For faster measurements with the SA44B, I would
– disable spur reject.
– set your span between 50kHz to 20MHz
– Increase RBW as much as you can.
– Set VBW equal to RBW.

Using Spike, I was able to achieve ~16 sweeps per second with
– 2MHz span
– 3kHz RBW/VBW
– 27MHz center freq
– spur reject disabled

Regards,
Andrew

Hello Beric,

The VSG60 software unfortunately cannot read Matlab files, but it is very easy to output a file that our software can read. If you have a 1 dimensional complex array (Nx1 array), representing the waveform you want to output, simply use this command.

csvwrite(‘fileName.csv’, [real(iqArray), imag(iqArray)]);

This will generate a CSV file you can import in the Arb mode of the software.

Let me know if you have additional questions.
Regards,
Andrew

Do you have the ftd2xx.dll file in the same directory as well?

[Andrew]

Hi Gary,

Sorry, correction, we use the ENBW for the RBW calculation for all windows except the adjustable flat-top window that is used in the SA and BB devices, but in this case, the 3dB BW should be very close to the ENBW.

Regards

• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by Andrew.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by Andrew.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by Andrew.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by Andrew.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by Andrew.

[Andrew]

Hi Gary,

We use the Nuttall window at the link below. It has an ENBW of 2.02 bins and 6 dB BW of ~2.78 bins.

For the BB60C and SA series devices and the flattop window, we take a variable bandwidth approach and build a flattop with the necessary bandwidth that meets the users RBW request in combination with the FFT sizes we have available. Because of this, the ENBW and 6dB bandwidth will change based on current configuration.

For the SM200, we use a flattop that has an ENBW of 3.78 bins and 6dB bandwidth of 4.9 bins.

Regardless of window chosen, the window bandwidth is taken into account when choosing FFT size, and zero-padding length when a user requests a specific RBW. This ensures consistency in RBW.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_function#Nuttall_window,_continuous_first_derivative

Let me know if you have follow up questions.
Regards,
Andrew

• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by Andrew.

Hello thientran,

The API you are currently using has been deprecated and we unfortunately don’t support it anymore. Several years ago we released a newer API for the SA44B which you can download in our SDK at the link below.

Using the newer API, I would configure a sweep and use the sweep data to measure the amplitude at a given frequency. You can use the Spike software to determine the sweep settings needed for your measurement and use them when setting up your sweep in the API. There is a sweep example you can use to get you started.

There is no measurement receiver function in the new API, but based on your short description, it does not sound like you need that. It sounds like a simple sweep would work.

https://signalhound.com/software/signal-hound-software-development-kit-sdk/

Let me know if you have follow up questions.

Regards,
Andrew

Hello Filippo,

Some other things you could check,
– Are they both running the same OS?
– Does one have active anti-virus?
– Are both using the high performance power plan configuration in the power options control panel menu?
– I’m assuming you have verified that the sweep configuration hasn’t changed? (same RBW/VBW/spur reject/etc)
– Is one i7 a laptop and the other a desktop? Laptops usually have slower clocks and might account for some of the difference.
– Is one application running in debug mode vs release mode?

An additional 200ms is a long time for the same sweep. The major things that contribute to sweep time is the device sweep speed limitations, USB transfer time, and processing time. Both USB and processing time should be small compared to the sweep speed limitations of the SA.

You could also compare your sweep time to the sweep time in Spike with the same configuration. If Spike sweeps substantially faster, it might be a configuration issue or something related to the C# FFI.

Regards,
Andrew

Hello Serpi,

Can you please email support@signalhound.com with this question. In your email, can you please provide information about your measurement test setup and any images of the incorrect readings. Please be as thorough as possible. We look forward to your email.

Regards,
Andrew

Hello Cristian,

You can use the video units and detector to accomplish a number of detector types. Our min/max is the same as plotting peak+ and peak- on the screen at the same time. When average detector is selected, the video units determine whether power averaging, voltage averaging, log power averaging or no averaging (sample) occurs. The only quasi peak detector we have in our software is in the EMC precompliance mode which is not compatible with the SA44B. It is a single frequency QP detector. Due to the FFT based approach in our analyzers, you may not see a difference between some detector settings (because the RBW/VBW specifies only a single FFT to occur). Lower RBW/VBWs will change this.

Regards,
Andrew

Hello Miran,

Justin is off this week, when he returns on Monday he will have some suggestions for you regarding a power switch.

Regards,
Andrew

Hi Ermy,

We do not have a frequency offset setting for the TG in our software. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Regards,
Andrew

Hello Jacks,

Thank you for contacting me via email.

The firmware update will not resolve this problem. I will be emailing you shortly for technical support.

Hello Jacks,

Do you have any issues with the BB60C with FW version 7? FW version 8 addresses an issue where the device doesn’t properly power cycle when a valid USB 3.0 connection is not detected. This ended up helping some customers on embedded/small form factor and certain other motherboards. In general we don’t recommend updating unless the FW version specifically fixes a problem you are experiencing.

If you still want the link to the version 8 updater, please contact me at aj@signalhound.com.

Regards,
Andrew

Thank you for the feature request Miran!

Regards,
Andrew

Hello Artur,

In older versions of our software we had a smith chart but it could only plot a single frequency (single point) on the chart. We are unable to sweep a frequency range (and hence we don’t refer to the devices as a VNA). Due to this limitation we have removed the smith chart from our current Spike software. The legacy software that supports this measurement is available on the download page for the SA devices.

Regards,
Andrew

We don’t provide any BER testing capabilities. One could use our APIs to manually perform BER testing. EVM measurements are sometimes used as an alternative/approximation to BER testing. We don’t have resources for doing this.

Regards,
Andrew

I am not familiar with software that can be used to generate these waveforms.

Regards

That is correct Dhivagar.

[Andrew]

Thanks for the reminder!

Regards,
Andrew

• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by Andrew.

We no longer support ARM architectures or Linux systems for the SA44/SA124 due to technical limitations that you can read about in this thread.

If you attempt to use either ARM architectures or a Linux OS, the device will not operate properly. (data loss, becoming unsynchronized, etc).

Regards,
Andrew

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