Category: Measurement

Calibrating the Elecraft N-GEN

The Elecraft N-GEN is a low cost noise source which is quite suited to many applications, more so if the Excess Noise Ratio (ENR) is known.

ENR is a commonly used property to describe the noise power density of a source, it is calculated as ENR=10*log(Tne-T0)/T0 dB where Tne is the quivalent noise temperature and T0 is 290K.

This article describes a calibration procedure. Note that the calibration is specific to the device and cannot be applied to another N-GEN.

Above is a screenshot of the Spectrum Analyser scan. A text file of the frequency,power pairs is saved for input to a spreadsheet to calculate ENR vs frequency. Continue reading Calibrating the Elecraft N-GEN

Last update: 26th August, 2017, 1:17 PM

Equivalent noise bandwidth – IC-7300 SSB Rx Filter2 (2400Hz soft)

For a lot of experiments, knowledge of the Equivalent Noise Bandwidth (ENB) of a receiver is necessary. The ENB is the bandwidth of an ideal rectangular filter with the same gain as some reference frequency, 1kHz is usually specified for SSB telephony receiver sensitivity measurement.

Though filters are often specified in terms of bandwidth at x dB down, that metric is of relatively little value, the x is often 6dB but not always, the filters depart significantly from ideal or even common response.

In brief, a white noise source is connected to the receiver input, Filter2 (nominal 2400Hz bandwidth soft response) selected and set to standard PBT, and the audio output captured on a PC based audio spectrum analyser, Spectrogram 16 in this case.

Spectrogram is set to integrate over 30s to average the variations due to the noise excitation. The resulting graph and text spectrum log are saved.

The method is explained in detail at Measure IF Bandwidth.

Above is the spectrum plots, as receivers go this is relatively flat, lacking the usual tapering off above 1kHz (a technique to cheat on sensitivity specs).
Continue reading Equivalent noise bandwidth – IC-7300 SSB Rx Filter2 (2400Hz soft)

Last update: 1st October, 2019, 7:58 PM

GPS antenna plot

I bought an inexpensive GPS antenna on eBay, the requirement was for one that operated from 3-5V to suit both of my GPSDOs. The antenna is mounted in an electrical junction box on conduit above the roof for reliable coverage.

The question was whether the active antenna with 5m of RG174 coax and SMA male connector at A$6 posted was any good.

To map its behaviour, it was attached to a Trimble Thunderbolt GPSDO and Lady Heather used to plot rx signal level over about 30h.

Above is the plot. The pattern is not quite symmetric as there are obstructions in play, in fact some of the dips in performance are explained by specific trees and the roof profile. There is a gap to the south at low elevations, GPS satellites don’t fly there (MEO inclined 55° from the equator) .

Overall, it reaches similar strength at the zenith as other antennas tried.

Overall evaluation, it seems to work ok though the coax is a bit rough.

Last update: 30th August, 2017, 6:25 PM

Inductance of sensorless brushless DC motors

A reader of A Demagnetisation Risk Index for a sensorless brushless DC drive asked whether the inductance of a sensorless brushless DC motor could be measured with one of the inexpensive LC meters available on eBay.

Motor inductance line-line typically ranges from several µH up towards 100µH. Importantly, the fundamental frequency of flux change in the laminated iron core under normal operation is typically less than 2kHz.

Validation of the LC200A

To verify the instrument, a test inductor was made with 3t on a FT-240-43 ferrite core.

Above is an estimate of the expected inductance of the test inductor, 9.65µH. Keep in mind that the tolerance of ferrite is quite wide, 20% variation is not unusual. The test inductor measured 9.1µH at 10kHz on a classic RLC meter.

Above, the LC200A measuring an inductor comprising 3t on a FT240-43 ferrite core, measurement frequency was 670kHz. The measured inductance is 8.98µH, 7% lower than the estimate but well within tolerance of the ferrite core, and less than 2% below the value measure with a classic RLC meter. Continue reading Inductance of sensorless brushless DC motors

Last update: 22nd August, 2017, 9:56 AM

Standardised processing of instrument screen captures

I have several instruments and software packages that can create screen captures, and the capture files commonly need some mix of image processing including for example:

  • cropping;
  • scaling;
  • brightness, contrast, gamma adjustment;
  • transparency change;
  • format conversion; and
  • file copy / archive / cleanup.

