Computing stuff tied to the physical world

Simple digital oscillator

In Hardware on Jun 18, 2012 at 00:01

As described in this recent post, it should be possible to create a simple fixed frequency oscillator using just a few low-cost components. This could then be used as interrupt source to wake up an ATmega every millisecond or so.

Here’s a first attempt, based on a widely-used circuit, as described in Fairchild’s Application Note 118:

Screen Shot 2012 06 16 at 13 08 02

I used a CD4049 hex inverter, since I had them within easy reach:

DSC 3336

The two resistors are 10 kΩ, the capacitor is 0.1 µF – and here’s what it does:

SCR27

The yellow trace is VOUT, the blue trace is V1. Pretty stable oscillation at 456 Hz.

Unfortunately, the current draw is a bit high with these components: 140 µA idle, and 450 µA when oscillating! There would be no point, yesterday’s approach will take half as much current using just a single 0.1 µF cap.

If someone has a tip for a simple 0.5 .. 1 KHz oscillator which consumes much less power, please let me know…

  1. 1uA and about 1hz to 10khz http://www.discovercircuits.com/DJ-Circuits/2hzosc.htm

    or a more stable one http://www.discovercircuits.com/DJ-Circuits/10secosc.htm

    dont know if ether of these are what you are looking for and i havent tryed them so i dont know how well thay work

    Chris 18 June 2012 at 4am

  3. in German but perhaps also some interesting ideas: http://www.elektronik-labor.de/Notizen/LowPower.html

    Uwe 18 June 2012 at 1pm

    • Fantastic link – I love the way he keeps pushing the boundary! (Deutsch ist für mich kein Problem…)

      Quote of the day: “Ich glaub ich muss jetzt aufhören” :)

      jcw 18 June 2012 at 2pm

    • Nein, vorwärts!

      :-D

      TankSlappa 19 June 2012 at 3am

  4. perhaps you can sense/use the 50Hz hum somehow ?

    Ronald 18 June 2012 at 2pm

    • Neat idea, but note that this gives us 20 or 10 ms resolution at best.

      jcw 18 June 2012 at 2pm

  5. If a spare IO pin is available that supports level sensitive interrupts, then you can place a capacitor on this IO pin with a large value pullup resistor to VCC. In in the init code, set the IO pin to output and discharge the cap. Then switch to input mode on the IO pin and put the micro to sleep. When the capacitor charges up, a wake event is generated. The main limitation is that the timing is not very good due to variations in VCC and the resistor and capacitor tolerances.

    Steve 18 June 2012 at 10pm

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