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FMRadioReceiverusingTDA7088

 FMRadioReceiverusingTDA7088

ThistinyreceiverisnotmuchbiggerthananAAcell.ItispoweredofftwoLR44buttoncells,whichareexpensiveandI
assume wouldn't last terribly long. I'll be on the lookout for LR44's at the markets and $2 shops now that I've got this
radio! As with all these sorts of radios, the headphone lead functions as the aerial. Supplied with this receiver were a
pair of those awful "intheear" type of miniature type earphones. Apart from the appalling sound quality, they are
insensitive,unhygenicanddirty,fragile,anddonotblockoutexternalsounds.So,Iusethenormalkindofheadphones
instead. The enclosure is all clipped together, and once I'd opened it, sure enough, a TDA7088T was visible. The audio
ampappearstobeonetransistorie.singleendedclassA.Idon'tknowwhatcurrentit'sdrawingsoIcan'tsaywhether
it's consuming much more battery current than a class B amp would. In any case I would prefer AAA cells rather than
theLR44's.

Thepowerswitchisaminatureslideswitchontheside,whichhasanextrapositionforvolume.Thisisobviouslydone
toavoidaspaceconsumingpotentiometer.So,wehaveonlytwolevelsofvolumefullandsomethingabitless.
How well does it work? Quite well actually. Performance is the same as the TDA7000 IC in terms of sensitivity and
soundquality.However,theTDA7088hasthemutepermanentlyenabledsosomeweakerstationsthatcouldotherwise
bereceivedwithaTDA7000orTDA7010TcannotbereceivedontheTDA7088T.Also,theheadphoneleadaerialisnotas
efficientasa75cmtelescopicaerialsothisneedstobetakenintoaccount.
Thescanningcircuitworksverywell,thereisvirtuallynowaitingfortheradiotofindthenextoccupiedfrequency.Once
you have reached the 108Mc/s limit, you have to press "reset" to get back to the 88Mc/s end of the band. It does not
automaticallydothislikeaPLLtypeofcircuitwould.
These TDA7088 receivers are very common in $2 shops (look for the "scan" & "reset" buttons), and you certainly
shouldn't pay more than $5 for one. Most of them use the Chinese clone of the TDA7088 the SC1088. More often than
not,thesecheapautoscanFMreceiversalsoincorporateatorch.SomealsoincorporateanAMreceiver.Thisinvariably
usesaTRFcircuitbasedaroundanMK484(ZN414).Variablecondensertuningisusedwiththesesets,onbothAMand
FM. Unfortunately, AM sensitivity is poor because of the very small ferrite loopstick aerial. They're a strictly "local
stationonly"affairasfarasAMgoes.Soundqualityisgood,however,asthereisonlyonetunedcircuit(i.e.theferrite
loopstick).
The electronic diagram of the monophonic FM receiver made with TDA7088T is shown on Pic.4.12. If built with SMD
components it can be placed in a matchbox, altogether with two buttontype batteries. The operating principle of this
deviceisgiveninthepreviouschapter.TheonlythingnewisaverysimpleaudioamplifiermadewithBC547transistor,
whichisloadedbycheap16Ohmheadphones.Thetelescopicantennaisused,asonPic.4.8.
Smallmishapofthisreceiveristhatithasnoindicationofstationtuning.Thisproblemcanbesolvedbyaddingasmall
voltmeter in parallel to the BB909, whose scale is graduated in MHz, as described in the Appendix. This solution is not
appropriatefortheminiaturereceiver,sincethevoltmeterthathasthescalethatisbigenoughtakestoomuchspace.It
isinthiscasebetterusingamanualtuninginsteadofautomatic.SuchsolutionisgivenonPic.4.13.
ThetuningisdoneviathevariablecapacitorCwithnumberswrittenonitsbutton,similartothatonPic.3.11.Itismost
simpletousenumbersfrom1to10.ThevariablecapacitorisliketheoneonPic.4.8.Someexperimentingistobedone
withcapacitancesofCxandCy,inordertocovertheentirereceptionbandwidth,from88till108MHz.
TheAFC(AutomaticFrequencyControl)ofthelocaloscillatorisaccomplishedwithBA483diode,obtainingthatstations
positiononscaledoesnotwalkoverthescale.
Thecompleteradioreceivershouldstillhavealoudspeaker.ElectronicdiagramofsuchreceivermadewithTDA7088Tis
givenonPic.4.14.Asonecansee,thatisareceiverfromPic.4.12withanaudioreceivermadewithLM386IC.
MaximumvalueoftheDCsupplyvoltagefortheTDA7088Tis5V,thereforeifusinga4.5VbatterytheLM386willwork
withreducedoutputpower,theD2diodeandC15capacitorshouldbeomitted,andR4shouldbeshortcircuited.

