The first step in transmitting radio-frequency signals through space is to create a pure carrier at the transmitter. This electrical wave must be of stable, unvarying amplitude, frequency and phase. A quartz crystal oscillator frequently serves the purpose. Information can be conveyed when the carrier is modulated. At the receiver, the carrier is demodulated, separating out an […]
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Graphical sampling DMM includes touch screen controls
The DMM7510 7½-Digit Graphical Sampling Multimeter integrates a high-accuracy digital multimeter, a digitizer for waveform capture, and a capacitive touchscreen user interface. The instrument is a precision multimeter with selectable resolution levels from 3½ to 7½ digits and provides DC accuracies typically only found in metrology-grade instrumentation. It has a 14 ppm basic 1-year DCV […]
Basics of digital-to-analog converters
By David Herres Typical real-world phenomena (most sensor output, acoustic information in air-pressure variations, temperature fluctuations, etc.) are analog rather than digital in nature. If translated into an electrical signal, they will vary continuously on a sliding scale rather than being encoded in discrete steps, binary or otherwise. If digital processing and memory are to […]
Top test & measurement posts on EDAboard.com this week
Here are some of the most popular topics in test & measurement being discussed in our EDAboard.com sister site. Measuring antenna radiation — I had a problem measuring and understanding the problem of quantifying radiation patterns. I am working on a dongle application. How do I measure and test my simulation value range and what […]
Video: Displaying 60 Hz Utility Voltage in a Keysight MSO-X 4054A Oscilloscope
How to acquire utility voltage safely in order to display the waveform in an oscilloscope. A simultaneous view of time and frequency domains.
Video: Displaying sine waves and musical tones in a Keysight MSO-X 4054A Oscilloscope
How to connect a Yamaha Keyboard to a Keysight MSO-X 4054A oscilloscope.
Basics of analog-to-digital converters
We straddle two realms, analog and digital. The output of a sensor, musical instrument, the human voice, and most of the signals that originate in the real world are analog. Today most information processing is digital. This works well in terms of audio and video quality, but analog data must be converted by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) […]
Basics of harmonics
Waveforms other than those that are pure sine waves or sinusoidal will have a portion of their energy in frequencies other than the fundamental. These frequencies are known as overtones. Some but not all overtones are harmonics. The difference is in how we define them. A harmonic has a frequency that is a whole integer multiple […]
Basics of non-sinusoidal waveforms
By David Herres A non-sinusoidal waveform is one that is not a sine wave and is also not sinusoidal (sine-like). This may sound like a minor distinction but actually there are some substantive implications. A sine wave is the graph of the sine function, usually with time as the independent variable. A cosine wave is […]
Basics of op amps
By David Herres A vacuum-tube operational amplifier (op amp) was conceived in the early years of the Second World War and achieved great success as a means of directing artillery in conjunction with radar. In the decades that followed, implementation as a discrete semiconductor and IC integration, along with circuit refinements, have made the op […]