Digital audio frequency signal ghosting

[CkRtech]

Hey all -

I built a Cirrus Logic CS8406 circuit for an old game console (Sega Saturn) using this, and I seem to be getting an odd signal on the output. The frequency should remain constant (I assume), but the output is rather noisy - looks like a ghost of the signal can be seen, and the frequency seems like it is 170 kHz ...but it will spike to 250 or 350 on my scope. At the moment i snapped the attached scope photo, the freq registered 340 kHz.

Can any of you guys recommend some common issues (Ground specifics, wire length/gauge, noisy clock, etc.) that tend to cause an issue like this?

Thanks!

[Audioguru]

Your 'scope is not sync'd to the signal.
The signal appears to be a squarewave that has lots of harmonics. The 340khz is the second harmonic of the 170kHz fundamental so your frequency counter is counting the harmonic instead of the fundamental frequency.

[tggzzz]

Eye diagrams are very useful for some purposes, e.g. http://www.edn.com/design/test-and-measurement/4389368/Eye-Diagram-Basics-Reading-and-applying-eye-diagrams

[radiogeek381]

Your scope is sync'd just fine.

This is not ghosting.  It is called differential manchester coding or a bi-phase mark code.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_Manchester_encoding

This is the way bits move in the S/PDIF spec.  To send a stream of bits, the signal is encoded so that there are TWO bit transitions in a cycle to signal a "0" and one transition to signal a 1.  This means that there is at least one transition per bit-time.  Manchester coding allows the receiver to recover the clock from a bit stream by looking at transitions.  Higher level protocols ensure that, regardless of the contents of the messages, a "1" bit appears often enough in the bit stream to allow us to distinguish a two-edge interval from a one edge interval. 

If you put your scope in single trigger mode and hit the run button a few times, you'll see different patterns appear.  That's why you see "ghost" images...

[JRosario]

Why is there a dispute on whether or not the scope is synched?

What about the images or situation described leads you to that conclusion (either one)?

Just looking to find out how you are troubleshooting this scenario.

[Audioguru]

Why is there a dispute on whether or not the scope is synched?

What about the images or situation described leads you to that conclusion (either one)?

Just looking to find out how you are troubleshooting this scenario.

The bright parts have good sync because they are repeated over and over. The dim parts have poor sync because they are not repetitive enough and overlap the bright parts.
Simply slow down the 'scope timebase to see the entire data stream and have better sync.

[Andy Watson]

Why is there a dispute on whether or not the scope is synched?

What about the images or situation described leads you to that conclusion (either one)?

It's not a dispute. The nature of the encoding is such that there is no fixed part of the waveform that is repetitive in the manner that is usually expected. The scope is triggered, as good as it can be, on the edge of a data bit whilst the surrounding data bits are continuously changing - hence the apparent ghosting.

[tggzzz]

Why is there a dispute on whether or not the scope is synched?

What about the images or situation described leads you to that conclusion (either one)?

Just looking to find out how you are troubleshooting this scenario.

The bright parts have good sync because they are repeated over and over. The dim parts have poor sync because they are not repetitive enough and overlap the bright parts.
Simply slow down the 'scope timebase to see the entire data stream and have better sync.

No.

The scope is triggering correctly, and all bits are correctly synched all the time. The reason some sections are less bright is because they occur less frequently.

FFI, make sure you understand "eye diagrams".