Grid Dip Project.. PLL Signal Generator.. Frequency Meter..

Project conceived by giacomobovio@tin.it who deserves all the credit for this interesting application, in addition to his willingness to overcome some difficulties mainly linked to the availability of the necessary material. In summary it is a VCO with a range from 350 KHz to approximately 150 MHz with the various coils. Any frequency can be set from the keyboard and the soft takes care of the locking with the TSA6057 PLL naturally managed by the PIC 16F876. The communication protocol between PIC and PLL used is I2C Philips. This in a nutshell summarizes the characteristics of the project and a file is provided in PDF format with all the information for construction (description of the various menus on the display, electrical diagram, software, component layout, as well as essential indications for correct assembly) said file is available in the Grid_Dip.zip download section. As mentioned, a challenging part is linked to the availability of the various components: the most difficult were the TSA6057, the BB212 varicap, and the SP4066 prescaler replaced in my case by the U664. Naturally, as you can also see from the photos, this is not a very simple implementation, but by following the various indications you will arrive at the complete realization of the project.

........Main base with PIC, PLL, power supply, prescaler........................................................ Intermediate base with switching circuit, CD4066, varicap.

......LCD display base and buttons .............................................................................................. Construction with only the VCO to build the coils