On 4/3/2015 3:15 PM, Tim Williams wrote:
"John Larkin" wrote in message
...
More detail for the lurkers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unary_coding

It's a 10 bit unary ADC, and can be used as such. I've done it before.

Tim

I sometimes use it to display the noise floor in laser-based
instruments, along with some three-colour Avago LED bargraphs and a
simple false alarm rate servo. (see
http://electrooptical.net/patents/US05204631__.pdf ).

Watching the lights flicker is a surprisingly sensitive test for subtle
problems, such as the very beginnings of laser instability. You can see
noise floor variations of a small fraction of a decibel, and correlate
them with things like scan position.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net