Triode
Well-Known Member
I'd like to be able to use salvaged crystals, but I don't own a frequency counter, or a ocilloscope, because most of my projects are robotic, and usually when I work with crystalls, I'm just plugging one in to make a usb device or a transmitter work, I don't get into detail with them.
So brainstorm with me if you will, how plausible would it be to make a PIC18 based crystal frequency tester? and what pitfalls would it encounter? And by the way, if there is a project writeup for a similar idea already out there, please direct me to it.
I'm looking for input on how this might best be accomplished, but heres what I'm thinking of: It seems like it could be as simple as setting one chip to work on a crystal with an open socket for the crystal itself, and either another part of that chip or a separate chip could run on a crystal that allows a 1 second clock, 38 point something MHZ i think it is. The first clock could count, and the second could request that count every second. Take an average every few seconds, and display the frequency by any of a number of means, even a simple led binary readout would be fine for my purposes. I know that pics are limited in how high of a frequency they can run, but I figure that issue may be solved by the fact that I primarily care about crystalls that they can use since I'm using these crystals for PIC chip projects.
So brainstorm with me if you will, how plausible would it be to make a PIC18 based crystal frequency tester? and what pitfalls would it encounter? And by the way, if there is a project writeup for a similar idea already out there, please direct me to it.
I'm looking for input on how this might best be accomplished, but heres what I'm thinking of: It seems like it could be as simple as setting one chip to work on a crystal with an open socket for the crystal itself, and either another part of that chip or a separate chip could run on a crystal that allows a 1 second clock, 38 point something MHZ i think it is. The first clock could count, and the second could request that count every second. Take an average every few seconds, and display the frequency by any of a number of means, even a simple led binary readout would be fine for my purposes. I know that pics are limited in how high of a frequency they can run, but I figure that issue may be solved by the fact that I primarily care about crystalls that they can use since I'm using these crystals for PIC chip projects.
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