If higher voltage battery is used, the voltage stabilizer, comprised by the aforementioned components, has to be
activated. D2 is a Zener diode with 3 V Zener voltage. The optimum value of R4 is found experimentally: in order to
make the power consumption as low as possible it should have the resistance as big as possible, while simultaneously
keeping the voltage on Pin 4 about 3 V and the device working well within the entire reception bandwidth (One should
startwith,say,R4=1.5kOhm,andifthereceiveroperateswellbiggerresistanceshouldbetriedout,andifnotsmaller
one,untiltheoptimumvalueisfound).

Pic.4.15. shows the PCB for the HF part of the receiver with TDA7088T, that is realized with ordinary components,
insteadoftheSMDs.Pic.4.15ashowstheboardlayoutfromthesoldering(copper)side.Allthecomponentsapartfrom
TDA7088Taremountedontheoppositesideoftheboard,theirpinsareputthroughtheholesandsolderedthroughthe
holes.TheTDAissolderedonthecopperside,directlyontothecoppercontacts.Thatiswhyitisbeingdrawnindashed
lineonpic.4.15b,wheretheboardlayoutonthecomponentsideisgiven.

* Pic.4.16a shows 3x enlarged picture of the IC and the surrounding lines. The soldering procedure for SMD is as
follows:
AthintinlayerisappliedonthecoppercontactswhereIClegsaretobesolderedto.Thefirslegstobesolderedarethe
diagonallyoppositeones,inthiscaseNo.1and9.Asmallcushionshapedamountoftin(notprofuse)isappliedonthe
contactswherethesepinsaretobesoldered(pic.4.17a).TheICisplacedinitsposition,withallthepinsproperlylaid.
PinNo.1ispressedagainstthetinpillowwithatopofabodkin,withironheadsimultaneouslytouchingboththetinand
thepinend.Thetingetsmelted,andthepinliesdownonitsplacewiththeaidofthebodkin,andgetssoldered.
It is now time to check out the positioning of the chip. If it needs to be corrected, the tin surrounding the pin No.1 is
melted with iron tip and the chip position is quickly and carefully adjusted, in order not to overheat the pin. Soldering
thepinNo.9isshownonPic.4.17b.First,theirontipissimultaneouslyputonthetopofthelegandthecopperbelow
it, so that both of them are heated. After app. half a second, the iron is slightly removed from the leg but remains on
thecoppercontact.Thetipofthetinolwireisthenapproachedtotouchtheiron,thepintopandthecoppercontactat
the same time. The wire gets melted and adheres to the copper and the pin, so it has to be constantly moved
downwards.Whenenoughtinisapplied,thetinolwireisremovedfirst,thentheiron,andthepinNo.9issoldered.Once
again you have to check whether all the pins are properly placed, and then they too are soldered as it was just
described.ThesoldersareOKiftheylookapp.asonPic.4.17c.

*Pic.4.15bcontainsthePCBcomponentsidelayout.ThepushbuttonsweusedhereareSiemens,typeBO2AMAP2.The
common housing contains, as one can see, two button switches, one of which is being used by this device. Any other

pushbutton switches can also be used. In that case small modifications on the PCB lines would probably be necessary.
Theboardismountedfairlyclosetotheboxedge,sothattheswitchshaftsarepassingthroughthepanel,andthatthe
buttonscanbemountedontheoutside.Thepanelmountswitchescanalsobeused,inwhichcasetheyareconnectedto
theboardbywires(pic.4.15e).

