BASIC Tech Group - MyNews - 44 The SWR meter

As part of my planned QRP PA, giving 3.2W output on 40, 30 & 20m, I am including an SWR meter. These look simple but are far from it.

The circuit I am trying to build is based on an Arduino Nano to do the calculations and drive a OLED display, and a couple of AD8307 log detectors to measure the Forward and Reflected power outputted from a conventional circuit using tow 1:10 transformers to measure the load line current and voltage.



When a wave travels from TRX to ANT a forward voltage FWD is output, when a reflected wave travels from ANT to TRX a reflected voltage REF is output. That's the theory anyway. (see this plagiarism article) The actual circuit looks like this



So far so good.

PROGRESS SO FAR

What I have done so far is to buikd the AD8307s and Nano circuit,



and write some software to display a couple of bars for FWD power, SWR, display the values and say which band I am operating on. This involves detecting (over an average of ten measurements) the AD8307 outputs in millivoltss, converting this to dBm according to the ICs slope of 25mV/dB, converting this to dBm and then milliwatts across the 50R

resistors.

I have found that individual calibration is needed to get the same sensitivity from each AD8307, see code below. The slopes seem to be equal, but the intercepts different. Anyway I am now getting roughly the correct SWR for a 20dB Return Loss.

And at the moment I am stuck as my SWR transformers do not seem to giving the right outputs. I am driving the TXR end from my AD9851 VFO buffer outputs with 10mW and using a load of 50R at the output, built-into my RF Meter box. And the results are WRONG - Negative SWR! Reflected power bigger than Forward power... Why?

Code

// PA_LPF_TRX_OLED
// V0.95 16-5-17 need h/w for testing/calibTFMRLOSSn
// to add TRX

#include "Oled_128X64_I2C.h"

// analog reference (mV), A/D count, read avg
// slope and TX/display trigger (mW)
#define AREF 3300
#define ADCOUNT 1023
#define READAVG 10
#define TXTRIG 2

// analog inputs, band button, band relays, TXRX relay (PTT)
#define FWDPIN A0
#define REFPIN A1
#define SW 4
#define BAND1 7
#define BAND2 6
#define PTT 5

// display variables
double mwFwd, mwRef, swr;

// display text for bands
char bandTxt[][4] = {
  "40m", "30m", "20m"
};

byte band;

bool txFlag;

void setup() {

  Serial.begin(9600);

  pinMode(SW, INPUT_PULLUP);
  pinMode(BAND1, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(BAND2, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(PTT, OUTPUT);

  // analog ref AREF
  analogReference(EXTERNAL);

  oled.begin();

  // start on 40m
  band = 0;

  // TX off
  txFlag = false;
}

void loop() {
  int aFwd, aRef, n;
  double mV, dBm;

  // read SWR bridge inputs and average
  aFwd = 0;
  aRef = 0;
  for (n = 0; n < READAVG; n++) {
    aFwd += analogRead(FWDPIN); // typ +20dB level, gives 0dB at AD8307, or 2.5V (775 d/a)
    delay(50);
    aRef += analogRead(REFPIN); // typ -10dB level, gives -30dB at AD8307, or 1.5V (465 d/a)
  }
  aFwd /= READAVG;
  aRef /= READAVG;

  // 1. Adj slope for 20dB drop (470/50R), plot
  // 2. Adj intercept for correct mW
  // aFwd to mW, slope & intercept
  mwFwd = convert(aFwd, 25.0, -86);
  mwRef = convert(aRef, 25.0, -88);

  Serial.print("F: ");
  Serial.print(aFwd);
  Serial.print("\t");
  Serial.print(mwFwd, 3);

  Serial.print("\t R: ");
  Serial.print(aRef);
  Serial.print("\t");
  Serial.println(mwRef, 3);


  // calc SWR
  swr = ( 1 + sqrt(mwRef / mwFwd) ) / (1 - sqrt(mwRef / mwFwd) ); // calc SWR

  // band change
  if (digitalRead(SW) == LOW) {
    while (!digitalRead(SW));
    if (band < 2) band++;
    else band = 0;
    bandSw();
  }

  // switch to TX at 100mW
  if (mwFwd > TXTRIG) {
    digitalWrite(PTT, HIGH); // TX = HIGH
    txFlag = true;
  }
  else {
    digitalWrite(PTT, LOW);
    txFlag = false;
  }

  dispUpdate();

  delay(50); // loop stability
}

// convert A/D count, to mW
double convert(int aIn, double sl, double cal) {
  double mV, dBm;

  mV = (double)(map(aIn, 0, ADCOUNT, 0, AREF));
  dBm = (mV / sl) + cal;
  return pow(10.0, (dBm / 10.0));

}

// band relays, wiring HIGH = relay ON
void bandSw() {
  switch (band) {
    case 0:
      digitalWrite(BAND1, HIGH);  // 40m
      digitalWrite(BAND2, HIGH);
      break;
    case 1:
      digitalWrite(BAND1, HIGH); // 30m
      digitalWrite(BAND2, LOW);
      break;
    case 2:
      digitalWrite(BAND1, LOW); // 20m
      digitalWrite(BAND2, LOW);
      break;
  }
}

//=====PICTURE LOOP
void dispUpdate() {
  oled.firstPage();
  do {
    dispMsg(20, 0, "QRP POWER AMP"); // title

    dispMsgS(0, 15, "FWD");
    dispMsgS(0, 25, "SWR");
    dispMsg(50, 35, "FWD");
    dispMsg(50, 50, "SWR");
    dispMsgL(10, 40, bandTxt[band]); // band "40m" "30m" "20m" large font

    // values display active only on TX
    if (txFlag == false) {
      dispBar(20, 15, 5, 0); // blank bars
      dispBar(20, 25, 5, 0);
    }
    else {
      dispBar(20, 15, 5, mwFwd / 50 ); // 0-5000mW = 0-100bar
      dispBar(20, 25, 5, (swr - 1) * 25); // 1-5 = 0-100bar
      if (mwFwd > 1000) {
        dispNum(80, 35, mwFwd / 1000, 1);
        dispMsg(110, 35, "W");
      }
      else {
        dispNum(80, 35, mwFwd, 0);
        dispMsg(110, 35, "mW");
      }
      dispNum(80, 50, swr, 2);
    }
  } while (oled.nextPage());
}