This is only a preview of the March 2020 issue of Practical Electronics. You can view 0 of the 80 pages in the full issue. Articles in this series:
|
Audio
DSP
Part 3
Design
Phil
Prosser
Words
Nicholas
Vinen
W
This is an exciting project, but what exactly is it? A digital signal
processor? – a two-way active crossover? – or perhaps an 8-channel
parametric equaliser? In fact, it is all of these... and more.
In this third article, we test the DSP Crossover modules, then finally
connect them together and power the whole unit up. Once it has
been tested and assembled in its case, you can set it up before
hooking it up between your preamplifier and power amplifier(s),
so that it can process the sound.
e explained in the two
previous articles that this DSP
Active Crossover is built from
six different modules: a power supply/
signal routing module, a CPU board,
an analogue-to-digital converter (ADC)
board, two identical digital-to-analogue
converter (DAC) boards, a front panel
control board and a graphical LCD with
a small adaptor so that it can connect
directly to the CPU board.
Those previous articles described
how the circuits of each module
worked and how they join together.
We also gave the assembly instructions
for all the aforementioned modules.
So, if you’ve been reading along and
working as you go, at this stage you
should have a complete set of modules
– but, you won’t have connected any
of them together or applied power yet.
Now we get to the fun part: powering everything up, plugging the modules together, and seeing if it works
(fingers crossed!).
Once we’ve verified that everything
is working, we can mount all the modules in a case and then we’ll explain
how to use the resulting device and
what sort of performance you can
expect from it.
Testing
The first thing to check is that the
power supply board is working properly. Regardless of whether you are
planning to power the final unit using
a plugpack or mains transformer, the
easiest way to test it is by wiring a 12V
AC plugpack to CON13 on the power
supply board, either between pins 1
and 2, or pins 3 and 4.
22
Don’t plug anything else into this
board for now.
If you don’t have such a plugpack,
mount the mains transformer, mains
input socket and fuseholder in a metal
case (it’s usually easiest to place these
all in one corner).
Complete and insulate all mains wiring before powering it up, and ensure
that the metal case is earthed directly
back to the mains input socket or cord.
If using a captive mains power cord,
ensure it is adequately clamped to
the case using a cord grip grommet or
P-clamp, so that pulling on the cord
won’t allow any internal conductors
to come loose.
Fit a fuse with a rating as recommended for the transformer you are
using. This may be around 1A, or possibly slightly more if using a toroidal
transformer, because these can have a
higher inrush current when power is
first applied.
During the following testing steps,
if you are using a mains power supply,
ensure that you can’t come into contact with any of the mains conductors
while probing the board.
Set your multimeter to a low DC
volts range (eg, 20V). Before applying
power, check the markings on the board
to see where you will be probing. The
right-hand end of the 0Ω resistor/wire
link below D26 is a convenient place
to connect your black ground probe.
You will be checking the voltages
at the +9V, −9V, +5V, +3.3V, and VA
(5V) pads, as indicated in Fig.11 on
page 21 last month, and the PCB itself.
These voltages can vary slightly from
those indicated.
The acceptable ranges are: 9.2-10.4V
(±9V), 4.7-5.4V (+5V, VA) and 3.153.6V (+3.3V).
There is no visible indication when
the power supply board is powered up.
As soon as you have applied power,
check the DC voltages at each of the
above points.
If any of these are wildly off, check
the AC voltage(s) being applied to
CON13 and ensure that they are not
too far from the nominal 12V. Since
the transformer is lightly loaded at
this time, readings of 13-14V would
not be surprising.
Note that because of the resistor
values used to set the regulator output voltages, and because there is no
current being drawn from the power
supply yet, it is possible that the regulated rails may be even higher than the
ranges above suggest.
That’s because the worst-case minimum load requirements of the regulators are not catered for with the other
boards unplugged.
So if any of the expected readings
are below the ranges specified, or well
above them, then you should switch
off and check for faults.
