We have not tried the latest FTDI ARM drivers, nor have we tried the XU4 platform.

Regards

Hello blackmore90,

What happens if you call the bbGetIQ function a few more times, (call it in a loop for a few seconds) I believe it requires at least 1 PPS signal from the GPS before it can start accurately time stamping data.

(And I’m assuming you have checked the return values of the functions to verify they haven’t thrown any errors)

Regards,
Andrew

Hello Raash,

Thank you for the feedback. At the moment, we will continue to ensure the old software version is available for access to the smith chart. The older software can be installed side by side with Spike. We do not have immediate plans to include this in Spike. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Regards,
Andrew

Sounds good David.

Additionally, in case you weren’t aware, we have C DLL programming interface for our devices, if you wanted to retrieve IQ data directly from the receiver programmatically, you can do that. The API files are found on the devices respective downloads page, you will find an IQ streaming example in the downloads folder.

Regards,
Andrew

Hi Charles,

If simply re-saving the file fixed the issue, I’m going to guess that the line endings is what is resolved it. Our software probably saves newlines with ‘\n’ and excel will replace them with ‘\r\n’. After looking at the files, the resaved version also removed the spaces between the values on each line, maybe that?

Glad you found a solution,

Regards,
Andrew

Hello mpatino,

I hope I understand your question correctly.

The SA44B requires a solid USB connection. Any latencies or time outs will cause the software to stop working. This is because the software is requesting large amounts of data from the receiver and any gap or loss in the data will result in invalid measurements. If there is too much latency the device will also likely not even be able to initialize.

Regards,
Andrew

Hi David,

We only have a binary format IQ file. You will probably need to write a small bit of code to convert this to human readable format. There is a a section in the user manual about the format, but it is simple enough to describe the basics here. The binary file contains alternating IQ values stored as signed 16-bit shorts that have been normalized with a scalar. The scalar is stored in the companion XML file. You will need to unpack the IQ values, convert them floating point values, and apply the scalar (multiply each IQ value by the scalar).

We have talked about writing a conversion utility to convert our files to CSV, but don’t have immediate plans for this.

There might be other tools like Matlab which could greatly simply this process.

Let me know if you have additional questions.

Regards,
Andrew

Hi Charles,

Sorry for the late response. I was hoping another IAS user would chime in with their experience. Does the IAS software have a user manual or anything else that would describe the file format it expects? If you can find this, I could probably help determine what would need to be done to make it work.

The file that you said works has several configuration settings included, is it possible the IAS software expects one/some of these?

Regards,
Andrew

Hi mpatino,

I’m afraid I have never used the Digi USB anywhere products, although I do remember one customer in the past successfully running an SA device on them. Can you verify whether the device is showing up as a USB device in the device manager? Also, is the device properly powered on the Digi hub, i.e. LED is green on the device? I wish I could be of more help.

Regards,
Andrew

Hello Ganesh,

Yes, we can perform a calibration of the VSG25A. The cost of calibration is 150 USD (I think). You can call us at 1-800-260-TEST to set up a calibration, or send an email to lori@signalhound.com.

Let me know if you have additional questions.

Regards

Good news David. Thanks for the feedback as well. We will update the FAQ as soon as we can.

Regards,
Andrew

Hi Raja,

The configuration of the receiver plays a big part in the sweep speed. The biggest factors that affect sweep speed on the SA44 is span, rbw, and image/spur rejection. Using Spike, a span of 200k-500k, 1k RBW, and image rejection off, I was able to achieve a sweep speed of around 22ms. I suspect this is about as fast as the API will give you sweeps.

It would be necessary to know your measurement requirements before I could determine whether the SA44 could meet them.

You could increase measurement speed by utilizing the IQ data stream, but this would then require more signal processing (FFTs, etc.).

Regards,
Andrew

David,

On the Win10 PC, can you try this troubleshooting step from our FAQ. With only the TG attached to the PC, (disconnect the SA).

“Ensure the driver was configured correctly by your system, In the device manager, find “USB Serial Converter” in the “Universal Serial Bus Controllers” tab. Right click and select properties, select the “Advanced” tab and ensure the “Load VCP” box is unchecked.”

This might be the source of the issue.

Regards,
Andrew

David,

Has the TG worked on this computer before? Or is this a new computer for the TG? We can try copying over the calibration file if it works on another computer but not this one. If you want to try this, email me at aj@signalhound.com and I can give you instructions. If that doesn’t work then I can help you set up an RMA to take a look at the unit.

Regards,
Andrew

Hello Ivan,

There is not a direct way to calculate the average power of the on period of a pulse, but using what we do have, if you notice in the AM vs Time plot in zero-span, there is an average power readout(in newer versions) which takes the average power of the entire acquisition. If you set your trigger position to 0-1% and acquisition length to the length of the pulse, this would give you the measurement you are looking for.

I will add this measurement to our request list, and determine if there is a way we can accomplish this more easily.

Let me know if you have questions or comments.
Regards,
Andrew

Hi Andy,

Thanks for sharing your frustration. Delta markers can be tricky and there might be alternative interfaces that simplify using them. Other spectrum analyzers simplify the use of delta markers by making them a separate marker. It is something we have considered.

The delta marker button toggles delta marker. So if the delta measurement is active, simply press the delta button to remove the delta marker and go back to regular marker measurements. When you want to make another delta measurement, press the delta button and the delta marker will be placed on the current marker position.

Let me know if you have further questions or have additional feedback.

Regards,
Andrew

Hi Charles,

Thanks for the feedback. The software you describe is what we would eventually like to offer. As previously mentioned, we don’t have any definite plans or time frame for this yet. I would not expect this type of functionality soon. We did just simplify the interface between LabVIEW and our programming APIs recently. I would think the easiest way to get to OFDM demodulation would be to use third party software (Matlab or LabVIEW) with our programming interface. Having never done this, I can’t say what kind of effort this would require.

Regards,
Andrew

Hello Raja,

You can find the peak amplitude by searching for the largest value in the sweepMax array that is returned from the API.

Regards,
Andrew

Hi jjoonathan,

Thank you very much for the feedback. If I remember correctly, the downconverter offset was a flat frequency offset (adjusting the frequency readouts)? Is that adequate for your needs? I’ll see if this is something I can sneak into the next release. There may not be a new release for a few months as we are deep in product development and are preparing for a trade show in June.

Regards,
Andrew

Hello causilgey,

Yes, this laptop sounds adequate for the BB60C. If you have any issues getting the software running, send me an email at aj@signalhound.com and I can help you troubleshoot. It looks like you might have trouble with the USB ports though. If I am looking at the right laptop, the two ports are on opposite sides of the machine, which means you will need an extension cable for one of the USB cables (the BB60C requires two USB ports, one of which must be USB 3.0) You can extend the 2.0 cable cheaply. You could also consider using a powered USB 3.0 hub for the BB60C as well, we use this one in our production lines with success https://www.amazon.com/Belkin-SuperSpeed-USB-3-0-4-Port/dp/B009AR2MD2

Let me know if you have additional questions or need clarification.

Regards,
Andrew

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