Forums › SA Series Discussions › How to Use .bbr Output Files
- This topic has 3 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 3 months ago by Jim-Alt.
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sstreeterParticipantHi all,
A similar question has been posted on this topic, but I would greatly benefit from a bit of reiteration/elaboration.
I have a wonderful USB-SA44B 1Hz to 4.4GHz Signal Hound spectrum analyzer. I love the device, except that I’m struggling to understand how to use the .bbr output data files generated by the analyzer. I recognize that I can also export .csv data, but that data only includes the maximum and minimum power values for a given frequency bin. I’d like to use a continuous power-per-frequency-bin data set with respect to time, so I think that I must access the .bbr file somehow.
What I’ve tried: I first tried loading a .bbr file back into the Spike software, because maybe the data could be adequately visualized for my purposes without additional work, but I can’t see how this can be done. Next, I set about writing code in Python 3.5 to read bytes incrementally and unpack them using the “struct” module’s unpack function. The problem is that I’m not exactly sure of the format of the file (e.g., header length, how is the data packaged, etc.).
What is the format of the .bbr file type?
What is the most sensible way to access/use the .bbr output files from the analyzer? Can .bbr files be recognized/loaded through the Spike software interface?
Thank you!
Sam
AndrewModerator- This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by Andrew.
Hi Sam,
The bbr files can be loaded back into Spike. If you press the play button on the sweep recording toolbar and select the bbr file, the software will sequentially play back the sweeps recorded in the file. You also have access to all sweep measurements when playing the file back through Spike.
You can also parse the file programmatically. I am attaching a file which shows how one would parse the bbr file in C. I would imagine it would be very easy to adapt this to Python. The format is very basic.
Let me know if you have further questions.
Regards,
A.J.Attachments:
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sstreeterParticipantThank you, Andrew! This gives me plenty with which to move forward.
Jim-AltParticipantHello,
I have to be able to extract the data from a file.bbr generated by the Spike SoftWare.
I rode the code given above but I’d like to know if you have finally done it in Python ?
If so, do you have any hint to do it ?
Or something that could help me to save some time ?
Thanks
J.A- AuthorPosts
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