But if they are slightly too high, you
can try connecting a 100Ω resistor from
the test point to ground to see if that
brings the reading back down into the
expected range. If it does, then you can
proceed. Otherwise, start looking for
soldering or component faults.
Programming the micro
Once you’re confident that the power
supply is working, if your micro is not
already programmed, now is a good
Practical Electronics | March | 2020
CON9
CO
N9
SPI2/I2S
1
BACK
OF
PICKIT 4
time to do that. If you have a PICkit
3 or PICkit 4 (or similar), you don’t
necessarily need to power the board
up to do this; the programmer can
supply power to program the chip,
and indeed, it is safer to do it this way.
As mentioned last month, the programming header (CON23) does not
have the same pinout as the PICkit 3/4,
so you need to make up an adaptor to
connect it. This could be as simple as
five male/female jumper leads plugged
into CON23 at one end, and the appropriate PICkit pin at the other end.
Or, you could crimp a 10-pin IDC
line socket onto a spare section of 10way ribbon cable, then separate the
wires at the other end, cut some off
short and solder the others to a 5-pin
header. You can then plug the PICkit
into that header.
To program the chip in our prototype, we soldered a 5×2-pin box
header onto a small piece of veroboard,
along with a 5-pin right-angle header,
and then made the five required connections using short lengths of Kynar
(wire-wrap wire) soldered between
the pads.
Regardless of the method you choose,
the required cable configuration is
shown in Fig.16(a) and Fig.16(b). Remove jumper JP5 during programming
and re-insert it when finished.
If using a PICkit, you can load the
HEX file into the PIC32MZ chip using the free Microchip MPLAB IPE
software, which is installed along with
the MPLAB IDE (also a free download).
Grab this from the following link:
microchip.com/mplab/mplab-x-ide
Having installed the IPE (if you
don’t have it already), launch it
Programming with a PICkit 4 is much
faster than with a PICkit 3, which is
especially helpful in this project, as
the HEX file is rather large – 2MB.
Practical Electronics | March | 2020
and change the Device field to ‘PIC32MZ2048EFH064’ (see Fig.17). If you
can’t find that device in the list, you
need to update to the latest version of
the software.
Plug in your programming tool, then
select it from the list and click ‘Apply’,
then ‘Connect’. If your tool does not
support this chip, you will get a message saying so.
You may get an error message saying
that no power was detected and the
connection has failed. This is fine, as
we want to ensure that the PICkit is
set up correctly before applying power
to the chip.
Now, to the right of ‘Hex File’: below,
click ‘Browse’ and select the HEX file
which you have unzipped from the
download package for this project,
obtained from the March 2020 page
of the PE website.
Next, click on the ‘Power’ tab on the
left side of the screen. You may need
to switch the software to ‘Advanced
Mode’ to access this tab. Ensure that
the ‘Power Target circuit from Tool’
option is ticked (Fig.18).
Switch back to the ‘Operate’ tab,
check that your programmer is connected to the CPU board correctly (if
JP5
JP
5
100nFF
100n
1 00nF
1
CON23 IC
ICSP
SP
100nFF
100n
PORT
PO
RTB
B
10k
D15
D1
5
REG3
RE
G3
1
390
1.2k
100nFF
100n
Fig.16(a): how to connect a
CON5
CON
CON1
CO
N10
0
PICkit to program the CPU
using hook-up wire or patch
cables. Note that the PICkit is upsidedown so that pin 1 is at the bottom.
Keep the wires short, or programming
may fail.
Fig.16(b): alternatively,
you can use an IDC header
on a short 10-way ribbon
BACK
cable soldered to a pin
OF
8
PICKIT 4
header for programming.
7
GND
GN
D
An alternative to
mounting the unit in the plastic
case, as seen opposite, is to use a 19-inch
rack mounting case – here seen with a brushed
aluminium front panel for a really professional appearance.
