Arduino Based RF Power & SWR Monitor and Alarm System Test & Demo
This video is a demonstration and test of the Arduino UNO R3 based RF power & VSWR monitoring and alarm panel I've been working on. It is now fully operational and can be seen here installed on a Quintron paging system I recently put together and have ready to go to a site as a swap-out system for one of my http://www.DuplexerRepair.com clients. Although the reason behind this project was primarily to build monitoring and alarm panels for the client's Glenayre and Quintron paging systems, this monitor & alarm system can essentially be used on any transmitter or repeater system.
To build this monitoring and alarm panel, I removed all of the electronics from a Glenayre Power Monitor panel for which nobody in the RF world seems to still the schematics, wiring diagrams, or any other documentation. That being the case, I put together my own Power & SWR Monitor system and wrote the Arduino IDE Sketch code for it. This video show it running the v2.4 version Sketch code, which is the latest iteration as of publishing this video. I plan to further develop the code and circuits in the future for purposes of adding a temperature probe and an Ethernet shield for purposes of remote viewing of the system parameters. At some point, I will create and manufacture a custom Arduino shield board to use instead of an off-the-shelf prototype board, primarily to make the wiring to the RF power sensor, display module, indicators, etc. more secure and more logically located to reduce the chances of wiring damage or accidental disconnection of components.
The major components used in the build consist of:
Arduino Uno R3 Development Board
Prototype shield board
1602 LCD display with I2C board attached
Active buzzer
Red LED
1.5 kOhm resistor for LED current limiting
Momentary contact pushbutton
dbProducts (now dbSpectra) 350W bi-directional RF power sensor (will be replaced by TASC sensor when it arrives)
5 Volt regulated power supply ("wall-wart")