Hi Andy,

The frame scale represents the total height of the real-time frame in dB. For example, with a frame scale of 100, a frame column will represent amplitudes between the reference level and the (reference level – 100).

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Hank,

The peak values are the measured min/max frequency deviation values. I hope this answers your question.

Regards,
A.J.

[Andrew]

Hi Sam,

The bbr files can be loaded back into Spike. If you press the play button on the sweep recording toolbar and select the bbr file, the software will sequentially play back the sweeps recorded in the file. You also have access to all sweep measurements when playing the file back through Spike.

You can also parse the file programmatically. I am attaching a file which shows how one would parse the bbr file in C. I would imagine it would be very easy to adapt this to Python. The format is very basic.

Let me know if you have further questions.

Regards,
A.J.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 11 months ago by Andrew.

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Hi Mervin,

For the SA and VSG devices, the symbol rate limitations on QAM16 are going to be between 16kS/s and 150kS/s. The VSG is capable of generating QAM64 and QAM256 patterns but the SA is not able to demodulate them currently. You can configure a QAM signal with up to 512 symbols. I have attached an image of this setup.

If you have further questions, let me know.

Regards,
A.J.

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Hello Han,

As a preliminary check, have you installed the USB driver from the http://www.signalhound.com/Spike page? When you install it, it will require you to run as administrator (Right click -> Run as Administrator)

You have the necessary y-cable for power? You should connect both PC side connections first before the SA124 side. You should see a green solid LED if the device is properly powered.

Typically connecting a device to the PC for the first time will cause the PC to “load” the driver. You should see some activity in the task bar noting this. It should notify you when done. This can take anywhere from 10 seconds to 1 minute. If you try to launch Spike before this completes, you will get the Device not found error message.

Most customers experience issues with our products on Apple computers, whether in a virtual machine or natively through bootcamp. I would try getting it to run successfully on the PCs first before the Macs.

Sometimes, anti-virus software conflicts with our devices and needs to be disabled/reduced.

I look forward to your response.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi bmusicus,

I have seen this problem before with a few other customers and have been unable to track this issue down. I have spent several hours searching for a solution to this, and most searches lead me to believe there is some issue with the PC system configuration. I will link the google results for a reasonable search term for this, and you can find this problem across the board for a large number of applications.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=file+dialog+crash+Windows

The ntdll library which you noted, is the Microsoft Win32 library responsible for the file dialog (among other things).

For other customers with this issue, they have been able to get around it by installing the 32bit version of the software instead of the 64bit version, or vice-versa. Give that a shot, and see if this allows you to save files. http://www.signalhound.com/Spike for the latest software.

If you try some of the troubleshooting tips found online for this issue, and find something that works, we would love to hear about it.

I apologize for the inconvenience. Let me know if installing the other version of Spike resolves your issue.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Ivan,

There are some hardware/software limitations that limit the step size to 1kHz with the TG/BB combo. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Andy,

Yes, you can think of it as the center frequency of that bin.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Andy,

I apologize for the confusion. The span found in the bbr file is the span that was entered by the user. Due to a number of reasons we aren’t able to hit the span,start,stop entered by the user exactly, so we return the frequency of the first bin and the bin size. If you need to calculate the frequency of any bin in the sweep, use the bin size and trace start frequency. The bbr file stores the user entered values so that we can display those nice round numbers on the UI when the user replays their sweep.

Let me know if you have follow up questions.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Ik3gjm,

Depending on the video card, it is possible Spike will not be able to run on the PC. If you have the latest video video driver and it still doesn’t work, then either the GPU doesn’t have the required architecture or the driver isn’t compatible. Sometimes you might have to go direct to the GPU manufacturer to find the latest driver.

If you want to move forward with the legacy application, you can send any issues you have opening the application to support at signalhound dot com and we can assist you.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi chetferry,

We are aware of these issues. This is something we want to address but haven’t set aside time for yet. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Amorim,

Thanks for the update!

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Germania,

The smith chart is only available on the 2.18 software, I just want to verify that is the software you are trying to install.
I’m not familiar with this error message. Have you tried to run the installer as administrator?

I tried searching for the error message and there are plenty of suggestions for trying to resolve the issue. Here is one for instance.
http://superuser.com/questions/478631/dll-could-not-be-run-for-msi-installers
I would try searching the error message (google) and seeing if any suggestions work for your. Most results indicate it could be Windows not being fully updated, or an folder permissions error.

Let me know if you are able to resolve your issue or have further comments/questions.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Andy,

The two arrays would be unique using the min/max detector with most rbw/vbw/sweep time settings. They are always the same when using the average detector. The min values can probably be discarded for most purposes.

Let me know if you have further questions.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Catshot,

Currently setting a frequency offset in the software is not available. This is something we have wanted to add in for awhile. Thanks for the suggestion.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Catshot,

The SA44B is compatible with HDSDR. We provide the files and information necessary for setup on the SA44 downloads page. HDSDR can record the full bandwidth of the device continuously (~250kHz bandwidth) and can be played back through the HDSDR software.

Our software (Spike) can record sweeps indefinitely to a file which can be later brought back into the Spike software.

If you have programming experience, our spectrum analyzers all have a C interface and could easily interface a number of SDR programs with a bit of work. This also include professional environments such as Labview, Matlab, GNU radio, etc.

The SA44B is only compatible with our tracking generators. With the SA44/TG44 pair, you can sweep filters across the full frequency range.

Let me know if you have follow up questions.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Harold,

You are referring to the “Frequency Different Meter” utility? If so, yes, this will be added to the software. I don’t have an exact timeline for this addition, but I would suspect in the next 1-2 months. The Spike software will notify you of a software update when one is available, in the lower right hand corner of the status bar.

For the time being, you can still use the old software if you need to make this type of measurement. When we release it for the new software, it might be under a new name, I am thinking “Frequency Counter” or something of the like.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Harold,

I just realized that you are using the SignalHound 2.18D software. In that case there is no way to clear the limit line short of closing the software. I apologize for the inconvenience.

On the other hand, if you are interested, we have released a new software interface for our spectrum analyzers. It is called Spike, and can be downloaded for free here, http://www.signalhound.com/Spike. It can be installed along side your existing application. Going forward, it is what we recommend to new users. Along with many other additions, you can clear the limit lines in the software.

Let me know if you have further questions.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Dept911,

See File->Import->Limit-Lines->Clear Limit Lines.
I think this will do the trick.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Regards,
A.J.

[Andrew]

Hi Electronic Eel,

Yes, the process you described is the standard method of testing on an EMI receiver.

QP sweeps may come at a later date.

Regards,
A.J.

• This reply was modified 9 years ago by Andrew.

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