Tom Anderson, the Gold Ear Sympathetic

September 8, 2021 Hosted by Parker Dillmann, Stephen Kraig

Tom Anderson joins Parker and Stephen to discuss metrology and how taking measurements relate to electrical engineering and product design.

Tom Anderson

  • An old-timer engineer working from HP/Agilent/Keysight
  • Currently still employed at Keysight
  • Volunteering at Alembic, where he designs electronics for bass guitars
  • Career includes:
    • Design of firmware
    • Digital
    • Analog
    • Microwave
    • Optical
    • Power supplies
    • Software
    • Information systems

Metrology and You

  • Do I need to worry about all of this? (as a hobbyist, is accuracy important?)-
  • Measure with micrometer…
  • Taking Measurements
    • voltage, current, resistance, inductance, capacitance, Q, frequency, time, noise, RF/microwave
    • Measurement Uncertainty
      • +/- 0.1dB specification – what can go wrong?
  • How do you make things more accurate?
    • System engineering – when the boards are put together, does the system work?
    • Testing the idea that multiple resistors are tighter tolerance than single
      • Are the values random?
    • Sources of errors – narrow things down to the path between a sensor and an ADC
      • Temperature
      • Noise, thermal
      • Noise, switching power supply, rectifier diodes
      • Noise, clock, data, address
      • DC shift – where does the ground current flow? Screws, contact resistance, and X-Acto blades.
    • Offset voltage and current
  • Connector Repeatability
  • Temperature 
    • Repeatability/Skid
    • Controlling temperature (room air, coffee cup, fingers, oven proportional control)

Hosts: Parker Dillmann, Stephen Kraig

Special thanks to whixr over at Tymkrs for the intro and outro!