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Hi Andrew,
The trigger values in the current API provide you with the full resolution pre-decimation. The BB60 has a sample rate of 80MS/s which we convert to a 40MS/s I/Q data stream with decimation 1. The triggers are referenced to the 80MS/s. So at a decimation of 1, you would need to divide a trigger value by 2 to have it reference a sample in a 40MS/s I/Q stream.
If you have a decimation of ‘n’, divide the trigger value by (n*2) to have it reference a sample in your data stream.
Alternatively, the trigger values range between 0 and 2^20 (1048576), so if your getting 8192 samples per acquisition, divide the trigger value by the ration of 2^20 / 8192 = 128.
The reason it is this way, is so that the triggers are still providing 12.5ns resolution for any I/Q data stream.
Regards,
A.J.Hello Dat,
Please email me at aj @ signalhound dot com.
I will need to try to send you a file and further instructions to attempt to resolve this.Regards,
A.J.Hello ayssid,
If you have our Spike software installed on a Windows PC, you can see the firmware version of a connected device on the right hand side of the status bar.
Also, new SA44B units will ship with firmware version 2.11.
Regards,
A.J.Hello Dat,
As a troubleshooting step, close the software and cycle the spectrum analyzer power and try launching the software again. If you still see the same results then…
What is the readout of a marker if you place on the graticule? You can do this by clicking anywhere on the graticule and it should place a marker and give you an amplitude reading. What is the amplitude reading?
Have you switched PC’s recently? Or is this still the same PC?
Can I have you install the latest version of our software to determine if the issue persists on our newest software? You can find our latest application at http://www.signalhound.com/Spike. We now have a spectrum analyzer application called Spike which interfaces all of our devices. You can install it from the link above. It can be installed side-by-side with your current application, no need to uninstall what you currently have running. I would be curious to know the results of running the Spike application, and if you experience the same error.
I apologize for the inconvenience. Hopefully we can determine the issue quickly.
Regards,
A.J.Hello rmaso,
Someone else might be able to assist you further. I don’t have experience with Labview but I found this response earlier in this thread.
If you have installed the Signal Hound Spike application, look in this folder.
C:\Program Files\Signal Hound\Spike\api\sa_series\labview
This is a Labview example we distribute. Another forum member was able to verify this worked out of the box. If this example works for you, then maybe you can determine what is causing issues with your setup.Regards,
A.J.Hello Gaetano,
Unfortunately we currently do not provide software for performing this task. This is a feature we have discussed internally for quite some time. It is interesting to us and we may provide this functionality in the future.
For now, we only provide the programming interface to our devices. If you have programming experience, you could interface our device, a GPS, and a mapping service to implement this type of functionality.
Let me know if you have any further questions.
Regards,
A.J.Hi Jared,
Thanks for the input. I’ll play around with a few ideas. Out of curiosity, are you setting the text and traces to the same color? A temporary solution might be to change one of the colors, as the text is painted over the trace.
Regards,
A.J.Hi Elieser,
At 16 MHz the SA44B switches over to a more sensitive IF which is why you see the step in the amplitude.
Regards,
A.J.Hi Peter,
Thanks for the bug reports. We will have these and others resolved for the next release. If your PC is on a network, the Spike software will alert you when a new version is available, expect a new version in the coming weeks.
Thanks again for your feedback. It was a lot of fun watching your review.
Regards,
A.J.Hi Peter,
At 100kHz and below spans for the scalar network analyzer (SNA) sweeps, the device allows more time for the signal to settle, as many of our users are measuring narrow band devices with higher settling times. Setting the span above 100kHz (e.g. 105kHz), will prevent the devices from going into this narrow band mode. I do not think you will be able to get to a 0.5 second sweep, which is mostly a hardware design limitation in how fast the device can sweep and sync.
As for the delta marker not reporting delta frequency, this is a bug and not intended. We will get this resolved for the next release. Thank you very much for alerting us to this.
