DAR-ES-SALAAM INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF ELCTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATION ENGENEERING NTA LEVEL 8 PROJECT TITLE: DESIGNING OF FREQUENCY COUNTER USING MICROCONTROLLER FOR DIT TELECOMS LABORATORY PROJECT TYPE: DESIGNING / PROBLEM SOLVING STUDENT NAMES KIFARU J. MALALE-100602G8393 MICHAEL J. MJATA-100602G8419

INTRODUCTION: A frequency counter is an electronic instrument, or device, that is used for measuring frequency. Currently, Electronics laboratory for Students uses analogue oscilloscope as an instrument for measuring frequency, duty cycle and phase angle. This is not an easy task especially to the students, since the OSCILOSCOPE needs to be recalibrated before measuring. To get frequency and duty cycle of the signal, there are some mathematical procedures to be done prior before getting to the final results. These are the tedious tasks to the students or Technicians Background Information Frequency counter is a measurement system that is designed to measure frequency in audio ranges (1Hz to 20 KHz, with a resolution of 0.1Hz). Besides, it can measure Duty cycle for pulse waveform, phase angle for the sinusoidal waveform. There are four different types of waveform, whose frequency is to be measured, sinusoidal, triangular, rectangular and sawtooth waveform. The basic idea behind measuring frequency, is to transform the incoming waveform to pulses, then pulses will be counted by the processing block in predefined time interval, and the frequency will be displayed on the output Currently, Electronics laboratory for Students uses analogue oscilloscope as an instrument for measuring frequency, duty cycle and phase angle. This is not an easy task especially to the students, since the OSCILOSCOPE needs to be recalibrated before measuring. This calls upon the need for the designing of the alternative instrument that could display the result directly on the LCD

PROBLEM STATEMENT Absence of electronic instrument that could measure audio frequency signal, duty cycle, phase angle ,and be able to show the output directly on the LCD display , has led to the use of OSCILOSCOPE when measuring . This is not an easy task especially to the students, since the OSCILOSCOPE needs to be recalibrated before measuring. To get frequency and duty cycle of the signal, there are some mathematical procedures to be done prior before getting to the final results. These are the tedious tasks to the students or Technicians

Objectives of the project The objectives of this project are divided into general objective and specific objectives. General objectives. To design a measurement system that will save time for students and technicians during their Laboratory demonstrations
Specific Objectives i. To design a subsystem that will transform sinusoidal, square/ pulses, triangular, and saw-tooth waveform to pulses before being sent to a processing block for pulse counting. ii. iii. To design a subsystem that will condition the incoming square waves before being sent to processing block for duty cycle measurement To design a subsystem that will transform sinusoidal waves to pulses/square waves for phase angle measurement

Significance of the Project i. ii. iii. iv. Once the system is ready, it will save time during measurement procedures. Since procedures are few. It will completely eliminate mathematical procedures that are done prior before using an OSCILOSCOPE No pre-calibrations that are needed before using the system Almost every students can use the instruments with just few instructions from technicians Existing System Currently, DIT Students, teachers and Technicians, use Oscilloscopes to measure frequency of the signal under consideration. Usually, the process involves mathematical manipulations. This sometimes becomes very tedious. Measuring frequency with an Oscilloscope To measure frequency of a certain electronic signal, the oscilloscope is setup to display a graph of voltage versus time. The signal to be measured is applied to either the CH1 or the CH2 inputs. Triggering is set to show a trace on the screen. Then the vertical (VOLTS/DIV) and horizontal (SEC/DIV) scaling controls are adjusted to show the signal to be measured appropriately on the screen. With all the knobs in their calibrated position, the instantaneous voltage at any time can be read directly from the y-axis and the period T (time for one cycle) can be read from the x-axis.

Measurements with the oscilloscope are made by reading the number of divisions on the screen and multiplying by sweep-time per division over one complete circle. Consider figure 1 below

Front screen of the Oscilloscope

To get Frequency, we have to calculate the period of the Waveform displayed above Sweep-time per division = 1ms / div . Total number of complete square in one cycle = 4 div. Period (T) = 4 div * 1ms / div = 4ms . Therefore, Frequency = 1/ T = 1/ 4ms = 250Hz Therefore, frequency measured by an oscilloscope is not directly displayed on the front screen of the oscilloscope; instead, it is obtained by calculations that lead to some errors, especially, for those who will not be paying attention

Disadvantages of the Existing system Calibrations made prior to measurements There are more than one calibrations, this causes difficulties for the beginners Frequency of the signal to be measured is not directly shown on the front panel It takes time for teachers or technicians to teach students on how to use the oscilloscope

PROPOSED SYSTEM The proposed system, will be able to measure frequency, phase angle and duty cycle directly, and display the output as digits on the LCD, without having mathematical procedures that are done personally prior before reaching to the final results. When measuring frequency The system will be having a good resolution of about 0.1 Hz Block diagram of a proposed system

Amplifier

Amplitude limiter

Wave shaping

Clamper Processing block

Attenuator

Protection Block

Amplifier

Amp limiter

Clamper

LCD display

Amplitude Limiter Block

Conversion block Displaying Block Processing Block

Z:\microcontrolle\Embedded System Design Using 8031 Microcontrollers.pdf