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TDA1540 DAC

updated 2022/03/22 10:30

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The primary goal of this project is to interface a Philips SAA7030 digital filter to a Burr Brown DIR9001 digital audio interface. The SAA7030 was never designed to interface to anything except the SAA7000 interpolation and muting circuit in a CD player. A Xilinx CPLD (tried a dsPIC33) is therefore used to emulate the output signals of an SAA7000 and convert audio samples from 2s complement to offset binary format. This project will use the Philips TDA1540 DAC which was also used in the very first CD player Philips sold in 1983, the gorgeous CD100.

This project was formerly called "Goldilocks" because I wanted to use two Burr Brown DACs. I've decided to use the lessons learned from this project to make another version with Burr Brown DACs later on.

SPECIFICATIONS

Twin Philips TDA1540P 14 bit DACs

Analog output stage from Philips CD100

Philips SAA7030 4 x oversampling digital filter with noise shaping

Burr-Brown DIR9001 Digital Audio Receiver

Optical Digital Interface

Commercial off-the-shelf conversion module


Development Blog

10 January 2012

The Burr Brown DAC700BH and 702BH chips. The Gold in Goldilocks

I did much research the last week and decided to use a dsPIC33 between the DIR9001 and SAA7030. The SAA7030 requires a multitude of bizarre clock/strobe pulses. It also requires data in offset binary instead of 2s complement, which requires a conversion. This conversion is performed by the dsPIC33. The PIC can also provide the correct clock pulses and strobe pulses to the SAA7030. The dsPIC replaces at least 12 discrete logic chips.

I also have two TDA1540 14 bit DACs I'd like to try out. The TDA1540 is of course the DACs originally used together with the SAA7030 in the first Philips CD player the CD100 in 1982.

11 January 2012

DIR9001 in the middle with dsPIC33 to the right, optical interface is below on veroboard

I added the TOSLINK interface using a TORX177 module. The dsPIC33 has a built-in audio Delta-Sigma DAC. Once samples have been converted from 2s compliment to offset binary, the converted samples will be sent to the dsPICs onboard DAC so I can confirm they're correct. At the same time the samples will be streamed out  to the SAA7030 via the two SPI interfaces.

14 January 2012

I tested the SPDIF decoder. Everything works. I connected up the dsPIC33. Now I have to start writing some software to convert the samples from the DIR9001 to the correct format for the SAA7030 digital filter.

The output from the DIR9001, showing left channel sample followed by right channel sample (top)

15 January 2012

Installed MPLAB IDE and confirmed comms to the dsPIC.

19 January 2012

Started writing control software. Researched how I'm going to use the Output Compare, SPI and Timer modules.

21 January 2012

Got the dsPIC code working to generate the 4.2336MHz clock for the SAA7030 from the DIR9001 system clock (16.9344 MHz). I'm using Timer2 and the OC1 module. I'm just going to re-check the frequencies. CODE

22 January 2012

Confirmed correct CLOX frequency is being produced by the dsPIC, 4.2336MHz. CLOX and STR1 need to be synchronous. Right now there's a small (~40ns) difference between the two due to the fact that I cannot activate Timer 2 and 3 at exactly the same time. I'm planning to just add a small delay to the one using a 74HCT04 so that the two signals align better. CODE

(Above) What the SAA7030 expect. See CLOX and STR1. CLCF and DLCF/DRCF will come from the SPI interface

(Above) CLOX at the top (4.2336MHZ) and STR1 at the bottom (44.1kHz)

23 January 2012

I wrote some alternative code in an attempt to synchronize Timer2 and 3. The idea was to use the CLOX output to clock timer 3 which in turn controls the OC module for STR1. The final effect was the same as the earlier code that just ran both off of the internal timebase. So I kept the earlier code. It's simpler.

I implemented a 74HCT04 and sent CLOX through it 6 times. The result is that STR1 (high-low) and CLOX is now aligned as close as is possible. Todays CODE.

