[time-nuts] Using cheap sound cards for measurements

Christian Vogel vogelchr at vogel.cx
Fri Aug 21 20:51:40 UTC 2009


Hi Lux,
> Syncing inexpensive cards is a real chore (and the only reason to be 
> thinking about using this in the first place is to keep the cost to a 
> minimum, otherwise, you might as well build a special purpose little 
> box with counters & A/Ds, and an interface)
I've had too many problems with cheap (onboard) soundcards in the past, 
even when using them for their intended purpose, so I would not advice 
to use them for anything quantitative.

But if you *really* want to syncronize inexpensive soundcards, it's 
rather trivial, see for example
   http://quicktoots.linuxaudio.org/toots/el-cheapo/ .

Just buy a few dozens for a EUR/$ each and hunt down the ones with 
identical oscillator frequencies ;-). But don't expect miracles, you end 
up with a few synchronized cards that only happen to not skip samples 
with respect to each other. Compared to decent signal input they are 
still cheap cards, and hog the CPU for their individual servicing.

    Chris




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