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An amplifier performance testing sheet

Freezer7Pro

Freezer7Pro

Luxman!
I just figured I'd share the Excel sheet that I use for testing amplifiers in my shop. It's basically a suite of 17 tests to figure out if an amplifier is working properly/performing in spec.

Most of the tests assume that you have some form of distortion meter, like a HP 339A or a low-noise spectrum analyser, but there's a few tests that don't require that, like the damping factor calculator (which just requires a multimeter, dummy load and signal generator) and the noise floor/SNR calculator (requires a microvoltmeter for quiet amps).

It should be quite self-explanatory to use if you know amplifier testing. Mind that I'm no Excel wizard, so it might be a bit fidgety if you enter incorrect data in some fields. Lots of formulas are interdependent upon each other, so I don't recommend you try to reformat it too much unless you're prepared to spend hours figuring out why everything broke. ;) You really aren't supposed to ever type anything other than numbers into the data fields.

It should export quite well to PDF/printed paper (A4 size), and you can export it to an image by highlighting all the cells you want and copy-pasting them into an image editor (like Irfanview or Photoshop).

Either way, here it is. Feel free to share and improve upon it.

Amplifier performance sheet V5
Example filled sheet
Example PDF export
 
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Nice work Freezer:) Well thought out,and lot's of data capture. I'm a bit computer impaired,and Excel has always frustrated me. I really need to get up to speed on this stuff.
I have a Rhode & Schwarz UPA3 that I want to get ''talking'' to my laptop in order to be able to capture frequency response and distortion sweeps,then send them off to the printer. I have the Prologix GPIB-USB interface,but between software downloads and all of the other stuff,I just can't seem to get it all working together. Unfortunately,I don't know anyone with skills or experience in this area.
 
arts said:
Nice work Freezer:) Well thought out,and lot's of data capture. I'm a bit computer impaired,and Excel has always frustrated me. I really need to get up to speed on this stuff.
I have a Rhode & Schwarz UPA3 that I want to get ''talking'' to my laptop in order to be able to capture frequency response and distortion sweeps,then send them off to the printer. I have the Prologix GPIB-USB interface,but between software downloads and all of the other stuff,I just can't seem to get it all working together. Unfortunately,I don't know anyone with skills or experience in this area.
Click to expand...
Woah, that thing is a beast. What a breeze it would be to test gear if you were able to skip over the manual data entry.
 
Actually,much of the appeal of getting the computer involved in the process is being able to use shortcuts in setup. The manual data entry (once you are used to it) goes fairly quickly,as the machine can be configured to run a sequential setup without needing to actually call up each parameter individually. Also,you can save your various setups.
 
arts said:
Actually,much of the appeal of getting the computer involved in the process is being able to use shortcuts in setup. The manual data entry (once you are used to it) goes fairly quickly,as the machine can be configured to run a sequential setup without needing to actually call up each parameter individually. Also,you can save your various setups.
Click to expand...
Whatever the bloody advantages may be, I'm bloody envious, let's leave it at that. ;)
 
VERY nice! I have thought about making a complete spreadsheet like this to use during testing for the longest time. I have a couple of basic excel sheets that I made to record freq response and output power vs distortion but nothing of this scope. I like the fact you put basic instructions about performing the tests in there as well. Many times I will have to go back and refresh my memory of what's required to perform a test. Having the basic instructions there will jog the old memory. Thanks for sharing...
 
This is a truly excellent piece of work. Thank you so much for sharing it!

The generosity of people on this forum is nothing short of amazing.
 
Looks good, I may have to make use of this sometime even if its just for my own record keeping. I have some stuff I toss together but its just text files, and frankly not consistant from amp to amp that I fool with.

I did make up a nice frequency response spreadsheet with a graphing capability to plot things out. Initially it was just meant to convert voltage readings to decibels but once you have data in a column its easy to turn that into a graph. I made one for calculating transformer impedances and turns ratios from voltage readings too. Nothing near as well formatted as this, but functional.
 
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