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Hi Gerry,
This does look like a potential issue with the unit. There are normally spurs in that frequency range but your unit is exhibiting higher than typical spurs.
Please call us at 1-800-260-TEST so we can issue an RMA and try to fix the unit.
Regards,
A.J.Hello oogieoogieful,
Someone else might be able to help you get things working, but our experience is that we have not had a customer be able to utilize our supplied 32-bit Matlab example on a 64-bit version of Matlab. We do not have a version of 64-bit Matlab in our shop and so have been unable to attempt to work through the incompatibilities. It does appear that one would have to go through quite a bit of effort to call a 32-bit DLL from 64-bit Matlab.
If you are interested, we have fully updated our SA device APIs. There are now 32 and 64 bit versions of the API that get installed when you download the latest version of our Spike spectrum analyzer software. http://www.signalhound.com/Spike. We recommend all new developers target these new APIs. They come with documentation as well to get you going. We do not currently provide Matlab interfaces to them, but if you are adept at C/Matlab programming you should be able to find enough information to call our 64-bit DLL from Matlab. The new APIs do have a different interface than the old ones, so there will be a learning curve which may not be acceptable if you are already familiar with the older APIs.
Let me know if you have any follow up questions.
Regards,
A.J.Hello Kirbi,
Depending on which sa_api version you are running, real-time functionality has changed recently. You will want to check out the programming manual for your version to find a full C example in the appendix for setting up real-time mode. This should help you set up Labview.
Regards,
A.J.Hello Michelv,
This was an issue for BB60As purchased before 9/13/2013. We have a firmware update to resolve this found on the downloads page https://signalhound.com/support/downloads/bb60c-bb60a-downloads/. Look for BB60A Firmware Update. Follow the instructions carefully and make sure you have a good USB connection before starting the update.
Regards,
A.J.Hello Richard,
This type of behavior is specifically the result of running our software in a virtual machine. We have had a number of users report this type of behavior running our products in a VM on Apple PCs. At this point and time we have not determined a possible solution to this problem, we can only suggest running the software on a Windows PC. An alternative (but untested) solution would be to run Windows native on the Apple PC using bootcamp or something similar. We have not tested this though, it may not solve the problem.
Let me know if you have any other questions. Thank you for the feedback.
Regards,
A.J.Hey Jared,
Thank you for clarifying your needs on the burst transmit. Currently the ARB functionality allows you to set a period value of up to 64k (pattern memory of 2k I/Q) which depending on pattern length can get you close to the duty cycle you need. This is only exposed through loading a custom ARB file though, so I think we would need to expose the period setting through the software/standard mods at some point to be truly useful.
At this point, the BB60C is only going to run on USB 3.0. The architecture is such that it requires a host PC to perform the majority of processing. The device itself has little resources to do the processing required to turn IF samples into sweeps (FFTs), or decimate, and this is what is needed to reduce throughput to the PC. Look for future products to address this.
A side note, the USB 3.0 hubs we use in shop are these http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-SuperSpeed-USB-4-Port-F4U058tt/dp/B009AR2MD2. They let us connect and run up to 8 BB60Cs at a time off a standard laptop.
Regards,
A.J.Hey Jared,
The only thing we have found to be consistent is direct connection to a PC with native (hardware on cpu) USB 3.0. We have had some luck with USB 3.0 hubs and PCI USB 3.0 cards, while others outright fail. I can’t comment on the Thinkpad hub unfortunately.
I asked Justin about the behavior you noted with the mod on/off button, and this appears to be the necessary setup when using the DDS on the VSG. You will see this on the frequency modulated signals such as FM/FSK. You will see another type of behavior for the ARB modulated signals like PSK/multi-tone, again, simply the necessary setup. We are assuming you are looking to achieve some sort of video trigger effect, especially with the request to transmit ‘n’ packets. This is definitely something we will consider on the next hardware revision if we can.
As always, I keep track of all feature requests, thank you for testing the VSG.
Regards,
A.J.Hello Paul,
Our software does include a waterfall display, but does not support the ability to zoom or adjust view regions. We provide the capability to record a series of sweeps and replay them in the software. The waterfall plot can be activated during this replay.
