MEP EP#293: Tom Anderson, the Gold Ear Sympathetic
Tom Anderson
- An old-timer engineer working from HP/Agilent/Keysight
- Currently still employed at Keysight
- Volunteering at Alembic, where he designs electronics for bass guitars
- Career includes:
- Design of firmware
- Digital
- Analog
- Microwave
- Optical
- Power supplies
- Software
- Information systems
Metrology and You
- Do I need to worry about all of this? (as a hobbyist, is accuracy important?)-
- Measure with micrometer...
- Taking Measurements
- voltage, current, resistance, inductance, capacitance, Q, frequency, time, noise, RF/microwave
- Measurement Uncertainty
- +/- 0.1dB specification - what can go wrong?
- How do you make things more accurate?
- System engineering - when the boards are put together, does the system work?
- Testing the idea that multiple resistors are tighter tolerance than single
- Sources of errors - narrow things down to the path between a sensor and an ADC
- Temperature
- Noise, thermal
- Noise, switching power supply, rectifier diodes
- Noise, clock, data, address
- DC shift - where does the ground current flow? Screws, contact resistance, and X-Acto blades.
- Offset voltage and current
- Connector Repeatability
- Temperature
- Repeatability/Skid
- Controlling temperature (room air, coffee cup, fingers, oven proportional control)