The WWVB protocol has been interesting me for the past few months. I have been thinking about doing the opposite: building my own WWVB receiving station.
There are modules which can automatically receive the WWVB radio signal and output the high/low pulses (which still need to be translated from PWM to ones and zeros).
If I were to make a recommendation: you're hiding a bit of magic here:
> I designed the board using the EAGLE PCB design software and milled the board from a single-sided FR-1 circuit board blank on an Othermill v2:
You haven't said the kinds of endmills you're using (flat square mills? Or did you use a V-tip?). If so, where did you source the V-Tips from? The software side probably had a few extra steps as well (IIRC, its usually Eagle -> Eagle CAM Plugin export -> CAM software -> GCode -> Mill)
So expanding on what you did here would be most helpful... to me at least :-)
> Itβs challenging to design good antennas for such long wavelengths
FYI: the loopstick / Small Loop antenna operates on the magnetic-portion of the wave instead of the electric-portion of the wave. Instead of making a very large wire (which "receives" the voltage as the wave passes), the small loop antenna is basically an inductor that generates a current as the magnetic wave passes over it.
That's how it gets so small, since the electric wave is 5000-meters long, its a bit difficult to make.
Ah yes, I didn't go into details on the milling process. I used a 1/64" flat end mill for the traces and a 1/32" flat end mill to cut out the board from the stock.
Also, the software workflow was really easy - Otherplan (Othermill's CAM software) can directly import Eagle's .brd files and drive the Othermill.
> Also, the software workflow was really easy - Otherplan (Othermill's CAM software) can directly import Eagle's .brd files and drive the Othermill.
Hmm, good to know. The only CNC Mill I have access to however is the Nomad 883. So I guess for my purposes, I'd have to do something else. But that's a nifty feature of "Othermill" for sure.
> I used a 1/64" flat end mill for the traces
I'm glad to know this is feasible for some of these larger surface-mount parts (like an ATTiny44A).
There are modules which can automatically receive the WWVB radio signal and output the high/low pulses (which still need to be translated from PWM to ones and zeros).
https://www.amazon.com/60kHz-atomic-clock-radio-module/dp/B0...
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If I were to make a recommendation: you're hiding a bit of magic here:
> I designed the board using the EAGLE PCB design software and milled the board from a single-sided FR-1 circuit board blank on an Othermill v2:
You haven't said the kinds of endmills you're using (flat square mills? Or did you use a V-tip?). If so, where did you source the V-Tips from? The software side probably had a few extra steps as well (IIRC, its usually Eagle -> Eagle CAM Plugin export -> CAM software -> GCode -> Mill)
So expanding on what you did here would be most helpful... to me at least :-)
> Itβs challenging to design good antennas for such long wavelengths
FYI: the loopstick / Small Loop antenna operates on the magnetic-portion of the wave instead of the electric-portion of the wave. Instead of making a very large wire (which "receives" the voltage as the wave passes), the small loop antenna is basically an inductor that generates a current as the magnetic wave passes over it.
That's how it gets so small, since the electric wave is 5000-meters long, its a bit difficult to make.