As for Labview support, we provide examples of how to interface our DLL programming interfaces, and some customers have provided sample labview drivers for our interfaces as well, one on the forums here https://signalhound.com/support/forums/topic/labview-drivers-for-sa44/. This might be enough to get you going in Labview.
Regards,
A.J.Hey Jared,
I can’t comment on the mod on/off note. Will get Justin to reply when we get back to the shop.
I can say FSK is on our roadmap. No timeframe yet, but very much something we want to do.
What kind of connection difficulties are you experiencing?
Regards,
A.J.Hello Rob,
Thank you for the feedback. We will be visiting ASK/FSK/MSK in the near future which will bring us much closer to your requested functionality. No time frame yet, but we are glad you are enjoying the BB60A in the meantime. Thanks for picking us over the RSA306!
Regards,
A.J.Hello Shapes,
We provide a C# API for the BB60C. You can find the code in the bb_api folder. The BB60C API is very similar to the SA44/124 API so you will be able to easily retrofit it over to the SA124 api.
It is simply a wrapper to our C DLL, it does not include any sort of visual app.
Regards,
A.J.Hello Jim,
I apologize for the delay in response.
Please email me at aj@signalhound.com if you still need assistance with this. I will need more information to be able to properly assist you. In particular I will need the device you are using, the version of software you are using and some small runnable example of code you are using to setup the device so I can attempt to reproduce the issue.
Regards,
A.J.Hello Nana,
Did you mean to type SA series instead of RA series? If you did, then yes, the bbr file format is the same for all devices.
Regards,
A.J.Hello Ossian,
After our phone conversation, I received confirmation from the owner that we would be willing to look at the device free of charge to determine if there is an issue. If this is of interest to you let me know.
Regards,
A.J.Hi Ossian,
Please call me at 1-800-260-TEST Ext. 2. I work 8-4 PST. We will be able to resolve this quicker over the phone.
If you unable to call, email me directly at aj@signalhound.com, and we can start the support process.Regards,
A.J.Hello Ossian,
The warning informs you when any portion of the signal is greater than the reference level. Typically to warn users when they are approaching compression or when the measurements are being drawn off screen. For the whole trace to not appear on screen with that warning can be the result of a couple things. Is it possible the entire trace is higher than the reference level? This is possible if you accidentally set the reference to a very small number. You can click anywhere on the screen to see a marker reading. What does the marker read in amplitude? I remember you were looking to install a USB card in your PC. It is possible invalid values are being returned to the PC creating bad numbers as well, potentially due to some incompatibility with the card you were installing.
Regards,
A.J.π/4DQPSK will be included in both the VSG25A and the digital demodulation software. The digital demodulation will be available only for the BB60 series at first, but we will be adding support for the SA series in the near future.
Regards,
A.J.Hello Ossian,
Supporting the tracking generator requires firmware level support. The firmware differs between the BB60A and BB60C so the changes made for the BB60C to be supported did not carry over to the BB60A. We do not have plans at this point to pursue this, but it is not out of the question.
The BB60A is not abandoned though. It still receives PC software level support as we continue to update the Spike software application. In fact the digital demodulation capabilities we are adding late May will be supported for both the BB60A and BB60C. The BB60A shares the same programming interface as the BB60C (by design) so that anytime we make PC side changes/additions/improvements both devices receive the benefits.
Regards,
A.J.Hey everyone! Here is a sneak peak of what we have been working on since the beginning of the year. On the left we have the new interface to our upcoming vector signal generator (named the VSG25A) and on the right you can see the upcoming digital demodulation capabilities of the BB60C/A within the Spike software application. The VSG is transmitting a QPSK modulated signal at 890MHz and the BB60C is receiving the signal and triggering on a sync pattern. Both are expected late May.
The VSG25A is priced at $495 and the digital demodulation capabilities will be part of the next Spike software release.
Hello Victor,
I apologize for not making this more clear on our website. The added tracking generator compatibility is only compatible with the BB60C. I apologize for the confusion.
Regards,
A.J.