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Dragan,
The API does not perform the sweep averaging you desire.
To accomplish sweep averaging, you will need to acquire N sweeps and accumulate them into a single sweep (add bin-by-bin) and when finished divide each bin by N.
Let me know if you have additional questions.
Regards,
AndrewHello Miran,
Thank you for your feedback. I think this is a reasonable request and I agree. I will make sure this is in the next release of Spike. We do not currently have a time frame on the next release.
Let me know if you have additional comments or questions.
Regards,
AndrewHi Chuck,
Assuming 50 ohm, and the Hz in dBm/Hz and nV/sqrt(Hz) is 1Hz, you can simply perform the conversion from dBm to nV.
nV/sqrt(Hz) = 10 ^ ((dBm/Hz + 166.9897) / 20.0);
If you have access to Matlab/Octave, an anonymous function can make quick conversions
>> myconversion = @(dbm) 10^((dbm+166.9897) / 20.0);
then later>> myconversion(-160) ans = 2.2361Regards,
AndrewHi Troy,
Yes, this is very likely related to the GPU. We utilize OpenGL to raster several of the displays and require at minimum OpenGL 2.0 support. Support for OpenGL 2.0 in hardware has been around for ~8 years so for a 1 year old laptop to have trouble with this is odd.
The first thing I would try is updating drivers. Look on your manufacturers website for any potential graphics/display drivers. You can also try updating them directly through the display manager. You can also update drivers through ‘Windows Update’ (keep updating until it can’t find any more updates).
If this does not resolve your issue, let me know what PC you are using (make/model/CPUmodel) and I can help you find drivers direct from the parts manufacturers. You can reply here or to my email at aj@signalhound.com
Regards,
AndrewAndy, If we modify some aspect of the layout (internally) some aspects might revert to the default state. You should be able to resize it quickly and the software will remember the size next time you open the software. Let me know if it is not doing this.
Andrew
blackmore90,
There is no notion of falling behind or not being able to process sweep data fast enough for the BB60C. For any given sweep there is a fixed amount of processing that needs to take place, the Atom processor will simply take a bit longer to do this compared to others, which means that in your sweep loop test code, more time is spent processing per sweep so you see the CPU usage increase.
The CPU usage numbers you are seeing look normal, as you are simply in a busy loop by telling the receiver to sweep as quickly as possible. If you wanted to reduce power consumption or reduce CPU load you could introduce a delay between each sweep. This would average out your CPU usage to a smaller number.
Let me know if you have additional questions.
Regards,
AndrewHello blackmore90,
The Vtune report is probably not reporting symbols properly, as the bbGetTimebaseCorrection function appears in there erroneously, although I would expect both the log function and the fft functions to appear at the top of the list.
The API should be idle between bbFetchTrace function calls yes? The bbFetchTrace function will perform the full acquisition and processing necessary to get you the sweep requested. Very little processing takes place on the receiver. The receiver sends ADC IF samples to the PC for further processing, which includes potentially hundreds/thousands of FFTs, logarithmic, and arithmetic functions on the data. The processing is also spread out on several threads to finish the processing as quickly as possible. If you are continually requesting sweeps the API will be continually processing these sweeps as quickly as your computer will allow.
If you think you are seeing behavior outside of this, we can investigate further. I don’t see anything suspect in your code snippet.
Let me know if you have further questions.
Regards,
AndrewVolker,
The VSG and SA could be controlled at the software level to step/sweep, but would be very slow. The sync port on the TG is what allows fast step time at the firmware level. This was not part of the VSG design.
Regards,
AndrewHello gmdusa,
Email me at aj@signalhound.com with the serial number and model number of your device. If you have an older device (with no internal flash) then it is trying to pull the cal file from our server, but sounds like it is hanging up on the network request for some reason. I can send it to you directly. Once it’s on your system, that message should go away.
Regards,
AndrewHello Bruce,
On the PC where you are seeing the issue, how long is the device running in the software before you see this error message? Does it happen immediately/after a few seconds/a couple times of day?
Are you using the same USB cable for all your tests? If not, it might be worth trying a USB cable you know works on another PC.
You can try changing the PC power management options. Go to “Power Options” in the control panel and change your power management settings to “High Performance”. On Windows 10 this might require a few extra clicks to show the “High Performance” option.
At any point did the device work on this PC? Or did it start having issues after a Windows update?
Regards,
Hello Dragan,
I just emailed you the link for the API download which includes the manual. I will link it here as well.
https://signalhound.com/download/bbsa-application-programming-interface-for-windows-3264-bit/
A link to just the manual. https://signalhound.com/sigdownloads/SA44B/SA-API-Manual.pdf
Regards,
AndrewHello Gerhard,
1) We have two graphical ways to control the TG, either through the Spike software and through the application TGStandalone.exe found in the Spike installation directory at C:/Program Files/SignalHound/Spike/. Both ways only allow you to set the amplitude and frequency manually.
