Show Your Favorite Arbitrary Waveforms - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: piguy101
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2017, 12:06:04 am
content: I just got a new signal generator and it has all the usual stuff like sine, triangle, sawtooth, and square waves. It also can do arbitrary waveforms, but I can't think of any good ones right now to upload.What are your favorite arbitrary waveforms for your function generators?

author: deflicted
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 09, 2017, 12:28:35 am
content: Years ago I wrote a driver for a VME arbitrary waveform generator board. In addition to the driver, the project lead wanted some software tools to be able to construct custom waveforms, so I wrote a utility that let you cobble together a waveform from various types of segments (linear, exponential, sine wave, etc). Then just for kicks I added the ability to draw a waveform using the mouse. Of course, it's not quite an Etch-A-Sketch, since you only have a single voltage at a given time t. Still, it was pretty cool to just be able to draw something using the mouse, then load it onto the board, and see the output on the o-scope. Afterwards, it was not uncommon to walk into the lab and see various body parts crudely drawn out on the o-scope.

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2017, 08:54:15 am
content: Here are a few uses, it depends on how high a frequency you can generate:1) An AM signal 99% modulated with a 1 KHz sine wave, good for testing receivers.2) A Morse code signal, properly keyed Morse should NOT have vertical edges on the pulses, they should have a rise time of about 5mS and, ideally, be a 'raised cosine' shape. A detailed explanation is herehttp://www.w8ji.com/cw_bandwidth_described.htm3) Simulate the output of an IR remote control

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2017, 11:07:16 pm
content: Depending on the capabilities of your signal generator (like the ability to sum harmonics), this is a neat project:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/a-valentine's-day-activity-for-your-scope-and-function-generator/I bought the Siglent SDG2082X specifically because it has this capability.

author: piguy101
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 12:07:08 am
content: Ha, I like the novelty of using lissajous to plot various outlines and shapes. I am thinking of making a random noise waveform or a sine wave superimposed with some noise to test the robustness of some of my circuits. How often do you all actually use the arbitrary waveform part of your function generators anyway?

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 01:10:14 am
content: Quote from: piguy101 on July 09, 2017, 12:06:04 amI just got a Rigol DG1022Z about 2 weeks ago. My first ever function generator. SinC sounds pretty way out when frequency modulated.

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 04:46:34 am
content: When you say "wave form" do real waves, as in ocean waves or wave machines, or fluid flow simulations count?There is also something particularly cool about lissajous figures slowly changing.I also really like digital signage tools for displaying electronic signals..For example, software thats used for signage with video input can also display waveforms in interesting ways.Also, in the data visualization world there are some pretty amazing tools. There is no reason they cant be used to visualize electronics data.

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 02:14:12 pm
content: Quote from: piguy101 on July 10, 2017, 12:07:08 amabout once in enever

author: PA0PBZ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 02:29:38 pm
content: I used it to reproduce a pulse where there was a discussion about statistics:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/rigol-ds2072a-statistics-for-simple-pulse-train-incorrect/msg1168613/#msg1168613

author: NivagSwerdna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 03:50:04 pm
content: Quote from: piguy101 on July 09, 2017, 12:06:04 amI have done some work with AFSK, specifically AX.25. AX.25 uses two frequencies 1200Hz and 2200Hz, simplistically (really it is NRZI) with each frequency representing a hi/lo. Each transition preserves phase. Here's a challenge for you... encode 0,1 repeating in Bell 202. (You can then feed that into your MX614... if they make them anymore!)FWIW I'm a bit disappointed with the bandwidth of my Siglent Arb Gen... I did some experiments with my admittedly low end SDG1025... how hard can it be to add an infinite number of sine waves together to make a perfect square wave?

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2017, 09:18:41 pm
content: I think that some waveforms are kind of relaxing and almost qualify as art in some contexts..

author: DenzilPenberthy
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 11, 2017, 12:05:20 pm
content: A good clean right-hand point break for me. Not too big though because I'm not very good

author: android
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 11, 2017, 03:00:23 pm
content: Here's my favorite. I call it a Ladywavehttps://youtu.be/CrtpXtCVHUc...well, you did ask!

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 12, 2017, 04:46:46 am
content: Not as much fun as the lady wave, but one of the uses for arbitrary function generators is to present less than ideal digital wave forms to circuits to evaluate their response to overshoot, ringing, droop and all of the other fun little features of the real world.