Without the delay, the low-high transition of STR1 is aligned with the low-high edge of CLOX. It looks like the edge of STR1 can be off by up to 55ns, as shown below from SAA7030 datasheet.

(Above) CLOX at the top and STR1 at the bottom, no delay. Scope sweep triggers on rising edge of STR1

24 January 2012

It occurred to me that I was being stupid trying to add an external delay to STR1 to align it with CLOX. I made some sketches and realised that adjusting PRx for the timer sets the period or frequency while adjusting OCxR and OCxRS for the OC modules will adjust their relative phases. Timers 2 and 3 are off by one instruction cycle time due to the fact they I cannot enable them at exactly the same time. If  you adjust for that in your setting of OCxR and OCxRS their shouldn't be a phase difference between CLOX and STR1. The question to ask is:"At what count is T3 when T2 resets after its' period rolls over the first time?". That'll be your first OC trigger point. I'll test it out later.

28 January 2012

Started the code for the Data Converter Interface as well as the two SPI modules, one per output channel. CODE

29 January 2012

I added code for the SPI, DCI and port pins, but then the PIC started acting weird. Sooo, I rolled back the code to an earlier version and started fresh. I needed to confirm that the Timer3 interrupt that triggers whenever the timer resets does not disrupt the OC1 module output (CLOX). So I devised an experiment. Below is a screenshot of this CODE. At the top is the output of the Output Compare module producing CLOX at 4.2336MHz. Below CLOX is an on-off-on-off waveform being produced inside the Timer3 interrupt. You can see that both waveforms are continuous. Neither one is affecting the other. This means that output compare modules carry on happily regardless of interrupts and what the processor is doing. I thought as much, but when the previous code started acting weird, I just had to convince myself.

The Timer3 interrupt triggers after STR1 (OC2) goes low. This is where the SPI left and right sample writes to the SAA7030 will be triggered. This is the CODE that acted weird.

Top waveform is CLOX (OC1). Lower waveform is produced in Timer3 interrupt

32 Instructions fit into the highlighted waveform. The highlighted waveform is produced during the Timer3 interrupt. STR1 is the top waveform.

19 February 2012

The SPI interfaces are working now. They read out dummy data still. If you look below, I now have CLOX, CLCF (SPI clock out), DLCF and DRCF (SPI1 and 2 data out) as well as STR1. That takes care of the control signals. The rest is fine tuning. Here's todays' code.

The last thing is to activate the DCI (Data Converter Interface) and read audio samples in from the DIR9001 for conversion and retransmission out on the SPI interfaces to the SAA7030. Compare the datasheet diagrams with the on-screen oscilloscope photos.

Input signals required by the SAA7030 digital filter (top)

Top is CLCF at 2.1168MHz, bottom is CLOX at 4.2336 MHz

Top is CLCF data clock at 2.1168MHz in bursts, bottom is STR1 at 44.1kHz

Top is DLCF dummy data, bottom is STR1 at 44.1kHz

26 February 2012

I am having severe problems going further. Simulated code that works perfectly refuses to run correctly on the dsPIC. Standard C data structures and arrays refuse to work as expected. Adding or removing a simple command such as FIFO_R = 0, makes the difference between normal operation and the PIC not running at all! The behaviour is so strange that I re-installed the compiler. Next I'm going to try a different chip. I used known working code from my PCM-X2, even this behave strangely. I usually find faults, but I have never struggled like this. There is no cause and effect.

3 March 2012

After trying many different possible solutions I have decided to split the functionality across two dsPICs to facilitate debugging. Doing so allowed me to make progress once again. Functions are now split between generating STR1 and CLOX on the one dsPIC and performing DCI data reads, sample conversion and SPI write on the other dsPIC. The two chips are synchronised via STR1.

Goldilocks20120303-2CONTROL.zip

Goldilocks20120303_LOGIC_DATA.zip

STR1 (top) with alternating dummy SPI data (bottom). I could not get this to work before

23 March 2012

Often when you try to eliminate one problem, you create two more. Closer scrutiny with a digital scope has revealed that there is quite a bit of jitter between STR1/CLOX and the SPI data clock. These two signals come from different chips. The sync is therefore not perfect. I'm concerned that this jitter will come back to bite me later. Sooo, I'm going back to ONE chip. The two chips were useful for checking code, but from an engineering standpoint it's messy.

