Simple D/A Converter for Robots
Tilo Gockel
Sometimes it’s necessary to add a D/
A converter to a microcontroller for a
specific application. This can be fairly
simply accomplished by interfacing
an off-the-shelf D/A converter to the
microcontroller’s bus. An even simpler
and more cost-effective solution based
on an application note from Microchip
[1] is shown here. A microcontroller
produces a PWM (pulse width modu-
lated) digital output signal which is fil-
tered by a low-pass RC filter. Although
the PWM signal has a fixed repetition
rate the on-to-off ratio is varied from
0 to 100 % which, after filtering gives
an analogue output signal proportional
to the ratio. A single digital output from a
port pin (driven from an on-chip timer for
example) can therefore form the basis of
an analogue output signal.
Guidelines to calculate values for the RC
low-pass filter are given in the application
note. Using the values suggested (3.9 kΩ
 elektor electronics - 7-8/2007
quency roll-off (the characteristics of
which change as we age) so frequen-
+10V
cies this high will be barely audible.
Any standard operational amplifier,
for example the TL071 can be used
C51 ANALOG
OUT in this application. Lower frequency
R OPAMP signals all the way down to DC can
PWM1
3k9
also be handled by this circuit and in
C this case the low-pass filter corner fre-
quency can be reduced further which
10n
will give better attenuation of the PWM
-10V fundamental and reduce ripple on DC
070133 - 11 output signals. One typical application
of the circuit is speed control of a DC
motor in accordance with the industry
standard ±10V. The circuit will connect
and 10 nF) gives a –3 dB corner frequency to the motor via a suitable power driver
of around 4 kHz. When driven by a PWM stage. In this case the electromechanical
frequency of approximately 20 kHz the properties of the motor itself will act as a
filter will be suitable for outputting audio low pass filter.
tones and voice signals with a bandwidth (070133-I)
of 4 kHz. This simple filter will attenuate Web link
the 20 kHz fundamental PWM frequency
[1] http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/
by 14 dB which may not sound like much en/AppNotes/00538c.pdf
but the human ear has its own high fre-