[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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