Speaking of messy

24 March 2012

10:00 - OK. I'm getting time to work on this again. Things are slowing down at the university towards easter break. I've combined the code again. The SPI modules work as well as the STR1 and CLOX. Unfortunately the SPI is only managing to spit out dummy data. As soon as I declare out a piece of code that fills an array with dummy data the processor doesn't run. Some sort of memory trap? I'll have to investigate. I'm beginning to think that using a PAL or FPGA might have been easier...? Then again the easy path is not always the best path.

15:45 - I managed to get everything working on one chip. I do still have one small problem with the one SPI interface. The two doesn't seem to like running together. I have isolated the problem down to a single instruction that will cause the chip to seize up. It's a write to SPI1BUF. I can make SPI1 or SPI2 work with alternating dummy data from an array, but not together. I am further ahead now though than I ever was before. I'm making progress at least.

20:47 - I cannot get further. Brick wall. I add a single instruction to the code, even a Nop(), and the chip refuse to work. The T3 interrupt service routine refuse to work if there are more that 12 instructions in the disassembly listing. I cannot adjust the T3 interrupt priority because adding the instruction to do so breaks the chip. I'm stuck. I think I should abandon this project or try discreet logic instead. The one last ditch thing I can try is to add some elaborate trap handling system.

Goldilocks_combined.zip

21:29 - I used the debugger to look at the RCON register when the chip crashes. MPLAB reports the RCON register as

bit 14 is set which means:

Under normal operation RCON looks like this:

bit 14 is not set

22:06 - It works! This fixed it:

IOPUWR bit set issue is resolved by setting C30 optimization to 2. Who knew...

Goldilocks20120324.zip

 

30 March 2012

The SAA7030 digital filter is working with dummy data. The next tasks are to enable the Data Converter Interface on the dsPIC, convert the samples from the DIR9001 to binary offset format, read them into a buffer and send them out on the two (L/R) SPI interfaces to the SAA7030. The SAA7030 will then produce samples at 14bit/176.4kHz.

LAT and CLFD output from the SAA7030 (above) and from datasheet (below)

STR1output from dsPIC (top) and LAT output from SAA7030 (bottom) showing how for each sample that goes in, four come out

2 April 2012

I tried getting the DCI interface to work using known good code from my PCM-X2 as an example, but to no avail. Will try again tomorrow. Reconfigured the DIR9001 to output data in I2S format. I hope it's not just the compiler messing with me again.

3 April 2012

I've hit a brick wall again with the DCI. Code that is supposed to work, don't. Code that's not supposed to work, does! I follow datasheets and application notes to the letter. I don't get it...I research, I read, I try...and still nothing. <sigh>. When I configure the RPINRx and RPORx registers using the "right" way using the unlock sequence the chip is dead upon reset. When I just configure the registers without the unlock sequence it works perfectly, yet the debugger reports that the registers didn't change. BUT THE CHIP WORKS. Huh?! This unlock sequence and its correct use appears to be a source of great confusion judging from Google searches.

4 April 2012

I've had it. I'm tired of the dsPIC33FJ128GP802 28-pin device and its freakishly bizarre and illogical behaviour. I've requested samples of the dsPIC33FJ128GP206/306 and 708 64 and 80-pin devices. Thank you to Willem and Bernd at Tempe Technologies Pty Ltd. Here's the code that just won't work. The chip just traps or resets or whatever. It is my hope that having dedicated pins for things like SPI and DCI will ease development and avoid the horrible multiplexed peripheral pins. I'm going to make a little adapter board for the 64/80 pin dsPICs to sit on. I might get an adapter from ebay...

I ordered some adapter boards on e-bay. $12.50 for five.

