Testing my new laser power meter with another ‘rescue’ from a scrapped CD drive. Scavenging laser diodes leaves a lot of ‘debris’.. 🤷🏼‍♂️😂

It’s an infrared laser so I can’t see it (besides a minor glow of deep red), but my phone camera shows it as an eerie purple tone with the characteristic speckle-pattern.

The power meter? It has an absolutely massive thermopile sensor, no wonder it’s quite heavy 🙂 I don’t know much about it’s absolute accuracy, but I think it’ll be ok for my experimental (hobbyist) use.

The lasediode produces some 50mW power at 100mA current, which isn’t uncommon so be careful when playing with invisible light ☝🏻🚨

#laserdiode #lasers #electronics #electronicsengineering #laserpower #engineer #scavenger #reuse

My first ‘Pyranometer’ - found it used at a VERY reasonable price 🙂

It averages 49.1uV per W/m^2 between 400-1100nm and using my multimeter to do the math, I get a readout of about 700W/m^2 around lunchtime in my lab window 🙂

Not bad at 56deg North ☺️👍🏼

#electronics #electronicsengineering #solarpower #solarpanel #solarenergy #stem #physics #testandmeasurement

Came across this beautiful microwave link station in #norway, a site which operates in a very special way: the signal is aimed towards a reflector in the mountains and from there it is bounced towards its destination 📡👌🏻

It’s not uncommon to do this, but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen one, real life 😃

While visiting sites like this, it’s always a good idea to look at the installation - in this case the waveguide feeds, the dimensions of which reveal the operating frequency area, likely between 8-12GHz.

#rfengineering #microwaves #microwavelink #antennas #hamr #hamradio #radio #radiolinks #keepyoureyesopen #observe #electronicsengineering #engineer #onsite #antennaspotting

EE friends, any recommended PSpice circuit simulators for Mac? I tried LTspice but it’s UI is absolutely horrible on the Mac .. 🤷🏼‍♂️ I heard that KiCAD has it, but I’ve never tried it.

Thanks 🙏🏼 😊

#electronicsengineering #hamradio #electronicsdesign

#tipoftheday Cut a Y-shaped structure from a sheet of plastic and line it with copper tape on each side from the tip to opposite parts of the Y. Cut the tape a wee bit more narrow than the plastic so the two sides doesn’t short-circuit.

Now you have a thin insert you can use to measure usage current on your battery powered devices 👌🏻🙂

If your multimeter has a uA range (Thou shalt never buy a DMM without uA range 🙏🏼), you can measure standby current as well 👍🏼

#electronics #electronicsengineering #hamradio #engineer #hamr #saturdays #vacation

I decided to log the mains grid frequency for a full 24hr period 🤷🏼‍♂️🤓

Using the Philips PM6669 and an external OCXO (calibrated, see earlier post when I received it) I get a quite accurate result. Each measurement takes 10 seconds, so in reality there’s some averaging going on right there, removing some of the jitter and noise at those last digits. The grid frequency is highly dynamic once you reach a millihertz resolution, and that is in fact what I’m trying to capture 🙂

The PM6669 counter has a really nice feature btw., it’s max input level is 260Vrms! That’s really handy, in reality I could connect it straight to a mains outlet without damaging it, but due to the risk of transients I’m using a small transformer and the cute little Vellemann oscilloscope training kit so I can pick a more safe 12Vrms instead 👌🏻⚡️🙂

Tonight I’ll have 8640 datapoints to play with 🤓

#testandmeasurement #becauseican #electronics #electronicsengineering #engineer #velleman #philips #gridfrequency #mainsgrid

I decided to log the mains grid frequency for a full 24hr period 🤷🏼‍♂️🤓

Using the Philips PM6669 and an external OCXO (calibrated, see earlier post when I received it) I get a quite accurate result. Each measurement takes 10 seconds, so in reality there’s some averaging going on right there, removing some of the jitter and noise at those last digits. The grid frequency is highly dynamic once you reach a millihertz resolution, and that is in fact what I’m trying to capture 🙂

The PM6669 counter has a really nice feature btw., it’s max input level is 260Vrms! That’s really handy, in reality I could connect it straight to a mains outlet without damaging it, but due to the risk of transients I’m using a small transformer and the cute little Vellemann oscilloscope training kit so I can pick a more safe 12Vrms instead 👌🏻⚡️🙂

Tonight I’ll have 8640 datapoints to play with 🤓

#testandmeasurement #becauseican #electronics #electronicsengineering #engineer #velleman #philips #gridfrequency #mainsgrid

The fundamental RC circuit ☺️
The starting point for many electronics tinkerers, moving onwards from simple DC designs. Found within the first couple chapters of any electronics textbook.

As simple as it may look, there’s surprisingly much to be said and understood about this circuit.

People will say “it’s a low pass filter” (or high pass)”, but how does it actually work, why does it act as a filter?

To understand its frequency behavior, you need to look at it in the time domain.
Two simple components, a square wave signal and any oscilloscope will keep you entertained all night 😃👍🏼

Last week I found myself busy a couple hours at the whiteboard at the local #hamradio club, explaining a lot of this.
Tuesday night, we’ll set up measurements at the bench demonstrating last week’s calculations, it’ll be fun 🙂🙂

#electronicsengineering #electronics #retro #engineer #hamr #testandmeasurement #siglent #rohdeschwarz #circuitdesign

It’s #sensorsunday and this weekend I finally got to use my DIY thermal chamber 😃
Along with a Fluke thermocouple meter it turned out really good 👍🏼

Doing temperature test on the 1M #vintage reference resistor - it’s big and heavy, so I left it to soak at the wanted temperature for at least 8hrs, continuously monitoring chamber and device temperature.

