> Has anyone ever made a little device so that a remote-control type PTS
> (such as those contained in spectrometers) can be used as a piece of test
> equipment? I've got a couple of PTS 500's not doing anything, they're worth
> a lot of money, and I want a frequency synthesizer in my arsenal of test
> equipment.
>
> I'd also probably want to install an internal 10 MHz oscillator.
>
> A PTS 620 with 10 MHz built-in and knobs on the front panel is over $10K.
>
> Bill
>
A few years ago I designed and built a little card for a PC that allows
one to operate a PTS from PC software. I think I still have the
schematics, if you are interested. It took an afternoon to wire wrap the
latches etc. on a standard ISA bus prototype card. I wrote a text-based
Linux C-program that talks to the card through I/O port addresses.
We used this method to operate the "f4" and "f5" channel synthesizers on
our GE Omega 500 console. Remote shells commands were sent over the
network to the linux program to change the synthesizer frequency and to
operate an auxilliary pulse programmer.
One might also be able to use a standard digital I/O card. I ended making
my own interface card partly because it provided a neater solution to the
wire-spaghetti problem that would be required in adapting the a 50-pin
header to the Centronix style connector on the PTS. Also it was fun!
A small adaptation of the software would allow frequency sweeping for
probe tuning... replacing those hard-to-find Wavetek's. Another project
on the to-do list.
Also, I think PTS can retrofit knob panels to the remote style boxes for
not a not-too exorbitant price.
--Mike
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Michael Strain strain@mango.uoregon.edu
Institute of Molecular Biology desk/voice-mail: 541-346-4605
& Department of Chemistry FAX: 541-346-5891
University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403
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