ATtiny13 – 8bit mono class D amplifier

I always wonder whether it is possible to make an amplifier of class D on ATtiny13 or not. Some time ago I found George Gardner’s project based on ATtiny85 – TinyD. It was a sign to start challenging it with ATtiny13. It took me a few hours but finally I made it! The code is very short and useses a lot of hardware settings which has been explained line-by-line in the comments. The project runs on ATtiny13 with maximum internal clock source (9.6MHz). It gave me posibility to use maximum of hardware PWM frequency (Fast PWM mode).

F_{PWM} = \frac{F\_CPU}{N \cdot 256} = \frac{9.6\mathrm{MHz}}{1 \cdot 256} = 37.5\mathrm{kHz}


The PWM freqency of class D amplifiers should be of course much higher, a hundreds of kHz (some sources says 8 times more than sampling frequency). Unfortunately, in case of ATtiny13 it’s not posible to achieve such parameters. However, for experimentally selected settings of ADC sampling rate (~10kHz) and PWM frequency (37.5kHz) the amplifier sounds very good! The code is on Github, click here.

Software

This code is written in C and can be compiled using the avr-gcc. All information about how to compile this project is here.

/**
 * Copyright (c) 2019, Łukasz Marcin Podkalicki <lpodkalicki@gmail.com>
 * ATtiny13/052
 * Example of 8bit mono class D amplifier.
 */

#include <avr/io.h>
#include <avr/interrupt.h>
#include <util/delay.h>

#define	AUDIO_IN	PB3
#define	AUDIO_OUT	PB0

int
main(void)
{

	/* setup */
	DDRB |= _BV(AUDIO_OUT); // set AUDIO_OUT pin as output
	TCCR0A |= _BV(WGM01)|_BV(WGM00); // set timer mode to FAST PWM
	TCCR0A |= _BV(COM0A1); // connect PWM pin to channel A
	TCCR0B |= _BV(CS00); // set prescaler to 1
	ADMUX |= _BV(MUX0)|_BV(MUX1); // select ADC3 (PB3)
	ADMUX |= _BV(REFS0); // set internal 1.1V reference voltage
	ADMUX |= _BV(ADLAR); // left adjust of ADC result
	ADCSRA |= _BV(ADPS1)|_BV(ADPS0); // set ADC division factor to 8
	ADCSRA |= _BV(ADEN)|_BV(ADIE); // enable ADC and interrupt
	ADCSRA |= _BV(ADATE); // set ADC auto-trigger
	ADCSRA |= _BV(ADSC); // start conversion
	sei(); // enable global interrupts

	/* loop */
	while (1);
}

ISR(ADC_vect)
{

	OCR0A = ADCH; // the magic
}
References

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14 thoughts on “ATtiny13 – 8bit mono class D amplifier”

  2. been a while since visiting this project page…
    new projects that sparked my interest…
    the updated disco light using DFT and this Mono amp..
    just a quick question…. what is the equivalent audio power output (RMS) of the ATtiny13 mono amp?

    thanks again for the interesting projects..!

    • Hi, and welcome back! This little amplifier has only 5 Vpp (1.8 V RMS) and we should consider maximum 40mA load for AVR GPIO. I never measured it but I think it’s about ~80mW RMS.

      /LP

    • George, thanks for TinyD! I learned a lot while studying your project. Some day will try stereo but for now I’m going to port the code to ATtiny10-tshr.
      /L

  7. I noticed a few things from your code, you are using PB2 for sampling data, not PB3 like in your schematic.
    Also you set ADC prescaler to /8, with the clock rate of 9.6MHz it gives ADC clock 1.2MHz. Because conversion takes 13 clocks, sampling rate is actually ~92KHz.

    • Hi Darko! Thank you for code review! At the begining I choose ADC on PB2 for prototyping. However, it look better on schematic when I use ADC on PB3. I will change the code to reflect exactly what is on circuit.

      You’re calculation regarding sampling frequency are correct. I thought it will work with calculated frequency (I assumed safe 25 cycles per sample) but simple test – toggling I/O inside a interrupt hook – showed about 5 kHz on oscilloscope. Probably Timer consumes a lot of time. Whould be great if someone else could make this test.

      /L

      • Hi Łukasz! I’ve checked your project with oscilloscope and I have 4.52…kHz on PB0 without input signal. It seems, that all modulation will be with this frequency, not with 37.5kHz.

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