| Products > Test Equipment |
| HP 5316A Teardown and Frequency Standard |
| << < (5/22) > >> |
| SharpEars:
Perhaps a stupid question but: If you already have a two channel oscilloscope with a built in frequency counter as one of its many stat/math functions, is there any point in getting a frequency counter that covers the same range as the scope? In other words, why are all of you getting and/or in possession of these if modern scopes give you frequency counts along with waveforms? |
| nfmax:
Here's a few reasons! * My counter goes up to 3GHz, but my fastest scope is only 200MHz * The counter has interpolation for more digits/second resolution * With a universal counter, you can measure things like the number of pulses on an interrupt line that occurred while /RESET was low |
| amc184:
Nixxon; the small capacitors are for decoupling. SharpEars; A few reasons. I mainly leave this counter connected to the sync input of my signal generator (HP 3312A with no frequency display). Sometimes I may be viewing something other than an amplifiers output, such as its supply rails, yet I still want to know the frequency of what I'm feeding it. Also for accuracy. I can't discipline my 'scope to a 10MHz reference. Aside from those concerns, a counter is cheap. I think the 5316A cost me about USD30, maybe another USD20 for the clock module. You only need it to be useful now and again to justify that sort of cost. |
| David Hess:
--- Quote from: amc184 on November 18, 2014, 06:38:19 pm ---Aside from those concerns, a counter is cheap. I think the 5316A cost me about USD30, maybe another USD20 for the clock module. You only need it to be useful now and again to justify that sort of cost. --- End quote --- The HP5316A is also a reciprocal counter so it returns a constant number of digits at a given gate time producing high resolution at low input frequencies. On analog oscilloscopes which support gated measurements, reciprocal counters are common but it is not clear if that is the case with DSOs. DSOs with long record lengths should be able to equal the performance of a good timer/counter without additional hardware support but I have yet to see this happen. They all seem to be mediocre at best. |
| nixxon:
--- Quote from: amc184 on November 18, 2014, 06:38:19 pm ---Nixxon; the small capacitors are for decoupling. (...) --- End quote --- Thank you for making that clear. Is there any reason why the 5V OCXO can not be powered directly by the existing +5.00V supply (pin 4)? To me it seems that the instruments's +5.00V supply (pin 4) is powered by the unregulated +7,5V that is also present on pins 1 and 6. The Morion MV85 OCXO has a peak power consumption of <600 mA during warm-up. |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Next page |
| Previous page |