Thanks for the test. You have confirmed my observations on the FA-2. There is a lot of jitter to the right of the decmil point. However, the TCXO is really stable and you can't beat the price.
Hello, what is the maximum voltage (or amplitude) of a signal that the BGT7TBL FA-3 (or FA-2) frequency counter can handle? I would appreciate your support a lot!
I can confirm that the 15GHz version of WB-SG1 does indeed just change the small RF PCB - the PLL is Ti LMX2594 connected more or less direct to the output. 10MHz is routed on a long flexible wire (not shielded so essentially an inductor and sensitive to neighbouring wires) which seems less than ideal but it seems to function.
The 50-ohms is not fixed on CH1 as mentioned in the video. It can be changed from 50-ohm to 1-Mohm. To switch back and forth on the input impedance: First press the RST button and while holding it down press the Mode button. You should hear a relay click which I assume is removing a 50-ohm resistor in parallel with the 1-Mohm resistor. You have to repeat this procedure each time you wish to make a change. Also on CH1 you can turn on and off a LPF: First press the RST button and while holding it down press the GATE button. The LPF is very helpful on getting better triggering on low frequencies. One of the biggest problems with many inexpensive counters is that they have fair to poor trigger circuits so the LPF can be helpful although not the best fix. These features are not available on CH2. Hope this is helpful and I enjoy your channel videos.
My next project is making a DIY SDR 21cm 1420 MHz hydrogen-line monitor radio telescope. The tinySA Ultra spectrum analyzer and the WB-SG1 1Hz-8GHz Wideband Signal Generator seems to be recommended test equipment? 😎 Thank you great video.
Hello, do you know how to save the last frequency setting so that when the WB-SG generator is turned off and then turned on it will keep the last setting and will not come back to the default frequency? Maybe via some ASCII code command?
Thank you for your video. I have the WB-SG1 BG7-TBL signal generator. I have been having trouble getting the signal generator to go to the exact frequency. This is mainly on channel 1. I tried, as an example, 146.640 mHz, which is a common repeater frequency. The signal generator goes to a value close by and then stays stuck there unless I make a larger frequency change. In this example, the signal generator went to 146.30 mHz and was stuck there. The signal generator worked better when using channel 2 and looking at frequencies in the gHz range. I could only check up to 2 gHz because my spectrum analyzer only goes up to 2.1 gHz. Did you have the same results or do you have any suggestions?
Hello Richard, accoring to the Docs, it should be able to do 1Hz stept on the first channel, CH1 frequency range：1Hz-200MHz , CH1 step:1Hz-19.999999MHz/1Hz, 20MHz-200MHz/10Hz I do not remember if i had a problem with that... i will test that for you.
I experimented around a little more. If you set the mHz and gHz places to zero and input the hundred thousands, ten thousands, and then the unit thousands while keeping the mHz and gHz at zero, the lower figures will keep. Then input the mHz and gHz figures. The output will be close to the frequency that you want. I only did this on a couple of tries. I need to experiment more.
I JUST HAD 2 BREAKTHROUGHS WITH THIS ( i will edit this post as i get more ) BREAKTRHOUGH 1 - HOW TO CHANGE THE DEFAULT VALUE ON STARTUP. A Poster asked how do we change the default value of the frequency so that when it starts up, it starts on what we want. I ACCIDENTALLY DISCOVERED IT Let's say you are on CH 1 and it starts at 1Hz, But let's say you want it to start at 30MHz for arguments sake. so.. 30.000 000 MHz STEP 1 - Enter 30.000 000 MHz (or your desired startup Frequency) STEP 2 - Press "ENT" TWICE !!! it will then say * SAVED * You can now turn the Sig Gen off and On and it will start on the frequency you saved BREAKTHROUGH 2 - HOW TO TURN THE SIG GEN ON AND OFF VIA THE SCREEN I Accidentally discovered this by wanting to change the Peak to Peak voltage and trying to select the bottom menu STEP 1 - Note that Peak to Peak Voltage is on and 3.3 V on CH 1 STEP 2 - Press < until you get all the way to the far right off the screen on the last digit, STEP 3 - Now Press < Again You will now find yourself in the bottom Menu STEP 4 - Press Arrow up or Arrow Down to turn the waveform OFF or ON again BREAKTHROUGH 3 - With the above knowledge , While on CH 1 Mode you can also enter the lower menu to alter Mod OFF to ON (so.. MODULATION) OUT ON to OFF that's all i have so far
@@TonyAlbus Well, what i found was on CH2 Mode when MOD is ON it doesn't seem to do anything i would assume this Modulation ON However i see no modulation or anyway to adjust the modulation frequency relative to the carrier frequency. I"ll keep working on this
What does the flathead screw in the back do, that is next to the power jack. I assumed this was a POT I assume that i could adjust the voltage with this from 3.3 pk/pk to say something more useable like 5V . for things like TTL 3.3V is largely useless also what are we using the USB -B Port at the back for ? i assume Firmware updates, if so... Where are they located ? as for the bottom menu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PLL REF MOD OUT PWR LOCK INT OFF ON 0dBm --------------------------------------------------------------------- I have not found a way for this menu to be selectable
