Analog Discovery 2 Calibration Frequency

[m@tt]

Does Digilent have a recommended frequency that one should calibrate the Analog Discovery 2? I've followed the calibration procedure (https://reference.digilentinc.com/learn/instrumentation/tutorials/ad2-calibration/start) and I would like to know when I should re-calibrate the unit. Should I perform it annually? Every 2 years? 

 

Much appreciated!

Matt

[JColvin]

Hi @m@tt,

I don't believe there is any formally recommended (re)calibration schedule for the Analog Discovery 2; the easy answer is that you can re-calibrate it whenever you feel the need to do so. In truth, the calibration schedule will be dependent on both the individual components personal integrity as well as the number of hours that each component was used. So every year would not be a bad start.

@attila do you have a recommendation on this?

Thanks,
JColvin

[attila]

Hi @m@tt

The calibration frequency depends on your requirements.
You can do it monthly, yearly, biannually or never, or before any critical project...
For school or hobby use where high accuracy is not important, you can leave with the factory calibration.

A important source of error is the temperature drift, which causes mostly offset error, of about 40ppm/*C.
To prevent/minimize such, leave the device for 10-30 minutes to heat up before starting the measurements.
This is also important before calibration. During the factory calibration the boards are at about 40-45*C

You can also use the "Zero offset" before each Scope measurement.
This will do a quick calibration based on acquisition, canceling the offset error of the device, cabling or measured circuit.