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DAB+ conversion kit for tube radios

2015-12-07

Since autumn 2014, I am endeavouring promoting and selling the DAB products of the Korean chip maker Glovane. Though nobody makes consumer radios anymore in old Europe and even their development takes place in Shen Zhen more and more. Nevertheless, besides the development departments of car radio manufacturers who request Glovane's automotive chips of the GL351X series, there are still some niche markets even for the GVM140X DAB modules.

A first project of this kind is a nifty conversion kit of the German company HSE Schmidt Elektronik that allows to turn a vintage valve radio into a modern DAB+ receiver. The interesting thing about that is that the radio remains virtually unchanged and can be operated in exactly the same way as before. Even the tuning indicator, the Magic Eye, works as usual and, if the pointer on the scale is between two DAB services, noise is coming out of the speaker. Key to this solution was the ingenious idea to replace the mixer tube of the tuner by a new receiver module. Following this concept, Herbert Schmidt and his colleague, Gerhard Oed, already had made a FM conversion kit for AM radios. The tuning voltage is available at the socket of the mixer valve and it is possible to feed-in the amplitude modulation signal from the receiver module. The plate-supply acts as power supply for the module. With Glovane's module becoming available even in small quantities, finally the way was free for the DAB solution.

Figure 1: The DAB conversion kit for tube radios consisting of two parts. Below the main board a corner of Glovane's stamp-sized DAB module GVM140H01 is visible. Its RF input is directly connected to the antenna cable.

After a good amount of work, a well tested solution is available now that already stands the test in the first customer radios. The two PCBs the solution is consisting of are still assembled by hand at HSE Elektronik. The adaptation to the certain type of radio and its tube socket needs some manual labour and know-how. HSE Elektronik is therefore looking for craftsmen who are specialized on refurbishing of vintage radios and who want to integrate the conversion kit into their offer. With this prospect of larger sales quantities, it would become possible to rework the conversion kit for industrial series production with SMD components. Thus the kit could become much smaller and more economic in production.

Figure 2: The conversion kit mounted in a Philips Saturn B6D41A from the 1960s. On the left side, the antenna cable leads out of the photo. The conversion kit consists of two parts and thus even fits into devices with little space around the mixer tube that has to be replaced by the conversion kit.

DAB module GVM140X

2014-11-21

With the DAB modules of the GVM140X series, the Korean chip maker Glovane accommodates to the growing demand for economically priced receiver modules, that allow to built high quality portable and stationary DAB receivers easily and with minimal number of external components. The modules base upon the DAB chips of the GL314X series, and thus inherited all the features of these SoCs.

The following modules are belonging to the GVM140X series:

Master module GVM140H01: This module is intended for devices where the radio function clearly dominates the over-all functionality.
Slave module GVM140S01: This module was made for multi-purpose devices that already have their own controller that shall be used to control the DAB module.

Figure 1: Block diagrams of the master module, GVM140H01, and the slave module, GVM140S01, respectively.

Glovane's business offer comprises not only the receiver module and an appropriate development kit but as well development services for customer-specific hard- and software adaptations.

Development kit

Figure 2: The evaluation kit for the GVM140H01 module is already a complete portable radio.

The development kit of the GVM140X demonstrates the functionality of the module and allows access to the application interface via its USB port. At the same time, it is already a complete battery-powered device with integrated loudspeakers, thus allowing the evaluation of the module in daily use.

The evaluation kit demonstrates impressively with how few external components a full-featured DAB+/FM receiver can be built.

DAB SoC GL351X

2014-11-21

The DAB decoder chips of the GL351X series from the Korean Manufacturer, Glovane, are so called systems on a chip (SoC) that are developed for the specific needs of the manufacturers of car radios. In particular

they comply with all requirements of the automotive industry regarding environmental conditions and reliability (AEC Q100),
as GL3512D, they contain two DAB demodulators that can be either used for diversity reception or for tracing a second ensemble in the background,
they are equipped with an integrated audio processor with service following engine for seamless DAB to DAB and DAB to FM service following,
they are optimised for use with an external host processor, that will be required in any case in order to control the various functions of a modern car radio.

Other than the SoCs of the GL314X series of the same manufacturer that are designed for applications in consumer devices, the chips of the GL351X series do not have integrated RF tuners. Instead of that, the baseband signal can be supplied in analogue form or alternatively via a digital baseband input, thus gaining a high flexibility for system design.

Table 1: Comparison between the members of the GL351X series
	GL3512D	GL3511S	GL3510C
Package	169B, 11 × 11 mm², 0.8 pitch	169B, 11 × 11 mm², 0.8 pitch	161B, 8 × 8 mm²
Service Following	seamless DAB to FM & DAB to DAB	seamless DAB to FM	DAB to FM
SDRAM	8 MB	4 MB	2 MB
Baseband	Dual diversity demodulator	Single	Single

Glovane's business offer comprises not only the SoCs and an appropriate development kit but as well development services for customer-specific hard- and software adaptations.

DAB SoC GL314X

2014-11-21

The DAB chips of the GL314X series, built by the Korean manufacturer Glovane, integrate as so called systems on a chip (SoC) various functions belonging to a DAB receiver on one 11 mm × 11 mm BGA chip. On the chip are integrated:

the analogue RF front end for DAB in band III and L-band and for FM in band II,
the demodulators for DAB and FM,
a 32 bit RISC controller with up to 100 MHz clock rate and real time operating system (RTOS)
audio decoders for DAB (MUSICAM), DAB+ (HE-AAC V2), as well as for MP3, WMA, and OGG,
an interface controller for digital audio in- and outputs,
a digital analogue converter with analogue audio output,
an USB interface,
2 or 8 MB memory resp. with the appropriate controller,
a display controller for the direct connection of an LCD,
an analogue digital converter for the monitoring of an external battery and to interface a key matrix,
an internal DC linear voltage regulator (LDO) reducing the number of required external supply voltages.

With their integrated RF tuners and low power consumption of only 103 mW in DAB+ operation, the SoCs of this series are predestined for portable and mobile battery powered devices. The GL3142 is most favourable for mobile applications. In addition to the functions of the GL3140, this chip offers seamless service following between DAB and FM as well as functions for recording and playback. With this feature set, this chip is suitable as well for retrofit receivers to upgrade older car radios with DAB+.

Table 1: Comparison of the members of the GL314X series
	GL3140	GL3142
Package	169B, 11 mm × 11 mm (pin compatible)
Support	DAB/DAB+/DMB-A/FM-RDS
		MOT/SLS
		Recording/Playback,
		Seamless DAB-FM Service Following
SDRAM	2 MB	8 MB

Glovane's business offer comprises not only the SoCs, receiver modules of the GVM140X series, that are derived from them, and an appropriate development kit, but as well development services for customer-specific hard- and software adaptations.

In software aspects, in addition to the audio decoding, Fast Information Channel (FIC) decoding, and decoding of the data services, MOT and Slidshow, is provided by the software development kit.