dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaThe Study of Complex Mechanical Oscillators using an Inexpensive Computer Acquisition and Processing System
| Authors | Randall D. Peters |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0202023 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0202023 |
Abstract
An inexpensive analog-to-digital converter has been built around the game port of the IBM personal computer. Using a single field effect transistor (FET) and three carbon resistors, it allows the game card to measure voltage, instead of its usual measurement of resistance. Since power for the FET is drawn from the game port, the total cost of components, external to the computer, is very low at about one U.S. dollar. The converter is linear enough for many applications, and is presently used to study the complex free decay of a long period physical pendulum. Software support is via QuickBasic, and the hardware/software package design was influenced by a consideration of amateur seismology needs.
{
"annotation_id": "83469883-fb0b-4be2-8dbd-c1ea126521e2",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:00:39.380000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:00:39.380000Z",
"file_hash": "40defec107c77d46224a75c716419fa0d36da437c56060f5ba0b36f0043f1c52",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "An inexpensive analog-to-digital converter has been built around the game\nport of the IBM personal computer. Using a single field effect transistor (FET)\nand three carbon resistors, it allows the game card to measure voltage, instead\nof its usual measurement of resistance. Since power for the FET is drawn from\nthe game port, the total cost of components, external to the computer, is very\nlow at about one U.S. dollar. The converter is linear enough for many\napplications, and is presently used to study the complex free decay of a long\nperiod physical pendulum. Software support is via QuickBasic, and the\nhardware/software package design was influenced by a consideration of amateur\nseismology needs.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0202023",
"authors": [
"Randall D. Peters"
],
"categories": [
"physics.class-ph",
"physics.geo-ph"
],
"title": "The Study of Complex Mechanical Oscillators using an Inexpensive Computer Acquisition and Processing System",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0202023"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "2e9aa1d5-74f6-475e-be14-4d5759962792",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}