28 April 2012

I've received and installed the the new dsPICs on the adapter boards and MPLAB reports that its got comms. So far so good. I don't have time to do any more now. I'm using a dsPIC33FJ128GP306A. I'm going to tweak the previous code for the new chip and see if it behaves any better. Here's hoping....

29 April 2012

01:49 AM New chip is up and running. I now need to wire up the SPI interfaces to the SAA7030, connect the DCI to the DIR9001 and test the code further.

30 April 2012

08:49 PM I'm making steady progress again thanks to the better behaved chip. The DCI interface is working, but there is still an issue with buffer management. Audio data can be seen coming out of the two SPI interfaces to the SAA7030. This is the furthest I've come so far. Hooray!

I love the new chip. When I tell it to do something, it does it. It doesn't just lockup and reset like the 28-pin device does. I would not recommend the 28-pin dsPICs for development. They're too finicky.

11:00 PM More progress. I now have 14bit left and right data appearing at the output of the SAA7030 that appears to correspond to the input. Drawing a picture is often the best way to figure things out .

Goldilocks20120430.zip

11:40 PM Added the code to convert the 2s complement format samples from the DIR9001 to the offset binary expected by the SAA7030. I'm going to test the output of the SAA7030 using the two TDA1540s (DACs) I have. Once I'm sure the data is leaving the DIR9001,dsPIC, SAA7030 chain correctly I can add the chips for serial to parallel conversion. Then finally I can add the Burr Brown DACs.

Goldilocks20120430_2.zip

 

5 May 2012

I spent some time digging through my components and junk drawer to find all the capacitors I'll need for the TDA1540 DACs. I'm using the TDA1540s for testing as they can interface directly to the SAA7030. I still need to buy some other odd-ball values I don't have.

7 May 2012

I did some more building on the DAC. The board is ending up being more power supply than DAC as some of these old chips need some bizarre voltages like -17V and -2.5V. For now I'll be using NE5534s for IV conversion of the TDA1540s. That's what is used in the application circuit in the datasheet. Output filtering will be simple RC. I just need to see if the system works, then I can start tweaking and installing fancy filters. I still need to buy more polyester caps for the TDA1540s.

12 May 2012

01:05 AM I completed the -5 and -17V supplies for the TDA1540s. I still need to do the +5V supply. I added more capacitors to the TDA1540s as well as the resistors.

11:50 PM I did some more building. It's a complex circuit. With my real job getting in the way I get very little time to work on Goldie.

13 May 2012

10:00 PM Finished building. Ready to test. dsPIC dead as a Dodo. Tried everything, checked everything. Nothing. I tested comms with a 28pin device. It works. Have to make up another dsPIC board now.

14 May 2012

I have a fully functional dsPIC again. Now I need to reconnect the data bus cables and hold thumbs...

 

16 May 2012

Success! Well some at least. The TDA1540s are producing something that looks a helluva lot like the 700Hz tone I'm playing back. The scope can't seem to sync perfectly though, so I need to tweak and test and see if it's the scope or the data that isn't right somehow. At least I know the hardware works so I must just check and recheck the software. I think I'll record the output into Audacity while playing two different tones on the L and R channels. Then I can analyze the waveform properly.

17 May 2012

A lot better. There is still some issue with the portion of code for one channel, that perform 2's complement to offset binary conversion, not being triggered. 1kHz tone at 0dB...

18 May 2012

I spent about 2 hours checking and tracing. No improvement. I have some suspicions I'm going to follow up later. I think clock skew may play a roll with the MSB of one channel being read in wrong. I find it frustrating to work with the PIC sometimes because I need to see what is going on INSIDE. Yes, I can use the debugger, but sometimes you'd like to just trace and scope what is happening with the peripherals inside. Working with an analog scope is also tricky. It would be nice to freeze a view sometimes. It's beginning to look more and more like data isn't being clocked into the SAA7030 correctly. Keep digging...

