Thursday, January 9, 2014

Logarithmic Converter, Control Voltage to Logarithmic Current, Part 1, theory

One standard of analogue synthesizer control is 1V/octave. This is what I'm implementing in the MIDI2VC, and now I need to build a simple logarithmic converter to place between the MIDI2VC and the VCO. In fact, I will actually build a new, really simple VCO from a LM13700.
 The logarithmic converter is thoroughly explained in Electronotes S-019. The one described on page 2 is one that sinks current, and the LM13700 VCO needs a current source. In Electronotes 129 there is a big VCO schematic that has a log converter with a current source. A combination of the two schematics is seen here:
Current source logarithmic converter
The relationship between the currents is:
IC2=IC1eVIN 26mV

Ignoring the small base currents in the transistors, we also have
IO=IC1+IC2

We will want to limit  IC2 to protect the LM13700. It can receive a current of 2mA, but let's set max current to 1mA to be on the safe side. We can combine the two current equations to:
IO=IC2(1+eVIN/26mV)

A2 is an inverting attenuator that converts positive control voltage to negative in voltage:
VIN=VC18mV

VO will swing all the way to the positive rail (or close at least). Ve is always close to 0.6mV (diode drop). We want the converter to work up to 5 Volts (max output of the MIDI2VC). This means we should set
RL90.6V1mA(1+e518/26)=8144Ω

In fact, we need to go a bit lower on RL, due to the approximations in the calculation. I settled fro RL=6.8k\Omega.
We now set:
IC11mAe518/26

We can get this current by connecting 330k\Omega to the negative rail.
An LTSPICE simulation of this circuit can give us a plot like this:
Output current as function of voltage. Note that the current doubles between each 1V increment up to the current limitation. Simulation done in LTSPICE.

1 comment:

  1. Hello from berlin,

    i have read that the vintage Vermona Synhtesizer needs a logarithmik vc/cv.
    Do you know something about that, or is it a wrong komment?

    Regards
    Ralf

    ReplyDelete