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Project Notes

#403 GY560 Frequency Counter

Checking out the GY560 Frequency Counter.

Build

Notes

The GY560 Frequency Counter is an incredibly cheap but pretty effective bit of test gear, most useful for detecting radio frequency emissions with a measure of frequency and signal strength.

I think I first saw this in one of dazaro3’s videos like How to build a 2 transistor FM transmitter:

clip

Specifications

  • Frequency step : 200K (digital radio signal), 1K, 100Hz.
  • Testing distance : UHF : 8m, VHF : 5m.
  • Testing range : 50 MHz ~ 2.4 GHz
  • Antenna : pulling out antenna
  • Battery : 9V 6F22
  • Auto power off time : 1 mins. (except for the digital signal gear)
  • Operation : the only one button with all functions

Operation

The only one button with all functions.

  • Power on: short press
  • Power on and set step: hold button down on power on, will cycle through 1kHz, 200kHz, 100Hz. Release button on desired step.
    • This mode will be remembered after restart.
    • 200kHz mode recommended for digital radio
    • 1kHz mode recommended for faster testing
    • 100Hz mode recommended for accurate testing
  • Hold: short press while on with hold/release display
  • Power Down: long press

Internals

Quick peek inside. Not much to it - just a microcontroller with input signal and display. Although the chip is unmarked, I wouldn’t mind betting that’s just a PIC.

GY560_internals

Credits and References

About LEAP#403 RadioToolsTest Equipment

This page is a web-friendly rendering of my project notes shared in the LEAP GitHub repository.

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About LEAP

LEAP is my personal collection of electronics projects - usually involving an Arduino or other microprocessor in one way or another. Some are full-blown projects, while many are trivial breadboard experiments, intended to learn and explore something interesting.

Projects are often inspired by things found wild on the net, or ideas from the many great electronics podcasts and YouTube channels. Feel free to borrow liberally, and if you spot any issues do let me know or send a pull-request.

NOTE: For a while I included various scale modelling projects here too, but I've now split them off into a new repository: check out LittleModelArt if you are looking for these projects.

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