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How to build a wireless communication system which can transmit sin/cos analog signals of 10V/10kHz

Other Parts Discussed in Thread: WL1837, LAUNCHXL-CC1310

Hi Teams!

I want to built a  wireless communication system with requirements as follows.

・Application: to transmit sin/cos signals, between a motor resolver and a control board 

・Transmission singals: sin/10V/10kHz, sin/10V/10kHz, sin/10V/10kHz, total 3 signals

 

The above signals are similar to the singals as drawn in the Figure 2 in the following site.

The black sin signal is transmitted from a control board to a motor resolver, to excite magnetic flux in coil R1-R2 of the  motor resolver, as shown in Figure 1. 

The blue and red  sin/cos signals are transmitted from the motor resolver to the control board, which are excited in coils S1-S3 and S2-S4, as shown in  Figure 1. 

https://www.analog.com/en/analog-dialogue/articles/precision-rtdc-measures-angular-position-and-velocity.html

 

I haven't ever built a wireless communication system. My questions are as follows.

1)Is there any wireless communication module to transmit the above sin/cos singals?

  All the transmission methods are OK, such as ZigBee, Bluetooth, WiFi, etc.

2)If there aren't wireless communication modules to transmit the above signals, could you please tell me how to built a wireless communication system to achive the above purpose?

For excample, I'm considering the following system. Could you please tell me that if it is possible or not, and what chips can be used?  

・Sender side:  resolver sin/cos signals A/D conversion --->  error correction  ----> ZigBee,BT, WiFi transmission 

・Reciever side:  ZigBee,BT, WiFi recievering signals ----> signals recovery ----> D/A conversion --->  control board

Of course, a short delay between the sender the reciever sides is  expected. 

I will very appreciate your helps.

Thank you!

  • Hi Xutao,

    Are you trying to build a wireless feedback system as in Figure 1 of the Analog.com link? If so, I would not recommend doing this wirelessly. If you are trying to control the MCU wirelessly, then that is a separate discussion.

    The wireless communication methods you mention are more designed for sending/receiving data or commands. Since you have pre-determined signals, you can use the A/D converter and then wirelessly send a command that correlates to the new sinusoid you want to output.

    Please reconsider this design.

  • I'm sorry for replying late.

    >>Are you trying to build a wireless feedback system as in Figure 1 of the Analog.com link?

    No, the sin/cos signals will be not feedback controlled.

    I think the word "control board" is not so good. It is just a board used for sending and recieving signals.

    Let me modify my considerations as follows.

    Now, in my equipment, the signals  in Figure 2, are connected by cables, and they are  transmitted as follows.

    The black sin signal:  board → cable  motor resolver. This signal is used to excite flux in a coil of the resolver.

    The blue and red signals: motor resolver → cables → board. This two signals  are excited when the motor is rotating.

    The "board"  will do some calculasions  using the blue and red signals to create a pulse signal for another board, but will not directly do any feedback control.

    https://www.analog.com/en/analog-dialogue/articles/precision-rtdc-measures-angular-position-and-velocity.html

    My purpose is to construct a wireless communication system to transmit the above signals, replacing the cables.

    For example, to transmit the red signal, one method I'm considering is as follows.

    ・Sender side:  board ---> sin/cos signals --->  A/D conversion --->  error correction  ----> ZigBee,BT, WiFi transmission

    ・Reciever side:  ZigBee,BT, WiFi reciever ----> signals recovery ----> D/A conversion for recovering  the signal -->   motor resolver

    I want to know  if the above method is possible or not, and what chips can be used?

    If you have another solution, can you please tell me?

    Beste Regards!

    Thank you! 

  • You would need a A/D converter that's fast enough for your frequencies, and a processor with your own software that can analyze and detect the type of signal. Any RF transceiver can work, it can just depends on what your data throughput/power/processing requirements. You can use anything from the combination of an AM335x + WL1837 for WiFi or a simplelink Sub-1GHz MCU. And then repeat the opposite for the receiving side. 

    Please browse ti.com/adc and ti.com/dac for an overview on those devices. Also consider that the simplelink MCU devices have ADCs onchip so that may help make your design easier. 

  • Thank you very much for your suggestions.

    Please allow me to make a confirmation of the methods you suggested.

    I think you suggested the following two methods. Is it right?

    Method 1:

    .Sender side: A/D converter  --->  AM335X  --->  WL1837

    .Receiver side:  ---> WL1837  --->  AM335X  --->  D/A converter

    Method 2:

    .Sender side: simplelink MCU device

    .Receiver side: simplelink MCU device

    Also, please allow me to ask a few questions.

    1) I think a Reed-Solomon Error Correction is necessary after the A/D converter.

        I think it can be done on the AM335X, is it right?

    2)How about the delay between the sender side and receiver side, of method1?

       I have read the datasheet of the WL1837, but I didn't found  any description of the delay, except "Input transitions time Tr", "Output rise time Tf" and so on.

       Will a delay happen between the sender side and receiver side, caused by WL1837?

    3) Is the "simplelink MCU device" a device such as follows?

    Texas Instruments LAUNCHXL-CC1310 Sub-1 GHz MCU LaunchPadTm DK

     https://www.mouser.jp/new/texas-instruments/ti-launchxl-cc1310-launchpad/

    Best Regards!

  • 1) I think a Reed-Solomon Error Correction is necessary after the A/D converter.

    I'm not familiar with this algorithm so I can not comment on it's necessity nor it's implementation. I would encourage you to experiment or simulate yourself. 

    2)How about the delay between the sender side and receiver side, of method1?

    Delays can vary significantly and are dependent on communication type: Wi-Fi, Sub-1GHz, or a 2.4GHz stack. Please understand yourself by experiment with example hardware. 

    3) Is the "simplelink MCU device" a device such as follows?

    Yes, that is one example. Find a list of other devices here: https://www.ti.com/wireless-connectivity/overview.html 

  • I still have a question.

    About Method 1:

    .Sender side: A/D converter  --->  AM335X  --->  WL1837

    What is needed to be executed on AM335X ?  Only some configuratons for wireless communications ? Or some calculations are also needed?
    That is, I think that the execution time of the AM335X is a greatly portion of the total  time delay of the wireless communication system.

    So I want to know, approximately speaking, is a short execution(for example, a 1000 steps execution), or a medium execution(for example, a 10000 steps execution) needed to be done on the AM335X?

    Thank you!  

  • It depends on what operating system you are using on the AM335x. Most commonly embedded linux is used on this processor. Then you would have to modify the device tree files to enable WL1837. So if you are not experienced with linux, maybe this is not a route you want to take. An easier solution might be using a CC32xx. This chip has a Wi-Fi network processor integrated, so designing such a system will be simpler. Plus, the high speed routing for RAM/PMIC is no longer needed. 

    In terms of execution time, I can not comment because I am not familiar with your software. Ofcourse, an AM335x will be able to handle much more than a CC32xx (CPU architectures: ARM Cortex A8 vs ARM Cortex M4). 

  • This is why I highly advise you purchase a few launchpads to get started with your design and evaluation, and experiment what your needs will be before building a system for production.