Basic Spike questions

Fresh install of software 3.1.2, BB 3.0.13, SA 3.0.12. Using a BB60C w/ Windows 7 on i7 core. Start software, comes up with defaults. Switch analysis to real time. Switch analysis back to sweep. Unit disconnects. Preset will no cause reconnect. Must exit software and restart. Reproduces.

Attempting narrow band sweep. Disable auto VBW RBW. Set span to 20Hz. Set RBW to 1 Hz. Switch to real time. Message Spectrum Analyzer software has stopped working. Unhandled win32 exception occurred in Spike.exe[620]. Reproduces.

Attempting FM demodulation, unhandled win32 exception .. Spike.exe[1952]. Reproduces.

Several other things I tried caused disconnects or exceptions.

USB cable could be a little longer.

That was just a quick 20 minute look at it. I would be interested in knowing if there is a beta program for this product and what I would need to do to be involved with it.

Hi Joeqsmith,

I apologize for the issues you have been having. Because you are seeing issues consistently across the software, I think we need to start by determining if there is some underlying incompatibility/driver/etc. we need to address.

For quicker responses and support you can email me directly at aj at signalhound dot com.

Start by sending me any information you can on your current PC. I will be interested in information such as, is it a laptop/desktop, manufacturer, model, CPU model number, GPU model number (if you have a dedicated card), 64-bit/32-bit operating system, and anything else you think would be relevant or that might pertain to your setup.

Feel free to send me pictures of any error messages you receive with a picture of the Spike software at the time. It might help narrow down exactly where the issue is occurring.

Have you successfully used the unit on a different PC, or is this the first time using the BB60C?

I look forward to your response.

Regards,
A.J.

I will send you a direct email. The PC is a laptop, ASUS Model G73Sw. It has an Intel i7 2630QM 2GHz processor, 12G of RAM and 64-bit Windows 7 SP1 installed. Graphics is an NVIDIA GeForce GTX460M.

This is the first time I ever looked at the BB60C. I do not have another PC that I can try it with. I ran it for several hours in swept mode, then several hours in real time. There were no problems at all. Most problems seem to be related to changing back to swept mode.

The manual is pretty sparse and did not offer much for suggestions. I did disable the virus scanner (MS security) as the manual suggested and it had no effect. Also, I noticed in the manual how the software has a manual connect. This actually seems to allow me to recover from a disconnect without restarting the software.

Hope this helps. Again, if you have anything you would like me to try, let me know.

For others, it was suggested that the problem is with the USB controller. The Asus is using a Fresco Logic FL1000. I saw no improvement after updating to the latest drivers. My next attempt will be to run the hardware on a new PC.

JoeQSmith,
This is a very unusual problem. We will do what we can to help you via email. Trying a second computer is an excellent troubleshooting step. If the problem is limited to the Asus, we may be able to dig a little deeper. If not, we may just want to set up an RMA for warranty repair or replacement. Keep us posted.

Hi,

Could someone pls tell me if Spike is still compatible with the old SA44 ? thanks

Ramos,
Yes. Spike is compatible with all of our spectrum analyzer and tracking generator products. Some models may require a firmware upgrade, but this only affects a few percent of units.

Thanks Justin.

I thought I would give you an update on this. After buying the new PC, the BB60C has been behaving for the most part. I had mentioned how the hardware (BB60C) gets into a mode where Spike will not talk with it. The green LED will be active on the BB60C. I can exit Spike and restart it and it will not talk with the BB60C. The device manager finds the BB60C and reports no problems. To recover, the BB60C must be unplugged or I can stop and restart the driver. You may recall this happens VERY infrequent. It does not seem tied to running from an external hub or extension cables. When I first purchased the BB60C, I put a lot of hours on it and I don’t think the problem showed up more than 10 times. I thought it was tied to on particular port on the Dell PC. I have settled into using the unit and the problem has not came back even with the extension cable and hub. Until yesterday. After several hours of running, it hung the same way.

I ran it today for about 4 hours and it’s back to working flawless.

Strange.

Thanks for the update Joe. I apologize that you are still experiencing these ‘glitches’.

Did we ever collect the model number of the newer PC? It would be useful for us to have this information. Looking through my emails I see specs of the PC but not a specific model number.

It is a Dell Precision 5810. Windows 10 Pro, 32G RAM, 3.6GHz Xeon E5-1650 V4. I am using an M.2 drive.

It seems like it could auto recover just in that Windows sees the device. It looks like the device hangs in a way where it can’t recover without a power cycle or it sees the connection closed when the driver is shut down in control panel and then allows spike to reconnect.

As you may recall, the PC was purchased new shortly after buying the BB60C. I just checked their site and Intel had released some updates along with a new BIOS. It does not appear they changed the drivers for the USB. It’s all up to date now. Keep in mind it happens so infrequent that it may be a few months before I post about it again.

It did end up hanging the same way a couple of times after this last change. As a last ditched effort to get the BB60C more stable, I bought two new PCIe USB cards. One is a GIGABYTE GC-USB3.1. The car has been in the PC for a couple of weeks now and I have been using the BB60C a fair amount. So far flawless. This is with the extension cable and ANKER hub. I attempted to run a TV tuner in the same hub and even with that tuner active along with the BB60C, not a single crash. In how it hangs, I suspect there is some sort of error that is not being handled in the BB60Cs firmware and that the new boards signal integrity is just better than what was included with the Dell so the error no longer occurs. It will be a few more weeks before I call it good, but this is a huge improvement.

Hello Joe,

Thank you for the update. The USB card sounds promising!

Regards,
Andrew

Andrew, I swapped the board out for the second one. It too has been solid. Not a single glitch and I am using the hub and extension cable as well. The BB60C has been in use a fair amount. It seems the Dell’s USB ports may just not be as clean. I guess you could buy the same PC and see if you could replicate the problem. Maybe there would be a way to allow the BB60C to auto recover. Attached my latest video with Labview. Things are a little cleaner and I have a much better understanding how to use the API now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkec-Eyhg7c

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