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Hi,
I have been trying unsuccesfully to get Spike running on an ASUS EEEpc 1001HA using Win8, I’ve tried all sorts of methods and logins , but the same crash happens upon the program starting up:
Spectrum Analyser Software has stopped working, it mentioins the video driver in the extended details so I tried uninstalling the driver then it crashed on openGL32.dllI’m sure I’m doing something wrong as I can’t find any mention of anyone else having this issue…
Any ideas ?
Hello Jared,
Thank you very much for your feedback. There are a couple of points I can address now which might be of help to you.
3) BUG – RBW isn’t entirely settable. In some EMC related ranges I have to settle for 100kHz or 10kHz instead of 120kHz and 9kHz respectively.
Limitations of the device (the SA44/SA124) prevent us from being able to set the RBW to 120kHz. Even our older software was unable to do this, but 9kHz should be available to you at any time during operation.4) FEATURE – Whilst I only had a brief look at the zero span, AM/FM demodulation, and receiver/channel power etc, the FM demodulation on our local radio stations is much improved and the zero span would give me some useful information, however it would be nice to set this such that it behaves kind of like an oscilloscope (i.e. edge/level triggering and position so I can check duty cycle and Tx power).
In Zero-Span mode, on the control panel you can set a video/external trigger to perform the edge level triggering. Position was added in a subsequent release, so if you download the latest version, you can configure a trigger level and position.22) FEATURE – Could you get your website guys to put up a changelog file/page or include it in the install files?
Otherwise, it’s a bit vague as to what’s changed between revisions.
I will work on getting the change log on the downloads page. Currently it can be found in the installation folder after you install the software.Thanks again for the feedback.
Regards,
A.J.Hello Bongo,
The laptop you specified may not have the graphics capabilities required to run the Spike software. I was unable to find any information regarding the graphics capabilities of your laptop. You could try installing the latest video drivers from your manufacturer and making sure Windows updates is fully updated to see if that resolves the issue.
The OpenGL message you are seeing is almost certainly the result of uninstalling the video driver.
Regards,
A.J.Thanks for the reply Andrew,
My features are predominantly around EMC debugging (and I think I have convinced work to buy a BB60C, based on the strengths of the SA44B and Spike).
I usually try to go an order of magnitude lower RBW than the compliance tests for a sniff, so it isnt super critical if its 100kHz c.f. 120kHz.
I’ll try that triggering out, thanks.
A changelog prior to install would be more useful… having previously seen ‘fix’ releases royally-ruin settings etc…FEATURE – Presets in a CSV file form? Accessible via a drop down? a ‘next’ ‘prev’ buttons at bottom so can scroll through? or a heirarchy structure with sub-csv lookups?
I would like to collate a list of ambient AM/FM/HAM broadcast frequency regions as I encounter them, this means I can discriminate nearby emissions as well as being able to tune in. Would mean I can load in presets based on signalling types (USB, Ethernet 10/100/1000 and HDMI etc)Bongo,
Its been a while since I used Win8 (a development prerelease) but you could try to install again using admin privilages, install the other-bit version, and/or running in admin mode, or compatibility mode.
These things are getting progressively more hidden so it may be doing these anyway.
Failing that, a win7 partition?I believe my problem is my graphics chipset only supports OpenGL1.4 even with latest drivers installed.., probably lacks a bit of grunt as well I suspect… Guess I’ll dig out another laptop to try..
Hello Bongo,
Thank you for confirming this. Spike requires a minimum of OpenGL 2.0 to run. I apologize for the inconvenience.
Regards,
A.J.BUG – Export button saves the selected waveform in multiple instances, where the number of copies is dictated by the number of displayed waveforms.
i.e. with trace one selected, and traces one and three displayed, two copies of trace one data.FEATURE – Add a top of column heading for Trace# and mode.
i.e. FREQ[MHz] Trace1(Max)[dBm] Trace2(Avg64)[dBm] etcFEATURE – For Averaging mode, I’m assuming once the number of samples is met, the averaging is a rolling average of n samples? So, could you include a sweep counter in the display somewhere? Or the ability to do a single n count average or a continuous rolling average of n samples?
i.e. SA44B is currently acquiring sample 29 of 32… 30… 31… 32… <rolling average>
or 29… 30… 31… 32… stop.(I’m using this for discrimination between my product’s radiated noise and the ambient radiated)
Hey Jared,
Thanks for the feedback. The trace export format is mentioned very briefly in the user manual on page 9.
The format for the columns is
Freq in Mhz, Min Amplitude, Max Amplitude.I hope this clarifies why you are seeing what appears to be multiple traces.
Regards,
A.J.Doh!
Hi AJ there still appears to be issues with the markers frequency display on the top of the screen not saying the same as the marker set frequency. You can see this by inputting a 10MHz signal, 30MHz span and then manually setting the marker frequency to 10MHz. On the top of the screen it shows something either side of 10MHz, mine shows 10.000942MHz and it appears that the marker cannot be moved exactly onto 10MHz and jumps in steps. This gets worse when the span is decreased and with a 10MHz span 10MHz then reads 9.999037MHz. You can then see that the marker diamond does sit slightly lower that the 10MHz peak. If you then press peak search the marker still does not go to the peak 10MHz signal and still sits slightly low at 9.999037 Can this be fixed. Regards mark
Hi AJ I have just done some tests with the old Signal Hound software and you can actually make the marker frequency what you want and it does display 10MHz on the screen.
Hello Mark,
I can explain what you are seeing, and clarify the difference in behavior between the old software and new software.
As you know, a frequency bin in a sweep rarely lines up nicely on an even number like 10MHz. When you enter a marker frequency like 10MHz the closest frequency bin has to be used, and it might correlate to a frequency like 9.999037MHz. The old software simply printed the frequency you entered even though it was using the frequency bin at 9.999037MHz while the new software will simply show you the frequency of the bin used.
Ultimately both versions of the software use the same frequency bin to report the amplitude but the old software shows you the frequency you entered and the new software shows you the actual frequency of the marker.
Let me know if you have further questions.
Regards,
A.J.HI AJ I think that it would be better to do the same as the old software and if you actually enter the marker frequency manually that it says the same frequency on the display. If you however do a peak search then yes show the freq bin. Its just a difficult thing for customers to read plots that have odd non rounded frequencies displayed. They then question whether something is off frequency especially if its a display of an oscillator output. Maybe an option in the settings to allow each option to be displayed if some of your customers require it. Regards mark
I second that! Please make the manually entered marker frequencies appear (rather than the closest bin). I get lots of questions asking if something is “off frequency” and spend a lot of time explaining that all is OK.
Installed Spike on my Surface. In recommended screen resolution menus and controls are tiny. Need a magnifying glass to read. Could change screen resolution, but that fights with other apps like PhotoShop & AutoCAD.
Hello Richard,
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. The Spike software does not have extensive text scaling capabilities for high DPI screens like the Microsoft Surface. Other users have had varying success with the Windows text/icon scaling. Have you tried this yet? Other than the Windows text/icon scaling, the only other alternative we can suggest is to reduce the screen resolution. I apologize for the inconvenience. It is something we are planning on looking into in the future.
Regards,
A.J.Hi Andrew,
in your post of 20th of Feruary 2015 you wrote:
” I like the idea of an update marker. ”
This was in response to my remark:
— running slow scans like with crystals a progress bar (e.g. a simple progressing line on the bottom of the 10×10 display window) would be appreciatedis there a chance that you bring up such a progress marker for slow scans with one of the next Spike revisions ?
Regards,
Eric
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