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Re: THAT2252 RMS Detector Replacement Using A THAT300 Array

Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2017 4:09 pm
by JR.
Yup film caps are betta...

JR

Re: THAT2252 RMS Detector Replacement Using A THAT300 Array

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2017 10:45 am
by Hans
Has anyone ever looked at this VU meter topology.
It uses a complete different way to achieve a log conversion.

http://www.naun.org/main/NAUN/mcs/17-130.pdf

Hans

Re: THAT2252 RMS Detector Replacement Using A THAT300 Array

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2017 11:27 am
by mediatechnology
Hans - Thank you for posting that link. It's a clever circuit.

Re: THAT2252 RMS Detector Replacement Using A THAT300 Array

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2017 12:44 pm
by JR.
Hans wrote:Has anyone ever looked at this VU meter topology.
It uses a complete different way to achieve a log conversion.

http://www.naun.org/main/NAUN/mcs/17-130.pdf

Hans
I didn't read that paper closely but it looks like a variant on something I did back in the late '70s-early '80s. I made a prototype 100 segment dB meter (actually displayed peak and VU simultaneously). I used the logarithmic discharge curve of a simple RC (e^-t/RC) to convert a FW rectified DC to dBu. Instead of generating a linear current (via PWM) wrt dB output I compared the rectified DC voltage to the RC discharge curve voltage and used that comparator output to gate a clock feeding a digital counter to generate a digital 100 tick (dB) count representing dB below FS.

I did this twice, once for the peak level and again for the average (VU) level. As I recall I alternated conversion between extracting the average dB that I displayed as a solid bar, and the peak dB that I displayed as a single segment. The fluorescent display was multiplexed internally as an array of 10x10, so I multiplexed between displaying the single segment (peak), the full all-ten segment blocks, and the partial (<10) segment to finish the average display. I probably multiplexed the display 4 ways so likely had one all-off period between the three active display periods. The persistence of the fluorescent gave a solid appearing display.

The company I designed this for fell on financial problems so I never built more than that one prototype and lost that one physical unit in a bankruptcy auction. I regret that no formal schematic survived or ever existed beyond my design notes.

I will not swear to the accuracy of this approach over the full 100 dB display range, but it was solid enough for the top 50-60 dB and made a pretty flashing light display down to the noise floor.

======
FWIW around the same time period I used a completely different circuit approach to make a dB to digital count. Inside the TS-1 I designed in the early '80s (schematic around here somewhere) I performed the log conversion more conventionally using transistor Vbe junctions to extract a linear +/- dB voltage, that I then converted that voltage to a current to feed a saw tooth integrator, and counted the number of times the sawtooth ramp reset over a fixed unit time. Positive dB or negative dB slewed in opposite directions.

I am not completely sure why I used two completely different approaches but I expect the TS-1 to be the more accurate of the two (it was test equipment after all). The TS-1 approach had worst errors at high dB (fraction of a dB high) due to Rbb in the logging transistor causing an error term. The RC approach was likely worst at very low level, while both required extra attention to the rectifier for low level high frequency as we've talked about before. IIRC I scratched out a first order solution for the Rbb error term but that never made it to production in the TS-1.

JR

Size Matters

Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 2:08 pm
by mediatechnology
Yup film caps are betta...
Well, this will sure look impressive on the board:

Image

At $4 each I'm glad only one is required for True Power Summing.

Re: THAT2252 RMS Detector Replacement Using A THAT300 Array

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 2:17 pm
by JR.
I might be interesting to throw a pair of them in front of a mic preamp for the phantom blocking capacitors and then do a null test vs one using aluminum electrolytic to see what comes out as different. I suspect the capacitance would need to be matched closer that typical cap tolerance to eliminate that variable.

Or not... :lol:

JR

Size Matters

Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 2:35 pm
by mediatechnology
I might be interesting to throw a pair of them in front of a mic preamp for the phantom blocking capacitors and then do a null test vs one using aluminum electrolytic to see what comes out as different. I suspect the capacitance would need to be matched closer that typical cap tolerance to eliminate that variable.

Or not... :lol:
You read my mind.
I found some even bigger speaker crossover capacitors for mic preamp phantom blocking.
The Duracell is a "D" size.
The Dayton 47 µF 250V Polypropylene crossover capacitors are only about $10 each.
They have a low measured DF.

Image
Huge, really huge, Dayton Polypropylene crossover capacitors for mic preamp phantom power blocking.[/size]

Re: THAT2252 RMS Detector Replacement Using A THAT300 Array

Posted: Wed Mar 08, 2017 10:16 am
by JR.
Yup, passive loudspeaker crossovers are the heavy lifting of the capacitor world.

While I was working at Peavey I approved an ECN (engineering change notice) for a (golden ear) engineer friend who worked in a different engineering group (transducer). His own director of engineering refused to sign an ECN (to upgrade a passive crossover cap to polypropylene) because it increased the BOM cost something like $0.20 . I was willing to take the heat from management for the $0.20 increase to use the better part, where it actually mattered. 8-)

I was a little too willing to spend my political capital on things like that. Even though it technically wasn't my product responsibility, I was also an engineering director so nobody questioned my authority to approve the change. Apparently upper management never heard about my wanton spending, because i didn't get in trouble (that time).

When in doubt do what is right. :lol:

JR