Regards,
A.J.Hi Wdoug,
Let me preface, version v2.15 is a older version of the software. It has been replaced with by our latest spectrum analyzer application called “Spike” which can be downloaded here. http://www.signalhound.com/Spike. It only runs on Win 7/8/10. Are you on one of these systems and would be able to try it?
If you need to stay with our older software, this message usually means that the software was unable to download the calibration file from our server. The first time our older units are ran on a particular PC, the software looks for a cal file on our server and pulls it to your PC. Ensure you have a connection to the internet before trying again. Also ensure the device is plugged in and the LED is green before running the software. If it still continues to fail, email us at support at signalhound dot com referencing this conversation and with your serial number.
If your device is older, there is a possibility the file isn’t currently on the server, which will cause the Spike software to stop on this step as well. Contact us as well if this is the issue.
Regards,
A.J.Of course,
Since you are using the Atom CPUs, it would be good to characterize the behavior on Windows first. Our application uses the API under the hood, so you can get a good idea on how various features work. The API functions similarly on both Windows/Linux, so when I get it recompiled, porting should be easy, if you are able to start development on Windows. Shoot me an email at aj at signalhound dot com and I will email you when I get a new Linux version up. I can’t guarantee any time frame though, maybe in the next couple weeks.
Regards,
A.J.Hi Labbench1,
I apologize, I did not realize you were working on a Linux OS. Yes, there is an issue on Linux, the library was compiled naively on a Haswell CPU and now requires a Haswell CPU or newer i-series model CPU to run properly. It was compiled with the -march=native flag, which inserted architecture specific instructions.
We haven’t set aside time to recompile it again for Linux. I’ll see if this could be done sooner than later. In the meantime, you mentioned you have a Windows OS you can run it on?
I apologize for the inconvenience.
Regards,
A.J.Hi Labbench,
Additionally, I do not know what support is like for USB 3.0 on the Atom CPUs and motherboards, so I would not be surprised if you run into issues with this.
Regards,
A.J.Hi Labbench1,
The current releases should run on Intel Atom right now. I should let you know that we have not tested the BB60C on the Atom architecture. It is unlikely that the available Atoms are able to perform the necessary signal processing needed for the BB60C to operate. I suspect most sweeps will be OK and slow, but it will have issues with modes like zero-span, real-time, or demodulation (audio/digital).
If you are able to try it, we would be interested to hear about your results.
Regards,
A.J.Hi John,
The BB60A will work with our tracking generators. The BB60A firmware must be updated as you noted. The firmware update is available on the BB60 download page.
Regards,
A.J.Hi John,
The unit in question was manufactured on Jan 20 2014. We manufactured BB60A’s from Feb 2013 to June 2014, at which time, it was replaced with the BB60C design. All BB60As are compatible with our latest software application, no need to use the legacy BB60A version 1.2.3 application. All of our analyzers use our main application called Spike, seen here, http://www.signalhound.com/Spike. We do offer calibration services, (call in for exact price). We also will repair BB60A devices for a flat fee.
Alternatively, BB60Cs are shipped with a two year warranty.
If you have any further questions, you may contact us by phone at 1-800-260-TEST.
Regards,
A.J.Hi Andrew,
Thank you for the heads up. I will try to look into this. If you find a simple way to reproduce the issue, or a snippet of code that easily reproduces the crash, this would be very helpful to us. It sounds like you managed to work around your issue though. Let us know if you find out anything further.
Regards,
A.J.Hi John,
The main reason one might buy a BB60A now is due to price. We do not sell the BB60A anymore and have not since the BB60C was released.
The BB60C hardware design is drastically different than the BB60A, as you noted. The BB60C uses a direct RF path for frequencies below 20MHz. The HDSDR application requires an input I/Q data stream to operate on. We have not developed the direct RF to I/Q code necessary for HDSDR. This only affects 20MHz and below. Our API is available to users and we do provide the code for our device to interface HDSDR, so if you have programming experience, it would be possible to fill in the missing pieces to get the direct RF into HDSDR. This would require C++ and signal processing experience.
Regards,
A.J.