@@TonyAlbus OH OK, i was fiddling around with the pot gently while on CH1 and CH 2 Hoping to adjust the Peak to Peak Voltage, But there was no change in either frequency or Voltage I'll try the 10MHz Output As for the firmware, i'm looking out for it , i'll let you know if i find it Also... Any idea how to switch the bottom items on or off ALSO... I'm going to look at Hardware Hacking this thing to see what i can do with it
@@TonyAlbus Re the Firmware, i bought this off ebay, i'm going to approach the seller to see if they can get in contact with the manufacturer so we can track down the firmware. I'll let you guys know how i go with that. I'm also asking them to provide a manual or PDF of such manual. Let's see what happens
@@TonyAlbus It would appear that the screw thingy on the back, THE POT does absolutely nothing. I've tried it with CH 1, CH 2, Input, Output I also learned that you can feed in in the INPUT an external signal and when connected to the output you will see that signal instead of the 10MHz signal But yeah, the POT does nothing it seems. Doesn't ajust voltage or frequency BUT ... I TOOK IT APART AND LEARNED WE HAVE A JTAG !!!!! :ppppp There's no Header Pins but the pads are there and they are clearly labelled Now the seller got back to me and said that FOR FIRMWARE UPGRADES YOU NEED TO RETURN IT TO THE MANUFACTURER But didn't not state the name of the Manufacturer That sounds like Bull$%^T to me Anyway, I'm gonna take a shot at the JTAG and see what sort of mischief i can cause :P I can also see other provisions on the board for other features. Looks like i'll have some fun here. I'll let you guys know if anything progresses
Thanks for the test. You have confirmed my observations on the FA-2. There is a lot of jitter to the right of the decmil point. However, the TCXO is really stable and you can't beat the price.
Thank you! and totally agree on price,!
Que buena prueba de ambos instrumentos. Muchas gracias Ingeniero, por enseñarnos el funcionamiento y calibracion...Saludos desde Guatemala.
¡Gracias y de nada! Bienvenido en mi canal
Great video - thanks for taking time to put it together. Is there a way to calibrate the power meter on the FA-2?
Thank you!, i have not found a way to do that yet.
Hello, what is the maximum voltage (or amplitude) of a signal that the BGT7TBL FA-3 (or FA-2) frequency counter can handle? I would appreciate your support a lot!
the manual says the power measure can go upto +20dBm , so it can take that for sure. no other specs found so far.
I can confirm that the 15GHz version of WB-SG1 does indeed just change the small RF PCB - the PLL is Ti LMX2594 connected more or less direct to the output. 10MHz is routed on a long flexible wire (not shielded so essentially an inductor and sensitive to neighbouring wires) which seems less than ideal but it seems to function.
Hello Martin, thank you for sharing that, nice information!..
The 50-ohms is not fixed on CH1 as mentioned in the video. It can be changed from 50-ohm to 1-Mohm. To switch back and forth on the input impedance: First press the RST button and while holding it down press the Mode button. You should hear a relay click which I assume is removing a 50-ohm resistor in parallel with the 1-Mohm resistor. You have to repeat this procedure each time you wish to make a change. Also on CH1 you can turn on and off a LPF: First press the RST button and while holding it down press the GATE button. The LPF is very helpful on getting better triggering on low frequencies. One of the biggest problems with many inexpensive counters is that they have fair to poor trigger circuits so the LPF can be helpful although not the best fix. These features are not available on CH2. Hope this is helpful and I enjoy your channel videos.
Thank you very much! indeed very helpful... i did not know... this will help others, keep putting these good comments, thank you! Tony
My next project is making a DIY SDR 21cm 1420 MHz hydrogen-line monitor radio telescope.
The tinySA Ultra spectrum analyzer and the WB-SG1 1Hz-8GHz Wideband Signal Generator seems to be recommended test equipment? 😎 Thank you great video.
Wow that sound very impressive.. i do not even know what that is :)
@@TonyAlbus Thank you Tony.
Hello, do you know how to save the last frequency setting so that when the WB-SG generator is turned off and then turned on it will keep the last setting and will not come back to the default frequency? Maybe via some ASCII code command?
Hi, i have never looked ad that, good question, let us know if you find out before me.
Thank you for your video. I have the WB-SG1 BG7-TBL signal generator. I have been having trouble getting the signal generator to go to the exact frequency. This is mainly on channel 1. I tried, as an example, 146.640 mHz, which is a common repeater frequency. The signal generator goes to a value close by and then stays stuck there unless I make a larger frequency change. In this example, the signal generator went to 146.30 mHz and was stuck there. The signal generator worked better when using channel 2 and looking at frequencies in the gHz range. I could only check up to 2 gHz because my spectrum analyzer only goes up to 2.1 gHz. Did you have the same results or do you have any suggestions?