8
7
6
(PGE
(P
GEC)
C) 5
(PG
(P
G ED) 4
(GND
(G
ND)) 3
(VDD)
(V
DD) 2
(MCLR) 1
1k
6
(PGEC)
(PGE
C) 5
(PG
(P
G ED) 4
(GND
(G
ND)) 3
(VDD)
(V
DD) 2
(MCLR) 1
not, click the ‘Connect’ button again)
and press the ‘Program’ button. You
will get a series of messages at the
bottom of the screen indicating the
progress (Fig.19).
If programming failed or you get a
message that the software is unable to
detect or connect to the target device,
check your wiring. If that’s good, then
you may have a problem with the
soldering of IC11 or some associated
components, or you may have one
or more solder bridges on the board.
Examine it carefully for faults.
Fig.17: the first step to set up MPLAB X IPE is to select the correct PIC chip, as
shown here, and check that it has detected your programmer.
23
Fig.18: to make things easier, rather than power the board externally, the PICkit can
supply power to IC11 during programming, as long as you have checked this box.
Our first attempt to program the chip
in the prototype failed. We examined
all the pins of IC11 under magnification, but couldn’t see any obvious problems like bridges or unsoldered pins.
We solved this by adding flux paste to
all the pins of IC11 and then re-flowing
the solder using a hot-air rework station. So that is worth trying if you can’t
figure out why it isn’t working.
We suspect that the solder on one
of the pins on our chip hadn’t flowed
down onto the pad below, but it’s hard
to say for sure. Whatever the problem
was, it’s gone now.
Assuming IC11 is soldered correctly,
and your programmer is wired up as
shown, the chip should be successfully programmed and verified. You
can then move on to the next stage
of testing.
Further testing
The next step is to test the control circuitry. You will now need the three 10wire ribbon cables you made up earlier
(described at the end of last month’s
article). In each case, make sure that
the pin 1 triangle/red wire goes to pin
1 on the connector that you’re plugging
Reproduced by arrangement with
SILICON CHIP magazine 2020.
www.siliconchip.com.au
Fig.19: now we can load our HEX file, connect to the PIC and program it. If
successful, you should get the same messages in the bottom pane as we did here.
24
it into, and note that it’s possible to
plug in the IDC headers offset, so that
some of the pins are not connected –
you must avoid doing that.
The two shorter cables connect from
CON7 on the power supply board to
CON17 on the CPU board, and from
CON18 on the power supply board
to CON11 on the CPU board. On the
power supply board, pin 1 of each
connector is at bottom right. On the
CPU board, pin 1 of CON7 is near D16,
while pin 1 of CON11 is near the 10µF
capacitor.
The third, longer cable connects
from CON19 on the power supply
board to CON20 on the back of the
front panel interface board. Again,
make sure that the pin 1s are wired
correctly. Pin 1 of CON20 is near to
rotary encoder RE1.
You will also need to wire up the
LCD screen. This is done using the
20-way ribbon cable. Plug one end
into CON8 on the CPU board (pin 1
is next to the mounting hole in the
lower-right corner of the PCB) and
connect the other end to the small LCD
adaptor, which you will have already
soldered to the back of the screen. Pin
1 is marked on that PCB.
If you don’t have that adaptor, you
can separate the wires in the ribbon
cable and solder them to the 20 pins
on the LCD screen module, with the
red wire to pin 1 and so on. That’s
how the original prototype was built,
but it’s a tedious process, hence the
adaptor board.
You can now apply power and
check that the LCD screen lights up
and you get a sensible display on the
screen. You will need to adjust contrast
trimpot VR1 before you see anything
on the screen. Also check that LK2 is
in the VEE position. Turn the rotary
encoder and check that you can scroll
through the menus, and that pressing
the front panel buttons gives the expected results.
A lack of display on the screen
could be due to several problems. If
you programmed the microcontroller
yourself, you know that it is at least
running, but there could be a soldering
fault on one of the pins connecting to
the LCD, or there could be a wiring
problem with the cable.
LED2 on the CPU board should
flicker when the display is updated,
and you can force this to happen by
turning the rotary encoder knob.
As the CPU board has two onboard
regulators and generates its own 3.3V
rail, if it doesn’t work straight away,
then it’s a good idea to check that first.
