The Anything Transmitter - progress report..... Update

Wired the output of the FIFO to the AD9761 dual DAC.

wrote a test program that makes an IQ sequential file with 2 sine waves of different frequency for I and Q:

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Added a 4046 PLL, could not find any 74HC[T]4046 in the box, found an old CD4046, using it at its extreme of 4.1 MHz (officially goes to

2???) Had a fight with the AD9761 datasheet terminology: Inputs are 'latched at the positive edge of the clock'. A latch and a D flipflop in my experience are 2 very different things, I would expect a latch to pass on the signal when its control input is high (or low), and a D flipflop to trigger on a positive (or negative) edge, but a latch that triggers on a positive edge?

Comments? This right?

Anyways that caused some circuit changes, needed an inverter, only had an old

7402 quad NOR in the box, (not LS of HC[T], YES a good ol'd TTL!!! ) It worked after 40 years of deep sleep, replaced the diode OR gate with it (I take back what I wrote in previous post about diode OR gates, it was not fast enough with the Raspberry flat cable as load) so now I had a NOR on board, used that).

All works, the test program version 2 (has loop function):

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All this makes an IQ file with 2 audio tones if you clock it at 4.096 MHz... It shows 100% channel separation and correct working of FIFO wait function (I can tune the frequency way down and the output IQ goes down with it). Good output amplitude, connected an earphone to listen to it. In this picture the scope is not triggered, and the 2 sine waves have different frequency (are in no way locked, see C source), was difficult to take a picture of that:

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Anyways, I will for now leave that TTL in, you can see it hanging from the side of the board in this picture:
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Will have to put it on the board some day.

So now I can use these IQ signals or more preferably ones recorded at 2048 Msamples /second with rtl_sdr, to modulate a carrier, this will be done with an AD8346.

Probably the first test will be to record a FM station as IQ samples, and then replay the IQ samples into the AD8346 QAM modulator, and see if out comes usable audio after demodulation (with rtl_fm).

IF that works then the 'Anything Transmitter' 'universal replay attacker' or whatever will have been proven.

It is a bit challenging to see how these IQ signals will recreate for example the spectrum of an FM modulated carrier.

Fun Fun Fun...

Reply to
Jan Panteltje
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It Works! recorded FM radio at 107.2 MHz stereo with 'rtl_sdr' at 2048000 samples / second. rtl_sdr -f 107200000 fm_test.iq

Playback file from Raspberry B with 'send_iq' VCO at 1575420000 Hz... (ahum).

Listening on PC with rtl_fm at normal sample rate! rtl_fm -f 1575420000 -W - | play -t raw -r 24k -e signed-integer -b 16 -c 1

-V1 -

I can set the playback speed (audio pitch!) in the modulator with the 4046 oscillator. Quality is OK.

Carrier frequency is slowly drifting, VCO free running with trimpot tuning. Somehow rtl_fm keeps locked!

Wow, never expected it to work first time.....

Pictures :-) The recreated FM music spectrum at 1575420000:

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The I (and Q) signal at the modulator looks almost digital.. recorded that way with rtl_sdr:

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Only these SMDs made it possible to do the RF stuff on this board in such a small space:

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These boards with the small 1/10 inch isles are very nice for SMD work! look close, there is at some places one or more at every pin...

Bit zoomed out view:

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Component side, CD4046 sample clock generator 74LS02 quad NOR gate as inverter, and NOR gate for FIFO full..

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That red clip is the antenna, no power amp on board yet,,,, The golden square thing below the AD8346 QAM chip is the VCO, there are 2 trimpots, the left sets the 4046 4.1 MHz sample frequency (audio pitch in this test), and the right one the RF frequency (1575420000 Hz).

2 4kx9 FIFOs on top of each other top left, an AD9761 dual DAC with filter next to it. All runs on 5V from a LM317 powered from about 9.4V

The little cut in half IC adaptor top right holds a :256 prescaler, so I can later PLL that VCO (on this board or via the right hand connector to the FPGA board, that can then alos replace teh 4046 VCO with something more stable and accurate).

Its is a 100% success, theory proven... Going to have a piza now!

QED

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

I wrote (not the 'I' for 'I' and 'Q'):

with rtl_sdr:

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Funny, it occurred to me I am likely sending signed 8 bits into that DAC.. (rtl_sdr recording format).

So the signal, even for small amplitudes flips between say 0, 1, 2.. and 255,

254, 253.. real digital! Will have to fix that for unsigned in send_iq.c.

Real amazing is that that seems to have little or any effect on the FM sound quality. This is likely because in case of FM most info is in the frequency changes of I and Q, not in the amplitude changes ?? Wild guess.

It reminds me of long time ago this evaluation of 'secret transmission (crypto an modulation techniques)', where they decoded it simply by using a low-pass, that showed the data... Bits not balanced. Maybe one day when we detect transmissions from some alien planet just by the same coincidence we will get some data, as very likely their modulation systems, if done right, will look like white noise. Reason SETI never sees anything, try explaining that to them..

Fun :-)

OK, so much for reflections on yesterdays experiment, will have to check this an re-run tests...

!
Reply to
Jan Panteltje

I wrote (not the 'I' for 'I' and 'Q'):

with rtl_sdr:

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No I did it right, rtl_sdr records unsigned!

Good, now I will try an AM station... where to find it... my converter.....! At least on AM Iand Q should look like sinewaves.... ??

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

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