[sdiy] A Frequency Standard for Poor People?

[TIm Daugard]

> Okay, I admit that most people don't need a frequency counter at all for
> Synth-DIY. I could imagine few unusual Synth-DIY purposes for one, but most
> people will never need one for Synth-DIY.
> Glen Berry

I've used 60 Hz from a transformer to calibrate my counter. Final freq
calibration is all relative. In my group we all tune to the same source. One
uses a tuner and everyone else tunes to them.

I have a cheap scope and two frequency counters. The counters are; one good for
RF that was calibrated to 60 HZ, and one on a multimetter that reads 61 Hz when
I zero beat a signal with the scope.

The scope with line sync allows me to find 60 Hz and multiples / divisions of 60
Hz.

The counters allow me to monitor the frequency of a signal source as I check
frequency responses of filter and opamp circuits. It makes it easy to determine
the frequency of the knee or peak of a filter.

I'm using the counter as much as the scope lately when designing and building
circuits. I seem to always find the calculated values for resistor / cap
networks to be a little off from what I want. I set the signal frequency with a
counter and then adjust the resistance (and sometimes the capacitance) to get
the responses peaks where I want them.


Tim Daugard