly accurate to a few percent of full scale and is quite slow in responding to voltage changes. Ob- serving actual D-A activity under computer control re- quires an oscilloscope since software loops can produce steps in as little as 10 microseconds. The digital meter connection posts can be also used for an oscilloscope. A-D Converter--Successive Approximation ‘The A-D converter on the board is an Analog De- vices ADS73, It is a monolithic 10-bit converter which puts out a code of 0000000000 for zero volts and a code of 1111111111 for 10 volts, so each bit change represents a voltage change of about 10 mV. ‘As configured for the lab board, a convert com- ‘mand must be sent from an I/O port. You can drive the CONVERT line high and then immediately back low (producing at least a 500 nSec. pulse). Following the start of conversion, you can read correct data only after the DATA READY/ line goes low (up to 30 microSec af- ter the start of conversion), The — simplest way to do this is {assumes d2-c9 to poate [strobe to esb of PoaTe Jeatardy/ "co bits of porte HClgnorts Becton 2"bits oF result to toggle the readad: mov dtr CONVERT line feria ae and then pen epee immediately sows Béptr enter a polling | * my sath iow on Da Segoe READY/. This ret” is the method |p, Show in igs | FS AD Interac Sofware and 4, It would embly be more efficient for the software 10 g0 off and do something else | yint resdad (void and return Poriesteas; sometime later to check the Tine, Tt is also | 9 possible to use an interrupt to the computer driven off the negative edge of the DATA READY/ line to avoid the inefficiency of polling. The data remains on the A-D output lines until the next conversion is started, so there may be cases where you might not collect the data for some time. PPassunes 42-9 into, PORTE ‘rd into Isb of PORTE Strobe ‘from neb of PORTE datardy/"to bits of PORTCH/ rerdy 2087 Theo Terorreas»9; Fig. 4 A-D Interface Software~-C ‘The AD 573 uses successive approximation tech- niques (described in the D-A section) which gives rela- tively fast conversion, In this ease, the 10-bit reading is available in 10 to 30 microseconds. Successive approxi- mation is not very noise immune during the measure- ment period because a glitch can cause an erroneous comparison and produce errors all through the rest ofthe conversion... In a normal design the device could casily stand alone directly on the microcomputer’s bus. Here the 741 and 7407s are added to protect the device (Which costs about $17.50 in quantity 25). ‘The device in- cludes its own clock and voltage reference as well as the tri-state buffering to allow the 10 bits to be read as a group of eight and a group of 2 bits enabled directly on a bus. A-D Converter - Voltage To Frequency ‘The National Semiconductor LM 331 is used here as a voltage fo frequency converter. An oscillator (pulse generator) changes output frequency in a manner di rectly related to an incoming voltage. The computer ei ther measures the time between two pulses or counts pulses for a fixed period of time to determine the un- known voltage. ‘The latter method is preferable since it js much more noise immune. This conversion method can also be quite accurate and inexpensive. It also al- lows simple and inexpensive optical isolation for noise suppression, breaking ground loops, and computer pro- tection. (The LM 331 costs $3.00 in quantity of 25), Other A-D techniques Integrating converters measure the incoming volt- age over a long time in a way that averages out noise, so the reading can be quite stable. The technique is partc- ularly useful for readings of steady signals in lots of noise, and can be quite precise for relatively low costs. ‘Two (patented) variations of the basic integrating con- version method are called dual slope and charge bal- ancing. Another, much faster conversion technique is called flash conversion. A voltage ladder with every pos- sible reading level (256 for 8-bits) feeds that many com- parators which in turn feed a logic network to get the re- sult in a time limited by the propagation delays. You can see that this involves a lot of circuitry for the resotu- and increases significantly as resolution goes up. Flash conversion is commonly used to digitize video s nals for image processing. Its price rules it out for in- clusion on this board!