The left-hand pin of CON5, labelled
GND on the PCB, makes a good reference point. There is a via between
Practical Electronics | March | 2020
Fig.20: a PC-based spectrum analyser plot showing the output of the DSP Active Crossover when fed with a (near) pure
sinewave. THD readings are shown at bottom; note that these were not done with a full-scale signal (which likely would
give better results) but also, they do not incorporate noise (ie, they are not THD+N readings).
CON5 (near the GND terminal) and
CON10 which connects to the +5V
rail from the power supply, so check
this voltage first.
Next, check the voltage on the other
terminal of CON5. You should get a
slightly lower reading, of around 4.74.8V, due to the forward voltage drop
of D15. Next, to check the 3.3V rail,
probe either of the vias immediately
to the left of the PIC, IC11. The easiest
one to reach is the one just to the right
of the capacitors to the right of JP5.
Expect a reading of 3.17-3.58V.
Anything outside this range suggests a
problem with regulator REG2 or one of
its associated components. Switch off
and check the board carefully.
If the power supply rails check out,
it’s a good idea to verify that the primary oscillator is running. You will
need a frequency meter which goes up
C
C
9.5
A
B
24.5
35
15
35
A
24.5
5
99.5
C
HOLES A: 13.0mm
HOLE B: 7mm
HOLES C: 3mm
CC
7
4
1
74
74
82
C
to at least 8MHz; some DMMs have this
function. Using the same ground point
as a reference, probe the left-hand end
of the 470Ω resistor near the bottom
right-hand corner of IC11. You should
get a reading close to 8MHz.
If you don’t, then either IC11’s
oscillator amplifier is not operating
(suggesting a problem with the chip, its
soldering or its programming) or there
is a problem with crystal X2.
If you are seeing the 8MHz signal
but still not getting anything on the
LCD, that suggests a connection problem between the chip and the LCD,
so check all the headers and cables.
If LED2 is not flickering, IC11 may not
be programmed correctly or there is a
bad connection somewhere, probably
on the CPU board.
ALL DIMENSIONS IN MILLIMETRES
CC
4
13
72
66
7
Above left (Fig.21) are the three holes required in the
front panel controls, which are all mounted on the
front panel PCB – the two pushbutton switches (S1;
‘Exit’ and S2; ‘Select’) and the Rotary Encoder. Exact
positioning on the panel is unimportant as the front
panel PCB determines the position. At bottom left
(Fig.22) is the cutout for the liquid crystal display,
while below (Fig.23) are the four holes required for
two pairs of RCA sockets (the third set would be
identical, but the separation may vary).
40 52
AT LEAST 60
9
9
A
A
7
7
B
SC 7
SC
2020
1 91 9
4
13
74
74
CC
Practical Electronics | March | 2020
CC
4
B
7
7
A
7
SC HOLES A: 10.0mm
A
HOLE B: 3mm
20 1 9
ALL DIMENSIONS IN MILLIMETRES
25
Screen01: the initial
splash screen, which is
quickly followed by…
Screen02: a second
splash screen, giving the
software version and
build date, which is then
followed by…
Screen03: the default
screen, which gives
volume control and
starts at 0dB. Rotate the
encoder knob to...
Screen04: adjust the
volume. It can go up as
high as +12dB or down as
low as…
Screen05: −104dB.
Pressing either
pushbutton (or the knob)
on this screen takes you
to…
Screen06: the main menu,
which has four options.
Use the rotary encoder
to change the current
selection and press S2 or
the knob to go into that
sub-menu.
Screen07: in the
crossover sub-menu, first
you select which band
you want to adjust using
the rotary encoder (you
can still adjust other
bands after making the
initial selection).
Screen08: here we’ve
selected Band 2. Only two
bands are initially
available. You need to
change other settings to
activate Bands 3 and 4.
Selecting a band takes
you to…
26
It’s also possible that LED2 has been installed backwards. If you’ve verified its orientation and the chip
programming, and it still isn’t lighting up, check your
soldering carefully.