Above is an example. Though WordPress presents a small image inline, if you click on it, there is a 640×480 image that was created from a QVGA (320×240) screen capture file scaled and gamma adjusted.
Continue reading Standardised processing of instrument screen captures

Last update: 12th August, 2017, 11:18 AM

Review of Hantek DSO8102E hand held oscilloscope

This article is a brief review of some issues that were found with initial testing of a Hantek DSO8102E two channel 100MHz hand held oscilloscope.

The DSO8102E is a member of the DSO8000 series (DSO8060, DSO8070E, DSO8100E, DSO8150E, DSO8200E), and shares most specifications across the series.

The specifications are very impressive, and price at just under $1000 for a Chinese brand seemed reasonable (hand held oscilloscopes are expensive compared to bench oscilloscopes).

The test scenario was a practical application, observation of the data traffic to/from a DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor in the project ESP8266 IoT DHT22 temperature and humidity – evolution 2. Continue reading Review of Hantek DSO8102E hand held oscilloscope

Last update: 18th October, 2018, 8:07 AM

Cheap and nasty 50Ω SMA terminations

Chinese sellers offer low cost 50Ω SMA terminations mostly without specs, but some sellers specify VSWR<1.2 to 3GHZ.

Above is the internals of one, it is a 51Ω 5% metal film resistor.

They often fail a DC test and tapping them gives erratic resistance readings up to hundreds of ohms, and of course they can be unreliable at RF.

They rely upon the resistor pigtail to make a spring contact with the inside of the barrel, and give that the pigtail is soft copper with little spring the contact is not very reliable. Continue reading Cheap and nasty 50Ω SMA terminations

Last update: 12th July, 2017, 6:35 PM

A check load for antenna analysers with UHF series socket

Hams embrace the UHF series connectors like no one else, including for its use on test equipment where its performance is lacking.

This is the likely reason why it is so hard to find low VSWR 50Ω terminations with UHF series plug. It is rare to find something with VSWR quoted in specifications, and nigh on impossible to find one at a reasonably low price.

On the other hand, SMA terminations start at about $2 each (posted), and it is not too hard to find ones specified with VSWR<1.2 to several GHz.

Above is a low cost, low quality solution. It is a SMA termination selected from a bunch using a high accuracy DMM (selected, R is 49.86Ω) and a SMA(F)-UHF(M) adapter, total cost $7 (posted) (but you might be advised to buy 5 loads to select the best one). Despite the specification, they are probably only good to 100MHz, and can be unreliable. Continue reading A check load for antenna analysers with UHF series socket

Last update: 18th July, 2017, 11:52 AM

EmonTx3 v3.4 ‘wired’ implementation

Introduction

EmonTx3 is a measurement node for an energy measurement system. It has measurement inputs for 4 current transformers, AC voltage, 6 DS1820B temperature sensors and a meter pulse counting sensor.

The standard configuration uses a HopeRF RFM69CW radio transceiver to emonhub running on some host.

This article describes modifications to the system to use a wired serial connection to the emonhub host.

Above is the emonTx3 board.

The approach taken is a minimal change to existing firmware and software, no change to existing hardware, and inexpensive components to extend the connection.

Outline of the solution

The existing firmware writes a debug stream to the connector used for firmware upgrade. It is a different format to that used for the radio link, and there are good reasons for that, but it means writing an interface handler for emonhub to parse the debug stream.

emonTx V3.4 Discrete Sampling V2.80
OpenEnergyMonitor.org

No EEPROM config
RFM69CW Node: 8 Freq: 433Mhz Group: 210

ct1:-51,ct2:0,ct3:0,ct4:0,vrms:23910,pulse:0,t0:223
ct1:-71,ct2:0,ct3:0,ct4:0,vrms:23924,pulse:0,t0:223
ct1:-6,ct2:0,ct3:0,ct4:0,vrms:23921,pulse:0,t0:223

The solution involves some hardware to interface the emonTx3 to the wire line, and a similar interface at the other end to the host running emonhub.

