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Topic starter
2026-03-27 11:29 am
Hi everyone. At fabzone we have mostly loaned and donated electronic test equipment. To make a very long story short I want to check out the calibration of these near-antiques but have a very low budget. In the interest of hacking on a shoestring I have made an order for a low cost precision frequency reference. From Aliexpress .
Description:
OCXO 10MHz Frequency Standard Reference Module Crystal Oscillator Constant Temperature Board OCXO Frequency Module
URL if anyone is interested:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009042002973.html
I would not expect any serious electronics lab to depend on a $15 gadget to calibrate everything.
But for makerspace use this might be an extremely cost effective item to check my Tektronix, HP, and Kikusui instruments.
Fingers crossed that I will get to 10.000000000 on my readouts. Okay maybe not that may zeros.
I will report back later once this gizmo arrives.
2026-04-01 6:07 pm
Hello Westislander. I have used similar items before for calibration and synchronizing multiple single channel waveform generators. They can be hit or miss on the quality. If you possibly have access to a quality scope or frequency counter just to verify their specs is a big help. One other suggestion leave it plugged in and on, that usually the recommendations for standards.
Hope things work out.
JoeD
Topic starter
2026-04-21 2:12 am
Hi JoeDiz.
Thanks for your advice. I downloaded a 3d case for it, which fit after I snapped off the two pre-scored bits on each side of the PCB. My ancient frequency counter shows 10.00003 (sometimes 2) which doesn't mean the oscillator is off. I did discover loading the oscillator output a bit messed up the nice signal on my scope, bit that's completely understandable since its not a general usage test instrument. I'm going to put some dividers on the output and see how close the labs old analog Tektronix and HP signal generators are,