Bear approves

19 May 2012 (my birthday! )

01:20 AM My suspicions regarding the clocking of the data over SPI from the dsPIC to the SAA7030 was correct. I changed the CKE, bit 8 of both SPI1 and 2 from 1 to 0. It improved the situation in that both channels now have the proper waveform. There are still occasional glitches to track down. A Left/Right/Left/Right test from the BINK Test CD, shows that there is no crosstalk between L and R, however the R channel exhibit glitches when idle. Perhaps a proper 3.3V to 5V translation of clock and data pulses from the dsPIC to the SAA7030 might help...Also I'll check clock/vs data alignment.

Goldilocks_20120519.zip

02:28 PM I don't need to do 3.3 to 5V level translation between the dsPIC and the SAA7030. The minimum HIGH voltage of the SAA7030 is 2V, the dsPIC gives out 3.3V. That's enough.

From SAA7030 datasheet

20 May 2012

My problem till now was how to align the SPI L/R data transmissions to the SAA7030 in time. Then it occurred to me to run the one SPI bus in slave mode and the other in master mode. You then have the one, clock out both sets of data. See diagram below.

In the following code snippet, SPI1BUF is loaded with a LEFT sample. SPI1 is configured as a slave so it needs the clock from SPI2 to shift its data out. When the write to SPI2BUF is complete, SPI2 starts transmitting. SPI2s clock shifts SPI1s data out simultaneously. This seems to have worked as the glitches are gone. There does still seem to be an annoying phase noise I need to track down.

 

 

 

 

100Hz on the left, no phase noise, rock solid

1kHz on the right, some sort of "wiggle"

Goldilocks20120520.zip

21 May 2012

In the code below I'm using a flag on RB12 to monitor when T3 triggers. T3 controls when samples are written out. There are no timing variations in the triggering of T3.

I had a major sniff around the circuit, but haven't been able to find any jittery signals going to, or coming from, the SAA7030. The shape of the clock signal coming from the SAA7030 to the DACs is a bit rounded though. See below (top trace is clock from SAA7030, bottom trace is data for one channel). A 74HCT04 placed between the SAA7030 and DACs can clean that up. I'm not convinced that this can cause jittery output. I would like to try running the DACs output just through a resistor for IV conversion to rule out any instability in the op-amps.

23 May 2012

Using a digital scope with hold function, I've been able to confirm that there is indeed a random and inexplicable phase shift (jump) that happens on the output. It could be a buffer timing issue. I'll have to make some sort of timing chart and have a look. Analyzing the timing error further I realised that it lasts for ~50us. This is significant because 1/Fs = 22.67us which is about half of 50us. This could indicate, perhaps, an interrupt being delayed. It is also interesting that I'm using a 2-position buffer capable of holding 2 samples/channel or 45.35us of sound.

50us/div

Notice how the discontinuity last for ~50us

Timing of DCI module reading data in from the DIR9001

I worked out a completely new data transfer scheme between the DCI and SPI modules that doesn't involve the use of an extra buffer. A left and right sample is buffered by the DCI module during one frame in RXBUF0 and RXBUF2 respectively. When the DCI interrupt triggers, these samples are written to SPI 1 and 2, while a new value for RXBUF0 is being received. STR1 is COFS applied to the DCI module except it'll be inverted by a 74HCT04. I still have to test this.

Timing Diagram for DCI and SPI

This code falls away. There is no more buffer and read/write pointers

No need for this code either, no more STR1 being produced. LRCKO from DIR9001 used instead (inverted)

26 May 2012

I've been trying different things, but I've only had limited success. Now it would seem like the dsPIC wont run, at all. It talks to MPLAB, but even old known good code wont run. I checked the configuration settings. The buffer is definitely not needed. As the diagram below shows, samples are read straight from the DCI buffers into SPI every time T3 interrupt occurs.

Goldilocks_alt_code20120525.zip

Goldilocks_alt_code20120526.zip

Goldilocks20120523.zip

I've put the circuit aside for now. I'm a bit sick of it.

I actually might just do the interface and conversion using discrete logic instead. I just want something that works. Using surface mount one can make the glue logic very compact. Once one has the logic circuit, it can be transferred to FPGA/CPLD. See the diagram below.

