Searching for Pulse Generators Controlled by USB

Nov 12, 2008 2 Replies

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D from BC 17 years ago

Here's a 100Mhz pulse/clock generator that's controlled off USB.

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204.17Pounds !! That's like >$400.00!! Canadian. :O*****

Anybody using cheaper pulse generators that are USB controlled..

100Mhz would be nice. Heck..I'll go for just the raw pcb + software. If I found something like that on Ebay, I'd bid $40.00 or more..

D from BC myrealaddress(at)comic(dot)com British Columbia Canada

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Frank Buss 17 years ago

You can build it with a FPGA:

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The 500 kHz limit in my project is because of the DAC, but if you need just digital pulses, 100 MHz should be possible.

But the jitter with DDS for frequencies near the clock is terrible. Maybe a combination of a Si570, which has a jitter below 1 ps, (

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) with a CPLD would be a good idea, controlled with a small microcontroller with an USB interface. The CPLD implements a DDS and the microcontroller calculates the best frequency and DDS parameters for the clock generator and the CPLD. I think all parts and the PCB would cost less than $50.

Frank Buss, fb@frank-buss.de http://www.frank-buss.de, http://www.it4-systems.de

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JosephKK 17 years ago

Pretty cool. Add a USB to serial adapter and zing. All said and done under $300 including professionally manufactured PWB.

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