Category: Test/Measurements

  Christer wanted to see how a 500MHz differential clock was behaving so he decided to build an active probe. To simulate the circuit he used TINA spice software and documented the process in three parts on his website. What I really wanted was an active differential probe...

NopHead wrote a review of Elektor 500ppm LCR meter: I recently bought a 500ppm LCR meter from Elektor because I didn’t have anything for measuring inductors or the ESR (equivalent series resistance) of capacitors, both of which are important for modern electronics, particularly...

Here is a simple way to measure an unknown inductance by forming a resonance LC circuit and measure it using an oscilloscope. Glen Chenier writes: One of our technicians recently asked for help determining the value of an SMT inductor. It was unmarked, and was many turns of very fine...

Andy published his accurate and open source frequency counter that uses an Android phone as a display. It’s based on a high accuracy temperature compensated crystal oscillator (TCXO) fed into a phase locked loop (PLL) to create a high frequency reference clock. The reference clock...

Vicente Jiménez has published a new project. It's a circuit probe that gives an indication when a node is floating or driven logic high or logic low and can also be used as a continuity tester. He writes: Sometimes you need to check one circuit and test some of its nodes. Usually a...

This is a simple, cheap, easy to build IoT Power Meter that provides accurate statistics on household power consumption: The Internet-of-Things Power Meter (IPM) is a device fixed on top of the regular household power meter that provides detailed information about the electricity...

Raju R Baddi @ edn.com has published a circuit that enable you to test electrolytic capacitors and decide if worth using it on a circuit. The values in the figure are typical for general testing of all capacitors, from 1-nF ceramic versions to 1000-μF electrolytic types. The value...

Chris Palmer has built this coolometer project to measure the cooling effectiveness of various fan: I was wondering about how I was going to calibrate the airflow reading but then realised that the flow rate is not actually what I am interested in. It is the cooling effect the...