Antenna tuning.

Posted: 4/27/2012 4:36:36 AM
nickexists

From: US

Joined: 8/17/2011

I recently finishis constructing a theremin bases on plans I found at http://www.strangeapparatus.com/Theremin.html

It's all working well but the linearity of both antennas could use some improvement . will increasing the inductance in series with the antenna increase it's sensitivity at a distance? I have good sensitivity in the high frequency range (1.5 feet from the antenna.) but the low frequencies are not very sensitive. I'm also wondering what the effects are of antenna length and width. Thankyou.

Posted: 4/27/2012 11:27:42 AM
Thierry

From: Colmar, France

Joined: 12/31/2007

The principle is simple: The coils in series with the pitch antenna and the static capacitance (vs environment) of the pitch antenna itself have to form a series resonant circuit which is tuned a little bit lower than the oscillator's parallel resonant tank circuit itself. The static capacitance of the pitch antenna increases with its thickness and length.

The thickness has also an effect on the tone spacing: A thicker antenna will create a bigger capacitance change for the same hand movement as a thinner one.

Linearization by series coils has (if well done) most effect on the field when playing close to the antenna - the intention is to stretch the field there. When I look at the prototype at the bottom of the page, I understand that there much static capacitance from the big metal front and bottom. In a less metallic environment, I'd rather go towards 60mH (6x10mH in order to reduce the windings' parallel capacitance) in order to match the antenna circuit at ~172kHz (if the osc will really run that low, check with a frequency counter), at least with a "standard" pitch antenna which has a length of 16" (40cm) and a diameter of 3/8" (1cm).

On the other end of the field (lower tones, far away from the antenna) other factors have more importance and effect: The thickness of the antenna and the coupling between both pitch oscillators.

Coupling occurs through the common connection to the mixer, so increasing the value of both 330k resistors towards the mixer input (you might try 390k, 470k, 560k) will stretch the tone spacing in the lower register and allow you to reach still lower tones than before.

Coupling occurs also through the common power supply of both oscillators (not for this circuit, there is a decoupling through the 1k resistors and the 0.033u capacitors) and through the air. The latter can be reduced or eliminated by creating a distance between the oscillators, i.e. by putting the mixer circuit in between.

Posted: 4/28/2012 1:59:56 AM
nickexists

From: US

Joined: 8/17/2011

Ok, thankyou. 

Am I mistaken in thinking that the antenna capacitance and the antenna coils form a simple lowpass filter?

I have the circuit in a wood box so I'll try adding some more inductance. Right now I have the antenna coils sitting beside eachother, but still wired such that their  magnetic fields will point the same way direction, would it be better to have them all in a straight line?

The pitch oscillators are on opposite sides of the circuit board and I replaced the 330k resistors with 470k so hopefully coupling will be minimal.

Right now there is no antenna coil for the volume antenna and I would like to extend the sensitivity of the antenna, can you recommend a good inductance value to place in series with a small (6" diameter) circular antenna?

Posted: 4/28/2012 4:00:25 AM
nickexists

From: US

Joined: 8/17/2011

Nevermind about a coil for the volume antenna. I fixed a bad connection and it works perfectly now.

Posted: 4/28/2012 4:04:16 AM
RS Theremin

From: 60 mi. N of San Diego CA

Joined: 2/15/2005

Thierry said: "The principle is simple: The coils in series with the pitch antenna and the static capacitance (vs environment) of the pitch antenna itself have to form a series resonant circuit which is tuned a little bit lower than the oscillator's parallel resonant tank circuit itself."

This is the first time you have made this comment worded this way, did you discover something?

I am in total agreement with this aspect of your analysis. Continue to take little steps and you might discover the rest of the story. Why did you leave off the explanation of why the antenna circuit must be tuned below the edge of the oscillator freq?

How do you detect when this tuning relationship is on target?

Here is a non-hack EWS $5 timbre fix that is so simple you could go to Radio Shack and have it working tonight. Take the sharpness out of your theremin tone plus add two lower octaves, this will create the illusion of better linearity.

Everything is simple once you have the answer, I will leave it there.

Posted: 4/28/2012 2:14:45 PM
dewster

From: Northern NJ, USA

Joined: 2/17/2012

nickexists, thank you for the pointer to that construction article, it's one I haven't seen before.

The author says this is a Colpitts, and from the Wiki it appears to be a common base type, but has some parallel capacitance across the coil which confuses me. 1mH & 680pF gives 193kHz.

I can't say I understand the 40mH total "linearizing" coil value.  This puts the resonance point around 270kHz (with 7pF antenna capacitance) which seems too high for the 172kHz the author reports as the operating point. 

I plugged the values into my spreadsheet simulator (minus the caps across the tank inductor) and see decent resonance and good sensitivity at 275kHz. nickexists, could you examine the operating frequency by holding a scope probe near the pitch antenna?

The author provides almost no instructions for tuning, which IMO is the most critical phase of construction.

Posted: 4/28/2012 5:09:31 PM
Thierry

From: Colmar, France

Joined: 12/31/2007

Dewster, have a look onto the prototype setup at the bottom of the page. There is so much metal around the antenna that you can't consider the static antenna capacitance being only 7pf but rather the double. This would explain why the author of this article was happy with only 40mH (and we are even not sure about that!).

As I wrote already above, a higher inductance would be needed in a more conventional and metal-less setup. 

All depends also from the SRF (due to the winding's capacitance of the coil) and eventual capacitive and inductive coupling between the linearization coils which can alter the dC/df curve of the antenna circuit in an important manner.

Posted: 4/28/2012 5:19:54 PM
Thierry

From: Colmar, France

Joined: 12/31/2007

And yes, it is a grounded base Colpitts oscillator. You have to see the 680p and the 33n in series which makes 666p to which the 200p have to be added - a total capacitance in the parallel tank circuit of 866p. Together with 1mH you obtain a resonant frequency of 171kHz. There is no magic...

Posted: 4/28/2012 5:24:36 PM
Thierry

From: Colmar, France

Joined: 12/31/2007

RS theremin wrote: This is the first time you have made this comment worded this way, did you discover something?

I am in total agreement with this aspect of your analysis. Continue to take little steps and you might discover the rest of the story. Why did you leave off the explanation of why the antenna circuit must be tuned below the edge of the oscillator freq?

Nothing new: Those who talk a lot do know little and those who know a little don't always talk.

I've spent a lot of time with theoretical and practical research on linearization circuits. But the time is not yet ripe to talk a lot about that.

Posted: 4/28/2012 8:48:10 PM
nickexists

From: US

Joined: 8/17/2011

I could probably post a soundbite. I'm sure the tone doesn't approach that of more popular manufactured models but I'm satisfied with it.

In picking antenna coils is it best to use ones with as of SRF's as possible?

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