Don’t rush out and buy signal generators and function generators "Wasting your time with bench equipment like this now !"
ALL OF THIS IS DONE VIA SMART PHONE APPLICATIONS AND LAPTOPS WITH STACKS OF FREE SOFTWARE AVAILABLE"
Last week I had to go out to a call to set up noise limiters part of the setup is to obviously use a signal source so we needed a signal generator in a hurry , faced with having to make a PCB assemble this and test this at 1 am in the morning wasnt the ideal answer
So wracking my skull I thought , how the hell am i going to do this in time the call at 11am the following morning Im dead tired having already done some 13 , 14 hours or more No test equipment that worked at the company No decibel meters and the suddenly it dawned on me, " My phone I could use my phone " I wonder is there a android application that would suite the job ?
Where did I get that from ? Google play Low and behold ready written is a function generator for smart phones android powered and its brilliant
Straight out of the headphone socket into the PA system and bingo one sine wave or what ever i want at the touch of single button on my smartphone
Would you also believe they do a DB meter as well A weighted, B weighted and C weighted with very good sensitivity and excellent graphics and its deadly accurate
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kr.sira.sound&hl=en_GB
So thats Decibel and sound pressure meters in the bin , well almost you still need to calibrate the application but lets face it that's no longer that difficult anymore
You cant beat this for the love of money Gone are the days when you had no alternative but to spend over £1000 on a the state of the art Function generator Now you write your own
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.crescendosystems.afg&hl=en
Next I decided although we had to build one anyway but by the time I’ve made this I decided lets just see what’s available in terms of function generators for laptops as well just out of interest
Yes you guessed codeproject has the answer in CSharp and you want to see the beginnings of this (The ultimate reason why so many manufacturers are not moving test equipment ) which means lots of people are about to end up in the redundancy cue Reason being that Function generators are fast becoming an item of the past thanks to the software and ready made libraries that are now available pre written for you
Behold your tools are changing and that means you need to write software and in a hurry thats if you want to be a part of the next generation
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/30180/Simple-Signal-Generator
You can see where this is going this was a wpf application i wrote about five years ago when wondering if this could all be done from the net
You can have a look at the project to get an idea of where this is heading One internet link one webpage and low and behold there will be your virtual instruments of course I’m only at the very beginning of this and just beginning to understand some of this but its implications will be vast
Ill upload the PCB for you anyway its Its taken me a day to get this far with a PCB design It took me under a minutes to download an application to do the job without any cost except 0.25 pence Thats how fast this is moving
See attached
Another interesting point was during my search for the impossible and completely un achievable was the number of datasheets on Yes electrolet microphones. I found all of exactly one with specifications on the sensitivity which you need to build or even understand how to go about making a Decibel meter Shocking news ho hum
But of course this story wont end there either with the above decibel meter app in mind the newest format for this will be The noise abate team receives a complaint , An officer will then investigate and with the aid of one smart phone and one application He will then have the ability to network the answers immediately to the local councils and of course immediate on the spot fines will follow!!
Doesent look as though the huge Yellow American 4 door people carrier with the huge horns (150 db ) is uh going to be favorite story of the month with this in mind , " Oh dear !!"
Its going to happen isn’t it lets face facts They will utilise the network faclity to give them the results they want after all its 5 seconds work as opposed to tons of paperwork with imiediate answers
Still I still decided it would still be an idea to make one anyway so the article itself came from ESP but you can view this here
http://sound.westhost.com/project86.htm
I simply redid the PCB so that I could get one made on single sided PCB as opposed to double sided It will still come in handy apart from which, well its good practice to see how much time you have to spend on something like this as opposed to simply looking at what you have in your hand sometimes and comparing cost The Gerber plots are below as well should you want to make this on Single sided PCB
Now you know why Im on at Samsung to give the the info about the USB ports , "making sence now isnt it ? "
I hope this has been interesting reading for you It certainly was a fact finding mission for me and an eye opener
wpf application for laptops etcPCB design A whole Day to do this and I havent made this yet Just designed the layoutcadcam zip re-done
ALL OF THIS IS DONE VIA SMART PHONE APPLICATIONS AND LAPTOPS WITH STACKS OF FREE SOFTWARE AVAILABLE"
Last week I had to go out to a call to set up noise limiters part of the setup is to obviously use a signal source so we needed a signal generator in a hurry , faced with having to make a PCB assemble this and test this at 1 am in the morning wasnt the ideal answer
So wracking my skull I thought , how the hell am i going to do this in time the call at 11am the following morning Im dead tired having already done some 13 , 14 hours or more No test equipment that worked at the company No decibel meters and the suddenly it dawned on me, " My phone I could use my phone " I wonder is there a android application that would suite the job ?