Hardware

Above is the debug stream from the modified firmware.
Above is an adapter (~$3) from the TTL levels of the UART port to RS485. The port is currently run at 115200bps, and that can be carried 800m with good noise immunity on good copper using RS485.

USB-485-10

Above is the host end adapter.

Firmware changes

The firmware was changed to repurpose the output that may be used for switching power to the DS19B20 sensors, it is now used primarily as an RTS signal to the RS485 adapter to reduce current consumption when there is no traffic. In fact, the RTS signal has been asserted also at times when the DS18B20 sensors are read and it could also be used for its original purpose without conflict.

Host changes

Assigning a consistent name to the RS485 adapter

A problem with USB serial adapters is that they may acquire different device names depending on the order in which they are started.

This is solved in this solution by use of FTDI adapters which have a serial number that uniquely identifies the adapter, and setting udev rules to assign a consistent symbolic link to the device. It is this symbolic link that is used in emonhub.conf

The link is achieved by adding the file /etc/udev/rules.d/75-RS485.rules with the contents below (the contents must match the actual adapter).

#Assign fixed symlink to RS485 adapter for emonttx

SUBSYSTEM=="tty", ENV{ID_SERIAL}=="FTDI_FT232R_USB_UART_A9WRVDPD",SYMLINK+="ttyRS485-0"

The udevadm command will provide the information needed.

root@emonpi(rw):log# udevadm info -n /dev/ttyUSB0
P: /devices/platform/soc/20980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.2/1-1.2:1.0/ttyUSB0/tty/ttyUSB0
N: ttyUSB0
S: serial/by-id/usb-FTDI_FT232R_USB_UART_A9WRVDPD-if00-port0
S: serial/by-path/platform-20980000.usb-usb-0:1.2:1.0-port0
S: ttyRS485-0
E: DEVLINKS=/dev/serial/by-id/usb-FTDI_FT232R_USB_UART_A9WRVDPD-if00-port0 /dev/serial/by-path/platform-20980000.usb-usb-0:1.2:1.0-port0 /dev/ttyRS485-0
E: DEVNAME=/dev/ttyUSB0
E: DEVPATH=/devices/platform/soc/20980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.2/1-1.2:1.0/ttyUSB0/tty/ttyUSB0
E: ID_BUS=usb
E: ID_MODEL=FT232R_USB_UART
E: ID_MODEL_ENC=FT232R\x20USB\x20UART
E: ID_MODEL_FROM_DATABASE=FT232 USB-Serial (UART) IC
E: ID_MODEL_ID=6001
E: ID_PATH=platform-20980000.usb-usb-0:1.2:1.0
E: ID_PATH_TAG=platform-20980000_usb-usb-0_1_2_1_0
E: ID_REVISION=0600
E: ID_SERIAL=FTDI_FT232R_USB_UART_A9WRVDPD
E: ID_SERIAL_SHORT=A9WRVDPD
E: ID_TYPE=generic
E: ID_USB_DRIVER=ftdi_sio
E: ID_USB_INTERFACES=:ffffff:
E: ID_USB_INTERFACE_NUM=00
E: ID_VENDOR=FTDI
E: ID_VENDOR_ENC=FTDI
E: ID_VENDOR_FROM_DATABASE=Future Technology Devices International, Ltd
E: ID_VENDOR_ID=0403
E: MAJOR=188
E: MINOR=0
E: SUBSYSTEM=tty
E: TAGS=:systemd:
E: USEC_INITIALIZED=8089809829

Interfacer module to parse the debug stream

An additional interfacer module was written to parse the debug stream, and it was hooked to the main module.

The interfacer is configured in emonhub and port layout copied in from source.

(the contents must match the actual adapter).

#Assign fixed symlink to RS485 adapter for emonttx

SUBSYSTEM=="tty", ENV{DEVLINKS}=="*usb-FTDI_FT232R_USB_UART_A9WRVDPD*",SYMLINK+="ttyRS485-0"

Code source

Code source is available the original git emonhub repo, and in the following git repository forked from the official repo:

Test

The wired configuration is under test with emonhub installed on a Ubuntu server, and about 40m of cat5e cabling from emonTx3 to host. No issues have arisen.

References / links

EmonTx_V3.4

Last update: 9th September, 2017, 6:00 PM