Long obsolete, the NE5044 was very popular back in the day, it was used by Micron, Fleet, Skyleader, Proline, World Engines, Hitec, Sanwa, Futaba and many more.
Often on a PCB it was buried under shielding as it could otherwise be prone to RF interference.
Attached is a datasheet (which is not the easiest to follow), and also the very best explanation I've found of the NE5044's operation, courtesy of Ace in their "Silver-7":
The Signetics NE5044 encoder
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Phil_G
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The Signetics NE5044 encoder
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- Ace_Silver_7_TX.pdf
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- NE5044.pdf
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Pchristy
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Re: The Signetics NE5044 encoder
I started using these as soon as they came out! Very easy to set up and work with, it was an excellent little device - except for its prone-ness to RF interference!
It was bad enough at 35 MHz, manifesting itself as trim changes between aerial up and aerial down, but at UHF it was a nightmare!
No amount of decoupling would cure it. Eventually, I found that building it on a double sided PC board, with the component side acting as a ground-plane cured it completely!
So if anyone is considering making one, remember to use a double-sided board with a solid ground-plane on the upper surface!
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Pete
It was bad enough at 35 MHz, manifesting itself as trim changes between aerial up and aerial down, but at UHF it was a nightmare!
No amount of decoupling would cure it. Eventually, I found that building it on a double sided PC board, with the component side acting as a ground-plane cured it completely!
So if anyone is considering making one, remember to use a double-sided board with a solid ground-plane on the upper surface!
--
Pete
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Phil_G
- Posts: 629
- Joined: 15 Feb 2018, 23:32
- Contact:
Re: The Signetics NE5044 encoder
by coincidence, Futaba NE5044 pics in this thread, post 2:
https://forums.modelflying.co.uk/index. ... onversion/
https://forums.modelflying.co.uk/index. ... onversion/
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Pchristy
- Posts: 433
- Joined: 16 Feb 2018, 13:57
- Location: South Devon, UK
Re: The Signetics NE5044 encoder
Yes, looks like they implemented the "resistor in series with the analogue inputs, and capacitor to ground" method, which worked well enough at HF and low VHF frequencies (27 & 35 MHz), but failed completely at 459MHz!
Never tried it at 2.4 GHz, but there should be less stray RF inside the case at that frequency, so it may be OK. Also stray capacitance within the device may be effective at 2.4 GHz.
They also made matching decoder chips which worked very well, but were quite a bit dearer than a CMOS shift register, which is what most of us ending up using!
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Pete
Never tried it at 2.4 GHz, but there should be less stray RF inside the case at that frequency, so it may be OK. Also stray capacitance within the device may be effective at 2.4 GHz.
They also made matching decoder chips which worked very well, but were quite a bit dearer than a CMOS shift register, which is what most of us ending up using!
--
Pete