Applications of
AVR Single chip controllers AT90S, ATtiny, ATmega and ATxmega Xtal oscillator for DCF77 clock with ATmega16
A crystal oscillator for the DCF77 AM Superhet Receiver
Please note that this is un-tested.
1 Why and for what a crystal oscillator?
The receiver, as described, uses an TCA440 to generate and mix an oscillator
frequency of (455 + 77.5 kHz) with the reception frequency of 77.5 kHz
to yield the intermediate frequency of 455 kHz. The original design
uses a trimmed coil and a fixed capacitor to generate this oscillator
frequency. It is clear that this concept is depending from ambient
temperatures as both the coil and the capacitor are both depending from
those temperatures. Reception field strength varied in my longterm
observation by a factor of roughly two between summer and winter (hot and
cold weather).
I therefore thought about deriving this frequency from a more temperature-
stable crystal oscillator. Unfortunately 532.5kHz crystals are not available
in stores. So one has to pick a higher frequency crystal and divide it
down to 532.5 kHz (or 377.5 kHz).
2 Selecting the crystal frequency
To be able to select the optimal frequency of the crystal I have generated
a LibreOffice Calc sheet here
with all commercially available crystal frequencies as well as
oscillators,
derived the nearest integer divider to yield the nearest frquency
for 532.5 and 377.5 kHz,
calculated the difference between those two frequencies and the
divided frequency.
These are the discrete crystals that fit best (in red on green background).
The differences of 833 or 592 Hz are insignificant, the ferrite
circuit on the input stage is by far broader.
These are the commercially available crystal oscillators. The differences
are also below one kHz for the 14.31 and the 16.00 MHz oscillator.
Both, a discrete crystal or a crystal oscillator can be used for that
purpose.
3 The controller ATtiny25 for that purpose
Dividing can either be done with a TTL-Divide-by-N counter (old school) or
with a microcontroller, here an ATtiny25 is used for that purpose. This has
more than one advantage:
it comes in a small-size 8-pin-package,
it has a much smaller operating current than most TTL, LS-TTL or
HCT-TTL devices,
it can divide by any number between 1 and 256,
a crystal oscillator is already on board, just change a fuse,
it can easily be programmed to generate the normal and the reversed
signal, to generate positive and negative symmetric signals.
Of course, you'll have to be able to program the ATtiny25.
Dividing is done with the 8-bit-timer/counter TC0. This TC is set to CTC
mode (Clear Timer on Compare), the divider value minus one is written to
both compare registers. The OC0A- and OC0B-output pins are defined as
outputs by setting their direction bits and are set to toggle on compare
match by setting their COM bits accordingly. The output port either of
0C0A or OC0B is set while the other is cleared. That produces a inverted
output signal. The TC0 is then started with the prescaler of one.
When programming the ATtiny25 do not forget to alter the fuse (select
external crystal oscillator with high frequency).
4 Forming sine waves from rectangles
The ATtiny25 now produces two inverted signals on its OC0A- and OC0B-
pins as rectangles. As the TCA440 needs sine waves for mixing, the
rectangles have to be shaped as sine waves. This is done with a four-stage
RC network.
By using the RC network calculator here,
chapter 4, I found that four R=3k3 and C=100p at 378 kHz produce clean sines
with enough amplitude to drive the TCA440's oscillator input pins.
5 Schematic of the oscillator
This is it. It releaves you completely from re-adjusting the oscillator frequency
of the TCA440.
Please be aware that I have not tested this intensively yet.
Praise, error reports, scolding and spam please via the
comment page
to me.