Hi The real thing you would learn about is writing code that runs an FPGA.
The other gotcha here is that the feature list can get pretty large: 1) WiFi interface 2) Bluetooth interface 3) USB 2.0 interface 4) RS-232 interface 5) HPIB emulation of an HP box 6)Ethernet interface ----- combined with ----- 1) Web server software 2) Windows PC application / logging software 3) Mac application / logging software 4) Linux application / logging software 5) iPhone application software 6) iPad application software ----- combined with ---- 1) Front pannel controls 2) Front pannel display 3) Front interface connections (DUT's) 4) Rear pannel standard interfaces and controls ---- combined with ---- 1) Internal hard disk storage 2) Flash card storage 3) USB stick storage 4) SD card storage 5) Battery backed RAM storage ---- combined with ---- 1) Some number of counter inputs 2) Some number of reference inputs 3) Internal GPS receiver 4) Internal Rb standard ----- combined with --- 1) Battery power 2) Auto 12 V power 3) AC line power So lest's see, that's 3 x 4 x 5 x 4 x 6 x 6 = 8,640 combinations. That does not include any options that actually relate to how the gizmo works. That's just talking about the eye candy around the thing. A practical device might be: 2 DUT inputs 10 MHz reference input "RS-232" to connect to a USB dongle +12 DC power Application software TBD. Bob On Dec 18, 2010, at 11:29 PM, Chris Albertson wrote: > It all depends on the goal. Is it to have a working instrument or to > learn how they work and maybe to push the state of the art ahead a > little > > One might ask the same question about ham radio: "Why bother with all > that work? If you want to talk to some one just buy a cell phone and > be done with it." Yes if that was the goal the cell phone is the > obvious solution. > > I think there are ony two reasons to build vs. buy. (1) You want to > make something that you can't buy, or (2) you want to learn about the > technology. > > One feature I'd add if I were building this is a self-calibration with > GPS. There are a lot of features I can think of. I'd like a web > server built-in so the instrument would be operated from an iPhone > > >> The calibrated and running counter is something you can have tomorrow (more >> or less). That's very different than the kit of boards. > -- > ===== > Chris Albertson > Redondo Beach, California > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.