[sdiy] Frequency meter (was Re: Anyone in the UK used RS Calibration Services?)

[Justin Owen]

I've recently been using a TTi  TF930 - 0.001Hz-3Ghz 10 Digit counter, Reciprocal.

Nice piece of kit - there's no hiding instability from it.

- J


-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Wiltshire [tom at electricdruid.net]
Received: 20.03.2014 21:44:33
To: synthdiy diy
Subject: [sdiy] Frequency meter (was Re: Anyone in the UK used RS Calibration Services?)

In a similar vein, I often find myself in need of a high accuracy frequency meter for audio and sample clock frequencies. 0-25KHz for sure, and 0-200KHz would be nice. Presumably there are expensive pieces of test equipment available that do this job, but does anyone know of a cheap/accurate way to do it? My definition of "accurate" would be something like "so I can see errors of a cent or less" I suppose - e.g. an order of magnitude better than I can manage with my ears. Otherwise there's really no point.

I'm reminded of a quote on (I think) Scott Dattalo's website, where he said that a previous boss claimed that 95% of the features of any piece of $1000 test equipment could be adequately copied on a $1 PIC, but you needed some tweaked code, or equivalently, some tweaked programmers.

I'm leaning towards the $1 PIC solution. I doubt I'd use the other 5% anyway… 

T.
 
On 20 Mar 2014, at 20:50, Tom Bugs <admin at bugbrand.co.uk> wrote:

> Yeah, areas like this are more of interest to me than speed/service.
> 
> A few years back I bought a not-too-expensive-but-def.-not-cheap hand-held multimeter which had the option to go through calibration before being sent to me. I opted for that and so the meter came with a sheet of test results. The thing was, though I can't remember the details now, the specs/tolerances on the report didn't really seem very good! (ie. the tolerance of the actual test equipment)
> 
> So, what sort of specs were given (I should check the HP meter's specs too)
> 
> Tom
> 
> On 20/03/2014 19:59, Dave Manley wrote:
>> What are the before/ after results?  How farr off spec have you seen a piece of test equipment get?
>> 
>> I've seen lots of gear go out for cal at the companies I've worked for but never seen a report.
>> 
>> -Dave
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> 
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