The ST7538Q dual channel reference design is a practical tool to start the activity of
designing an automatic meter reading (AMR) node based on the ST7538Q power line FSK
transceiver.
With this reference design, it is possible to evaluate the features of the ST7538Q and its
transmitting and receiving performances in an actual communication on the power line
network.
The ST7538Q reference design can be considered as composed of three main sections:
■ power supply section, specifically designed to coexist with power line communication and
to operate from a wide-range input mains voltage
■ modem and crystal oscillator section
■ dual channel line coupling interface section
The dual channel line coupling interface allows the ST7538Q FSK transceiver to transmit
and receive on the mains using two different carrier frequencies: 72 kHz and 86 kHz, both
within the frequency band A specified by the European CENELEC EN50065 standard for
AMR applications.
Figure 1.ST7538Q dual channel reference design board with outline dimensions
56mm
98mm
As it can be seen from the picture above, a special effort has been made to develop a
compact reference design board, oriented to practical applications.
Note:The information provided in this application note refers to the EVALST7538DUAL reference
If junction temperature
exceeds 180 °C the device
shuts down
R20 = 3.9 kΩ, R22=2.2 kΩ
– see Ta bl e 2
R19 = 2 kΩ – see Figure 2
Loaded with CISPR 16-1
network
Loaded with CISPR 16-1
network
BER<10-3, negligible noise
Power supply section
AC mains voltage range85 V265 V
Mains frequency50-60 Hz
Output voltage-10%10 V+10%Green LED ON
Output voltage ripple1%
I
= 600 mA, VIN=85 V
OUT
Output current600 mA
Output power5.6 W
Efficiency at P
Nominal transformer
isolation
(1)
Number of holdup cycles
= 3.5 W70%
OUT
4 kV
0
Primary to secondary/
secondary to auxiliary
AC
7/56
Electrical characteristicsAN2744
Table 1.Electrical characteristics of the ST7538Q dual channel reference design (continued)
ParameterValueNotes
Input power100 mW
Switching frequency-10%60 kHz+10%Transceiver section in Tx mode
1. ST does not guarantee transformer isolation. ST assumes no responsibility for the consequences that may result from that
risk.
Table 2.Output signal level setting through V
V
[V
OUT
]V
RMS
OUT
[dBuV
](R
RMS
+ R8) / R
7
partitioning - typical values
SENSE
8
R7 [kΩ]R
[kΩ]
8
1.0001201.250.9102.2
1.1251211.41.32.2
1.2501221.62.22.2
1.5001242.02.72.2
1.8001252.253.32.2
2.0001262.53.92.2
2.250 (Note 1)1272.84.72.2
2.500 (Note 1)1283.156.82.2
3.000 (Note 1)1304.07.52.2
Note:1EN50065-1 normative compliance is not guaranteed with a signal level at mains output
greater than 2 V
Figure 2.Typical curve for output current limit vs. RCL value
400
400
RMS
8/56
350
350
300
300
250
250
Irms (mA)
Irms (mA)
200
200
150
150
100
100
1.7522.252.52.7533.253.53.7544.254.54.755
1.7522.25 2.52.7533.25 3.5 3.7544.25 4.5 4.755
Rcl (kOhm)
Rcl (kOhm )
AN2744Safety precautions
2 Safety precautions
The board must be used only by expert technicians. Due to the high voltage (220 V ac)
present on the parts which are not isolated, special care should be taken with regard to
people's safety.
There is no protection against high voltage accidental human contact.
After disconnection of the board from the mains, none of the live parts should be touched
immediately because of the energized capacitors.
It is mandatory to use a mains insulation transformer to perform any tests on the high
voltage sections (see circuit sections highlighted in Figure 7 and Figure 8) in which test
instruments like spectrum analyzers or oscilloscopes are used.
Do not connect any oscilloscope probes to high voltage sections in order to avoid damaging
instruments and demonstration tools.
Warning:ST assumes no responsibility for any consequences which
may result from the improper use of this tool.
9/56
ST7538Q FSK power line transceiver descriptionAN2744
3 ST7538Q FSK power line transceiver description
The ST7538Q transceiver performs a half-duplex communication over the power line
network using frequency shift keying (FSK) modulation. It operates from a 7.5 to 12.5 V
single supply voltage (PAV
stage and two linear regulators providing 5 V (VDC) and 3.3 V (DV
Figure 3.ST7538Q transceiver block diagram
) and integrates a differential-output power line interface (PLI)
CC
DD
).
10/56
The ST7538Q can be programmed to communicate using eight different frequency
channels (60, 66, 72, 76, 82.05, 86, 110 and 132.5 kHz), four baud rates (600, 1200, 2400
and 4800 symbols per second) and two frequency deviations (1 and 0.5).
Many auxiliary functions are integrated. The transmission section includes automatic control
on PLI output voltage and current, programmable time-out function and thermal shutdown.
The reception section includes automatic input level control, carrier/preamble detection and
band-in-use signaling.
Additional features are included, such as watchdog timer, zero-crossing detector, internal
oscillator and a general purpose op-amp.
The serial interface (configurable as UART or SPI) allows interfacing to a host
microcontroller, intended to manage the communication protocol. A reset output (RSTO)
and a programmable 4-8-16 MHz clock (MCLK) can be provided to the microcontroller to
simplify the application.
