Products > Test Equipment

Audio/frequency generator as a phone or PC app

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RiRaRi:
How good are phone and PC apps as a sig and freq gens? Can they be used as a proper test equipment since the actual devices can be very expensive?

Aldo22:

--- Quote from: RiRaRi on October 09, 2023, 10:05:25 pm ---How good are phone and PC apps as a sig and freq gens? Can they be used as a proper test equipment since the actual devices can be very expensive?

--- End quote ---
The signal quality depends largely on the smartphone.
Of course, it only works in the audio frequency range anyway.
For example: https://www.keuwl.com/FunctionGenerator/
Just try it, it's free.

But I think even a cheap function generator like the FeelTech FY3224S is much better than that.

bdunham7:

--- Quote from: RiRaRi on October 09, 2023, 10:05:25 pm ---How good are phone and PC apps as a sig and freq gens? Can they be used as a proper test equipment since the actual devices can be very expensive?

--- End quote ---

PC soundcards are pretty good in every way except setting the exact amplitude, you need a good meter to calibrate them if you do it that way.  Just using the built-in sound on a good motherboard is fine too, although sometimes the noise specs aren't quite as good as they could be.  No idea on phones, I don't know if they actually aim for a flat frequency response in the first place.

DaJMasta:
You can get tone generators and if you get software to generate your own waveforms, just normal playback is effectively an arb gen.  It's plenty capable for what it is, but you'll be missing a bunch of things over a standard sig gen sort of by definition: limited ranges (no ranging, generally), limited output load settings, no calibrated output level (and it will vary with loads because they're not designed to try to), limited output bandwidth, and with default software, the waveforms available are going to be just sound files or very basic tone generation (though if you find the right stuff or the right synth, it's certainly all possible).

For some applications, a sound card may do just as well if not better, but a proper function generator is going to have a lot more flexible output and will have an interface better suited to what's typical of electronics work.

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