[time-nuts] schematics of frequency counter

Charles Steinmetz csteinmetz at yandex.com
Tue Jan 6 13:23:02 EST 2015


>Actually, I dont want to ask my colledge for help. Everytime ,for each
>guy I ask for help, I need expain the entire system and principle of a
>frequency counter to him. They just keep asking questions instead of
>  answering mine.

In defense of the hardware guys, there are a lot of questions that 
NEED to be asked (and answered) before a design that fulfills your 
requirements can even be attempted.  I don't mean to be unkind, but 
you skipped all of those questions, designed the software, and now 
you want someone to hand you a hardware design that solves the 
problems you are having.  From what I can tell, you still don't even 
have a good concept of what the hardware needs to do, much less how 
to specify these needs as coherent project requirements -- and even 
less how to actually design the circuitry you need.  Furthermore, 
when someone suggests something that might fix a glaring error in 
your design, you say you can't do that because (for example) PNP 
transistors are too expensive.

Ask any competent engineering manager and you will learn that good 
analog design engineers are the rarest and hardest to find 
development team members, and that getting the hardware right is very 
often the hardest part of any design (note that I did not say, "most 
time-consuming" -- rather, "hardest").

So, now you need the analog hardware for your counter, and you have 
the mistaken impression that it shouldn't be any effort at 
all.  Hopefully, you are now beginning to understand that at least as 
much good thinking needs to go into the hardware as into the 
software.  And hopefully, you have reviewed the analog circuitry of 
some good commercial designs to see what sorts of things good analog 
designers have done in the past to solve the same problems you are facing.

You said yourself that you don't really know anything about analog 
design, and your existing circuit and your comments here on the list 
show that to be an honest and true assessment.  But you also have 
resisted advice you have gotten from experienced analog designers, 
and now you say you can't even be bothered to answer the questions of 
people who would try to help you!

At this point, I'm afraid that whatever is posted on this thread 
isn't really going to help you improve on what you have -- it is just 
so much wasted internet bandwidth.  You need to learn at least enough 
about analog design to ask and answer intelligent questions about 
your needs, and you need to be willing to consider the advice you 
receive, before any of this can help you.

Best regards,

Charles





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