Author Topic: Custom frequency Crystals - where do you order?  (Read 5903 times)

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Offline tkamiyaTopic starter

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Custom frequency Crystals - where do you order?
« on: September 18, 2018, 08:49:19 pm »
I used to order custom crystals from JAN Xtals.  It is sort of local.

But I understand they are out of business.  Calls do not go through and email goes unanswered.  I contacted someone else and I received a very strange response.  They do custom.  There is no price.  $100 minimum order.  If you want one, it's $100.  She'll only give me the price IF I place an order, and doesn't even give me an idea as to how many $100 will get me.  That's very rude.  So I discounted them as viable source.

Does anyone know a reasonable source in United States?  Or elsewhere that will do custom frequencies and prices right?

If this doesn't work, I may have to start thinking of making a small DSP board that is customizable.
 

Offline mikeselectricstuff

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Re: Custom frequency Crystals - where do you order?
« Reply #1 on: September 18, 2018, 09:25:11 pm »
There are a lot of programmable MEMS oscillators around now that may be worth a look if you need an oddball clock frequency
Youtube channel:Taking wierd stuff apart. Very apart.
Mike's Electric Stuff: High voltage, vintage electronics etc.
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Offline tkamiyaTopic starter

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Re: Custom frequency Crystals - where do you order?
« Reply #2 on: September 18, 2018, 10:09:11 pm »
I did not know ANYTHING about this.

Truth be told, last time I was active in DIY electronics was in 80s.  I recently reappeared.  Repairing ham radio equipment, a big surprise was, there were no longer Crystals in odd frequencies. 

I'll have to read up on this.  Do you suggest good site for this?  I read through WIKI but it really does not talk about programmable ones.
 

Online oPossum

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Re: Custom frequency Crystals - where do you order?
« Reply #3 on: September 18, 2018, 10:15:29 pm »
The Silicon Labs programmable oscillators are quite popular with hams for DIY projects.

https://www.silabs.com/products/timing/oscillators
 
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Offline mikeselectricstuff

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Re: Custom frequency Crystals - where do you order?
« Reply #4 on: September 18, 2018, 10:17:12 pm »
Just look at Digikey, under "programmable oscillators"
e.g.
https://www.digikey.co.uk/product-detail/en/sitime/SIT8008BI-71-XXX-000.FP0000E/1473-1525-2-ND/6188129

1-110MHz with 6 decimal place programmability and stability to 20ppm

I think Digikey offer preprogramming on some ranges
Youtube channel:Taking wierd stuff apart. Very apart.
Mike's Electric Stuff: High voltage, vintage electronics etc.
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Offline tkamiyaTopic starter

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Re: Custom frequency Crystals - where do you order?
« Reply #5 on: September 18, 2018, 10:22:11 pm »
Wow....  This is exciting.

Prices are reasonable for eval kits as well.  I'll have to try this for myself.

Folks, thank you VERY MUCH.
 

Offline edavid

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Re: Custom frequency Crystals - where do you order?
« Reply #6 on: September 18, 2018, 10:26:34 pm »
There are a lot of programmable MEMS oscillators around now that may be worth a look if you need an oddball clock frequency

But they usually have too much phase noise for radio applications.
 

Offline tkamiyaTopic starter

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Re: Custom frequency Crystals - where do you order?
« Reply #7 on: September 18, 2018, 10:39:05 pm »
Looking at suggested applications, manufacturer does not seem to think so.  Only negative for me is, they are all surface mount.  So I will have to create a daughter board and make it into through hole.
 

Online oPossum

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Re: Custom frequency Crystals - where do you order?
« Reply #8 on: September 18, 2018, 10:39:41 pm »
A few HF radios using Silicon Labs programmable oscillators. There are *many* more. It is the easiest way to get a stable tunable local oscillator.

http://fivedash.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=17

http://fivedash.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=7

http://www.hfsignals.com/index.php/ubitx/

 

Offline drussell

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Re: Custom frequency Crystals - where do you order?
« Reply #9 on: September 18, 2018, 10:50:06 pm »
From RyanG's "Odd Frequency Crystal" thread:
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/odd-frequency-crystal/)

There used to be lots of places that would make a crystal to any frequency you wanted. Perhaps most are gone. I know I've had many custom crystals made.

I have also used custom crystals from a couple different places before with no issues.

Quote
If you didn't know the exact characteristics of a crystal you wanted copied you would just send the original to them and they would measure and duplicate. It wasn't too expensive either, less then $20 bucks a crystal. There must still be one or two companies left who can do it.

Indeed.  There are still several in existence, perhaps some others here can share specific ones in their geographic area or specific experience WRT pricing, lead time, etc.

Most of these kinds of places, if you contact them and say you need a general purpose, low cost, non-ultra-precision-spacecraft-grade crystal, can make you a few for a reasonable price, given the custom nature of the job, though it probably varies significantly between places depending on what their major market currently is so it probably pays to shop around.  :)

To start:

Lap-Tech  (Ontario, Canada)  http://www.laptech.com  (289)481-2019
(also available from TFC in the UK  www.tfc.co.uk, they're part of Lap-Tech)

Anderson Electronics (Pennsylvania, USA)  http://www.aextal.com  (814)695-4428

FMI (California, USA)  http://www.frequencymanagement.com  (714)373-8100

Transko  (California, USA)  https://www.transko.com/  (714)528-8000

FOX (Florida, USA)  https://www.foxonline.com/

EuroQuartz  (UK)  http://www.euroquartz.co.uk/  +44(0)1460230000

QuartzLab (UK)  http://www.quartslab.com/

Krystaly (Czech Republic)  http://www.krystaly.cz/en/
 
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Offline tkamiyaTopic starter

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Re: Custom frequency Crystals - where do you order?
« Reply #10 on: September 18, 2018, 10:51:10 pm »
Thank you Mr. Rodent!

Yes, we hams, need something like this.  Making one transistor transmitter used to be easy with Crystals.  Now it's not, unless use of something like this.

Again, thanks!
 

Offline tkamiyaTopic starter

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Re: Custom frequency Crystals - where do you order?
« Reply #11 on: September 18, 2018, 10:55:06 pm »
By now, someone must be rolling his/her eyes, why I don't do "google".  I am having a bit of problem making that a difficult task.  So, I appreciate everyone playing along with me.
 


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