Plugging the rest of the boards in
Assuming you have had success with the LCD and
controls, you can now connect the other three boards.
As shown in Fig.6 on page 23 of the January 2020 issue,
CON16 connects to CON2 on the ADC board, while
CON14 goes to CON3 on the first DAC board (woofer
output) and CON15 goes to CON3 on the second DAC
board (tweeter output).
As with the other cables, be careful to make sure that
the pin 1 side of each plug goes to the pin 1 marked
for each header, and that you don’t plug them in offset
by one row of pins.
All the ADC and DAC boards have pin 1 on the side
of the header closest to the nearest edge of the board,
and similarly, on the power supply/routing board, pin
1 of each header is towards the bottom edge.
We specified three different cable lengths last month,
since these three boards will be different distances from
the power supply module.
In our prototypes, the ADC board is closest, so it uses
the shortest cable; however, there’s nothing to stop you
from using a different arrangement.
Once those are all plugged in, check that JP1-JP4 are
inserted and that LK1 is set to SDO4. The only way to
really test it is to connect a signal source to the ADC
inputs, power the unit up and check that you’re getting
appropriate signals from the four outputs, using either
a scope or a power amplifier and speakers.
If you are using an amplifier, turn the volume down
initially, in case there’s something wrong; otherwise,
your ears may get blasted!
If you don’t get the expected result, check that all the
jumpers are in the correct positions (see last month).
Preparing the rear panel
The steps for final assembly are: drill and cut holes
in the front and rear of the case, determine the ideal
location for each module and mount them to the case,
attach the LCD and control board to the front panel and
then complete the wiring.
On the rear panel, you will need to drill six holes
of 9-10mm diameter for the RCA sockets. Ideally, you
should also drill a 3mm hole for each pair of RCA
sockets, to mount the connector to the rear panel so
that it isn’t damaged when pushing the plugs in. The
hole pattern required is shown in Fig.23.
Each group of holes will need to be at least 60mm
apart, to give room for the boards to fit side-by-side.
You may wish to increase the space between the ADC
module and the two DAC modules (assuming your case
is large enough), to make the distinction more obvious.
On the rear panel, you will also need to mount either
a concentric socket for a plugpack or a mains cord or
socket (ie, an IEC input socket).
While it’s a good idea to also fit a fuseholder to the
rear panel for the plugpack-powered version, it isn’t
strictly necessary. However, you definitely need a fuse
if using a mains power supply. Our second prototype,
shown in the photos here, is plugpack-powered.
Mains wiring
For a mains supply, if you’re fitting an IEC socket for
convenience (wired-in or ‘captive’ mains cords can be a
bit of a pain), you can use one with an integral fuse and
Practical Electronics | March | 2020
then you won’t need to mount a separate fuseholder.
But note that IEC sockets with fuse holders often
have exposed, live conductors on the inside, so it’s
a good idea to apply neutral-cure silicone sealant in
these areas so that they are not a shock hazard if you
operate the device with the case open, during testing.
It is somewhat easier to drill a hole to suit a wired-in
mains cable, and that is a valid approach; just make sure
you fit a proper ‘safety’ fuseholder wired in series with
the live lead, and that you provide adequate clamping
to ensure the mains cord can’t be accidentally pulled
out, even if the unit is dropped.
The best way to do this is either using a cord grip
grommet (although this does require a properly profiled
hole to be made) or an appropriately sized cable gland.
If using a cable gland, it’s best to fit the part which
tightens up around the cable on the inside of the case,
so it can’t be loosened from the outside. Alternatively,
apply superglue (cyanoacrylate) to the threads before
tightening it up.
Another thing that’s necessary if you are using a
mains power supply in a metal case is to properly
earth the case. Run a short green/yellow striped earth
wire (stripped from a section of 13A-rated mains cable)
directly from the mains input socket to a chassismounting eyelet or spade lug. If the case is painted,
scrape the paint away around the lug mounting point.
Use the largest diameter screw possible to attach this
lug, along with shakeproof washers and two nuts. If
using a captive mains cord, simply separate its earth
wire and run it to this chassis earth lug. You do not
need to make an earth connection anywhere else in
the device.
