Tone generator - Vpp or Vrms?

[Mirco76]

Hi,

my old analog function generator is since last weekend in the electronic heaven. I have bought a new one to calibrate my tape decks. It is a digital one and I can choose the voltage of the amplitude in Vpp, Vp and Vrms.

The service manual adresses only "Switch the function generator to 100mV". Is this Vpp or Vrms?

Thanks for your help.

Mirco

 

[rayma]

That's ambiguous, so you can't be sure. However, generally in electronics we use Vrms for AC voltages,
unless otherwise specified.

 

[Enzo]

In my view, p-p only arises when people are describing a scope trace or doing some sort of paper analysis of a waveform.

 

[Mirco76]

Thanks. I thought that it might be Vrms.

 

[tomchr]

Good question. Could be either...

Note that many function generators, including the HP33120A that I use, assume that its 50 Ω output is terminated in 50 Ω. So if I dial in 2 Vpp, I get 4 Vpp, unloaded, and 2 Vpp if I terminate the output in 50 Ω.
The termination is important if you want a clean square wave. The generator will go to 13 MHz square wave, but the edge rate is quite fast, so it has harmonic content that extends well into the VHF (if not UHF) band.

Tom

 

[diyMartin]

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH !!!!


Ok, I'll calm down
I had been wondering why my cheapo Multicomp generator was outputing exactly twice the displayed output.
But decided to live with it as the tone generator was not very expensive and otherwise did what I needed it to do.



This will be a good day - I learned something new.


Cheers Martin