Testing at 10,20 and 40C, I found a slightly negative temperature coefficient, but still well inside the 0.02% specification.

My measurements are a bit lower altogether compared with my initial test where I saw precisely 1M. This is due to coupling between the test wires, when entering the thermal chamber. It’s really hard to avoid, even giga-ohms in parallel, will affect the result.

#testandmeasurement #electronics #metrology #electronicsengineering #engineer #fluke #sourcemeasureunit #keithley #keithleyinstruments

This weekend I’ve been away from home, participating in a #hamradio 50MHz contest and since the band isn’t open all the time, we usually bring some toys and projects along to pass time👌🏻☺️

I always wanted to experiment with instrument GPIB remote control and as I recently found a #prologix interface module at work, I decided to try it out before ordering my own (they’re quite expensive).

Using the a HP204C oscillator, I’m able to read the frequency from my old PM6669 counter quite simply with Putty Terminal connection to the prologix interface, it works 😃😃

#testandmeasurement #electronicsengineering #electronics #engineer #gpib #instrumentcontrol #hamradio #eevblog

Inspired by a Twitter dialogue, let’s launch some daily #electronics tags to be used freely 👍🏼🤓

Today is #waveformwednesday and here’s how my mains grid looks - not quite a sine but that’s to be expected.

Don’t ever, EVER, connect your scope input directly to mains - use a high voltage differential probe or a transformer, as shown here.

I’m using the #quicktest switch, it’s a really handy way to control power to a circuit. It’s of British origin and comes with a standard 13A BS1362 fuse. I found that a bit high for my purposes, so I replaced it with a 5A, significantly limiting the available energy in case of a fault situation. Safety first always applies at the bench 👍🏼⚡️☝🏻

So go ahead, use these tags freely, be inspired and show us your experiments 👌🏻🙂

#electronics #rohdeschwarz #micsig #electronicsengineering #engineer #hamradio #measurementmonday #testgeartuesday #waveformwednesday #teardownthursday #frequencyfriday #signalsaturday #sensorsunday

Getting ready to wire up some Nice 1mm pitch connectors. #electronicsengineering
#sundayfun

So how was your Friday evening? 🙂

I spent mine testing a HMC588 VCO module and a couple mixers: mission was to extend my measurement reach to cover x-band, aka 10ish GHz ☺️

After a quick DC test without the VCO board blowing up, I moved on to test two mixers: a ‘Magnum Microwave’ 4-12GHz and a LTC5549 based device, good to 14GHz.

All went well, those two peaks are at 10 and 11GHz so my spectrum analyzer extender setup works just fine 👍🏼🎯

#hamr #hamradio #electronics #rfengineer #electronicsengineering #siglent #ghz #highfrequency

I received some, likely counterfeit, REF200 chips - a quick test with my #keithtley #sourcemeasureunit proved them quite accurate though, so I decided to repeat a classic experiment from early university days: charging a capacitor with a constant current source.

We’re all used to that exponential rise seen in a RC circuit, but replacing the resistor with a constant current source, we get a beautiful linear ramp instead, it’s incline solely determined by the current and the capacitor values.

I knew upgrading to a 4CH #oscilloscope was a good idea ☝🏻😂

#electronics #electronicsengineering #physics #basicelectronics #engineer #hamr #hamradio #mylab #testandmeasurement

Didnt wanted to use the LM2596 so I looked for smth. more modern. These ICs are all synchronous buck converters with the same pinout and switching frequency. The VIN, VREF and current spec slightly differ for some of them. Pls refer to the datasheet.
I know there are better ICs out there but I was looking for something that has good availability which is important with the current supply chain situation.

#electronics #electronicsengineering #power #buckconverter

It’s Friday and it’s #mailbag night 😃

FLUKE 52ii thermocouple thermometer, 10MHz OCXO and distribution amplifier, a #minicircuits 7GHz mixer, a #brymen 789 multimeter and a carry pouch for my BM235 multimeter. Everyone should have a travel multimeter, right? 😛😂

Have a great weekend out there,

#electronicsengineering #hamr #hamradio #testandmeasurement #

Even though quite rudimentary when RF and electronics is your job/life/passion, sweeping a filter is always a pleasure 👌🏻☺️

This is a 10MHz band pass, meant to be used with reference frequency distribution 👍🏼

Running a square wave through it produces a beautiful sine 🥰

#rfengineer #electronicsengineering #testandmeasurement #siglent #hamr #hamradio

The early #eevblog episodes on battery technology and capacity never really grov old: physics, chemistry and the many performance parameters is as relevant now as it was 12y back. And it’ll continue to be so, don’t ever believe people telling stories about ‘magic batteries that solves everything’ 🦄😂

Anyone looking to design battery powered circuits, should watch these episodes, they’re really the ‘batteries 101’.
I’ve worked with electronics my entire career and these episodes were still an eye opener to me on certain topics 🙂

Highly recommended 🤓

#electronics #engineer #electronicsengineering #batterytechnology #batteries #energydensity

Mailbag Wednesday: new ADF4351 RF generator, unfortunately I can’t afford a pro one.. 🤷🏼‍♂️🙂 So rich on harmonics, but quite ok on phase noise. And it has input for an external reference 👌🏻

Also, new handle and bumpers for my #agilent counter (looks like new now 😃) and a handy little cable stripper/cutter for the small diameters: AWG 20-32

#electronics #siglent #hamradio #hamr #electronicsengineering #testandmeasurement

Testing my 1988 #burrbrown REF200 - this is likely the first time it sees power since it left the factory 🥹 My #eevblog multimeter and my #keithley #sourcemeasureunit agree: 100uA well within the 0.5%.
The metal can TO-99 housing has a special feat though: it’s specified from -55 to 125C, amazing 😃

#electronics #engineer #electronicsengineering #testansmeasurement