You could try putting an RC low-pass filter between the CPLD output and the op-amp non-inverting input, to convert the PWM into a DC voltage. At the moment, you're relying on the guage to do the averaging, you're working the op-amp rail-to-rail, more like a logic buffer than an analogue amplifier, and it sounds like you could have a slew-rate problem.
Hi,
I've got a CPLD generating a 5V PWM signal which is used to drive an analogue gauge. The first gauge I had had a range from 0 to 5V, so I took a LM358 op-amp, connected V+ to 5V and V- to GND, set up a voltage follower, connected the gauge to the output and everything worked fine: when the effective voltage of the PWM signal was 0V, the gauge was in the zero position, and when the effective voltage of the signal was 5V, the gauge was at the upper end of the scale. So far, so good, but the trouble started when I got another gauge to be driven by the same signal. The new gauge has a range from 0 to 20V, so I want to convert the 5V PWM signal to 20V. I tried the following: I connected the LM358's V+ to 20V and V- to GND and set up a non-inverting amplifier with a ratio of 4 (R2=3 kOhm, R1=1 kOhm). I used the 5V PWM signal as the input. While the 5V signal coming out of the CPLD still is a square wave, the output of the Op-Amp looks more like a triangle, and the gauge, once hooked up to the output, somewhat works at the upper and lower end of its scale, but goes wild in the middle.
Can anybody tell me what I did wrong and how I can amplify the 5V signal to 20V while keeping it a square wave? Or is there an alternative to using an op-amp?
Thanks in advance for any help, regards, Immo Birnbaum
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