MADI optical to coax

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kvintus

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 15, 2004
Messages
359
Location
Finland
What does the intestines of a mad optical/coax converter look like. One would imagine that it should be quite easy to build one but when looking at the price of commercial units it makes me wonder if there is something more complicated.

Please enlighten me.

/Anders
 
I would imagine one end is a photo detector going into a transimpedance amplifier feeding a line driver. The other end is reversed, receiver, laser driver, laser (or led).

It's not necessarily complicated but more attention to detail and properly dealing with 100 MHz+ signals.
 
The optical transmitter/receiver is the Avago 5803z in most commercial units.
http://www.mouser.de/ProductDetail/Avago-Technologies/AFBR-5803Z/?qs=%2fha2pyFadujLjrUcKvPLWBEgDBkpUnXOS5Re8l3iXmNOoNIsOJ1GVA%3d%3d

Together with a pair of BNC connectors, two high-speed op-amps for buffering and a careful PCB layout it should get you there.  ;)

...I always wanted to built this myself but never got the time to play around.

Ohh, and check the data sheet for a few hints on how to implement the 5803z correctly... 8)
 
Sounds like it's time to order some parts and start playing around. Seems like this would be a good project to learn more about high speed PCB design.

/A
 

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