Si4732-a10 FM/aM/sW/lW/rBS Receiver Project
Si4732-a10 Overview
Silcon Labs makes a series of all in one Radio Receivers that bring all most all the components for FM, AM, SW, LW with RBS all on one small chip
The Si4735-d60 is considered the top of this line, the receiver with the most features, and comes in a SSOP-28 package
But a lesser well known member is the Si473x line is the Si4732-a10
The Si4732-a10 has all the features of the Si4735-d60, and comes in a SOP-16 package, which is much easier to solder than a SSOP-28 package, the SOP-16 package can be easily solder by the general hobbyist
The Si4735-d60 has v60 of the chip firmware, the latest, greatest features including digital audio, and slightly expensive, going for about $10 a chip
The Si4732-a10 has v10 of the chip firmware going by the part number, but Silcon Labs updated the firmware of the Si4732-a10 to v60 without changing the part number, and cost 25% of the cost of the Si4735-d60
So, same features, 25% of the cost, and a SOP-16 package means a much better deal overall
Arduino Programming
Programming chips like the Si4732 is accomplished by wiring values into registries on the chip using the I2C bus, the various registries and the values associated with specific function can become unmanageble as the features of the chip are fully explored
Luckily the Aruduino IDE allows the use of libraries, so the programming of the chip is made a lot easier – but you need a library, either you need to create one, or you need to find a good one that someone else has written and released to the general public
There are literally dozens of libraries written for the Si47xx receivers, some good and complete, so bad and incomplete – luckily PU2CLR has developed a very good and mostly complete programing library, and provides regular updates, the library is available in the manage libraries feature of the Arduino IDE
TO BE CONTINUED – LAST UPDATED 06/05/2022
Si4732-a10 FM/aM/sW/lW/rBS Receiver Project
