[time-nuts] 2.5 Ghz 12 digit counter project

Tom Van Baak tvb at LeapSecond.com
Thu Dec 27 21:17:08 UTC 2012


Hi Paul,

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. The block diagram of the counter is at http://siliconchip.com.au/ (also see attached).

It looks like a standard 1970's gated/reciprocal  frequency counter design; using 4 digits of high frequency prescaler before it goes into the 8 digit PIC. So the "12 digit" refers to the number of LED's on the front panel. Not to be confused with the "12 digits per second" spec of a modern interpolator-based frequency counter. I.e., it's high range, not high resolution. I see it accepts external 1 Hz gate times from a GPS receiver; further suggesting the resolution is 7- or 8-digits/sec. Still, a nicely designed PIC-based casual bench frequency counter.

If eventually the full article is available online let us know. It would be an interesting read.

Does anyone know Jim Rowe (Australia)? A related project of his was the UHF Prescaler For Frequency Counters (http://archive.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_107676/article.html).

/tvb

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Amaranth" <Paul at Auroragrp.Com>
To: <time-nuts at febo.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2012 11:12 AM
Subject: [time-nuts] 2.5 Ghz 12 digit counter project


> Did anyone see the article in the December Silicon Chips magazine about
> building a 12 digit 2.5 GHz counter?  It has an option for a GPS 1pps
> input so you could have some expectation that the last couple of
> digits mean something.  The website only has the article cover page
> in pretty much unreadable type.
> 
> -- 
> Paul Amaranth, GCIH  | Rochester MI, USA              
> Aurora Group, Inc.   |   Security, Systems & Software 
> paul at AuroraGrp.Com   |   Unix & Windows               
> 
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