Major difference between oscillator and generator?

Replies

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  shreyasm89

  Don't confuse yourself with generator of Electrical engg & function generator which we use to produce various waveforms like sinewave, sawtooth wave & square wave.The AC generaor which produces "electricity" is a dynamo which produces elctricity but in sine wave form.
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  sayandev

  There are two types of oscillator- Harmonic and Relaxation. the harmonic type produces AC waveform and the other one produces square or saw tooth type waveform. So don't think that oscillator just produces ac signals. Moreover it is generally used to match impedence i.e. an impedence matching device used in radios etc etc. 😀
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  aj_onduty

  The oscillator converts whatever waveform you give to it, as a power source to specific waveforms, like square, sine, triangular or any other. The generator, on the other hand, converts mechanical energy into electrical energy.The oscillator is basically an electrical to electrical converter, while generator is a mechanical to mechanical converter.
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  Manish Sheoran

  means there is not any difference between generator and function generator which i used lastly.
  
  i think generator used for electicity as u said
  and function generator used in electric area in many electronics projects...
  
  plz help me to know basic concept of it.
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  Manish Sheoran

  means oscillator can generate sawtooth or square type wave form than can we use it as generator or not and why?
• 

  aj_onduty

  To put it in layman's terms, suppose you have some dough for making cake. You put it in the oven, you take out the cake. Thus the oven is a device which changes the dough to cake.
  Now, you have a machine which decorates the cake(I don't know what it is called; I don't know whether it exists or not). It converts the cake to a good looking cake of our choice.
  Now, analogus to this, we have a generator which converts the mechanical energy given to its shaft into electrical energy. The oscillator changes the quality or shape of the electrical energy(read it as waves) to any desired configuration. Is it clear? If not, let us know.
• 

  Saandeep Sreerambatla

  Generator here is something which generates wave forms is it?
  
  So as Shreya said dont compare the generator which generates electricity to the generator which generates waveforms!
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  shreyasm89

  English-Scared

  Generator here is something which generates wave forms is it?
  
  So as Shreya said dont compare the generator which generates electricity to the generator which generates waveforms!

  @ES-dude...whats your peoblem?My name is Shreyas...
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  Manish Sheoran

  generator using in generate electricity is called device conver mechanical energy to electrical energy
  than
  which device we use to generate waves in laboretries t0 perform practical and here i am talking about practical
  doing in college.
  here we called function generator to generator waves.
  is it same like generator cose it dosenot convert mechanical energy to electrical energy.
  and compare it with oscillator which used to match impedence (using in radios).
• 

  shreyasm89

  OK....let me try to get this straight....function generator(LAB equipment) does not convert mech. energy to electrical...it simply converts the AC input signal & modifies it using separate circuits to give the reqd. waveforviz. sine, sawtooth & square. The internal working of fn. generator will consist of a block diagram which you can find online.
  Coming to an oscillator it is simply a cicuit which genrates a sinewave of different harmonics & RARELY used for impedance matching.In radio ckts. a buffer amplifier is used for impedance matching after the receiver antenna. An oscillator is used after that to regenrate the original frequency or to give intermediate freq..And an oscillator does not need a sine input to work. IT just needs the DC supply and then it uses positive feedback to generate o/p freq.
  @aj-your sense of analogy is great..probably the way you undrstand things😀
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  aj_onduty

  Oh my God, I am sorry guys, sorry for making you go around something. I am sorry because I mistook the fact that you wanted to know about the function generatod and not the electrical generator. Really sorry.
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  ernandechri

  This is a very interesting thread and I really appreciate that you all share your knowledge here. To be honest I had no idea what the difference between a generator and an oscillator is but now I know. At the moment I need a generator at home but I think I will not buy one and instead use a #-Link-Snipped-# because this is cheaper and I do not need the generator for long. Has anybody here tried such a rental yet?
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  Tatenda Mhuriro

  what is the differences between a relaxation and a sinewave oscillator?.