EEVblog 1560 - TIP: Use Your Arb Gen as a High Resolution DC Voltage Source!

Tech Tip: How to use you Arbitrary Waveform Generator as a High Resolution DC Voltage Source!

Or with crypto:
BTC: 33BsprBQNBtHuVzVwDmqWkpDjYnCouwASM
ETH: 0x68114e40ff4dcdd384750500501e20acf3875f8c
BCH: 35n9KBPw9T7M3NGzpS3t4nUYEf9HbRmkm4
USDC: 0x68114e40ff4dcdd384750500501e20acf3875f8c
LTC: MJfK57ujxy55su4XicVGQc9wcEJf6mAoXF

Other channels:

#ElectronicsCreators #TechTip

[Schwuuuuup]

This is such a great example how engineering works: pretty much exactly 2 minutes of WHAT it is, HOW it works and WHY it is great... And then 6 additional minutes about what you have to know to not run into problems 😂

I will adopt this 25%/75% ratio into my rhetoric when I have to explain outsiders, why complicated things are complicated

[janeklof]

Many thousand thanks for the tip on using your Arb Generator as a DC. mv source ! Greetings from Stockholm ( Sweden ) and Jan Eklöf

[SeanBZA]

Doing it often would probably be a good idea to build up a power stage, using one of the power capable DC stable opamps, and simply put in a gain of 2, and use a 50R input termination, so the opamp gives current gain and some isolation, and the ARB provides the precise input. You could even use a regular power supply, and feed the ARB output into the control section, giving you a power supply that you can program, using the ARB waveform generation to give power up and down ramps as well. Not going to be 4 quadrant all singing and dancing, but even a single quadrant one, that can emulate say a battery discharging, can be useful.

[TheDefpom]

If you want a good affordable precision voltage source people should look at Ian Johnston’s PDVS2mini adjustable reference.

[tannerbass]

We literally did this in school when we were all remote because they couldn't afford to send us actual bench supplies

[aoeuidhtnsnthdiueoa]

Couple years ago I discovered this trick when I was tracking down an issue with a particularly weird brownout detect implementation. There were multiple thresholds, holdoffs, etc. I was able to create an arb profile in excel that matched exactly what i wanted, load it on my flash drive, drop it on my scope and test EXACTLY the profile I wanted. Worked great for a little low power micro.

[leroyolson]

I enjoy your presentation's, They are always educational. I have been in electronics, sense the early 60's, first as a T.V. tech, then in later years, as a land mobile tech, for Motorola, and at 80 Yrs. i still find that I don't know every think, so thank you for the knowledge you share.

[pitzyper]

"Tech Tip".. I see what you did there! Great vid, Dave!

[kfhzu]

Good to see the 121GW being used in a video again :) This was a good video! Would enjoy more tips about how to use equipment for things outside the primary purpose like this.

[thomasmoore]

Thank for tip on the Sig's output impedance, I had no idea I wasn't getting hiZ output.

[Iavasamon_Wang]

A small tip for using signal generator as a dc source: some source will automaticly change range when you adjust the dc offset(My Keysight 33622A), it will quickly jump from 0 to offset volt, almost unnoticeable . for some devices has hysteresis input voltage, be careful, because it may performance no hysteresis at all.

[frankgrudge]

Keep the tech tips coming Uncle Dave cheers!

[WizardTim]

You don't even need a fancy Arb Gen for most stuff like this if it's just DC, I regularly do this with a standard lab PSU and a voltage divider, requires a bit more planning to make sure your DUT doesn't affect the reading through it's internal resistance but you can often get high resolution (smaller steps), lower offsets and lower noise with this method and for much less money in almost any lab.

I often need tiny currents when characterizing charge sensitive amplifiers (1 - 100s of nanoamps), I could buy a $30, 000 SMU but a lab PSU and a handful of large value series resistors gets the job done. And in cases where I need precision, I find I don't actually need exactly 1.000 nA, almost always I just need several values between 1 and 100 to form a trendline to get the value at 1.000 nA so I can just put in a random big resistor and measure the actual current (I do use a reasonably expensive DMM6500 for that part). I also often find coupled leakage currents become an issue for measurements like this (Marco Reps has a great video on that topic), instead of again buying a fancy SMU I just switch the PSU out for a 9V battery with none of those problems.

[KeritechElectronics]

Two minute tech tip video? I see some pretty advanced time dilation here, haha!

Looking at it this way, an AWG could be used for setting the bias point for vacuum tubes and transistors, testing the output waveform for optimal distortion.

[mikewillis]

Good tip Dave.

I checked with my UNI-T UTG932 generator does 1mV offsets but you can't have zero amplitude waveforms. However, you can program a square wave with a very long period (1 uHz should be long enough) or upload a zero arbitrary waveform. Only 14 bit and 200Ms but much cheaper. I paid £80 two years ago, like most China test gear, that price has doubled since then but still a good deal, especially as the Siglent is approaching £1k.

[profrook]

2 minutes video evolving into 8m rant, I love you Dave for that, the normal way, not that QWERTY rubbish way

[thdrizzl]

i would really like to see you do a NEW shootout between the three eevblog meters. i get asked by newer users all the time which one or whats the difference etc?? can you do a new video shooting these three out and and showing the differences between them then i can direct them straight to the video. even myself who has years exp may learn something new about them never know lol. most new users will not spend fluke money and even people like myself i dont take my flukes out in the field they either go missing "somehow" or they drop, fall, or who knows what. i really think that would be a great video. maybe you have one and i just couldnt find it but if i searched and couldnt find it then others cant either. and yes these videos are great especially for the newer guys who dont have the patience to sit and watch an hour long video they want a quick 5 min one so they can learn something and be done. appreciate all your work.

[thebigkahuna]

Thanks for the video. I was just discussing using my waveform gen to do some testing as a sub for my now blown up DC power supply (lol).

[airmann]

For those that don't know, I found out on my siglent if you hold either of the "OUTPUT" buttons for a couple seconds it will switch from hi-z to 50 ohm or vice versa

[randomviewer]

I love these shorter tip videos, please keep making them!