Re: AN: Open Instrumentation Project Progress

Hello Martin,


The Open Instrumentation Project (OIP) has been formed to support
open-source software and low cost hardware for electronic
instrumentation.
Currently available instruments include an oscilloscope, waveform
generator
and network analyser. Source code is available at sourceforge/oip.
Information on the hardware is available at www.syscompdesign.com.


Just an idea: What mankind really needs is a simple spectrum analyzer for EMC pre-compliance work. Nothing fancy, just something that ranges

from 150kHz to 1GHz and can show the ballpark numbers. IOW where people


can see how good their chances are before they head off to that expensive lab test. This tool would also be useful when they have come back from the EMC lab with a black eye and must chase those nasty clocks that pushed them over the cert limits.

It doesn't have to be much, maybe a glorified scanner without a front panel but with a USB connection and nifty display software.


Yep, seems like a good idea, Joerg
maybe this
http://users4.ev1.net/%7Ewsprowls/ as a starting point.


That is quite a good approach. Nowadays a USB interface would almost be a must as most laptops do not offer a parallel port anymore. Also, I'd probably spend a couple bucks more on the log detector :-)

Warning engineer designed website, may offend many non engineers

It's quite good but bogs down older PCs because it is all placed on one long page. Better to split it up and use hyperlinks.

Just wondering...

Having a laptop next to a spectrum analyser will corrupt all/many of
it readings, wont it?


To some extent, yes. But you'd be surprised how much noise modern and expensive spectrum analyzers let off. Once I was at a client and nobody had a clue where a new forest of noise peaks could possbibly be coming from. There was nothing on the plots from the EMC lab, total silence in that range. So I got some aluminum foil from the cantina and waved it here and there. Surprise: When I held it in front of the $20k+ analyzer's LCD screen the noise disappeared.

One can live with problems like that. Furnace filter mesh, fencing materials, aluminum screen door stock, all that helps as long as you can see the display through it. One of the first questions when arriving for an EMI job at a new client is where the next hardware store is located.

USB and power cables would need some #43 ferrite but almost any EMI job requires to keep a couple of pounds of those at hand anyway.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: AN: Open Instrumentation Project Progress
    ... open-source software and low cost hardware for electronic ... instrumentation. ... and network analyser. ... Source code is available at sourceforge/oip. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: It seems that port mapping causes no skew
    ... variable assignment as a method to save a result to be used by ... source code literally describes the precise implementation. ... So one must accept the paradox that the hardware that is being ... Both synthesis and simulation are acting on the same source code ...
    (comp.lang.vhdl)
  • Re: It seems that port mapping causes no skew
    ... Jonathan pointed out that a delta delay on assignment brings some order into VHDL evaluation of events by simulator. ... source code literally describes the precise implementation. ... So one must accept the paradox that the hardware that is being ...
    (comp.lang.vhdl)
  • Re: Is Linux A Feasible Platofrm For Professional DAW work ?
    ... hardware aren't playing nice together. ... having the source code and being able to ... At the high level it's really not much different than hardware. ... What would you do if a Linux program that you have source code to, ...
    (rec.audio.pro)
  • Re: GPL V3 and Linux - Dead Copyright Holders
    ... > The point is not only getting access to the source code, ... The hardware may only run signed kernels. ...
    (Linux-Kernel)