We’ve read a lot about oscillators, but crystal oscillators seem to be a bit of a mystery. Hobby-level books tend to say, build a circuit like this and then mess with it until it oscillates.

With no external components, a 555 can be turned into an oscillator that runs typically in the range of 1 to 2.5mHZ –or who needs a timing capacitor? It is essentially a stripped down version of the ...

Any PN junction diode can be used as a variable capacitor in reverse biased mode, as well as in the forward biased mode before the knee voltage. The capacitance is usually very small as the junction ...

Broadcast engineer Scott Todd recently found that a 40-year-old Broadcast Electronics FX-30 FM exciter needed recapping badly. Replacing all the dried-out electrolytic capacitors can be daunting.

This Idea for Design shows how proper component selection can help reduce startup time for gated oscillators. 3. The scope image shows the CMOS gated oscillator with no startup delay. The yellow line ...

In Part 1, the basics of the P2 were discussed through easy straightforward simulations in LTSPice. In this article, we delve further into the P2’s design. It hasn’t been easy investigating the nature ...