Communication on the power line can be either synchronous or asynchronous with the data
clock (CLR/T) provided by the transceiver at the programmed baud rate.
When in transmission mode (i.e. RxTx line at low level), the ST7538Q transceiver samples
the data on the TxD line, generating an FSK modulated signal on the ATO pin. The same
AN2744ST7538Q FSK power line transceiver description
signal is fed into the differential power amplifier to get four times the voltage swing and a
current capability up to 370 mA rms.
When in reception mode (i.e. RxTx line at high level), an incoming signal at the RAI line is
demodulated and converted to a digital bit stream on the RxD pin.
The internal control register, which contains the operating parameters of the ST7538Q
transceiver, can be programmed only using the SPI interface. The control register settings
include the header recognition and frame length count functions, which can be used to apply
byte and frame synchronization to the received messages.
11/56
Evaluation tools descriptionAN2744
4 Evaluation tools description
The complete evaluation environment for the ST7538Q power line communication consists
of:
– 1 PC using the "ST7538 power line modem demonstration kit" software tool
– 1 EVALCOMMBOARD hosting an ST7 microcontroller
– 1 ST7538Q dual channel reference design board (EVALST7538DUAL)
The correct procedure for connecting the EVALST7538DUAL and the EVALCOMMBOARD
is as follows:
1.Connect the EVALST7538DUAL and the EVALCOMMBOARD together
2. Connect the ac cable to the EVALST7538DUAL and the USB cable to the
EVALCOMMBOARD
3. Connect the EVALST7538DUAL to the mains supply
4. Connect the EVALCOMMBOARD to the PC via USB cable
Warning:Follow the connection procedure to avoid damaging the
boards!
Figure 4.Complete evaluation system including a PC, an EVALCOMMBOARD and the
EVALST7538DUAL board
USB/RS232USB/RS232
12/56
AN2744Evaluation tools description
Figure 5.Power line modem demonstration kit with transmission session window
This complete communication node, controlled by the ST7538Q power line modem
demonstration kit, implements real communication at bit level, simply sending or receiving a
user-defined bit stream.
It is possible to establish a half-duplex communication between two of these communication
nodes connected to each other. For better evaluating communication performances, the
ST7538Q power line modem demo kit software tool has some particular features, including:
●Frame synchronization: a frame synchronization header can be added to the
transmitted data to set up a simple protocol, intended to test the capability of the
system to correctly receive the exact bit sequence as it has been transmitted. This
feature can be enabled in the Rx panel of the ST7538Q power line modem
demonstration kit. A bit synchronization can be introduced as a simpler feature by
enabling the preamble detection method in the control register panel and then inserting
at least one "0101" or "1010" sequence at the beginning of the bit stream to be
transmitted.
●Ping session: a master-slave communication with automatic statistics calculation can
be useful to test a point-to-point or a point-to-multipoint power line communication
network, thus providing a method to evaluate reachability of each node in the network.
For further details about the ST7538Q power line modem demonstration kit tool, please
refer to user manual UM0241 "ST7538 power line modem demonstration kit graphical user
interface”.
13/56
Board descriptionAN2744
5 Board description
The ST7538Q dual channel reference design is composed of the following sections:
– power supply section, based on ST’s VIPer12A-E IC
– ST7538Q modem and crystal oscillator section
– line coupling interface section, with three subsections:
–dual channel transmission passive filter
–dual channel reception passive filter
–dual channel reception active filter
The board has also two connectors, which allow the user to plug the mains supply on one
side of the board and the IBU communication board on the other side.
Figure 6.Scheme of the various sections of the board
Dual Channel
Dual Channel
Dual Channel
Dual Channel
Dual Channel
Dual Channel
RX Active Filter
RX Active Filter
RX Active Filter
RX Active Filter
RX Active Filter
RX Active Filter
Power Supply
Power Supply
Power Supply
Power Supply
Power Supply
Power Supply
(with ST Viper 12A)
(with ST Viper 12A)
(with ST Viper 12A)
(with ST Viper 12A)
(with ST Viper 12A)
(with ST Viper 12A)
Dual Channel
Dual Channel
Dual Channel
Dual Channel
Dual Channel
Dual Channel
TX Passive
TX Passive
TX Passive
TX Passive
TX Passive
TX Passive
Mains Supply
Mains Supply
Mains Supply
Mains Supply
Connection to
Connection to
Connection to
Connection to
The schematics of the whole reference design are given in the following pages. Figure 7
shows the modem and coupling interface circuits, while Figure 8 represents the power
supply circuit. In both schematics, high voltage regions are highlighted.
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
ST7538Q
ST7538Q
ST7538Q
ST7538Q
ST7538Q
ST7538Q
Modem
Modem
Modem
Modem
Modem
Modem
Section
Section
Section
Section
Section
Section
Dual Channel
Dual Channel
Dual Channel
Dual Channel
Dual Channel
Dual Channel
RX Passive Filter
RX Passive Filter
RX Passive Filter
RX Passive Filter
RX Passive Filter
RX Passive Filter
Connection to
Connection to
Connection to
Connection to
µ
µ
µ
µ
C Board
C Board
C Board
C Board
14/56
Ta bl e 3 lists the components used to develop the reference design board. All parts have
been selected to give optimal performances.
The layout of the printed circuit is shown in Appendix A - Figure 50 and Figure 51.