RE: Recommendations for a signal/function generator

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Posted by rick_m (A) on April 18, 2015 at 22:48:56

In Reply to: Recommendations for a signal/function generator posted by spindoctor on April 18, 2015 at 18:02:44:

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

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - Recommendations for a signal/function generator - spindoctor 18:02:44 04/18/15 (13)

Forgot to ask - airtime 08:02:14 04/21/15 (0)

Thanks to everyone for their recommendations - spindoctor 10:20:24 04/20/15 (2)

RE: Thanks to everyone for their recommendations - Hornlover 14:12:31 04/20/15 (1)

RE: Thanks to everyone for their recommendations - spindoctor 16:47:25 04/20/15 (0)

RE: Recommendations for a signal/function generator - rickl 09:23:33 04/20/15 (0)

RE: Recommendations for a signal/function generator - Hornlover 08:38:45 04/20/15 (0)

RE: Recommendations for a signal/function generator - airtime 06:07:30 04/20/15 (3)

RE: Recommendations for a signal/function generator - spindoctor 06:39:43 04/20/15 (2)

RE: Recommendations for a signal/function generator - airtime 06:58:53 04/20/15 (1)

RE: Recommendations for a signal/function generator - spindoctor 14:59:11 04/21/15 (0)

RE: Recommendations for a signal/function generator - rick_m 22:48:56 04/18/15 (0)

RE: Recommendations for a signal/function generator - Bill Way 22:04:01 04/18/15 (1)

studio six digital iphone amp - BigguyinATL 22:44:09 04/18/15 (0)

Follow Ups

RE: Recommendations for a signal/function generator - rick_m 22:48:56 04/18/15 (0)

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