Use counter or scope card for frequency measurement ?

[Brzhou]

Hi Sir, 

I have a question, my understanding is that, we can use counter for frequency measurement.

But for what kind of situation, we use counter, and what kind of situation we use scope ?

Digital signal, we use counter, analog signal, we use scope ?

Thanks.

[santo_13]

You use a scope if you are interested in understanding the characteristics of the signal, like shape, rise time, fall time, voltage level, etc.,

If you're interested in only the frequency/time period, and fairly confident of the characteristics of the signal, you would go for a counter.

[Brzhou]

Hi Sir, 

I see.

But usually the counter card of NI itself is expensive.

For cheaper solution, we can use stm32, right ?

Thanks.

[santo_13]

You get what you pay for, you can't expect a accurate measurement from STM32 and you need to spend additional time in writing LabVIEW APIs to communicate with your STM32.

[Brzhou]

Yes, understand.

There are samples for APIs off-the-shelf, and for the system no need so accurate measurement, it is fine.

Thanks.