Hardware Information

What Is A Crystal? And How To Test It


Crystal are use to keep the frequency of the clock from drifting. If the signal from this clock stops, or is weak, or the pulses begin to vary, the electronic equipments might show intermittent faults or might stop altogether. The microprocessor pins that hold the crystal are usually called OSC IN and OSC OUT as shown in Figure 1 and the frequency is marked on the crystal. Typical examples of crystal oscillator frequency are 3.58MHZ, 4MHZ, 8MHZ, 24MHZ etc.

Testing Crystal
Crystals are quite fragile components because of their construction. Unlike a resistor or capacitor, if you drop one on the ground from a decent height, its 50-50 bet whether it will work again. Testing the crystal is not a breeze either. You cannot just take out your trusty multimeter and plug the crystal in it. In fact, there are three right ways to test a crystal: -

(a) Using Oscilloscope
A crystal produces a sine wave when excited. It is appropriate then, to see a waveform representative of a sine wave on the clock pins. If the clock is not functioning properly, replace the crystal. In most cases this should solve the problem since microprocessors are usually very reliable. Check the crystal with power on.

(b) Frequency Counter
Frequency Counter can be use to check the frequency of the crystal. The reading must be taken when the equipment power is switch "on". Place the probe of frequency counter to the crystal pin and read the measurement. Be sure that your frequency counter meter has the range that is higher than the crystal frequency you are measuring.

(c) Crystal Checker
With this method, usually the crystal is placed in the feedback network of a transistor oscillator. If it oscillates and the LED is lighten up, this mean that the crystal is working. If the crystal doesn't work, the LED stays off. Instead of using LED, some other crystal checker uses a panel meter to indicate if the crystal is working or not.

Jestine Yong is a electronic repairer and writer. For more information about electronic repair please visit his website at http://www.noahtec.com

  


MORE RESOURCES:

Teradata Offers Hardware/Software Packages For Data Warehousing
Intelligent Enterprise, CA - 17 hours ago
By Antone Gonsalves Teradata is offering a customized package of hardware, software and services for building a data warehouse in four months or less, ...
Teradata Introduces Teradata Accelerate B-EYE-Network
all 5 news articles


CNET News

Nintendo Developing Wii Community Features, Updates Holiday ...
Shacknews - Nov 18, 2008
by Blake Ellison Nov 18, 2008 4:29pm CST tags: Nintendo, Hardware Sales Nintendo, whose online presence is subdued compared to those of rivals Sony and ...
Nintendo: Wii Price Cut is Coming...Someday Escapist Magazine
Difficult to get Fit for holiday Fudzilla
2008 Wii holiday guide part 1 Examiner.com
CNET News - eFluxMedia
all 43 news articles


US makes big counterfeit hardware bust
VNUNet.com, UK - 9 hours ago
"Like other counterfeit products, counterfeit network hardware and ICs are not built up to the standards of genuine equipment,” said Daniel Baldwin, ...


A daily dose of postings from The Chronicle's technology blog ...
San Francisco Chronicle,  USA - 5 hours ago
Taken together, the hardware is helping build Meraki's case for simpler, lower-cost wireless networks that don't break the bank, like the proposed citywide ...


How Apple gained the upper hand on Microsoft
ZDNet - 18 hours ago
Now, I’m not going to argue that on many levels, different hardware will give you a different experience. For example, a better GPU will give you a better ...


Storage Hardware Wireless Network Deployment Saves College $200000
Top Tech News, CA - 3 hours ago
The wireless network deployment took approximately 60 days to complete. The university saved more than $200000 in costs that would have been required to ...


Start-up offers rootkit protection, partitions virtual machines
NetworkWorld.com, MA - 18 hours ago
Called Integrity, the software runs on PC and server hardware, and creates secure partitions in which conventional operating systems can run. ...


Harmony-Central.com

GotchaNoddin.com Presents Opera Vocal Samples Vol. 3 For Software ...
Harmony-Central.com - 14 hours ago
Opera Vocals Vol.3 features rich, smooth, full opera vocal melodies and riffs. These soothing female vocals can be used for Hip Hop, Dance, Electronic or ...


Manage Space and Maximize Your Hardware Resources with Capacity ...
SSWUG.org, AZ - Nov 19, 2008
Attend this webcast to explore how to do exactly that, so you can maximize investments in hardware resources as well as ensure the success of consolidation ...


Project Hyperion: A super testbed for HPC apps and hardware
Register, UK - 18 hours ago
"Hyperion is basically an attempt to provide a testbed for scaling applications on a cluster and for new hardware as it becomes available," explains David ...

hardware - Google News

Article List | Index | Site Map
All logos, trademarks and articles on this site are property and copyright of their respective owner(s).
The comments are property of their posters, all the rest is Copyright © 2006 CanadaSEEK.com - All Rights Reserved.