50MHz Receiver for the IR Detector

This project is about the receiver for my IR controlled transmitter.

The receiver works at 50MHz and is crystal controlled and will
receive and decode DTMF signals.
All contribution to this page are most welcome!

Background
This receiver belongs to my IR-transmitter project.
To understand this receiver, I advice you first to read about the IR-transmitter.
This project will describe the receiver part I have made for the IR-transmitter. It is a 50MHz
receiver based on the MC3371/MC3372 circuit. The circuit is a crystal controlled FM receiver. I
have also implemented a dual gate preamplifier to gain sensistivity. This unit will receive and
decode the DTMF codes from the transmitter. I have a DTMF decoder circuit MT8870 which will
decode the incomming tones and finally a PIC16F84 is connected to the MT8870 to control the
system and give sound alarms.
I will fresh up your memory about the 3 DTMF codes I use in the transmitter.

Code 19 : It has been a IR-detection.

Code 18 : "keep in touch" (sends every 10 second).
Code 17 : "beep" (Remote mode).
more pics
This receiver is small and portable. The power supply is a simple 9V battery.
One problem with all receiver and transmitter is the antenna. Antenna size and performance is
often opposite factors. An antenna (dipol) is quit large specially at 50MHz, but the performance
will be much better than a short whip or helical antenna. This portable receiver use 75 cm wire as
an antenna. It will give reasonable good reception and will not be too large in size, if you are
nothappy with that, you could use a 9-element Yagi antenna if you want...*smiling*

Block diagram

Most of this project has been explained in my other projects. The antenna is connected to a
preamplifier based on a dual gate mosfet. The preamplifier will also match the antenna and the
FM receiver circuit for best performance for the acutal frequency (about 50MHz). The FM-receiver
will demodulate the incomming signal to a LF (audio) signal of 100mV. A DTMF circuit listen
constantly to the LF signal and when a DTMF tone is present, the circuit will identify it and decode
it to a digital number. A PIC processor will read the digital number and make action of the
incomming code. The PIC will also make the beeping sound to alarm the user and also control
the power to the unit.

The advantage to use a DTMF circuit is because it is specially designed to decode the DTMF
tone from the LF signal. The input LF-signal to the DTMF circuit can vary from 27.5mV to 869mV
RMS which is quit good span.
The filter in the DTMF circuit:
The low and high group tones are separated by applying the dual-tone signal to the inputs of two
6th order switched capacitor bandpass filters with bandwidths that correspond to the bands
enclosing the low and high group tones. The filter also incorporates notches at 350 and 440 Hz,
providing excellent dial tone rejection. Each filter output is followed by a single-order switched
capacitor section that smooths the signals prior to limiting. Signal limiting is performed by
highgain comparators provided with hysteresis to prevent detection of unwanted low-level signals
and noise.
Conclusion: The DTMF circuit is outstanding to recover the data from a bad signal.

Schematic

Lets have a look at the schematic. Most of the component I use are
surface mounted, that is why you can't see all of them on the photo. The
antenna is connected to coil L1 at a tap point (se fig at right). This is to
match the impedance. With good match the input filter L1 and C1 will be
narrow and reject all unwanted frequency. The input is connected to gate
1 at the dual gate mosfet BF990A. You can use any dual gate fet as long
as it has good gain. BF991 or BF981 will work good as well. Gate 2 is
connected to half voltage to set the gain. At the drain of the fet, you will
find L2 and C2 which is a tuned filter, and this filter also has the same
function as the input filter. It will also impedance match the input to the radio circuit. L1 and L2 are
not difficult to make. Just make 10 turns around a drill with 7.2mm diameter,and tap it at 2/3 from
the cold side. My test has show that this will give good performance. You can of course
experiment yourself with different tap points and check which will give the best performance. If
you tap L1 closer to the cold side you will make it more narrow, and that can make it difficult to
tune. see my Front end design of antenna page to understand why. When the preamplifier is
finished you should shield it in some way or else it might not work good. I have build a box of Cu
and drilled 2 hole where I can put a ceramic screw driver to tune C1 and C2. Without shielding
the preamplifier will detune and be sensitive for hand effects.

