Opinions about potential Crystal Oscillator book???

Hi there,

I work for a publishing company and an editor is proposing a book about
crystal oscillators.  I thought going to a user group forum would be a
good way to get feedback on market desire for such a book.

The book is organized so that it can be read cover to
cover or used as a quick reference on specific crystal oscillator
types.

If asking for this feedback is against the rules, I apologize in
advance.  I am purposely excluding the name of my publishing company to
prevent to the appearance of any spamming effort.

Any feedback you would be so generous to provide would be appreciated.
For example, would you like a book like this?  Where do you go now to
find detailed information on the topic?  What would you love to see the
book cover?

Thanks so much.

Tara

You can e-mail me directly if you wish at tara_book_publisher@yahoo.com.

>Hi there,
>
>I work for a publishing company and an editor is proposing a book about
>crystal oscillators.  I thought going to a user group forum would be a
>good way to get feedback on market desire for such a book.
>
>The book is organized so that it can be read cover to
>cover or used as a quick reference on specific crystal oscillator
>types.
>
>If asking for this feedback is against the rules, I apologize in
>advance.  I am purposely excluding the name of my publishing company to
>prevent to the appearance of any spamming effort.
>
>Any feedback you would be so generous to provide would be appreciated.
>For example, would you like a book like this?  Where do you go now to
>find detailed information on the topic?  What would you love to see the
>book cover?
>
>Thanks so much.
>
>Tara

Tara;

Nearly everyone involved with embedded design uses Crystals as the main
frequency source for their embedded processors.  Some also use external
Crystal oscillators as the frequency source.  The difference being where the
gain and feedback stage is located:  on chip or off.

There has always been a raging rwell below the surface regarding
the different quartz peizoelectric modes.  The debate  at issue parallel vs
series
resonant mode.  I have heard both sides of  argument from good sources. 
If for that reason alone, a book on the subject would be most welcome.

The trouble with books these days is finding the middle ground between the
"Dummies Guide to Quartz Oscillators" and the "IEEE Ultimate Compendium
on PeizoElectric Devices" edited by every scientist in the field.

I used to buy tons of books, but somehow the target audience for them changed.
I hope it wasn't my ability to learn.

Regards,

On 12 Dec 2004 10:07:49 -0800, "Tara" <tara_book_publisher@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>I work for a publishing company and an editor is proposing a book about
>crystal oscillators.  I thought going to a user group forum would be a
>good way to get feedback on market desire for such a book.

There is at least two separate audiences that might be interested,
users of cheap processor clock crystal oscillators with mediocre
performance and high performance low phase noise TXCO and oven
stabilised oscillators for RF applications.

Paul

"Tara" <tara_book_publisher@yahoo.com> wrote

> I work for a publishing company and an editor is proposing a book about
> crystal oscillators.  I thought going to a user group forum would be a
> good way to get feedback on market desire for such a book.

"Go not to the Elves for advice ..."
                                JRRT

I do not think you can hope to fill a book with crystal 
_oscillators_, there just isn't that much to say.  On the other 
hand, I am sure there is somewhere a 3-volume set on 
"The Migration Patterns of the Lesser Grebe".

I would think a 10 page application pamphlet from a crystal 
manufacturer would fit the bill just right.

As to the market for a book with information on designing
electronic circuits that oscillate with the aid of a crystal, 
I am afraid it would be dismal:  The real oscillator as the
circuit designers are the IC design folks and each 
semiconductor house already has an 'oscillator guy'.  You 
have a market base of maybe less than 100 engineers?

The folks who use the oscillators that are part of the above
designed ICs just hook the crystal up as it says to do in the 
spec sheet.

If a discrete oscillator is needed, well I have my 'standard designs'
sketched into the inside front cover of my ITT handbook, and I suppose
most other engineers do the same.  I have one made with transistors
and one made from a ring of gates, both designs have been proven
in many millions of products -- what more do I need?

> I work for a publishing company and an editor ...

Unless you are also an IC designer, network specialist or quartz
materials engineer I am not sure what you would have to say
on the subject.  If your role is to 'collate the knowledge', well
we have lots of books like that in the landfill already: full of
misquotes, virgin inaccuracies, and the advice of 'experts' that
aren't.  Watch out for the experts that aren't as they are the
ones with the time on their hands to collaborate with you.

Be sure to discount the advice of _all_ the "experts
that aren't": what do I know about publishing, quartz, or 
oscillators: close to zilch.

-- 
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer:  Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.
Remove spaces etc. to reply: n o lindan at net com dot com
psst.. want to buy an f-stop timer? nolindan.com/da/fstop/

On 12 Dec 2004 10:07:49 -0800, the renowned "Tara"
<tara_book_publisher@yahoo.com> wrote:

>Hi there,
>
>I work for a publishing company and an editor is proposing a book about
>crystal oscillators.  I thought going to a user group forum would be a
>good way to get feedback on market desire for such a book.
>
>The book is organized so that it can be read cover to
>cover or used as a quick reference on specific crystal oscillator
>types.
>
>If asking for this feedback is against the rules, I apologize in
>advance.  I am purposely excluding the name of my publishing company to
>prevent to the appearance of any spamming effort.
>
>Any feedback you would be so generous to provide would be appreciated.
>For example, would you like a book like this?  Where do you go now to
>find detailed information on the topic?  What would you love to see the
>book cover?
>
>Thanks so much.
>
>Tara
>
>You can e-mail me directly if you wish at tara_book_publisher@yahoo.com.

