I built a second crystal tester today. This time I used 470pF capacitors for the Colpitts oscillator "resonating capacitance", and a larger transfer capacitor.
As expected, this worked nicely with ceramic resonators (but not 3-pin filters) down to the lowest available, 400kHz, and up to about 2MHz (crystals). One 1843kHz crystal did not work, but a 1963kHz crystal did. Maybe the 1843 crystal was poor quality.
I expect that I should build the third one of of the crystal testers, this time with 100pF "resonating capacitance". This **should** provide tests the intermediate frequency range of 1.8 - 8MHz, at least for crystals and ceramic resonators.
All in all I am happy with the results, I was warned that the crystal tester kit, advertised as 1 - 50MHz crystal tester, was not working in the full range, so I had a few kits taken home.
I could see that one of the ceramic resonators (marked 480kHz) oscillated on 476kHz, i.e. inside the 630m band. I suspect that I can build a VXO with one of those resonators, covering the full 472 - 479kHz band. Oops ! Yet another possible project to try out. Maybe a modified Pixie kit can be brought to work on 472kHz - I would not be surprised.
Update:
A third version with 2x 100pF in the Colpitts oscillator was built. This appears to work nicely from 2 - 16MHz with crystals.
Ceramic resonators:
- The 3.5 - 4MHz range works well with some resonators, no filters.
- The 7.16MHz (3-pin) oscillates nicely just under 7MHz with the capacitors in the oscillator.
- 12MHz resonators oscillate fine.
- 5.5MHz filters do not oscillate at all.
My conclusion is that the three testers combined will provide some crystal and ceramic resonator/filter tests, but a dedicated (set of) oscillator(s) and a dedicated frequency counter with high impedance/low capacitance input is most likely necessary for a better test system.
2020-02-24
Test Equipment: Crystal Tester Kit.
I just assembled a low cost Chinese kit claiming to test crystals from 1 - 50MHz, with a counter w/5-digit display). Assembly time, taking things easy, was about 1 hour.
I already suspected that the kit would not work down to 1MHz, for this reason: The crystal oscillator is a Colpitts oscillator with the capacitances across the crystal (B-E and E-GND) being only 22pF each. The capacitances in the Pixie kit's oscillators is much higher, and that was designed for 7MHz.
This was confirmed when testing crystals. Below 5MHz hardly any crystals would generate a countable signal. However, crystals up to 28MHz would generate countable signals.
I suspect that a different tester with, say 100pF capacitors would likely work down to about 2MHz, and 470pF capacitors down to about 400kHz.
I do have another kit or two, so I will probably build those with the above mentioned modifications.
One more test was done: Trying out ceramic resonators. Resonators (2-pin) or filters (3-pin) were tested. None worked on less than 10MHz in this circuit, but did work up to 20MHz, with rather consistent results for the resonators (2-pin), and inconsistently with some of the filters (3-pin). I suspect the low capacitance values are the reason for this.
Also, a more suitable oscillator type for the filters should be tested.
I may end up with a counter with an 8-digit display and some dedicated oscillators as my crystal tester. This could be interesting for testing frequencies for crystals to be used in crystal filters. It is likely that a set of modified Pixie oscillators would do the job.
Finishing one project creating more possible projects. Why am I not surprised.
I do have a few Pixie kits lying around, so maybe the next project should be an unmodified Pixie transceiver, with the exception of using an external crystal or ceramic resonator for the oscillator.
I already suspected that the kit would not work down to 1MHz, for this reason: The crystal oscillator is a Colpitts oscillator with the capacitances across the crystal (B-E and E-GND) being only 22pF each. The capacitances in the Pixie kit's oscillators is much higher, and that was designed for 7MHz.
This was confirmed when testing crystals. Below 5MHz hardly any crystals would generate a countable signal. However, crystals up to 28MHz would generate countable signals.
I suspect that a different tester with, say 100pF capacitors would likely work down to about 2MHz, and 470pF capacitors down to about 400kHz.
I do have another kit or two, so I will probably build those with the above mentioned modifications.
One more test was done: Trying out ceramic resonators. Resonators (2-pin) or filters (3-pin) were tested. None worked on less than 10MHz in this circuit, but did work up to 20MHz, with rather consistent results for the resonators (2-pin), and inconsistently with some of the filters (3-pin). I suspect the low capacitance values are the reason for this.
Also, a more suitable oscillator type for the filters should be tested.
I may end up with a counter with an 8-digit display and some dedicated oscillators as my crystal tester. This could be interesting for testing frequencies for crystals to be used in crystal filters. It is likely that a set of modified Pixie oscillators would do the job.
Finishing one project creating more possible projects. Why am I not surprised.
I do have a few Pixie kits lying around, so maybe the next project should be an unmodified Pixie transceiver, with the exception of using an external crystal or ceramic resonator for the oscillator.
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