Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in Signal Generators
Here are some things that I learned during this process of building the Kit. * This kit can output a sine wave over 1 MHz. Nice! * The supplied XR2206 chip is NOT an original chip but it is a "knock-off". It works pretty well, but you should probably use a 9VDC supply to power the kit. If you use a 12VDC supply, the output may be jittery. * The supplied Fine Frequency Adjustment Pot (R7) is a 50k Ohm. It DOES NOT provide "Fine" tuning. So, I installed a small 12,000 Ohm Resistor in Parallel with Pot R7 and the Max resistance was around 9.5k. This gave me more precise Frequency Control. * The plastic case worked OK. I used the plastic Top and Bottom pieces, but I only used one of the Vertical plastic sides. I did not realize that the small 1/4" screws and nuts were supposed to screw thru the Circuit Board ONLY. They are NOT long enough to allow the nuts to be used on the Bottom Plastic Plate. The shank of the 1/4" screws are supposed to protrude into the 4 holes in the Bottom plastic piece. They just "Float" in the holes in the Bottom Plastic Plate. The longer screws for the Top and Bottom plastic pieces hold the whole kit together. * If you want to limit the Square Wave Output to 5VDC, install a 5V Zener from the Square Wave Output terminal to Ground. If you install the 5V Zener in the wrong direction, you will only get approximately 0.5Vpp Square Wave out. * Last but not least: I had a problem with the small shorting pins. The green plastic sleeve came "OFF" the small metal shorting bar when I tried to change the Frequency Range. I was able to fix this problem by running a small "bare" copper wire thru the SIDE of the green plastic sleeve (which also went thru the top "LOOP" of the metal shorting bar). The copper wire is inserted around the middle of the green plastic sleeve and then each end of the wire is bent upward and then over the top of the green plastic sleeve. I then smoothed the wire down on the sleeve. :)Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
The 'Good' is that it works and is representative of essential wave forms. And, it's cheap. The 'Bad' is that mine came without fasteners to put it together, and a run to the hardware store for them cost almost as much as the kit itself (I was offered a small refund for the missing fasteners). There was also a crack in the faceplate. In addition, it appears from the research done by others, that this may use a counterfeit chip which under-performs in critical ways. But, this is - essentially - a teaching tool and not a critical part of anyone's electronics kit. You should note that - on my unit, at least, the sine wave is NOT an AC sine wave but DC wave with a significant DC offset. So don't plan on using it to explore AC/DC rectification. Other then that, yeah, have fun building it and playing with it, but don't expect Chinese Q/C to have caught up with this one any time soon. If what you want or need is a serious signal generator then save your $$ for that. Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
Kit went together well. Small resistors are hard to read color bands..........but that is what a Multimeter is for. My kit came without the screws to hold the case together. Also, the kit did not come with a power supply cord. PCB was a little smaller than I was expecting. It took me about a half an hour to put it together. I would recommend it for young kit builders. Just make sure you have a way to test it. I do have an oscilloscope, so problem solved. It was fun.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
The device was easy to build and worked without issue. There are issues with the potentiometers and their extremes not working properly as well as the DC offset on the signal. If you need a quick tool for function generating and can use an oscilloscope to make sure you have the correct frequency and amplitude, it works well.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
Like the other reviewer noted, the function generator's output is not perfect at higher frequencies. You have to look at it on a scope and "dial it in" to get the waveform you want. It's not like a modern function generator where you set amplitude, function type, and frequency and are pretty much guaranteed to get exactly what you asked for and don't even have to double-check it on a scope. But it's $7. It's based on a cheap monolithic IC that was designed 30 years ago or so. A good modern function generator has dozens of new and high pin count ICs. So you get what you pay for. Half of the fun is putting the project together and then having a useful tool rather than just a blinky Christmas tree or whatever.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New