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Frequency Counter

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Powzoom

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I would like to design a frequency counter for my radio experiments. Up to a 100MHz or so should be fine with 1% error. I'd rather it be simple to build and understand than incredibly accurate.

I don't really know how to go about designing one. I don't own a pic programmer so I'd like to avoid buying one. Does anyone have a block diagram or an explanation on how they work? I've seen schematics online but they're just that, schematics, with no explanation of how its working. I'd eventually like to be able to understand and design one myself.
 
A frequency counter is nothing more than a gated counter.

Set the time gate to the desired values and count while the counter chips are enabled.

Accuracy depends on the accurate gating of the counter.

E.g. gate time must be precisely 1 second to count frequency and display directly.

The design of such a frequency counter is pretty simple. Be aware of the fact that inaccuracy increases with decreasing frequency because the counter will count pulse edges.

To count mains frequency the result will be one count too much because of a not terminated clock cycle.

Boncuk
 
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