2) The output level on the TG is between -10 and -30.
Outside of the scalar mode, the TG is a simple CW generator. Yes, the scalar mode is primarily built around return loss and insertion loss measurements, filters and antennas being two of the larger use cases.
If you want to talk in more depth about your measurement requirements offline, you can email us at support at signalhound dot com.
Regards,
AndrewRon,
Please call us at 1-800-260-TEST Ext.3 or email us at justin at signalhound dot com.
Regards,
AndrewHi Ron,
Let’s try from the beginning. There is no need to reinstall Spike. Just grab the latest USB driver from this link.
https://signalhound.com/sigdownloads/Spike/CDM%20v2.12.00%20WHQL%20Certified.exe
When you install it, you will want to run it “As Administrator”, you can do that by right-clicking the installer and selecting “Run as Administrator”.
Ensure the Signal Hound device is not connected when you install the driver. The first time you plug it in after successfully installing the driver, it might take a few seconds for Windows to recognize the device.
If you get the solid green LED but Spike still doesn’t recognize the device, look at the FAQ on this page http://www.signalhound.com/Spike at the question “The Spike software reports “Device Not Found” (SA44/SA124/TG44/TG124 only)”.
I look forward to your response.
Regards,
AndrewHi Gary,
You can stop the spectrogram by single stepping the measurements, by pressing the “Single” button in the toolbar. This will stop both the sweep and spectrogram. There is no way currently to stop just the spectrogram.
Also, keep an eye out in the next 2 weeks for version 3.1.8 where we will have revisited the spectrogram display, giving you the ability to scroll through past history (up to several thousand traces) and view the amplitude/frequency/time of any event in the spectrogram.
Let me know if you have additional questions.
Regards,
AndrewHello Abaker,
The USB drivers we link in the FAQ are specifically for the various Intel CPUs that support USB 3.0. If you are using an external card, then those drivers won’t be applicable. We recommend a class of Intel CPUs (4th generation or later i5/i7’s) because they implement USB 3.0 support in hardware that has proven to work at the sustained throughput we need (Typically referred to as native USB 3.0 support). We have a poor track record with external cards and third party USB 3.0 vendors such as Renesas and ASMedia.
Since the card has worked for you in the past, it might be that you need to find the latest drivers for the card. Or it might be the card isn’t going to work in combination with this PC. The Xeon processor you linked was made before the Native USB 3.0 push from Intel and widespread USB 3.0 adoption on PC hardware.
Regardless, both the CPU and the external card are outside the minimum recommended PC requirements, and I suspect this is why you are seeing the “Device Not Found” error message.
Let me know if you have additional questions.
Regards,
AndrewHello Causilgey,
Just to clarify, you have to go into the properties menu to find the advanced tab after right clicking on the Converter A/B items?
Please contact us via email for additional troubleshooting. Please email me at aj at signalhound dot com. Additionally please CC justin at signalhound dot com. We will help you determine the source of your issue.
The X240 is capable of running the SA44 and BB60.
Regards,
AndrewHi gga33,
Thanks for contacting us. I can help you with your questions.
a. In our software switching between sweeps and QP detector is manually done with the Start/Stop buttons in the control panel under the “Meter Settings” tab. Additionally in the Peak Table control panel along the bottom of the screen, you can select a peak and move the settings to the QP detector by pressing “Selected Spur to Meter”. In the meter settings you can control the dwell time parameter.
b. The only way to change the measurement points in the sweep is to change the RBW. You currently cannot directly set the number of points in the sweep.
c. You will need to use the “Scalar Network Analysis” measurement mode in Spike for return loss measurements. There is a step-by-step setup guide in the manual (you can bring the manual up in the help menu). You can also watch the Justin setup up the software for SNA measurements in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxUZx-9DMYg
Let me know if you have follow up questions.
Regards,
AndrewHi Causilgey,
I just verified that on Windows 10 Pro the Load VCP checkbox is still present for the Serial Converter A/B USB entries. If you do not see them or the advanced tab, I would wonder if you have installed the USB drivers on the Win10 machine? You can find the installer on the Spike download page or in the installation directory on your PC.
Take a look at the FAQ on the Spike download page, https://signalhound.com/spike/ See the question titled, “The Spike software reports “Device Not Found” (SA44/SA124/TG44/TG124 only)”. Follow the troubleshooting steps there.
If you are still unable to get the device working, contact me directly at aj at signalhound dot com.
Regards,
AndrewHi Ron,
I would consider a small windows PC or laptop for best use. There are several restrictions on the RPi2 platform due to driver and throughput issues we have over USB 2. The PC restrictions are very low for the SA44B if you are going to use the API (most PCs will have no problem)
Regards,
Andrew