GSingh,

Can you please email aj at signalhound dot com for support of this issue. When you email, please provide the following information.

– A picture of the configuration of the software at the time this issue occurs. We would like to try to reproduce this with the settings you are using.

– The make/model/CPU of the PC you are using.

– A description of how you are measuring the output of the signal. Are you using another Signal Hound product to measure the output? Can you describe your measurement setup?

We look forward to the response.

Andrew

[Andrew]

Thanks for the feedback Cyprien.

While not exactly API support, there is already SCPI automation support for the LTE measurements. You could write a script to automate the measurement and pull measurement information from Spike. Full blown API support isn’t on the roadmap right now. Look in the SDK for the SCPI manual and examples.

Development on the BB60D is still moving forward. Dynamic range and phase noise have improved quite a bit, both contributing to better LTE measurements.

If you have any additional feedback on the LTE measurements, please reach out to aj at signalhound dot com.

Thanks

• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Andrew.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by Andrew.

We built these OOT modules with GnuRadio version 3.7. With version 3.8 and newer there were several breaking changes, many relating to Python. If it’s possible to use an older version of GNURadio that will probably fix the issue. Otherwise it might be necessary to rebuild the OOT module for the newer version. Also, see this guide for porting OOT modules to 3.8 or newer. Some customers have followed this with success.

https://wiki.gnuradio.org/index.php/GNU_Radio_3.8_OOT_Module_Porting_Guide

Andrew

lsullivan,

When average detector is selected, the averaging algorithm is used, when min/max detector is selected the IIR filter is used.

If you are able to provide more information about your measurement, we can try to help you determine the best settings for the device.

Andrew

Chuck,

Once you enter both the map and the lat/lon coords, you can use the import/export session to load/save both the map and coords simultaneously for future use. For my testing, I exported the session with map and coords before making any measurements, so I could quickly load a clean map on each startup.

In the case of mapping, the preset doesn’t store the map/coords, only the mapping session. So when you want to start up where you left off, load your exported session, and load a preset with the mapping settings you like.

Hope this helps!
Andrew

Chuck,

The import guide is located in the Spike installation directory at C:/Program Files/Signal Hound/Spike/manuals.

Let us know if you still have problems after looking through that.

Thanks!

Thanks for the feedback Tuong.

Thanks for the feedback Henry.

As of right now only channel power measurements are available in the RF mapping mode. We will look into P25 in the future as this is a highly requested measurement. I don’t have a timeframe on this at this time.

Andrew

Tuong,

This is not currently planned functionality. If you need this type of functionality, consider looking into our third party software vendors.

https://signalhound.com/support/third-party-software/

Some of these vendors support this type of measurement.

Andrew

Tuong,

There is no SNR measurement for the mapping functionality. Is there a certain type of signal you are trying to measure? Based on your other post, are you trying to perform a digital demodulation measurement to overlap on the map?

Regards,

Hi Stanley,

The Quasi-peak detector is currently only available in Spike. We don’t have any way to automate this measurement via an API at this time. If we provide anything in the future it would probably be through SCPI commands to Spike. We don’t have any plans to pursue this at the moment though.

I appreciate your feedback, if you would like to reach out to me via email at aj at signalhound dot com, I can contact you if we ever pursue this in the future.

Andrew

I’m not sure if we’ve used an external GPS with a ublox. Our SM200 uses this chipset, but we don’t interface it over serial as Spike does.

It is probably better in the short term to consider using a different GPS if possible. If you would like to email me at aj at signalhound dot com, I can keep your email and let you know if we are able to acquire the GPS you are using and get it working in Spike. Also, it might be interesting for us to add some debugging utilities to the GPS interface in a future release of Spike, and I can reach out if we ever add something like that.

I apologize for the inconvenience. Thanks for your patience and providing the information.

Andrew

[Andrew]

Looking at the logic now. It does not appear to stop reading after a comm err. It continues to read the input and if it found the RMC sentence in a subsequent message it would update the dialog with the nav info found.

The Spike software does expect the RMC string to be sent in each update, and it does expect roughly a 1 second update rate. My COM reads have a 50ms readintervalTimeout, and a 2second total timeout. I read 2k bytes at a time in a loop. If you are using a low baud, like 9600, you might simply be trying to transmit too much data in this interval. Consider increasing your baud rate or decreasing your message size if you can.

If RMC messages were still coming in periodically, I would expect you to see it flip between valid and Comm Error.

Looking at the code here, it also looks like it will still save the last lat/lon it found. So even if it was flipping between valid data and comm err, the mapping mode should still be able to query the last valid value seen.

Andrew

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by Andrew.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by Andrew.

The ‘V’ in the second field indicates “void” or that the data is invalid. You can see this too, as the fields after the ‘V’ should contain the lat/lon but they are empty.

Are you getting the “Comm Err” message? If yes, then it’s not even getting that far to see the ‘V’. The Comm Err indicates the software is not even seeing the “RMC” substring, which does indicate potentially the baud rates not matching or some other issue with the data. It looks like you can control the baud rate in the document you linked, you might try configuring different rates on the unit itself. Presumably you can also see the device listed under the COM ports in the device manager?

If you were able resolve the comm error, then the device would still report “Unlocked” with your current message shown and the lat/lon wouldn’t be available to the mapping measurements.

We used this USB GPS antenna (linked below) with success in our testing. It did involve some setup we can try to help you with if you go this route.

https://www.amazon.com/GlobalSat-BU-353-S4-USB-Receiver-Black/dp/B008200LHW/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=USGlobalSat%2BBU353-S4&qid=1630424424&sr=8-2&th=1

Andrew

Brian,

I’m assuming you are on Windows? The software is looking for the RMC NMEA sentence. Have you used something like tera term to verify the serial output of the GPS? What is the model number for your unit?

Andrew

[Andrew]

The type 2 BB60C was a minor component change with no affect to the operation of the unit. You can determine if you have a BB60C-2 by connecting your unit to the PC and looking in the device manager under USB devices. It will show up as a “BB60C” for type 1 devices, and “BB60C-2” for type 2 devices.

If you are still unsure, you can contact our service department at service@signalhound.com with your serial number and we can look up your unit.

Andrew

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by Andrew.

DAtkins,

Thanks for the suggestion. I got it into the customer request log. We’ll consider how we can add this to our software.

Thanks!

Hi Volker,

Yes, we have been working on LTE measurements and hope to release them in Spike soon. Due to customer feedback we are also exploring 5G measurement support to be released simultaneously. Unfortunately we don’t have a set release date, but it does look like 2022 at this point.

If you have specific LTE/5G measurement requirements, please reach out to me at aj at signalhound dot com to let me know about them. I look forward to any feedback on this.

Andrew

[Andrew]

The self-cal function in the BB60 API is for the BB60A only and has no effect on the BB60C.

Andrew

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by Andrew.

Michael,

I will add your name to our contact list for the SM435B any any high freq gen we release. We will contact users closer to when the SM435B goes on sale.

Mneuman,

Our RF engineer Justin might be able to reply with a suggestion.

Andrew

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