Where did I get that from ? Google play Low and behold ready written is a function generator for smart phones android powered and its brilliant
Straight out of the headphone socket into the PA system and bingo one sine wave or what ever i want at the touch of single button on my smartphone
Would you also believe they do a DB meter as well A weighted, B weighted and C weighted with very good sensitivity and excellent graphics and its deadly accurate
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kr.sira.sound&hl=en_GB
So thats Decibel and sound pressure meters in the bin , well almost you still need to calibrate the application but lets face it that's no longer that difficult anymore
You cant beat this for the love of money Gone are the days when you had no alternative but to spend over £1000 on a the state of the art Function generator Now you write your own
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.crescendosystems.afg&hl=en
Next I decided although we had to build one anyway but by the time I’ve made this I decided lets just see what’s available in terms of function generators for laptops as well just out of interest
Yes you guessed codeproject has the answer in CSharp and you want to see the beginnings of this (The ultimate reason why so many manufacturers are not moving test equipment ) which means lots of people are about to end up in the redundancy cue Reason being that Function generators are fast becoming an item of the past thanks to the software and ready made libraries that are now available pre written for you
Behold your tools are changing and that means you need to write software and in a hurry thats if you want to be a part of the next generation
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/30180/Simple-Signal-Generator
You can see where this is going this was a wpf application i wrote about five years ago when wondering if this could all be done from the net
You can have a look at the project to get an idea of where this is heading One internet link one webpage and low and behold there will be your virtual instruments of course I’m only at the very beginning of this and just beginning to understand some of this but its implications will be vast
Ill upload the PCB for you anyway its Its taken me a day to get this far with a PCB design It took me under a minutes to download an application to do the job without any cost except 0.25 pence Thats how fast this is moving
See attached
Another interesting point was during my search for the impossible and completely un achievable was the number of datasheets on Yes electrolet microphones. I found all of exactly one with specifications on the sensitivity which you need to build or even understand how to go about making a Decibel meter Shocking news ho hum
But of course this story wont end there either with the above decibel meter app in mind the newest format for this will be The noise abate team receives a complaint , An officer will then investigate and with the aid of one smart phone and one application He will then have the ability to network the answers immediately to the local councils and of course immediate on the spot fines will follow!!
Doesent look as though the huge Yellow American 4 door people carrier with the huge horns (150 db ) is uh going to be favorite story of the month with this in mind , " Oh dear !!"
Its going to happen isn’t it lets face facts They will utilise the network faclity to give them the results they want after all its 5 seconds work as opposed to tons of paperwork with imiediate answers
Still I still decided it would still be an idea to make one anyway so the article itself came from ESP but you can view this here
http://sound.westhost.com/project86.htm
I simply redid the PCB so that I could get one made on single sided PCB as opposed to double sided It will still come in handy apart from which, well its good practice to see how much time you have to spend on something like this as opposed to simply looking at what you have in your hand sometimes and comparing cost The Gerber plots are below as well should you want to make this on Single sided PCB
Now you know why Im on at Samsung to give the the info about the USB ports , "making sence now isnt it ? "
I hope this has been interesting reading for you It certainly was a fact finding mission for me and an eye opener
wpf application for laptops etcPCB design A whole Day to do this and I havent made this yet Just designed the layoutcadcam zip re-done
