Collaborate Disseminate
When you measure a voltage, how do you know that your measurement is correct? Because your multimeter says so, of course! But how can you trust your multimeter to give the right reading? Calibration of instruments is something we often trust blindly without really thinking about, but it’s not always …read more
Continue reading The Best Voltage And Current Reference This Side Of A Test Lab
We always enjoy [w2aew’s] videos, and his latest on zener diodes is no exception. In it, he asserts that all Zener diodes are not created equal. Why? You’ll have to watch the video below to find out.
Zener diodes are one of those strange items that have several uses but are not as popular as they once were. There was a time when the Zener was a reasonable way to regulate a voltage inexpensively and easily. Unfortunately the regulation characteristics were not very good, and the power lost was very high. But that was sometimes a reasonable trade, compared to …read more
If you work for a large company, you probably have test equipment that is routinely calibrated. Some companies have their own metrology labs and others send out to an external lab. In a garage lab, you are less likely to do calibrations and — in our experience — that isn’t usually a problem. Still, it is nice to be able to do at least a sanity check on your gear. Also, if you buy old test gear and repair it, it would be nice to be able to check it, as well. [IMSAI guy] built his own little calibration setup, …read more
[barbouri] found a few old (vintage?) parts from the early ’80’s while rummaging through his parts bin, and quickly spun out a small PCB to build a 10.000 V reference using these old ICs. Throwing together a small number of parts, he was able to build a source which might be good enough to use as a reference for another circuit or provide a quick calibration check for some of his bench instruments that have a resolution of 1 mV or maybe even 100 μV.
The AD584* pin programmable precision voltage references have been available since the ’80’s and offer …read more
[barbouri] found a few old (vintage?) parts from the early ’80’s while rummaging through his parts bin, and quickly spun out a small PCB to build a 10.000 V reference using these old ICs. Throwing together a small number of parts, he was able to build a source which might be good enough to use as a reference for another circuit or provide a quick calibration check for some of his bench instruments that have a resolution of 1 mV or maybe even 100 μV.
The AD584* pin programmable precision voltage references have been available since the ’80’s and offer …read more
As children, we all probably had our ideal career paths. As an adult do you still harbor a secret desire to be an astronaut, or to drive a railroad train? Or have holders of other jobs become the people you envy?
As a Hackaday writer it’s probably not too controversial to admit a sneaking envy for the writers of semiconductor application notes. True, often their work consists of dry demonstrations of conventional uses for the products in question, but every once in a while they produce something off the wall and outside the device’s intended use, so out of the …read more
Continue reading Stacking Voltage References To High Voltage Extremes