There's already a very good book on this subject, no doubt out of
print. I found it in my University library when I needed detailed info
and honest-to-goodness equations. British publisher, IIRC. The Radio
Amateur's handbook also has some info, as do more general design books
such as AofE. 

Try sci.electronics.design for more feedback- that's where the kind of
people that design oscillators tend to hang out on usenet. Few people
actually design oscillators these days (most just buy a module or try
to pick a crystal or a ceramic resonator that is compatible with an
existing (eg. Pierce) oscillator that's living in a corner of an
otherwise mostly digital chip. There is some justification for more
emphasis on drive power issues nowadays and perhaps some emphasis on
SPICE modelling, but I'm not sure there's enough material for more
than a couple of chapters with any real meat to them. Would I buy such
a book at typical technical book prices? Probably not, sorry. 


Best regards, 
Spehro Pefhany
-- 
"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

On 12 Dec, in article
     <1102874869.072107.224530@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>
     tara_book_publisher@yahoo.com "Tara" wrote:
>Hi there,
>
>I work for a publishing company and an editor is proposing a book about
>crystal oscillators.  I thought going to a user group forum would be a
>good way to get feedback on market desire for such a book.
>
>The book is organized so that it can be read cover to
>cover or used as a quick reference on specific crystal oscillator
>types.
>
>If asking for this feedback is against the rules, I apologize in
>advance.  I am purposely excluding the name of my publishing company to
>prevent to the appearance of any spamming effort.
>
>Any feedback you would be so generous to provide would be appreciated.
>For example, would you like a book like this?  Where do you go now to
>find detailed information on the topic?  What would you love to see the
>book cover?

As long as you are looking for feedback on the newsgroup posted to then
fine.

Oscillators are a subject that is broad and should include all forms even
PLL (a black art at times in itself).

Most people need a reference like this as they spend more time designing
other parts and then so little on one part that can be awkward for some
designs.

Horowitz and Hill - Art of Electronics style is what I would look for.

>Thanks so much.
>
>Tara
>
>You can e-mail me directly if you wish at tara_book_publisher@yahoo.com.
>
>

-- 
Paul Carpenter          | paul@pcserviceselectronics.co.uk
<http://www.pcserviceselectronics.co.uk/>    PC Services
<http://www.gnuh8.org.uk/>              GNU H8 & mailing list info
<http://www.badweb.org.uk/>             For those web sites you hate

Tara wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> I work for a publishing company and an editor is proposing a book about
> crystal oscillators.  I thought going to a user group forum would be a
> good way to get feedback on market desire for such a book.
> 
> The book is organized so that it can be read cover to
> cover or used as a quick reference on specific crystal oscillator
> types.

So this book is already written ?
Who is the Author ?
List of chapter titles / excerpt ?

> 
> If asking for this feedback is against the rules, I apologize in
> advance.  I am purposely excluding the name of my publishing company to
> prevent to the appearance of any spamming effort.
> 
> Any feedback you would be so generous to provide would be appreciated.
> For example, would you like a book like this?  Where do you go now to
> find detailed information on the topic?  What would you love to see the
> book cover?

What is the expected price ?
Does it include a CD ROM, with Spice models, and a Spice Simulator, to
support the text ?

-jg

Tara wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> I work for a publishing company and an editor is proposing a book about
> crystal oscillators.  I thought going to a user group forum would be a
> good way to get feedback on market desire for such a book.
> 
> The book is organized so that it can be read cover to
> cover or used as a quick reference on specific crystal oscillator
> types.
> 
> If asking for this feedback is against the rules, I apologize in
> advance.  I am purposely excluding the name of my publishing company to
> prevent to the appearance of any spamming effort.
> 
> Any feedback you would be so generous to provide would be appreciated.
> For example, would you like a book like this?  Where do you go now to
> find detailed information on the topic?  What would you love to see the
> book cover?
> 
> Thanks so much.
> 
> Tara
> 
> You can e-mail me directly if you wish at tara_book_publisher@yahoo.com.
> 
I actually had to design a product using an overtone oscillator a few 
years back. In my library search I found about zero on the subject. I 
eventually got lucky and found a bloke that had a design which I then 
duly tried to implement. It didn't work very well. After much discovery 
it works like a charm at 130Mhz and 250 uA current. No where in 
undergraduate texts is their a decent coverage on oscillator design!  A 
good book and I mean good ie it teachs you design principles without an 
overblown level of complexity like you find in Phd articles in magazines 
like Microwave Design or IEEE journals etc
The text would need to cover modern PLL examples like LM2326 some 
software tools, Phase noise trade offs etc.
Feel free to get your potential author to email me direct.

regards

Andrew Tweddle

On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 00:56:11 +1100, Andrew Tweddle
<sarason_not_me@alphalink.com.au> wrote:


>I actually had to design a product using an overtone oscillator a few 
>years back. In my library search I found about zero on the subject. 

Did you also search the amateur radio literature? There are some
sources about oscillator design in general and also about crystal
oscillator design.

>I 
>eventually got lucky and found a bloke that had a design which I then 
>duly tried to implement. It didn't work very well. After much discovery 
>it works like a charm at 130Mhz and 250 uA current. 

That must have been a 7th overtone design, which can be quite
problematic. I have used 116 MHz 5th overtone designs, but for 130
MHz, a less risky approach would be a 65 MHz oscillator followed by a
push pull frequency doubler.

Paul