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My latest project is to become adept at using my new oscilloscope (haven't used one since college physics many, many moons ago.) Seems I need a signal generator. I'd appreciate thoughts and recommendations. I have looked at the archives but would like to hear current thinking. Thanks.
Sim
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So what is it you need it for. Just signal tracing? Or something more technical?
I've decided to go the Amazon route per Hornblower's recommendation. I'll let you all know how it works out.
Sim
Hornblower? Well, I do play sax, so I guess it fits :)
Yikes!!! My humble apologies!!!! Brain short-circuited... so here's some sax for you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfAv8yAaHps
I'm a guitar player myself.
Sim
I have an old battery powered Wavetek and an even older Eico (377?) tube one.
I restored a buddy's HP 200C something. keep in mind older ones might be cheaper but may need to be re-cap'd.
My list of bench instruments includes a scope, a few DVMs, a signal generator and a dummy load.
looking for some jazz and a little libations - joe strummer
Here's one from Amazon that should be fine. It gets good reviews and its cheap, or buy a used one from HP, Tektronics or Wavetek.
There are a number of small-ish hand held signal generators available now. So you don't need the honking big units like in the past.There are also some kits available for around $70.
Or you could download some test tones and rip them to digital or CD.
What's your needs and budget?
charles
Edits: 04/20/15
I have some old gear that I'd like to repair starting with a Baldwin guitar amplifier, an eco, an old Heathkit, and a marinate 2015B.
Also want to learn explore etc. So an additional question is whether there are any on line tutorials? Tx.
Sim
I would start with some books by Homer L. Davidson.
Good simple explanations of common audio circuits. Otherwise there are tons of online sits with simple repair techniques.
charles
Thanks, I ordered a book of his via Amazon. I'll let you know what I think.
I also noticed you're a fellow woodworker. I just this week put up and stickered about 100 board feet of walnut for drying that I had milled from some dead and dying trees on our property. Targeting the Fall for jointing, planing and using. First time at trying this.
Sim
Really just about any Fn generator will probably suffice. If you ever need a faster signal than they produce you can always just run the output through a high-speed logic gate with a Schmitt trigger input.
I have a couple, an oddball battery powered Wavetek (my wife used to work at the company) and a Chinese thing that used to be available under several brands which I bought used, I think mine's a B&K and goes to 2 MHz and has a built-in digital readout (counter). It's the one I use the most because it never has a dead battery.
Congratulations on getting a scope, I've been using them seriously since 1967 so it's hard for me to imagine not having one. Yet many people accomplish a lot without them. Somehow...
Here's an example of their flexibility: Many, many years ago I started lusting for a preamp with a remote volume control. Sooo, I trotted down to my dealer and bought one. A NAD of some nature. And the volume control worked fine but it didn't sound very good. So I dragged home a bunch of test equipment and tried to figure out what I was hearing. Well, all the routine tests had routine results so I decided to try some bizarre tests. I dumped a squarewave into it and looked at the delay time from the rising edge to ANY response at the output, I suppose vaguely it's tangental sensitivity.
Well the unit that sounded poorly was far slower responding than my old preamp or a different new one (an Adcom) which I ended up buying and liking. Now I wasn't comparing rise times really, just first discernible (with a scope) signal. Both my old preamp and the Adcom had a delay roughly in line with the propagation delay of the traces, the "bad-sounding" NAD was much slower. I wonder if what I was doing was a half-arse way to identify transient intermod distortion? The moral of the story is: See how much fun you can have with a scope?
Whether you need (want?) one or not depends... A lot of guys do accomplish quite a bit with a dedicated effort to trial and error and maybe a DVM. But I prefer seeing more what's going on and would be lost without one. Hope your's gives you similar satisfaction.
Rick
John Bau, whose started Spica, now owns Precision Services, which deals in refurbished test gear - see link. He certainly knows his stuff, and can guide you once he knows what it is you want to do with it. You can also generate signals from a test LP or CD, or look at the RF signal coming in to your tuner, if it has connections for that. You can also generate signals from Protools plugins, and I assume from Logic and the other DAWs as well. Lots of options.
WW
"A man need merely light the filaments of his receiving set and the world's greatest artists will perform for him." Alfred N. Goldsmith, RCA, 1922
is pretty good
"The hardest thing of all is to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat" - Confucius
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