Monday, July 27, 2009

Sucess is Bittersweet

Last night after ordering the Omega amplifier, I went to go put away all my electronics gear. Just for kicks, I thought I'd try to get the LM339 based circuit to work one more time. An Eddisonian inspiration led me to try grounding one of the magnetic pickup lines at the amplifier, and wouldn't you know it, the noise problems went away.

So, the circuit below seems to work perfectly in my application. To recap, I have the following

- A Cox AN8-4 turbine flow meter
- A magnetic pickup which outputs a 10 mV minimum peak to peak signal
- A Measurement Computing 1208FS



I'm sure that it never would have worked had I not bought the Omega unit.

1 comment:

jacob.chancery said...

Congrats on fixing it! You could always return the Omega unit. That might be an effective troubleshooting strategy, "You better work right, or so help me I'll replace you with a store bought!".

I've been thinking recently its always better to make than buy, regardless of cost or time, when it's a hobby. It would be different if you were getting paid by the hour for this work. But every $ you spend on your hobby is another minute you have to spend at your day job. I'd rather spend 4 hours tinkering in my garage than another hour at the office working to pay for hobby supplies.