Welcome to the TestGear projects. --------------------------------- If you are an amateur electronics enthusiast you will find that you require test equipment to set up and calibrate your construction projects. This equipment can be expensive and may even be difficult to operate. What I have done is to set out a series of construction projects where a previous project may be used to calibrate the next project, each project getting progressively more difficult. All the projects will be some form of test equipment used in the electronics industry. Every project will be designed, built, tested and used by myself to prove that it works and cells or batteries will be used for calibration, so make sure that you have at least a 1.5 Volt cell available for test purposes. I used ~EVEREADY~ ULTRA PLUS RED Body types for the calibration. Type ~R6~ for the 1.5 Volts nominal and type ~6F22~ for the 9 Volts nominal, although any ZINC/CHLORIDE cells or batteries should be alright. They were all NEW as this gives a definitive starting point to work from. The only assumptions (one must NEVER make assumptions) that I am going to make are that YOU have a MultiMeter (MultiTester) and a little knowledge of electronics, the ability to solder, and the ability to build projects. Age is unimportant so long as you are competent. I may design a MultiMeter but as these are extremely cheap it would be better to purchase one. If you have limited knowledge on project construction, soldering, testing etc.. then go to your local library for books on the subjects. These projects will be based around a Standard AMIGA A500 (unless stated otherwise) or better, using WorkBench 1.3x or better. Some projects may require WorkBench 2.0x or better. The projects are all in numbered directories. The only one that you can ignore if you require is ~Project1~ but ONLY if you have already downloded it as TestCard.lha and TestCard.readme from Aminet. If you have not got this project then start your building from here. The hardware for the first few projects is very simple indeed. The way to gain experience is to build your own equipment. This gives you a firm basis to start a career on, if electronics is what you want to do. Have some enjoyment and start building.... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Important:- ----------- Because of the way the AMIGA is made you MUST fit a blank RCA/PHONO plug into any UNUSED Audio Ouput Socket to obtain the calibrated results of the software in use. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A few DO's and DO NOTs:- ------------------------ 1) Do NOT plug any equipment into the Amiga's socket(s) without turning off the Amiga first. 2) Do NOT leave the soldering iron ON when it is not in use. 3) Be careful when using any etching fluids. 4) If an external supply is required then do NOT reverse polarity the connections. 5) DO, thoroughly check all of your work before powering the project up. 6) DO take great care when using glues and solvents. 7) Read the ~Warning~ document. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note:- ------ If you are using a standard AMIGA A500 with 512KB of memory only then the programs may run slowly. This is the trade off for making these programs work with most of the WorkBench versions available. Also each set of projects should fit onto a standard size AMIGA floppy disk, so you should be able to download from AMINET and unarchive to ~DF0:~ without placing them onto your hard disk drive. Lastly the projects do NOT require any special ASSIGNMENTS and will run straight from their own directories. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a list of future projects:- ----------------------------------- On Disk2:- ---------- 1) Stereo LF Audio Function Generator. 2) Analogue to Digital converter (required from now on) to run with most of the projects to come. 3) Audio Power Meter, (1 to 100 Watts into 8 Ohms). 4) Simple RF Probe. Each will get progressively longer to develope but I will get there in the end. An Oscilloscope is on the way. You will notice that the projects are not pretty to look at but they are highly functional. That is, they do what they are supposed to do without any unwanted whistles and bells. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Acknowledgements:- ------------------ First of all many thanks to my wife Tricia who allows me to spend many hours on my computers. Also to David Benn and Herbert Breuer for the ACE/AIDE combination supplied on an AMIGA FORMAT floppy disk which made it easy to compile this program. Also to Laurence J Greatorex for giving these a shakedown on his A1200 with a Turbo LC '030 accelerator board and 32MB of fast ram. To all the other people that have given any of these projects a rigorous testing. And finally to anyone else who I may have neglected or forgotten. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Barry Walker. 70 King George Road, Loughborough, Leics, LE11 2PA. Email 106161.3245@compuserve.com 13-12-1999. This is EmailWare. ------------------ If you have downloaded this software and like it, Email me on:- 106161.3245@compuserve.com This will give me the incentive to carry on with more projects. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------