[Amps] PIC processor inside HF amp

[pc5m, Carel]

Not exactly HF, but it might provide some other ideas. For my VHF amp I am
using for years the (fault)control (incl. TX/RX sequence) as described at:

http://www.pc5m.com/projects/gs35.html

Provided is also some C-code of the statemachine which can be ported
easily to PIC. To overcome the limited amount available on I/O pins to
signal the cause of a disturbance/fault it will be transmitted by CW to
the error LED/sounder :-)

gl,

Carel, pc5m.



>>I'm thinking of putting a PIC inside my amp and having it run a LCD
>> display
>>out front. I've seen it done, but am curious about
>
> Chuck,
> I am also planning on putting a PIC inside my amplifier.  Of course I
> won't be dividing down my voltages nearly as far since I am solid
> state.  On the more recent subject of dividing down voltages, be sure
> to use several resistors to drop the high voltage down to a level your
> PIC likes (probably 1.2 - 5V depending on you A-D reference).  I
> suppose tube builders know that since you deal with high voltages all
> the time, but you would be amazed how many people try to use one 1/4W
> or worse yet one 0805 surface mount resistor to drop 500V.
>
> I am glad you brought this subject up.  Although I was planning on
> doing some extra filtering, I probably was going to be under filtered.
> I normally use the PIC16F87X uC for my projects. They have a 10 bit
> A-D which is plenty for most applications.  I will probably just use a
> 1% 5V regulator for the PICs VCC and then use that VCC as the A-D
> reference.  I don't need true 10bit accuracy as I don't really care if
> temperature, V power supply, forward/reverse power is a few percent
> off.... for me it is just eye candy.  Amplifier protection (I know
> your tubes won't need much of that) will mostly come from analog
> control as I am more familiar with analog and quite the hack when it
> comes to uCs (I write my code in BASIC and use a compiler to get it to
> HEX).  The uC will be able to shut down the amp if it sees to much
> power being reflected just in case the analog section malfunctioned.
> I am using a Wavenode sensor for measuring forwared/reflected power.
>
> I will be interested on how it goes for you.  I'll keep you updated
> with my progress.... it will probably be another month or more until I
> start hacking some code out.
>
> Matt
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