Low Cost Small Antenna Measurement Tool Based on ATMega8535

Microcontroller
Muhammad Ammar Wibisono1, Achmad Munir2
Radio Telecommunication and Microwave Laboratory
School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia
1
wibisono_spancea@yahoo.com, 2munir@ieee.org
Abstract
This paper presents a design of small antenna
measurement tool based on AVR ATMega8535
microcontroller. The actuator system consists of
stepper motor and servo motor for the position of
antenna under test (AUT) on azimuth and elevation
angle, respectively. Keypad and LCD display are used
for user interface. The mechanical system applies
elevation-over-azimuth configuration which consists of
an arm, turntable and gear system.

Fig. 1 Block diagram of overall system of small

antenna measurement tool

Keywords: antenna measurement, microcontroller,

ATMega8535, stepper motor, servo motor

The user assigns the desired azimuth and elevation

angle from the keypad, while the LCD displays the
current angle. MCU produces signals to drive the
stepper motor via L298 dual H-Bridge IC [3]-[5],
which activates the gear system and turntable to control
the position of AUT at some azimuth angle. Hence to
control the elevation angle, MCU directly sends pulse
width modulation (PWM) signal to determine the
angular position of servo motors arm [2].

1. Introduction
Low cost and easy-to-use small antenna
measurement device is needed especially for
educational purpose in the study of antenna and wave
propagation, since the existing tool from some vendor
that requires additional instrumentation device and
software increases the complexity and makes the
overall cost relatively expensive [1]. Therefore, to
reduce the complexity and cost, the control system is
simplified using AVR ATMega8535 microcontroller as
the main controller unit (MCU) instead of PC.
In this paper, the system design of small antenna
measurement tool including hardware, software and
mechanical construction is described. The hardware
system is developed based on AVR ATMega8535
microcontroller. The design will be implemented for
educational purpose in the study of antenna system.

3. Hardware System Design

AVR ATMega8535 microcontroller provides some
useful features as the MCU, e.g. basic I/O ports for
interfacing with keypad, LCD, stepper motor, and 16bits PWM channels for servo motor control [2],[4]. The
schematic of the hardware system shown in Fig.2 uses
16MHz crystal oscillator as the clock source. MCU
drives the stepper motor via L298 dual H-Bridge IC.
Two reverse-biased diodes are connected to each of the
output pins of L298 for suppressing back emf generated
by the coil of stepper motor [5]. The MCU directly
controls the servo motor by giving PWM signals with
20ms period from PD4/OC1B pin. User interface in the
system is implemented using alphanumeric 16x2
characters LCD and 4x4 keypad.

2. A Brief System Description

The overall system consists of user interface, main
controller unit, azimuth/elevation controller, and
mechanical system. The block diagram of system is
shown in Fig. 1

M1

M2

Fig. 2 Schematic of hardware system

4. Software System Design

The program for the MCU handles all of the
input/output process in the system. The working
procedure of the software system can be described as
follows. First, the MCU initialize the I/O ports, LCD
and PWM channel. The user sets the initial elevation
angle and calibrates azimuth angle, then sets the angle
increment value for changing the azimuth/elevation
angle. The user can vary the azimuth and elevation
angle while the MCU displays the current angle. Figure
3 shows the flowchart diagram of the software system,
based on procedures above.

Fig. 4 Mechanical construction design (unit in mm)

6. Conclusions
The system design of small antenna measurement
tool has been presented based on AVR ATMega8535
microcontroller which provides some advantages such
as reduction on complexity and cost, and also makes
the system more user-friendly. However, the system has
some limitations in which the maximum weight of
AUT depends on the maximum torque of the stepper
motor. In addition, the precision of azimuth and
elevation angle depends on the characteristic of the
motors and the mechanical system fabrication.

Fig. 3 Flowchart diagram of software system

5. Mechanical Construction Design

References

Generally, the mechanical construction consists of a

turntable, gear system, and an arm as illustrated in Fig.
4. The system construction uses elevation-over azimuth
configuration. Most of these parts are made from white
acrylic. The gear ratio value is 5:9 (20 to 36 gears) to
scale the stepper motor step angle from 0.90 to 0.50.

[1] C. A. Balanis, Antenna Theory, Analysis and Design, 3rd

ed., New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2005.
[2] D. V. Gadre, Programming and Customizing AVR
Microcontrollers, New York: McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.,
2001.
[3] I. A. Wibowo, M. Zarar, K. Al-Amin, and Fazliana,
Control Systems of a Turntable and Antenna Positioning
Device in an Open Area Test Site, International Conference
on Intelligent and Advanced Systems (ICIAS), pp. 1-4, 2010.
[4] W. Weihong and X. Liegang, Design and Implementation
of a Control System using AVR Microcontroller,
International Conference on Image Analysis and Signal
Processing, pp. 320-323, 2009.

M3

[5] Z. Yajun, C. Long, and F. Lingyan, A Design of Elevator

Control System Model, IEEE International Conference on
Neural Networks & Signal Processing, pp. 535-538, 2008.

M4