Philip A Covington’s Blog

R1 represents the signal source impedance, in this case 200 ohms. If R2 is 4 x 200 ohms = 800 ohms the conversion loss is the same as a single switch with signal integrating capacitor driven by a 25% duty cycle clock. If the clock's duty cycle is increased to 50% the circuit shows some conversion gain. One side of the switch is now effectively grounded (virtual gound of the opamp). The next thing would be to investigate increasing the source impedance that each switch sees. Below is a two switch model with LT1115 op amps:

Below is a plot of a model of a two switch QSD circuit. It shows voltage gain in dB vs switch on time. The input frequency is 10.005 MHz. The sampling clock period is 100 nS (10.000 MHz). Below is a plot of a model of a four switch QSD circuit. It also shows voltage gain in dB vs switch on time. The input frequency is 10.005 MHz. The sampling clock period is 100 nS (10.000 MHz). The model that I used can be downloaded here . You will need Linear Technology's SWCAD program to run it. An Excel spreadsheet containing the above data can be downloaded here . The interesting part about the above data is that the QSD seems to have the most gain when the sampling clock on time is about 20 - 25% of its period. This seems to be true in all the different models (ideal and real switches) and configurations (balanced, sinngle ended) that I have tried. Phil Harmon, VK6APH, I believe has also found this to be true in his modeling. So a 50% duty cycle clock does not seem to be beneficial.

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I have added an analog meter to the SharpDSP Mini Console. I borrowed the image from meterpanel. The scale on the meter is not calibrated. You can substitute your own meter face image in place of the default image. Here are the details of the meter face image: Size: 220 x 220 pixels Type: png, gif, jpeg, bmp, tiff Origin of the image is 0,0 at top - left hand corner of the image The image file should be placed in the SharpDSPMiniConsole folder. Here is the important part of the softrock.config.xml file relating to the meter: AnalogMeterImageName is the file name of the meter face image. AnalogMeterCorrection is the correction factor in dBm to apply to the analog meter reading. It defines the zero point - here it is set for -130 dBm. AnalogMeterNeedleLength defines the length in pixels of the needle AnalogMeterMinAngle defines the angle of the end of the needle pointer in relation to vertical (defined as needle pointing straight up - zero degrees) when the mete...

SharpDSP Mini Console for the SoftRock: It is available on my website at http://www.philcovington.com/SDR.html Center Frequency Calibration Procedure: The SharpDSP Mini Console allows you to set any desired center frequency. For the standard SoftRock 40 the center frequency is 7.056 Mhz. To get an accurate frequency display you will need to calibrate this setting. Here is how I did it: I set my HP8640B signal generator to 7040 kHz. I moved the low filter slider to -2000 Hz and the high filter slider to +2000 Hz. I then selected SSB/DSB/CW from the Mode menu. I then moved the frequency tuning slider until I got zero beat on the 7040 kHz signal. This occurred around 7046 kHz on my SoftRock 40. I then clicked on the Setup->Center Freq menu. The text box showed that the software was set for a center frequency of 7056 kHz (7056000). Using the fine tuning slider I adjusted the displayed frequency (at the bottom of the screen above the frequency tuning slider) until it read 7040000 - exact...

Hi all, This is a response to a few questions that someone posted on my blog page requesting more info about the project. I have copied it here since it kind of gives a quick outline of where I am going: -------------------------------------------------------------------- I saw your comment on my blog page. Thanks for the link. I am using libusb-win32 which is a port of the open source libusb project for Linux. My intention is to use the libusb API since it is the same on Windows as it is on Linux. On Windows is consists of a device driver and a interface DLL. They have an inf file generator that will create an .inf file for your device. I am having very good luck with libusb. I have written a C#.NET library to interface to the libusb-win32 DLL. It works under the Mono framework in both Windows (using the libusb-win32 driver and DLL) and Linux (using the libusb shared library). It is pretty cool to be able to write software and have it work without recompiling on both Win and Linux pla...