lightningstalker / induct

Calculators and utilities for real-world electronic design

induct

Calculators and utilities for real-world electronic design

iloc

iloc.c is a very simple calculator program for designing single layer air coils, including space wound coils having a length equal to or greater than 4 times their diameter. For single turn inductances and shorter coils, I encourage you to consult the fine work of the late Nagaoka who published tables and formulas for his correction coefficient. This was not a concern for the scope of this simple calculator as such inductances are not seen or desirable outside of antenna systems or above UHF frequencies. I may decide to revisit this should the need arise.

Most calculators found online need either length or turns count to generate a result. As they are both mathematically related, this has been simplified to a single term in the form of turns spacing. Thus all that is required is target inductance, diameter, and the turns spacing value to derive both length and turns count. I have found this much easier when designing coils, especially spacewound coils.

Eventually the capability to output capacitance and self resonant frequency would be ideal, however the available formulas do not appear to be accurate enough to produce a result that would allow one to design and build a component such as a trap with any kind of accuracy. Maybe it's asking a bit too much right now. Taking it slow and careful with the incremental progress thus far is producing some results albeit at such a glacial pace.

tankfreq

tankfreq.c is another very simple program which will calculate LC tank circuit resonance frequency as might be expected.

elcut

elcut.c is a very very simple calculator designed as an antenna tuning aid. It will give the estimated length to remove from a wire in order to bring it to the desired resonance frequency as entered. It is recommended never to remove the exact amount given but instead gradually and carefully reach the resonant length. As in the oft repeated words of Guy Wireson (whom has died), "You can take more off but you can't put more back on." If you don't think that's funny at least consider it my gift to you as the only person who will ever read this.

cap

cap.c is the capacitor complement to iloc. It calculates dimensions for capacitors of several different shapes. Simply provide the K permittivity constant for the dielectric material and various dimensions as they are called for. Though the algorithm is extremely simple, even moreso than the other calculators in this collection, it does speed up the process and make for less time entering formulas into a calculator (and less chance for mistakes).

Command line options are:

• -p = flat plate capacitor
• -c = cylindrical capacitor
• -? = list of command line options