Lead
Some time ago, I disassembled a functional signal generator, I started using this thing when I was a sophomore, and I have been using it for several years now, of course, I use something else, the signal generator I didn't make myself, it was recommended to me by my school teacher, and then I have been using it for the past two years.
Signal generators are often used in the field of communication, but it does not mean that only in the field of communication, such as this kind of field with more stringent requirements for signals, signal generators are often used by electronic engineers.
When I bought the signal generator, it cost me two or three thousand dollars.
This time, I saw a colleague bring a signal generator, I was very curious, I wanted to take it apart to see what was inside, and everyone on earth knows that the signal generator is either an XJB PCB board or an XJB big CPU, and a watchdog is also a common thing.
After reading it, I really asked my colleague what this thing is for, what is this signal generator for, and then my colleague said, I don't know, and asked his husband to take it apart and take a look.
The shape design of the signal generator.
Exterior design.
This signal generator is a bit like the equipment in our school laboratory, and it's not like, first of all, this form factor looks like a unit, and then it is placed on the table, it is not particularly large, it is kind of a small device.
I think this shape is more decent, not very ostentatious, and not the kind of very miniature model.
So this can be put on the table, or carried on the back to other places, but the appearance of the signal generator has some things displayed on the display screen, this LED screen is in addition to the screen, there are many other things, it looks like a board is soldered on the motherboard.
I know a lot about the content on this board, but I still don't know what this signal generator is used for.
This board shows the frequency of two signals, and then there is a button underneath, but this button looks quite strange, the logo of this button is off, but what comes out is a small button.
Above the button is a logo.
I hadn't seen this sign before, so I asked my colleague what it was for, and my colleague said he didn't know either, so I asked her husband.
Later, my colleague's husband said that this is the button of the generator, and the sign is a switch of the circuit.
It's the first time we've met.,I don't know if this design is still on some old equipment.,The current equipment is gone.,Probably because I think it's unprofessional.,Who's still uses a switch on things.,I haven't seen it yet.。
But I don't think it's too professional, after all, people are crackling, very conspicuous, so you can quickly see that this button is a power supply.
Whether it's on or off.
After talking about these, let's get to the point, let's first take a look at what the internal structure of this signal generator is, what kind of switch it is, and what it is.
Let's take a look.
Open the shell of the signal generator, the interface of the shell is two large plugs, which looks a bit like an audio interface, but it is not, which is the reason why the signal generator I talked about above makes people feel unprofessional at first glance in terms of appearance.
Because the plug on the outside is the size of a standard audio plug, but this jack is not an audio socket, so at first glance this signal generator is a class of electrical appliances, so it feels unprofessional.
But the type of interface in this socket is not like its appearance, it is three sockets of one color.
But inside the interface is connected.
The next thing is that I open this signal generator and see its structure, but when I open this signal generator, I see that the inside of the signal generator is a little complicated, and there are many power supplies of different voltages in this signal generator, which are mainly composed of four large transformers.
One end of these four transformers is connected to the power input, and the other end is connected to the motherboard, I think this design is better, because in theory, if you want the power supply to be more stable, the closer you must be to the input voltage, because it is close to the input energy, the power supply will have a relatively large trend when input, and the closer to the transmission voltage, the easier the problem will be dissipated, so we send the voltage of the input port to the nearest place from the voltage, and it will be possible to solve the problem with a greater probability, as far as the power supply is concerned, Its voltage is basically AC power, and our electronic devices are basically DC power, so the power supply must convert AC power into DC power, which is the rectifier filter circuit of the power supply.
Okay, the other end of these four transformers is connected to the motherboard, it looks like I can understand people who are not studying engineering, then there is a problem with this design, that is, the number of potentiometers on the motherboard, you may be surprised to see that you are like me, there are so many potentiometers on the motherboard, in fact, these potentiometers are mainly used to adjust the parameters of various circuits on the motherboard, and the knob type of these potentiometers makes people feel very old.
Nowadays, almost all potentiometers are screwed with screwdrivers, the reason is that the current work efficiency is much faster than the knob, and you can hold other things in your hand when you tighten the screw, and you can't hold other things in your hand when you twist the knob, and the efficiency is naturally much slower.
This not only affects production efficiency, but may also affect product quality.
Motherboard design.
Open the motherboard, we can see that there are a lot of logic chips and other electronic components on the motherboard, it looks like basically some older components, you really don't think this is a 2020 product, but will think this is a 90s product, but I believe this product is still new.
Look at the above electronic components are some of the older components, I have seen these components since I was in school, and when I see these components, I feel that the teacher is generally not very good at talking about these components, mainly talking about our common components, capacitors, resistors, transistors, relatively new and FET, as well as various chips, etc., like this I have seen, but most of the time I will not use it, that is, when I usually use electronic components, I almost do not use these components.
Most of the time we use more capacitors and resistors and the like, mainly there are many types of components, but the types of components we use are minimal, which is why I have never used these components, although there are not many of these components, but this signal generator has hundreds of these components, hundreds of components one by one soldering, many solder joints still need ACS to dry.
Although they are welded one by one, but this is a waste of time and manpower and material resources, assuming that they can make a solder joint, one by one, it is said that their products are very shoddy, in this way, there will inevitably be many product problems, so that the gains outweigh the losses.
There's another thing on this signal generator, which is a lot of relays.
There are a lot of resistors and capacitors on these relays, and these resistors and capacitors are used as delay components, but the space of these relays is really very small, too small, and then when the potential is adjusted inside, the hand can not hold it, and the arrangement of the relay is very dense, there are a lot of wires in it, so there will be a lot of wires together when adjusting, which will lead to a short circuit of the line, so be very careful when adjusting, and there will be a big problem if you are not careful.
PCB design.
Let's take a look at the LED light above, the LED light on it looks very beautiful when it is bright.
The one below is red.
The top is green, and it is yellow when it comes together, but people who are familiar with electronic components may see that there are a lot of LED lights on it, but the LED lights on it can be a lot of LED lights that we see now, mainly because there are a lot of power consumption, a bit like the appearance of a baked cake, but there are several pins on the LED lights, which have a lot of functions, a pin is to control the LED lights to turn on and off, which can be understood as a positive power supply, a pin is grounded, and a pin is energized, Such an LED light can display the numbers.
This kind of LED light is very expensive, but why is there so many signal generators in this machine, but if you look at it separately, none of the LED lights on it are like ah, but if you look at the picture again, there are almost no two identical LED lights, and there is also the problem of color, one has several pins, but the function of each pin is the same.
The reason for this is that the LED light on this signal generator consumes too much power, so it is specially designed for better display.
epilogue
The lamp power consumption on this signal generator is better matched, the effect is better, and the process is more complex on the motherboard, and it occupies a large space.
But this is more stable, so you don't have to worry about it.
In fact, there are still many differences in this kind of electronic components, good integration can greatly improve efficiency, and bad ones will make the efficiency lower, which is why this signal generator is thicker, but there are many components on it.
Therefore, if you want to make a board as small as possible, you must try to use integrated components.