Keysight Labs | Electronic Test Gear Explained @KeysightLabs | Uploaded October 2019 | Updated October 2024, 7 hours ago.
Can the EEVBlog Forum stump us? Classifying ANY piece of test gear...
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There’s a lot of test gear out there – each piece of gear comes with its own set of capabilities, form factors, and complexities. There’s so much variance out there that it’s hard to sort out what’s what, even for someone like me who spends all day every day working with it.
But, it doesn’t have to be that complicated. Today we’re going to look at a method that I believe will give you a framework for grasping every single piece of test gear out there – a “test gear family tree” if you will. Is that to good to be true?
Today we’re going to through a method that will let you classify every single piece of test gear out there, which will give you a good baseline to start from next time you find yourself in front of an instrument you’ve never used before. I also asked folks on the EEVBlog forum to stump me with the weirdest test gear they’ve come across to see if the system can be broken – at the end of this video we’ll look at those and see if this system holds up.
This video is also part of the team trees YouTuber initiative to plant 20 million trees by 2020 – every $1 donated at teamtrees.org plants a tree in collaboration with the Arbor Day Foundation, so check that link out in the description as well!
Finally, we’re toying with the idea of a scope giveaway at 100k subscribers, so hit like if you think that’s a good idea and get subscribed if you aren’t already!
All right, let’s get started. Every piece of test gear falls into one of two categories, they are either an input-based device, meaning they take in information and do something with it, or an output-based device, meaning they take a user input and source out something. – and yes there are blends, but we’ll get to that later.
These input and output devices also come in two flavors
The first flavor is time-domain test gear – which, as you can probably guess, functions with respect to time, they usually work with parametric systems – like a DMM or function generator, or they work digital signals, for example a protocol analyzer.
The other flavor is frequency domain test gear, often thought of as RF and microwave test gear – and these typically work with data communicated in specific frequency bands instead of bits changing over time. So, they typically give measurements or source signals that are focused in and around a frequency band.
So, test gear is either input-based or output-based, and functions mainly in the time domain, or mainly in the frequency domain. Let’s dig in deeper, and explore test gear that is based on inputs.
Input based test gear is used to get data. It takes something from the world around us, typically voltage or current, but sometimes things like temperature, pressure, or luminosity – and turns it into information we, the users, can use.
From a spec standpoint, there’s really only two things that matter for input-focused test gear: the quantity of inputs, and the quality of inputs. Quantity is pretty straightforward – how many channels or ports does it have? but quality is trickier. The different flavors of test gear all have a different take on what input quality means, but typically the most important specs are related to noise floor, accuracy, and resolution. And, how good these specs are is dependent on the specific architecture and design of that instrument. Interestingly enough, input based test gear is all built around same basic architecture. I’m also going to leave out vintage gear and focus on modern, non-CRT gear, because those are a whole different ballgame.
Just like input-based gear, the two big specs are signal quality and quantity, but output-based devices also have a huge range of signal types they can spit out, from generic sine waves to complex test patterns. Almost without fail, there are two main ways these get used by RF engineers. The first is to test expected behavior of a device. Basically, you take an ideal signal, or a golden signal, from your test gear and hook it up to your device, and then characterize and test your device under ideal conditions. Then, you try to break it. You mix up your golden signal and turn it into a terrible signal to see if your device can handle it, or to make sure your failure modes kick in properly.
#TeamTrees #TestGear #TestGearFamilyTree #EEVblogForum #electronics #electricalengineering #computerengineering #TestEquipment #TestInstruments
Can the EEVBlog Forum stump us? Classifying ANY piece of test gear...
Free Poster Download: bit.ly/FamilyTreePoster
Click to subscribe! ► bit.ly/KLabs_sub ◄
Donate to #TeamTrees: teamtrees.org - every $1 plants a tree!
Other Links:
Twitter: @DanielBogdanoff:
twitter.com/DanielBogdanoff
Keysight Bench Facebook page:
facebook.com/keysightbench
Keysight RF Facebook page:
facebook.com/keysightrf
EEs Talk Tech Electrical Engineering podcast:
eestalktech.com
youtube.com/KeysightPodcasts
Check out our blog:
bit.ly/KeysTechBlogs
There’s a lot of test gear out there – each piece of gear comes with its own set of capabilities, form factors, and complexities. There’s so much variance out there that it’s hard to sort out what’s what, even for someone like me who spends all day every day working with it.
But, it doesn’t have to be that complicated. Today we’re going to look at a method that I believe will give you a framework for grasping every single piece of test gear out there – a “test gear family tree” if you will. Is that to good to be true?
Today we’re going to through a method that will let you classify every single piece of test gear out there, which will give you a good baseline to start from next time you find yourself in front of an instrument you’ve never used before. I also asked folks on the EEVBlog forum to stump me with the weirdest test gear they’ve come across to see if the system can be broken – at the end of this video we’ll look at those and see if this system holds up.
This video is also part of the team trees YouTuber initiative to plant 20 million trees by 2020 – every $1 donated at teamtrees.org plants a tree in collaboration with the Arbor Day Foundation, so check that link out in the description as well!
Finally, we’re toying with the idea of a scope giveaway at 100k subscribers, so hit like if you think that’s a good idea and get subscribed if you aren’t already!
All right, let’s get started. Every piece of test gear falls into one of two categories, they are either an input-based device, meaning they take in information and do something with it, or an output-based device, meaning they take a user input and source out something. – and yes there are blends, but we’ll get to that later.
These input and output devices also come in two flavors
The first flavor is time-domain test gear – which, as you can probably guess, functions with respect to time, they usually work with parametric systems – like a DMM or function generator, or they work digital signals, for example a protocol analyzer.
The other flavor is frequency domain test gear, often thought of as RF and microwave test gear – and these typically work with data communicated in specific frequency bands instead of bits changing over time. So, they typically give measurements or source signals that are focused in and around a frequency band.
So, test gear is either input-based or output-based, and functions mainly in the time domain, or mainly in the frequency domain. Let’s dig in deeper, and explore test gear that is based on inputs.
Input based test gear is used to get data. It takes something from the world around us, typically voltage or current, but sometimes things like temperature, pressure, or luminosity – and turns it into information we, the users, can use.
From a spec standpoint, there’s really only two things that matter for input-focused test gear: the quantity of inputs, and the quality of inputs. Quantity is pretty straightforward – how many channels or ports does it have? but quality is trickier. The different flavors of test gear all have a different take on what input quality means, but typically the most important specs are related to noise floor, accuracy, and resolution. And, how good these specs are is dependent on the specific architecture and design of that instrument. Interestingly enough, input based test gear is all built around same basic architecture. I’m also going to leave out vintage gear and focus on modern, non-CRT gear, because those are a whole different ballgame.
Just like input-based gear, the two big specs are signal quality and quantity, but output-based devices also have a huge range of signal types they can spit out, from generic sine waves to complex test patterns. Almost without fail, there are two main ways these get used by RF engineers. The first is to test expected behavior of a device. Basically, you take an ideal signal, or a golden signal, from your test gear and hook it up to your device, and then characterize and test your device under ideal conditions. Then, you try to break it. You mix up your golden signal and turn it into a terrible signal to see if your device can handle it, or to make sure your failure modes kick in properly.
#TeamTrees #TestGear #TestGearFamilyTree #EEVblogForum #electronics #electricalengineering #computerengineering #TestEquipment #TestInstruments
