using a microcontroller for 'whole' class-d amplifier

[oldroborg]

Anyone done it, or know of projects that have? I'm thinking of using a microcontroller to implement a class-d bass amplifier (say <200hz) from audio input all the way to driving the gate drive transformer mosfets.
The attraction of this is (apart from fun) is that all the issues associated with producing a reliable and accurate amplifier can all be implemented & experimented with in software. For high power output all the relevent protection built in, without too much need for a crowbar on the output terminals!

cheers,
Rob.

[rtarbell]

Would you consider a microcontroller with an external opamp for the input stage/integrator? Or did you mean using an internal A/D converter to sample the input? I would think that if you allowed for an external opamp, it would give you more flexability, but I'm just asking to clarify your intentions.

On a related note, there are SMPS power supply projects that use a microcontroller for all of their processing.

[Eva]

The modulator is the easiest part and it's actually harder to implement in software. A good analog modulator may be as simple as a single LM311 comparator. The hardest part is the power stage and its PCB layout and a DSP won't help there.

[oldroborg]

I would definitely have an external input stage, almost certainly an opamp. For the microcontroller, I would like to use something like this prototype board http://www.microchip.com/stellent/id...cName=en536385 with one of these in ithttp://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/e...Doc/41350b.pdf page 117 onwards contains interesting PWM info on this PIC.
I was originally thinking along the lines of generating the pwm myself in software, however this might not be reliable, bearing in mind i'd like to do other things on the controller too. The above microcontroller has full bridge pwm generation capabilities built in, so could do the book-keeping for me.
I stumbled across some smps microcontroller stuff before, this is what got me thinking about this.. I've not yet looked deep enough into this idea to contemplate soldering yet. Although i did order a new breadboard yesterday

cheers,
Rob.

[oldroborg]

@eva, definitely agree about the output stage & its layout. I had originally considered using a microcontroller for all the peripheral functionality, fault detection etc.. leaving the amplifier itself entirely analogue, but then figured if i have a fast processor in there i could use it for everything short of driving the output stage! As i looked further i realised just how feature packed those PICs are..

cheers,
Rob.

[alvaius]

I think even for 200Hz, you would be hard pressed to implement in a basic micro like a PIC18. Simply not having the I2S ports would be a major pain. A DSP is not very expensive. Freescale has a class-D reference based around one of their Symphony 24 bit audio DSPs. That could be used as a good reference.

Alvaius

[raintalk]

Rob,
I hope you get something going.
It seems like the microcontroller could just generate the PWM stream directly without a modulator. The algorithm and coding might not be realtime, but you could add latency to the higher frequencies to sync them back up. This looks like a really fun project.

[Eva]

Microcontroller class D for audio = a big waste of time.

If you want it simple, self oscillating is the way to go and it outperforms the other solution.