Hello Richard, accoring to the Docs, it should be able to do 1Hz stept on the first channel,
CH1 frequency range：1Hz-200MHz , CH1 step:1Hz-19.999999MHz/1Hz, 20MHz-200MHz/10Hz
I do not remember if i had a problem with that... i will test that for you.
@@TonyAlbus Thanks
Keep an eye on the channel i will put it in an Q&A video later. Tony
Thanks again. @@TonyAlbus
I experimented around a little more. If you set the mHz and gHz places to zero and input the hundred thousands, ten thousands, and then the unit thousands while keeping the mHz and gHz at zero, the lower figures will keep. Then input the mHz and gHz figures. The output will be close to the frequency that you want. I only did this on a couple of tries. I need to experiment more.
The output of channel-1 of the WB-SG1 was 20mV not 200mV..
jEPS
Nice demo, but please get a tripod for your camera.
Thanks, i have indeed now, this is an old video.
I JUST HAD 2 BREAKTHROUGHS WITH THIS
( i will edit this post as i get more )
BREAKTRHOUGH 1 - HOW TO CHANGE THE DEFAULT VALUE ON STARTUP.
A Poster asked how do we change the default value of the frequency so that when it starts up, it starts on what we want.
I ACCIDENTALLY DISCOVERED IT
Let's say you are on CH 1 and it starts at 1Hz, But let's say you want it to start at 30MHz for arguments sake.
so.. 30.000 000 MHz
STEP 1 - Enter 30.000 000 MHz (or your desired startup Frequency)
STEP 2 - Press "ENT" TWICE !!! it will then say * SAVED *
You can now turn the Sig Gen off and On and it will start on the frequency you saved
BREAKTHROUGH 2 - HOW TO TURN THE SIG GEN ON AND OFF VIA THE SCREEN
I Accidentally discovered this by wanting to change the Peak to Peak voltage and trying to select the bottom menu
STEP 1 - Note that Peak to Peak Voltage is on and 3.3 V on CH 1
STEP 2 - Press < until you get all the way to the far right off the screen on the last digit,
STEP 3 - Now Press < Again
You will now find yourself in the bottom Menu
STEP 4 - Press Arrow up or Arrow Down to turn the waveform OFF or ON again
BREAKTHROUGH 3 - With the above knowledge , While on CH 1 Mode you can also enter the lower menu to alter
Mod OFF to ON (so.. MODULATION)
OUT ON to OFF
that's all i have so far
Nice, Thanks! , i did not know about your BT1 , the BT2 and BT3 i did find. i wonder what else you find.. thanks for sharing
@@TonyAlbus
Well, what i found was
on CH2 Mode
when MOD is ON
it doesn't seem to do anything
i would assume this
Modulation ON
However i see no modulation or anyway to adjust the modulation frequency relative to the carrier frequency.
I"ll keep working on this
What does the flathead screw in the back do, that is next to the power jack.
I assumed this was a POT
I assume that i could adjust the voltage with this from 3.3 pk/pk to say something more useable like 5V .
for things like TTL 3.3V is largely useless
also
what are we using the USB -B Port at the back for ?
i assume Firmware updates, if so... Where are they located ?
as for the bottom menu
----------------------------------------------------------------------
PLL REF MOD OUT PWR
LOCK INT OFF ON 0dBm
---------------------------------------------------------------------
I have not found a way for this menu to be selectable
Hi, the pot is for adjusting the internal 10 MHz, i do not know were the firmware can be downloaded
@@TonyAlbus
OH OK,
i was fiddling around with the pot gently while on CH1 and CH 2 Hoping to adjust the Peak to Peak Voltage, But there was no change in either frequency or Voltage
I'll try the 10MHz Output
As for the firmware, i'm looking out for it ,
i'll let you know if i find it
Also... Any idea how to switch the bottom items on or off
ALSO... I'm going to look at Hardware Hacking this thing to see what i can do with it
@@TonyAlbus Re the Firmware, i bought this off ebay, i'm going to approach the seller to see if they can get in contact with the manufacturer so we can track down the firmware.
I'll let you guys know how i go with that.
I'm also asking them to provide a manual or PDF of such manual.
Let's see what happens
@@martinkuliza Great! i do have a pdf manual, email me and i share it with you,.
@@TonyAlbus
It would appear that the screw thingy on the back, THE POT does absolutely nothing.
I've tried it with CH 1, CH 2, Input, Output
I also learned that you can feed in in the INPUT an external signal and when connected to the output you will see that signal instead of the 10MHz signal
But yeah, the POT does nothing it seems.
Doesn't ajust voltage or frequency
BUT ... I TOOK IT APART AND LEARNED
WE HAVE A JTAG !!!!! :ppppp
There's no Header Pins but the pads are there and they are clearly labelled
Now the seller got back to me and said that FOR FIRMWARE UPGRADES YOU NEED TO RETURN IT TO THE MANUFACTURER
But didn't not state the name of the Manufacturer
That sounds like Bull$%^T to me
Anyway, I'm gonna take a shot at the JTAG and see what sort of mischief i can cause
:P
I can also see other provisions on the board for other features.
Looks like i'll have some fun here.
I'll let you guys know if anything progresses