Receiver part:
The FM-receiver is a basic MC3371/3372 circuit. It has everything you need to build a receiver. A
crystal is oscillating at pin 1 & 2 and there is a coil (0.47uH) to make sure it oscillate at third
overtone. Before the mixed signal is demodulated, it passes a 455kHz ceramic filter . I have
found mine in an old cordless phone. Finally there is a quad coil which demodulate the IF and
brings out the LF (DTMF tones) at pin 9.
Pin 13 is the RSSI output (Relative Signal Strength Indicator) which give you voltage of how
strong the RF signal is. I have connected a LED-voltmeter to this output when I tune the receiver.
You can read more about this in the tuning section.

DTMF part:
This circuit doesn't need much components to work. It need an input frequency of 3.579545MHz,
and It need a resistor R1 and C3 to set the time constant to detect a valid input DTMF tone. I will
explain how it works. The pin 15 is called Delayed steering output (StD). If the DTMF-circuit
detects a DTMF input tone, it will start to charge C3 through R1. When the level has reached a
predefined level the StD output will go high indicating that there is a valid input DTMF tone, which
can be read by the PIC. If the input DTMF tone no longer exist, C3 will discharge and the StD will
go low again. By choosing the values of R1 and C3, you can define how long the input DTMF
signal has to be, before the circuit accept it. In my transmitter I send the first key during 50mS
and then i have a pause of 50mS and finally the last key for also 50mS. By choosing R1 to 300k
and C3 to 100nF, the DTMF circuit want the signal to be at least 30 mS befor it accept it and set
the StD high. You can read more detalied info about this in the datasheets. If the StD-time is set
to short, the circuit might trigg StD on noise and if you set it too long (longer than 50mS) the
circuit will never trigg.

You may find this receiver too complex with PIC-cpu and DTMF and all.
I have added this extra to this receiver just to make it possible to send several commands to the
receiver and to obtain a reliable communication. I use only two digit in my transfere, but you can
use as many as you want. (Example if you use 8 tones you will have 100 milion combinations)
such transfer would take 800ms.
By using DTMF, the radio system will not be so sensitive to noise. With this concept you can use
the same frequency for several receivers, you only need to have different ID-number for each
receiver.

Power supply
When the ON/OFF button is pressed the power will flow through the diod (1N4148) and into the
7805 regulator which will provide the PIC with power. As soon as the PIC wakes it will set RB6
high which will make the NPN and the PNP transistor saturate and the power will continue to flow.
The input RA1 probe the status of the ON/OFF button and if this button is pressed again, the PIC
will beep and let RB6 go low, which will cut the power to the unit.
I can now use one button to switch ON/OFF the receiver.

Tuning
This receiver need some tuning to work well.
 The preamplifier has a tuned LC circuits. L1 and
C1 tunes the antenna (wire about 75cm) to
receiving frequency. L2 and C2 should also be
tune to receiving frequency and to give best
receiving signal and less noise. The easiest way
is to shield the preamplifier and drill 2 holes so
you can tune the two capacitor. It is important to
have good shileding, else it will detune and not
work properly. I have build a portable audio
amplifier and I use it to tune the preamplifier by
conecting the output from the receiver pin9 to
the audio amplifier. I can now hear the DTMF
signal and it then I walk away some hundred
meter from the transmitter and tune the
preamplifier until I get the best performance.

One important thing to remeber is that if you connect a wire to the receiver, for example to the
audioamplifier I explained above, you will change the groundplane size and you will tune the unit
with the new groundplane. When you have tuned the unit and you disconect the wire, the
groundplane change again and the unit will be detuned. What you should do in this case is to
connect a 5k serie resistor in the ground wire and a 5k serie resistor in the signal wire, befor it is
attached to the receiver unit (See fig at right). The total impedance will be 10k and the ground
plane of the receiver will not be affected of the audio amplifier I have connected to hear the
signal.
When I did my test I soldered the two 5k resistor direct on the PCB of my receiver.
You should also tune the quad coild for best audio receiving!