Build Your Own Sweeping Function Generator
by Dennis Feucht
In the mid-1970s, I was designing test and measurement (T&M)
instruments in the TM500 group at Tektronix. One instrument I designed never
made it to market, not because of technical problems but because of marketing
overlap with another product (the FG504). The tentatively-named FG506 did
not make it out of product development, though fully working prototypes
meeting specifications were built in engineering.
This project is based on the FG506, with possible updates to the mid-'70s design. As it stands, it is still a viable design in that it is maintainable; it is field repairable, and has no unobtainable custom parts other than the front-panel knobs. Those can be substituted, or even eliminated, in a C-based version, and ordinary knobs will do in the existing "hot-switched" version. To also provide some insight into product development at a leading electronics company, I will include some of the engineering considerations during the project.
...download complete article here (210kb PDF file)
Contact the author |