Contents
How do you test the frequency of a crystal oscillator?
Bring the measurement probes of the multimeter into contact with the metallic legs of the crystal oscillator. One probe should touch each leg. The multimeter should now read a frequency that corresponds to the one written on the crystal oscillator casing.
How do you increase crystal frequency?
Adding capacitance across a crystal causes the (parallel) resonant frequency to decrease. Adding inductance across a crystal causes the (parallel) resonant frequency to increase. These effects can be used to adjust the frequency at which a crystal oscillates.
What can cause a crystal oscillator to fail?
Piezo materials will loose their property when heated beyond the Curie temperature of the material, so overheating is one form to make crystals fail. Piezo materials usually also are brittle so they are susceptible to mechanical shocks which can break them.
Which is the best frequency for an oscillator?
Crystals are best between about 4MHz and 20MHz, higher or lower and there are drawbacks. If you really insist on 48MHz for some reason, maybe you should actually buy an oscillator which will have the required crystal, tuned circuit, and amplifier circuitry inside one package, guaranteed to work.
Can a crystal oscillator break under thermal stress?
Yes. A crystal oscillator contains a crystal and the circuits necessary to generate a buffered output. The crystal is comparatively fragile, and can break from physical impact and thermal stress. The oscillator circuit and buffer can break from the usual things: over-voltage conditions etc.
Can a crystal oscillator break in a PCB?
The crystal is comparatively fragile, and can break from physical impact and thermal stress. The oscillator circuit and buffer can break from the usual things: over-voltage conditions etc. All of the above has happened to me personally, so they could very well have happened to your device.