waveform generator with uno r3

Hi Jeremy,

More information (specification) is needed.

The UNO itself will not be able to help you here, it only runs at 16Mhz and even with the tightest coding will probably not exceed few Mhz on any of its pins

Getting a sine wave at upto 500Mhz will require external help where the UNO would only be a controller, not the actual generator

Do you have a lower frequency limit, if you generate a square wave and use external RC/LC filtering, you could approximate the sine wave

What control do you want over it or is it just a static signal

Basically, tell us what you intend to do with it and more about how you intend the project to function… SPECS ?

The lower limit would be about 1MHz, for my assignment, i need to create a sine wave from 1MHz to 500MHz tunable using a potentiometer or a variable in the code.

Yes i intend for the UNO to be the controller so i want to know what external hardware do i need.

I also know i can use a square wave instead, but if i have no limits on what hardware i can use, how would i go about doing the same without a square wave.

Basically, i select a frequency, and that wave is generated. So is that static? As for any more specs, that is all i was given by my professor.

I am actually a major in computer science and this is my first project that involves components of computer engineering.

I can't see what you're professor is getting at. The span is so high, this would be a very large project containing banks of oscillators (google for oscillator circuits) but it would be very primitive, not very useful. And at 500MHz you'd need some RF experience which your professor ought to know you may not have.

There are other methods but they are quite advanced too (would need an electrical engineering degree of some sort).

Actually, im not sure what he wants too. All i know is that i am working on a small section of the project. My part is mainly software in terms of DSP and data analysis. But for this i need a POC which requires a pure wave.

He knows that i do not have that knowledge, but my university believes strongly in self learning. As such i am given extra time to learn prior knowledge first. Any advice on what direction to go would be great.

Getting equipment is not a problem for me, everything is within the school or can be claimed from them.

So in this case, what would i need, say for a higher limit of maybe 200MHz?

Do you have the equipment to measure up to 500Mhz and look at the signal to validate its integrity (I don’t for sure), maybe at the school / UNI EE Lab

A 1Ghz scope would be nice, and a frequency counter. RF is such a fun subject but one I have not delved into too much so far

If it where me then I would be looking at voltage controlled oscillator and perhaps a Phased locked loop (PLL) to up the frequency to the range desired

There are other qualified folks looking at this in the forums too that have way more RF skills than I poses so let’s see if they can provide better suggestions

Regards

Peter

Well, i know some labs in my school that have the MSO/DPO5000B Mixed Signal Oscilloscope which can be accurate up to 2GHz and 10 GS/s maximum sampling rate.

So i think it should be fine. Thanks for the direction, i shall research using VCO and PLL and perhaps wait for more folks to reply.

Cheers

Seems vague, but I think I see what he might want. Get a 1 - 500 MHz signal generator that can be programmed remotely (GPIB, USB, etc....). There will be one somewhere on that campus. Then interface the arduino to the unit, enabling you to control the unit from your project code.

Narrowing the band certainly makes it easier to have a single or at least fewer oscillators but as Shabaz stated, RF is a whole set of skills all on its own

Current wave form generators cost thousands and they may only go up to 120Mhz (I know that’s the top of mine and it would cost about 8K$)

Yours is simpler as you only want a sine wave but you have not specified at what amplitude or power and still going from 1Mhz to 200Mhz is a massive range that would not be satisfied with a single oscillator or circuit

You may want to go bac to the Prof and clarify the requirements and specifications for the part you need to build

Were happy to help but the expectations seems to be way out of your current skill set/ experience or the realm of a typical school assignment

Please try to get clearer requirements and expectations (Bigger picture view of the project would help too)

Peter

Oh, after hearing how ridiculous it sounded, i went back to check the project requirements..and realised i read the upper limit wrongly. (probably too tired)

Anyway the actual frequency needed is 1-20 MHz in 0.1 Hz increments.

As for amplitude it's not stated, i will ask my prof and see what he says.

sorry for the confusion with the extremely high frequencies.