| Click to Post a New Message!
Page [ 1 ] |
|
|
|
Measuring Frequency in a generator
well the other inexpensive way to do the job, (provided you have some technical skills), is purchase a small acquisition card or microprocessor eval card, suck the data into your pc and take the fft.
obviously you'd have to glue on some pre-conditioning stuff to isolate the eval board, but you could do this all for less than 50 bucks and have some fun to boot.
then again it might be easier to just purchase a cheap dmm with this capability built in.
|
|
 Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
| |
|
Measuring Frequency in a generator
hey dave,
i'm an rf eng by trade, but have recently been mucking around with the avr micro-p from atmel.
for about 60-70 bucks you can purchase an eval board that comes with a micro that has a 10 bit a-d with an 8 port mux, 3 counter-timers, pwm capability, uart and serial port communication and 32 config i/o's.
i'm actually evaluating the part for use as a controller in a pll application.
with a wall-wart, resistive divider, an rc low pass filter for anti-alias, pc and excel spread sheet --- one now has the capability of low freq spectral analysis of the generator.
matlab is my preferred post analysis tool, but if you’re handy with c code or visual basic you’re good to go.
i might be pointing out the obvious, but if one wants real time measurement of the period vs the spectral content the use of the real time counters combined with the built in analog comparator is the way to go.
and if one gets real ambitious consider using the micro in a control loop to set the speed of the motor, thus the freq output from the generator --- now we’re talking fun!
i’m actually amazed at the power of these inexpensive parts ---- i’m old enough to remember the days of the PDP-8’s and 11’s in college and getting a big smile when I printed out my name on the teletype!
have fun ---
|
|
Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
| |
|
Measuring Frequency in a generator
dsg,
dmm's are tools ---
therefore, as with any tool, in order to determine if it's the correct tool for the job a description of the application is appropriate.
what do you want to do with the meter? what type of jobs do you have in mind?
as an example, i have an old analog meter,(vom), that would service 98% of the measurements that the ave guy is going to make around the shop or house.
this thing is capable of resistance measurements, voltage (dc and ac), and both ac and dc current measurements.
the newer instruments have digital readouts and are auto setting thus making them easier to use.
most of the measurements that a guy needs to make around the house revolve around continuity, voltage and current.
maybe you have stated elsewhere what your needs are and i've just missed it --- but coming up with the app is crucial in terms of making a good decision.
hope this helps.
|
|
Add Photo
Bookmarks: |
|
| |
|
Page [ 1 ] | Thread 118725 Filter by Poster:
2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 2 |
|
()
Picture of the Day
candoarms
Unanswered Questions
Active Subjects
Hot Topics
Featured Suppliers
|
Gas Generator Weather Protecti
11-06-2005, 09:21 
Digg It 
Del.icio.us