L and R samples are clocked out of the DIR9001 serially and alternately into to serial to parallel shift registers (74HC595). This will produce two stored samples aligned in time. These samples are fed into a parallel to serial converter (74HC166), but with the MSB inverted using a 74HC04. Data is then clocked out in sample pairs to the SAA7030 digital filter.

I see someone in China (or eastern anyway) has developed a CPLD based converter to sit between an SPDIF receiver and a SAA7030. It's all in Chinese and I have no idea what's going on. I did manage to get an e-mail address and did get a response. The thing is that I don't actually care too much about the glue logic. I'm interested in the digital filter, DAC and output filter part. That's interesting.

30 May 2012

I've made contact with the guy in China who sells the chip above. $51 for two with shipping. No thanks! I'm not paying that money for something I can do myself. Besides I won't learn anything new if I just buy it. I'm looking to get a CPLD on a dip adapter along with a JTAG programmer. I'm currently downloading the Xilinx ISE WebPACK Design Software. I'm looking at a programmer and board. There's also a vast selection of boards on ebay along with programmers. I just need to learn VHDL, which can only be a good thing. Also, people seem to be doing weird things to their Xbox consoles with these things.

I also want to make the design more permanent. To that end I'm also planning on ordering some Roth Elektronik prototyping cards. They're neat and have mounting holes. I can mount these boards in a chassis with a power supply.

I love it when a plan comes together

08:57pm I bought a Xilinx XC9572XL board on ebay.

15 June 2012

I'm getting ready to construct the chassis for the DAC. To that end I have planned the layout. The little upright boards in the picture below are the power supply regulators. They will be mounted as you see them with the regulators using the 3mm aluminium base sheet as a heatsink. 4 LM317s and 4 LM337s are used to provide the variety of voltages the unit will need.

21 June 2012

My Xilinx XC9572 board and BlackCat USB programmer arrived. I managed to get hold of the service manual for the Philips CD100. It contains a circuit diagram of the CD100s analog output stage. This would allow me to duplicate the digital filter, DAC and analog output stage of the CD100 on this project if I wanted to. The DIR9001 decodes the de-emphasis indication bit, so I can implement de-emphasis.

Xilinx board left, and programmer right

 

CD100 playing ABBA The Visitors. I also have an original copy of this disc from 1982

Output stage of CD100 with TDA1540 on the left. On the right is the IV converter with a selectable de-emphasis response. Following this is a further low pass filter stage. The symmetry adjustment at the DAC is to ensure that both the left and right channels are the same amplitude.

29 June 2012

I finished two Negative Regulator modules. I also bought a new UNI-T multimeter.

2 July 2012

Regulator boards finished and tested.

4 July 2012

Made great progress with the chassis. Regulator boards mounted. I can do some wiring tonight.

10 July 2012

Finished construction and testing of the power supply. I'd like to get the optical interface, digital receiver and CPLD chip working by the 16th.

15 July 2012

Steady progress. Optical receiver, DIR9001 and Xilinx CPLD installed.

17 July 2012

The DIR9001 and optical receiver is working. I also added a power-on-reset circuit to the DIR9001. Next I need to see about getting the CPLD running and writing the VHDL code.

18 July 2012

I'm busy trying to get to grips with Xilinx ISE Design Suite Schematic editor. I'll be entering the design using the schematic design feature. The learning curve is quite steep, but I'm making progress. Fortunately there are plenty of examples and tutorials. Work on this will have to stop for a while as my "real" job starts again next week.

18 September 2014

I want to return to this project. I've ordered a sample conversion module from china. Cost is $25. I can do my own discrete conversion, but I don't have the time or the energy. I'm more interested in the DAC and output stages anyway.

30 April 2020

While working on my PCM-3 processor I made a little departure and used one of the BURR-BROWN "Gold" DACS to build a function generator driven by a dsPIC33.

Waveforms read from dsPIC33 RAM