Interfacing a normal radio to computer (PC radio)

[pratchit]

Hello everyone

I am a new member and this is my first post.

I am an electronics student and want to make this project for final year

The idea is simple. Make a radio and listen to it on the computer

I thought of 2 ways. Use pots etc to ctrl the volume and station on the circuit made...or have a GUI/software side to digitally do that, which i guess will require a microcontroller.

I also guess a serial port interface will be necessary (not found in lappies) or a usb.

Please, i would like this thread to 'brainstorm' on this idea and make this project possible.

Bye

PS: this was posted on the radio forum too due to oversight!

 

[Reloadron]

What you are looking to do isn't exactly new. There have been PCI slot cards and serial interface cards around for years for home computers that contain radios. Years ago ATI Technologies Inc. was a leader in graphics cards that could recieve either cable TV or OTA (Over The Air) TV and Radio including standard 88 to 108 MHz FM radio broadcast. Matter of fact the old ATI All In Wonder X1800 card comes to mind as to old analog OTA TV signals and FM Radio. The software included a nice GUI including the tuner and volume as well as other controls. Beyond standard cards like this there also plenty of ham radio transceivers out there designed to interface with computers and provide a GUI for the user.

Today's laptops have a serial port in the USB port (Universal Serial Bus). Many still can be had with the RS232 port as well but the USB ports are serial ports as their name implies. Also most laptops include a PCMCIA port for a host of other devices to be interfaced with.

I think what you need to do is sit down with pencil and paper and begin to think about exactly what you want. Radio is a pretty generic term. Then think about interface and the software (code writing) to support it. This can get pretty complex.

Just My Take
Ron

 

[audioguru]

Have a look at the datasheet of a TDA7513 AM/FM stereo tuner and audio processor. It is a few years old and has been used in car radios and home stereos. It has 80 pins and is programmed and has many of its features set by a microcontroller.

 

[davenn]

The latest way is to use what is called SDR, Software Defined Radio. All the rage at the moment amongst amateur radio operators, shortwave listeners and such.
Do some google searching, quite a bit of info out there

Dave

 

[pratchit]

Thanks for all the suggestions

that 80 pin IC looks formidable

I was thinking of doing something more component level.

I have thought of 2 options. One to make a normal analog Fm receiver radio...and then feed the analog speaker o/p to the line in using some buffer stage or something....another option is make a digital radio on a micro-controller/micro-processor (like avr, atmega, pic etc.)....will have to use dsp in there and then directly connect the o/p to comp as they have usb/serial port outputs these mups etc. Problem is i am not well versed with mups as i am with analog component level and pspice. the dsp part of it...will have to test in matlab or what. Please help. A direct chip won't be a project at all!

The SDR thing is superb!

A question: The radios in our mobile phones....do they have such a thing or some tiny IC embedded in its board?

Thanks in advance

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

A question: The radios in our mobile phones....do they have such a thing or some tiny IC embedded in its board?

As far as I'm aware, most such radios are simply software - and they usually aren't very well performing radios, it's more a gimmick than anything else.