You also need to ensure that there is good electrical
continuity between the various case panels when the
case is assembled. This may require removing some
paint where the panels are screwed together, or otherwise attached.
Verify that you have a low resistance between any
exposed metal on the case and the mains earth pin
before powering the unit up.
Mounting the modules
Once you have made the holes in the rear panel and
attached and wired up any required power supply
components, you can mark out the mounting hole positions for the power supply board, CPU board, ADC
board and DAC boards. Drill these to 3mm, deburr, then
attach the modules using machine screws and tapped
spacers. You can then wire them back up, as you did
during the testing.
That just leaves the LCD and front panel control module to mount. You need to make a rectangular cutout
82mm wide and 52mm tall in the front panel for the
LCD screen to fit through. (See Fig.22).
Make sure it’s centred vertically on the panel, and at
least 5mm from any protrusions on either side, as the LCD
board is slightly larger than the screen (92mm × 70mm).
You can draw the required outline on the panel
and then cut it out using a rotary cutting tool like
a Dremel. Or you could drill a hole and then use a
nibbling tool. Either way, file the edges smooth and
make sure that the panel fits, then mark out and drill
the four 3mm corner mounting holes. You can then
attach the panel using 16mm M3 machine screws,
nuts and washers.
Extra nuts and/or washers can be used to space the
LCD board out from the panel (see the photo on the
first page of this article).
Practical Electronics | March | 2020
... Screen09: the first
adjustment, which allows
you to adjust the lower
−3dB point using the rotary
encoder, to as low as 15Hz.
Pressing S1 will take you
back to the volume screen,
or press S2 to go to...
Screen10: the second
crossover adjustment, the
upper −3dB point, which
goes as high as 15kHz.
Here it is set to 199Hz.
Pressing S2 takes you to…
Screen11: the lower slope
adjustment. You can select
None, 6dB/octave or 12dB/
octave Butterworth, or
24dB/octave LinkwitzRiley filters. Then press S2
to go to…
Screen12: the upper slope
adjustment, where you
have the same options.
Press S2 again to go to…
Screen13: the delay
adjustment, allowing timecompensation of drivers
in a speaker cabinet. The
setting (up to 6239mm) is
converted to a delay based
on the speed of sound.
Press S2 again to go to…
Screen14: the attenuation
adjustment, which can
be set from 0dB down to
−20dB. It can be used to
compensate for different
driver efficiencies etc.
Pressing S2 again takes
you to…
Screen15: the option to
invert the signals for this
output, which may be
useful if you have drivers
wired out-of-phase.
Rotating the knob…
Screen16: selects inverted
mode, while rotating it
further returns to normal
(non-inverted) mode. One
more press of S2 takes you
to…
27
... Screen17: the
crossover mode screen.
By default, it’s ‘Stereo’,
as shown here, but you
can change it to…
Screen18: Bridge mode,
where the second output
is an inverted version of
the first output, for using
two mono amps (or one
stereo amp) to drive a
speaker in bridge mode.
Pressing S2 again…
Screen19: cycles through
the same set of options
for the next band,
starting with the lower
−3dB point adjustment
and then all the different
settings and bands until
it loops back to Band 1.
Screen20: here’s the
main menu again,
and this time we have
selected the Parametric
settings. Pressing S2
takes us to…
Screen21: this screen
lets you choose which
parametric equaliser
band to adjust. There
are four bands which
apply to both channels,
plus two that only
apply to each of the two
individual channels....
Screen22: The rotary
encoder lets you select
any of these eight
equaliser bands. Here
we have selected the first
band, which applies only
to Channel 1, and here…
Screen23: we have
selected the second band,
which applies only to
Channel 2. Pressing S2
on any of these options
takes you to…
Screen24: this screen,
which lets you switch
on or off each equaliser
band. Pressing S2 again
takes you to...
28
Finally, drill the holes for the rotary encoder, pushbuttons and mounting screws, as shown in Fig.21(a).
