Hi hcglitte,

The measurements control panel is disabled because we have not implemented the trace/marker/offset measurements in the harmonics viewer. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi hcglitte,

Yes this is possible and something we have talked about implementing, we have just not set aside the time to do it yet.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi HC,

You may already know this from our manuals, but the gain and attenuation are optimized based on the reference level. When gain and attenuation are set to automatic, we expect the user to set the reference level just above the expected input signal if the user needs the best dynamic range and sensitivity. For all of our devices, the range in which are devices are optimized is typically between +10 to -50 dBm reference level. This also changes based on frequency and temperature of the device.

Showing the gain and attenuation chosen is a good idea, but can be tricky as when the gain/atten settings are automatic we also optimize gain atten by frequency band as the device sweeps, so in some configurations there is not a signal gain/atten value used.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi hcglitte,

The correct value is what is chosen in the combo box. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. The value shown on the graticule is incorrect.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Ivan,

Thanks for the heads up on these. The Zero Span center frequency resets to 1 GHz each time you start the program. If you click the zero-span button on the control panel, it will use the current center frequency as the new center frequency for zero-span. Also, if you use the file menu to get to zero-span, it will use the last center frequency that was set in zero-span. Hope this helps.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Ivan,

There is a new release today. You will see in the release notes, the release yesterday adds the feature that the software will not re-cal when temperature drifts when making scalar measurements. Please note, that accuracy will drift several dB as the device is warming up.

Regards

Hi Andy,

Working on getting the software to remember the size currently. Expect an update today.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Cyprien,

If you have installed the Spike x64 application on your PC, you can get the 64-bit version of the ftd2xx.dll library from the Spike installation directory at C:/Program Files/Signal Hound/Spike/
You will see the ftd2xx.dll file that Spike uses, which you can copy into the same directory as the bb_api.dll file for your application. This should resolve the error you are seeing.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Ivan,

I have some comments on your feedback. The BB60C will rise to operating temperature when the device is connected to the PC via USB, even if the software is not running. If it is possible, you can connect the unit a bit before you plan to use it, allowing the unit to reach full operating temperature. This will eliminate the annoying re-calibrations. Although, I do agree that it would be better to allow the user to re-calibrate it manually.

I believe you can change the div setting without losing the re-calibration currently. I will determine if this is possible with the reference setting as well in the future.

I agree that with more development, calibrations could be handled in a more consistent manner. If you are able to warm up the unit before your measurements I hope this will eliminate most of the issues you have with this.

Thank you for your feedback as always.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Martin,

Thank you for the heads up on this. This is a known limitation right now. I will be releasing a version today 11/9/2015 that addresses this. The function call will change from saEnableExternalReference to saSetTimebase(device, SA_REF_EXTERNAL_IN). The external timebase will be reset when calling the saCloseDevice function so it should be able to be set again once you re-open the device, without reloading the DLL.

Keep an eye out for that. Version 3.0.9 of the SA api. It will be released with version 3.0.17 of Spike.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Cyprien,

We are aware of this issue. The reason this happens is because we utilize the GPU in our application through the OpenGL library. This is not supported in Windows Remote Desktop unfortunately and is a known limitation. There are a few workarounds.

Some customers report that if they can launch Spike before logging in to remote desktop and it will work, but they cannot launch Spike through remote desktop. You can also use a VNC client/server. There is a free version called TightVNC which we have used with success. This lets you control the PC remotely. If you have the NUC with vPro functionality, there is a way to setup the device to be controlled remotely using vPro. This is more involved but is a very robust solution.

Regards,
A.J.

Hello Cyprien,

The frameWidth is the sweep size divided by an even integer if the sweepSize is >= 1024. This means, the frameWidth will always be between 512 and 1023. Example, If the sweepSize is 1026 then the frameWidth will be 513, and each column in the frame will be the contribution of two bins of the sweep. We always use an even integer divisor so you can consistently determine which sweep bins fall into the frame columns.

The frame returned is the accumulation and scaling of the last 20 frames. It is implemented as a 20 frame FIFO. If you specify the default 30FPS, then each frame is the accumulation of the last 2/3 second.

If you have any further questions, let me know.

Regards,
A.J.

Ivan,

The overload could be energy in the entire acquisition band you are currently in. In your case, at 10MHz, the device is using the direct RF path which would account for frequency from 9kHz -> 27MHz. If you increase your span from 9kHz to 27MHz do you still see the overload?

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Ivan,

After further discussion here, we are going to add the ability to specify whether you are using the TG 10MHz reference output, so it will disable this frequency correction. We think allowing the user to manually specify this is the best way forward. It will likely be a new checkbox in the TG control panel. Look for this in the next release.

Let me know if you have any further feedback or questions on the issue.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Ivan,

You are correct, there is a frequency correction offset that is applied to the output of the TG. In the original 2.18 software, the correction value was ignored when the SA is configured to accept an external reference. The Spike software currently does not perform this action. I will look into adding this as a parameter in the software.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Ivan,

The ‘jumps’ you are seeing are due to different calibration settings being applied to the individual IF paths. Each IF is 20MHz wide and each IF has its own set of corrections. For the TG sweeps we did not optimize the bands for overall flatness, as once you store thru the correction differences are stored in the offset and the trace should be flat. Your measurements will not be affected as long as the store through has been performed.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Alex,

Thank you very much for the feedback. I will try to resolve the FM deviation scale issue for the next release. This is a bug that many others have mentioned now. Also thank you for mentioning the preset issue. I will add it to the request list and hopefully be able to address it soon.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi Donfrank,

Please contact us at 1-800-260-TEST. I am at extension 2. There are a few reasons a firmware update might have failed in this fashion. We can talk about what we can do to resolve this. We are available to talk between 8-3 PST. If you are unable to call during that time, email me at aj@signalhound.com and we can continue this discussion via email.

Regards,
A.J.

Hello Ivan,

Excellent feedback and suggestions. We are aware of the limitations of Zero-Span and hope we can address them in the future. We are also aware of the need for triggering in modulation analysis. As always, I cannot specify any time frame for when we might address these issues, but we do record all suggestions and feedback and use them when making decisions about what to pursue next. We very much appreciate it.

You might be interested to know that there is very basic I/Q capture functionality in Zero-Span mode along the bottom of the screen. It allows you to save a burst I/Q capture to a file as CSV. You would then need to convert it to an amplitude/phase/frequency value in a spreadsheet program, but this might help you.

Regards,
A.J.

Hi cpitcher,

The VSG operates on USB 2.0. Fortunately USB 3.0 is backwards compatible so you are able to connect the VSG with supplied cable to a USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 port on your PC and everything will work.

If you have any further questions, let me know.

Regards,
A.J.

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