Tondaj SL-814

Tondaj SL-814

The Tondaj SL-814 is a sound level meter with USB connectivity.

See Tondaj SL-814/Info for more details (such as lsusb -vvv output) about the device.

Hardware

Device:

• Main CPU: Atmel ATmega8/L (marking: "Atmel ATmega8L 8AU 1113D"), (datasheet)
• 8MHz crystal: 8.00ECSXR
• ?: 324 GZ15129
• 5V (100mA) low-dropout voltage regulator: Holtek HT7550-1# (datasheet)
• Trim potentiometer: Bochen 3296

USB cable:

• See Device_cables#Tondaj_SL-814_cable.

Photos

Device:

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USB cable:

See Device_cables#Tondaj_SL-814_cable.

Protocol

The device has a mini-USB connector for PC connectivity. It ships with a Prolific USB-to-serial cable (i.e. the Prolific chip is inside the cable) which can be attached to that connector.

The device accepts a simple command-based protocol over the (virtual) serial port, using a baudrate of 9600 baud, with 8e1 settings (8 data bits, even parity, one stop bit).

Commands / replies

Commands and replies can consist of multiple bytes, and always end with 0x0d.

Name	Command	Reply	Comments
Init	0x10 0x04 0x0d	0x05 0x0d	It's unclear what exactly this command does. Data transfers also seem to work fine when it is omitted.
Get measurement	0x30 0xZZ 0x0d	0xAA 0xBB 0xZZ+1 0x0d	For a given command with 0xZZ value (0-255), the device returns 0xZZ + 1 as part of the reply (a simple "sequence number" mechanism which is apparently meant for the host as error-checking mechanism).

Data reply

The first two bytes of the reply to the "get measurement" command (0xAA 0xBB) have the following format:

Byte	Bit	Value
0
	7	A/C measurement type. 0: A, 1: C.
	6	Unknown/unused.
	5-4	Level. 00: 40, 01: 60, 10: 80, 11: 100
	3	Slow/Fast measurement mode. 0: Fast, 1: Slow.
	2-0	Value[10..8].
1
	7-0	Value[7..0].

The actual measurement value seems to span 11 bits, and is encoded in BCD format. Example: If Value[10..0] is 436 (decimal), the corresponding measurement value is 43.6 dB.

Notes

The "MAX" mode on the device (which always keeps showing the highest measured value since the "MAX" button was pressed) only affects the value shown on the display. The values returned via USB upon the "get measurement" command, always show the current value, not the "MAX" one shown on the display.

Python script

Here's a quick Python script for getting the values out of the Tondaj SL-814. A sigrok driver will follow soon.

#!/usr/bin/python3
# Tondaj SL-814 sound level meter Python script
# Copyright (C) 2012 Uwe Hermann <uwe@hermann-uwe.de>
# Released under the terms of the GNU GPL, version 2 or later.

import time
import serial

s = serial.Serial('/dev/ttyUSB0', baudrate=9600, parity=serial.PARITY_EVEN)

while 1:
    # Query
    s.write(bytes([0x30, 0x01, 0x0d]))
    result = s.read(4)
    print('%02x %02x %02x %02x' % tuple(result), end='   -   ')

    # A/C
    ac = (result[0] & (1 << 7)) >> 7
    print('A' if ac == 0 else 'C', end=', ')

    # Slow/Fast
    sl = (result[0] & (1 << 3)) >> 3
    print('Fast' if sl == 0 else 'Slow', end=', ')

    # Level
    factor = (result[0] & ((1 << 5) | (1 << 4))) >> 4
    print('Level: %d' % (40 + (int(bin(factor), 2) * 20)), end=', ')

    # Value
    val = ((result[0] & 0x7) << 8) | result[1]
    tmp_str = '%d' % val
    val_str = tmp_str[:-1] + '.' + tmp_str[-1:]
    print(val_str + ' dB')

    time.sleep(0.5)

s.close()

Example output:

09 af 02 0d   -   A, Slow, Level: 40, 43.1 dB
09 b9 02 0d   -   A, Slow, Level: 40, 44.1 dB
09 e9 02 0d   -   A, Slow, Level: 40, 48.9 dB
89 cb 02 0d   -   C, Slow, Level: 40, 45.9 dB
89 eb 02 0d   -   C, Slow, Level: 40, 49.1 dB
8a 6c 02 0d   -   C, Slow, Level: 40, 62.0 dB
82 99 02 0d   -   C, Fast, Level: 40, 66.5 dB
82 3c 02 0d   -   C, Fast, Level: 40, 57.2 dB
82 72 02 0d   -   C, Fast, Level: 40, 62.6 dB
92 85 02 0d   -   C, Fast, Level: 60, 64.5 dB
93 05 02 0d   -   C, Fast, Level: 60, 77.3 dB
92 68 02 0d   -   C, Fast, Level: 60, 61.6 dB
a3 93 02 0d   -   C, Fast, Level: 80, 91.5 dB
a3 93 02 0d   -   C, Fast, Level: 80, 91.5 dB
a3 93 02 0d   -   C, Fast, Level: 80, 91.5 dB
b3 f2 02 0d   -   C, Fast, Level: 100, 101.0 dB
b3 f2 02 0d   -   C, Fast, Level: 100, 101.0 dB
b3 f2 02 0d   -   C, Fast, Level: 100, 101.0 dB

Resources

TODO.