6 Android apps for analogue EEs

Android is undoubtedly the platform of choice for the world's smartphone and tablet users. That said, why not make it a leverage to enhance your practice? Paul Pickering, an engineer with 35 years' experience of engineering discusses six applications for Android based equipment that could make an analogue engineer's life easier, or more fun.

Here are six that are worth considering.

Spectrum analyser

The Raspberrywood audio spectrum analyser (free; premium version $0.99) features a 44.1kHz sampling rate and 8192 samples per spectrum in the free version. Also included is peak detection, tap to pause, and the ability to take a screenshot and export it to the gallery. It's also ad-free.

The premium version adds an adjustable FFT (up to 100k samples), an adjustable sample rate (8kHz to 48kHz), autoscaling, an adjustable manual scale and other features.

Spice

The DroidTesla (free; pro version $12), developed by Vladimir Djokic, is a simple but powerful SPICE engine that solves basic resistive circuits using Kirchoff's Current Law (KCL); the simulator systematically forms a matrix in accordance with KCL and then proceeds to solve for the unknown quantities using various algebraic techniques such as Gaussian elimination and sparse matrix techniques.

For a non-linear component, such as a diode or BJT, the programme uses the Newton-Raphson iterative algorithm to solve circuits with non-linear I/V relationships.

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