SONATA is a project of a modern vacuum tube analyzer/meter. This analyzer is something more than a typical tester; besides conductance measurement in one operating point, it can create characteristics in many different points. The idea was to create a device that, instead of using an expensive LCD, sends data to a PC over USB, and then the PC app creates a plot on the computer screen.
In comparison to other meters, this one uses the STM32 microcontroller, which is a more modern 32-bit architecture with a 12-bit ADC offering more computational power and better resolution. All the implemented power supplies rely on switching topologies to improve efficiency and eliminate the necessity for a high-voltage transformer.
This project is still in development; I am currently designing the second revision of the PCB. The first PCB did work, and I was able to plot some data on the PC. The computer part was implemented in Python, using the Pyserial library to receive the data. The number of points, minimal voltage, maximal voltage, and other parameters of the analyzer allow various tubes to be tested. Because the database and tube parameters are kept on the computer, the user does not need to flash the analyzer if some obscure tube needs to be tested.
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