This can be used as a template, but make sure it’s far
enough away from the mounting location of the LCD
screen that the two boards will not foul each other.
We attached our control board to the rear of the front
panel using 9mm M3 tapped nylon spacers, with black
machine screws holding it on at the front and nickelplated machine screws at the rear. Ensure that the holes
are large enough to prevent the switches from binding.
You can then attach the rotary encoder knob and
connect the LCD panel and control board back to the
CPU board and power supply board respectively, as
per your earlier tests.
Performance
Fig.20 shows the output of a spectrum analyser connected to one pair of outputs on the DSP Active Crossover. A pure 1kHz sinewave is being fed into the inputs.
This shows up in the spectral analysis as a large spike
just to the left of centre.
The readout below shows that this fundamental signal
measures −9.72dBFS for the left channel and 1.62dBFS
for the right channel. ‘dBFS’ stands for ‘decibels full
scale’. In this case, the full-scale output is around 2.2V
RMS, so those signals are at around 0.72V RMS and
1.8V RMS, respectively.
The smaller spikes you can see to the right of the
fundamentals, at 2kHz, 3kHz... are the harmonics, ie,
the distortion products resulting from the signal passing through the unit. The most significant are at 3kHz
and 5kHz, ie, the third and fifth harmonics.
The software measures the relative levels of each
harmonic and the fundamental (first harmonic) and
feeds them into a formula to calculate the total harmonic
distortion (THD) ratio for each channel, which it’s showing as 0.0004% for the left channel (remember, that’s
the one with the reduced signal level!) and 0.0001%
for the right channel.
Note that if you incorporated the noise measurement
(seen in the wiggly bases of the plots), these figures
wouldn’t be quite as good, but they’re vanishingly low
either way, and you certainly won’t complain about the
sound quality coming out of this device.
Using it
The DSP Active Crossover is set up and controlled using
a menu system. Menu entries are shown on the graphical LCD, while the rotary encoder and two pushbuttons
are used to scroll through entries, select them and go
back to the start. The various menu screens are shown
in the panels overleaf and on these pages, along with
a description of each one.
After showing two splash-screens in quick succession, the unit defaults to the volume control screen. This
allows you to use it as a preamp, varying the volume
with the rotary encoder knob, from −104db up to +12dB
(the default is 0dB). Pressing either button (or the knob,
if your rotary encoder has an integral button) takes you
to the main menu, which has four options.
The rotary encoder selects between those options,
while button S2 or the integral rotary encoder pushbutton selects the current option. This button is used
as an ‘Enter’ key while button S1, at right, acts as ‘Escape’, to go back to the main screen without making
any further changes.
Once you’ve selected one of the options, you use S2
to cycle through the available sub-options and the rotary
encoder to make changes to those options.
Practical Electronics | March | 2020
... Screen25: the centre
frequency adjustment
screen. Select a
frequency from 15Hz
to 15kHz using the
rotary encoder, then
press S2 to…
Screen26: adjust the
gain or cut for this
equaliser band, from
−10dB to +10dB.
Pressing S2 again…
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Screen27: lets you set
the Q of the filter, to
a value between 0.1
and 10, which affects
how wide a range of
frequencies it affects.
Screen28: back at the
main menu, this time
we’ve selected the
Save option. Pressing
S2 brings us to…
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Screen29: a screen
where you can choose
one of three settings
banks to save to. Use
the rotary encoder to
select one, or press S1
to abort. Press S2 or
the knob…
Screen30: to save
the settings to
EEPROM. This screen
is displayed for a
short time, then the
display returns to
the default screen, ie,
volume control mode
(Screen03).
Screen31: the final
main menu option
loads the settings
you’ve saved. Bank
0 loads by default at
start-up. To load a
different configuration,
select this option and
press S2…
Screen32: then select a
bank to load using the
rotary encoder, and
either press S2 to load
it, or S1 to abort and
go back to the volume
control screen.
Practical Electronics | March | 2020
ESR Electronic Components Ltd
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