*Anyaudioamplifierdescribedsofarcanbeused,e.g.theonewithLM386,asonpic.4.8.
*Insteadoftheantenna,a20cmpieceofwirecanalsobeutilized.
4.2.2.2.StereophonicReceiverBuiltwithTDA7088T
Stereophonicradiobroadcastisperformedintheultrashortwaveband,from88MHztill108MHz.Allradiotransmitters
operating in this range are stereophonic, but their signal is designed so that monophonic receivers can also read it,
performing the compatibility. The readers that wish to get acquainted in more details with the stereophonic broadcast
basicscanrefertotheRadioReceiverstextbook,fortheIVgradeoftheElectrotechnicalHighschool.
Makinganintroductiontothispart,aoperatingprincipleofthestereophonicradioreceivershallbeconsidered,itsblock
diagramshownonpic.4.18.Comparingthisdiagramwiththeoneofthemonophonicreceivergivenonpic.4.6,onemay
noticethattheyareidentical,uptotheblockcalled"TheDecoder".Itmeansthat,asalreadydescribed,exitingtheFM
detector the LF signal is obtained, i.e. the information that was used to perform the frequency modulation in the
transmitter.However,thisisnotanordinaryLFsignal,buttheone,calledthe"composed"(KS)or"multiplexed"(Mpx)
signal.BesidesthefullscaleLFsignalusedbythemonophonicreceiver,
it also contains the socalled auxiliary signal which allows the separation of left (L) and right (R) channels in the
stereophonic receiver. E.g. if a direct broadcast of some band music is performed, the left part of performers is being
recorded with one microphone (the signal marked as L), whilst the right side is recorded with the other one (its a R
signal).ThesetwosignalsarebeingledintheFMtransmitterinthestagecalledthecoder.Exitingthecoderwehave
the multiplexed signal Mpx which contains, in an indirect manner, both left (L) and right (R) signal. Frequency
modulation of the transmitter is being performed with the Mpx signal. In the receiver, Mpx signal is obtained on the
outputoftheFMDetectorandisthenledtothedecoder.Thisstageplaysarolecomplementarytotheoneofthecoder
in the transmitter, therefore two signals are exiting it, the L and D signal. They are being amplified over two identical
audioamplifiers,thenreproducedovertwosameloudspeakers.Thelistenercannowhearthelefthalfoftheperformers
from the loudspeaker placed on its left, and the right half from the loudspeaker that is placed on its right. The
performers that are situated in the middle of the orchestra are being equally reproduced from both loudspeakers,
makinganimpressiontothelistenerasiftheresathirdloudspeaker,locatedinthemiddle,betweentheleftandright

one. Based on all this, the listener has a picture about the layout of the performers in space, which significantly
improvesthetotalmusicalimpression.
Electroniccircuitofaportablestereophonicradioreceiverwithheadphonesreproduction,madewithTDA7088Tisshown
on pic.4.19. It is a receiver whose practical realization was described in the previous project, with decoder with
TDA7040TanddualaudioamplifierwithTDA7050Tblocksadded,thelatterwasdiscussedinPE5.
* L3, L4 and L5 are HF chokes that allow for the headphones cable to be used as a reception antenna. This is
accomplished by connecting one of the headphones contacts from the plugin, over the 10 pF capacitor, to the point
where, acc. to pic.4.14, the outside antenna is connected. The coils represent big resistance to the station signals,
preventingthemtogotogroundoverthe47mFcapacitororovertheTDA7050Toutput.Eachcoilhas3quirksofthe
0.2 mm CuL wire, threaded through ferrite pearls, as shown on detail in the right corner of the pic.4.19. If telescopic
antennaistobeused,thesecoilsshouldbeomitted.

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