Superpositioned: Sound cards as Signal Generators

Sound cards as Signal Generators

Matthew — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 06:16:00 -0800

Function generators are a huge investment. Even the simplest ones start out at about $30-$40. The folks at E-DSP were short on loose change so they did a little research and programmed a simple sound card signal generator.

Unfortunately, their software signal generator can only generate two functions, a sine wave or a square wave. Don’t forget your sound card is limited to 16 bits and 24khz. Therefore its reproduction of sine waves is not exactly perfect. Square waves should be reproduced near perfectly, though.

Also note that most PCI based sound cards have a limit of 2V, but you can always amplify this signal.

This has really sparked my interest so you can expect a Linux software signal generator later today!

"Sound cards as Signal Generators" by Greg Lipscomb

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 09:34:11 -0800

Hey man, I like your site. This is a cool project

"Sound cards as Signal Generators" by John

Sun, 22 Jan 2006 13:14:51 -0800

Thx for the link! I tried it and it is a pretty neat and useful application :)

btw. keep up the good work on the site

"Sound cards as Signal Generators" by Matthew

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 07:01:03 -0800

For the record, siggen is a signal generator for Linux. I still plan on creating a more detailed article in the future.