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Byonics TDOA Antenna Switcher
This is a functional prototype of a upcoming Byonics product in our T-Hunting / RDF product line, alng with the
PicCon and Micro-Fox 15.
It is an TDOA (Time Difference Of Arrival) antenna switcher that, when combined with a radio receiver, will tell
the direction to a transmitter via LEDs.
The initial prototype does not yet have the LEDs, but is still useful, in that it generates an audible tone on
an 2-meter FM receiver when the two antennas are not the same distance from the transmitter, and thus receiving the signal
out of phase from each other. That tone will fade away when
the two antennas are rotated as they become equidistant from the transimtter, and fall into phase.
The way to use this antenna switcher is to turn
on the power, connect to a radio receiver on the proper frequency, and hold with the antenna elements going up and down,
and rotate the boom of the antenna left and right until the 640 Hz tone goes away.
When it does, then the antennas should be equidistant from the transmitter, and if you were to draw a line between the
antennas, the transmitter should be on the perpendicular to that line right through the midpoint of the antennas.
Note that the transmitter being on that perpendicular line means that it could either be directly ahead, or directly behind.
You would need to move some distance along the line of the antennas and take another bearing to determine which direction
the transmitter actually was. In the next version, when the audio from the receiver is fed back into the chip and analysed,
it will be able to tell if the signal is coming from the left or right when the tone is present, and light the appropriate LED.
This prototype used steel suspended ceiling rods as the 19" whip elements to make 2 2-meter dipoles.
They can be folded down when not in use. Check back at this site in a few weeks, when we hope to have kits available.
Images - click for larger.
Schematic - click for larger.
Code - for a Microchip PIC12F675
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; T D O A 0 . A S M
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; Byonics / Byon Garrabrant N6BG byon@byonincs.com Feb 20 2014
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LIST P=PIC12F675
include "P12F675.INC"
__CONFIG _INTRC_OSC_NOCLKOUT & _CP_OFF & _PWRTE_ON & _WDT_OFF & _MCLRE_OFF
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cblock H'20' ; system variables
delay1
endc
ORG 0 ; start code
call H'3FF'
bsf STATUS, RP0 ; Select Bank 1
movwf OSCCAL
bcf STATUS, RP0 ; Select Bank 1
goto main
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delay ; delay 256*3+3 ins
decfsz delay1, F ; about 780 us
goto $-1
return
#define OUT_PIN GPIO, 1
main
movlw H'07'
movwf CMCON
bsf STATUS, RP0 ; Select Bank 1
clrf ANSEL
bcf OUT_PIN ; make an output
bcf STATUS, RP0 ; Select Bank 0
mainLoop
bsf OUT_PIN ; output high
call delay ; delay about 780 us
goto $+1 ; to match goto below
bcf OUT_PIN ; output low
call delay ; delay about 780 us
goto mainLoop
END
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