Hi Danny,

There is not a direct method to mute the output. We usually suggest changing the frequency outside your range of interest.

There is no method that I would think would be adequate or repeatable enough for OOSK.

We do sell a VSG that would be capable of OOSK, but the pattern memory is limited (2048 IQ samples) as well as the available samples rates. If you think you would be interested in this, we can talk about your requirements and ensure it would fit them.

Let me know if you have further questions.

Regards,
Andrew

Hello itronid,

I apologize for the issues. I believe you will need to update the firmware on the device before it can be used with Spike. Send me an email at aj@signalhound.com and I will send you a link to the firmware update tool.

Regards,
Andrew
Signal Hound | Software Developer

Hi Andy,

Currently, it cannot be controlled in zero-span mode. It was possible at one point, which is why the controls exist. They will likely be removed in a future software update.

The Input Pwr setting will control the sensitivity of the BB60C. 0dBm being lowest sensitivity, -50dBm being the highest sensitivity. (in ~5dB steps) We suggest to set the Input Pwr setting to highest power you expect + 5dB. The displayed reference level is not tied to the Input Pwr as in sweep mode, so you can control the two independently.

It might be in a future update where you can set manual gain/atten globally, so it doesn’t need to be set in each mode. Maybe in a dialog that has controls relevant only to that receiver.

Let me know if you have further questions or comments.

Regards,
Andrew

bbowar,

I would need to know more about the PC. Make, model, and CPU? There isn’t any direct incompatibility with 32-bit systems and the BB60C. Generally when the BB60C cannot be found, it is a USB 3.0 issue. (“Device not found” issue? or a different type of issue?) The PC may not have native USB 3.0 support or may need some USB 3.0 driver updates.

Regards,

Hello Raja,

Here is the code for finding the peak frequency in C.

In the code below, you will already have sweepSize, binSize, and startFreq from the API, and you will have the sweepMaxArray from the get sweep API function. This should be easy to convert to Visual Basic.

double peak = -2000.0; // Small initial value
int peakIndex = -1;
for(int i = 0; i < sweepSize; i++) { if(sweepMaxArray[i] > peak) {
peak = sweepMaxArray[i];
peakIndex = i;
}
}

double peakFrequency = startFreq + binSize * peakIndex;
double peakAmp = peak;

Regards

Hello Gudjon,

If you want to control the TG directly, without an SA44/SA124, use the TGStandalone application found in the installation directory at C:\Program Files\Signal Hound\Spike\. Spike will only allow you to interface a TG after either a SA44 or SA124 is connected in the software.

Let me know if you have additional questions.

Regards,
Andrew

Hello Yu Ching,

The marker set frequency entry accepts absolute frequency values only. You are unable to set a relative frequency offset with this entry. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Regards,
Andrew

Hi Andre,

Just to clarify, you are asking for customize-able overlays (shaded regions) where you can select color, frequency range, etc?

I think this sounds like a very interesting idea. Thank you for your suggestion!

Regards,
Andrew

Hello Yu Ching,

You are correct, there is no direct channel power measurement in the API. You will need to calculate it. The most typical way this is performed is by either integrating the frequency bins of a sweep (in power units) or averaging the power of an IQ waveform. LabVIEW might have these measurements available in the signal processing or related libraries.

I will attach the pseudo-code for the sweep method. This is pulled from Spike.

Let me know if you have further questions.

Regards,
Andrew

Attachments:

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Hello dwc,

Thanks for the update. Are you using one of our Labview example .vi’s?
Unless the .vi specifically checks that saOpenDevice passed and aborts properly, it might continue on and error out on some array allocation/access error. If it is one of ours, we could revisit it to ensure it behaves properly.

Regards,
Andrew

Hello dwc,

The first thing that comes to mind, is the ftd2xx.dll file present in the same folder as your executable?

Windows 10 shouldn’t make a difference.

You could try to run your application out of the Spike directory. You could use dependency walker to determine if you are missing any dependencies.

Are you using Visual Studio to develop your application? Are you able to run your application from within Visual Studio on the Windows 10 machine?

Let me know if none of these work.
Regards,
Andrew

Hi tma,

It will, good point. It would be best to set the reference level to the maximum value (+40) before switching over to the VSWR plot, this way you don’t have to worry about needing another store-thru.

Regards,
Andrew

Hi tma,

Thanks for letting us know about this. I was able to reproduce the issue immediately. This is something I can address on the next release of Spike. There is currently a trick to get rid of the message. If you set the “Ref Level” above the peak of your signal, for instance, in your picture, the peak is ~5.5. Set the Ref Level to +6dBm or higher and the error will go away. In short, the software is comparing the VSWR sweep to the dBm reference level and not the VSWR reference level.

Let me know if you have additional questions or need further clarifications.

Regards,
Andrew

Hello Ivan,

OFDM decoding is not currently possible with our software. Adding this to our software is something we have discussed many times, but we don’t have any definite plans at this point.

If you have access to something like Matlab with the communications toolbox, this might be an alternative.

Regards,
Andrew

Andy is correct, if software image rejection is enabled, the Bluetooth packet would be identified as a spur. You can disable it in the File->Settings menu.

Also, increasing your RBW and selecting the min/max detector will increase your chances of capturing a transmission.

The bandwidth of a Bluetooth transmission is greater than the instantaneous bandwidth of the SA44B, so it will be difficult to make accurate measurements on this type of signal.

Let me know if these suggestions help.
Regards,
Andrew

Hey Mike,

Below is what another customer on this forum is doing to use the Spike software on remote desktop.

I created a batch file in the spike program folder and named it RunFromRDP.bat.

Inside that batch file I placed the following commands:

tscon 1 /dest:console
spike.exe

The first command disconnects the remote desktop session and forces Windows to run in the local console. Then the Spike starts and OpenGL initializes correctly. After a few seconds I reconnect and everything works fine.

Essentially, as long as Spike is started not through remote desktop, you can log into the machine while it is running with no issues. To date, this is the primary workaround. If you search for remote desktop and OpenGL you will find several discussions online that might have other suggestions.

We have used TightVNC in the past with success, maybe TeamViewer is a possible solution here? If your CPU has vPro capabilities, there are tools available for connecting to the PC through this as well, which we have tested at one point with success.

Let me know if you have additional questions.

Regards,
Andrew

Hello Gabi,

The TG44 programming interface is available on x86/x64bit Windows and x64bit Linux. We do not support the TG on ARM architectures.

You can download the programming files at
https://signalhound.com/support/product-downloads/tg44a-tg124a-downloads/

Let me know if you have further questions.

Regards,
Andrew

Hi Dave,

Sorry you are having issues.

Can you email me at aj@signalhound.com? In your email, let me know the serial number of your device.

I haven’t seen the software crash in this way before. I can email you several troubleshooting ideas.

Regards,
Andrew

Hello all,

We recently released instrument drivers for LabVIEW. The install includes several examples for both the SA and BB series devices, with an incredible easy installation process.

You can download the drivers at
https://signalhound.com/software/signal-hound-instrument-drivers-for-labview/

Regards,
Andrew

Hello Jean Pierre,

After you save the file, I think the edit path loss dialog is still active and probably behind the spike window. This is preventing you from interfacing the Spike dialog.

You can bring those to the front by finding them in the Windows toolbar along the bottom of the screen. The windows should be grouped with the Spike application.

I apologize for the inconvenience. I will see if we can keep these on the top automatically in the next release.

Regards,
Andrew

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