Aaronia Spectran V6 PC USB Real-Time Spectrum Analyzer 10Mhz - 6Ghz

[Hundleton1]

AAronia Spectran V6 PC USB Real-Time Spectrum Analyzer

Hi All, I have been very lucky to have been given access to the AAronia Spectrain V6 PC USB Real-Time Spectrum Analyzer for a little while.

Over the coming weeks I will be using this on a number of project's as well as take a look at it in action and I am more than happy to provide any info or tests if anyone is interested.



Spectran V6 RSA 2000X






The SPECTRAN® V6 X is Aaronia's latest generation of high-performance real-time spectrum analyzers. With a sweep speed of over 1THz/s it sets new standards in the USB compact class.
Any number of devices can be cascaded to achieve an even higher real-time bandwidth. Thus, by using only four SPECTRAN® V6 X, a real-time bandwidth of 1GHz is already achieved!
The included software RTSA-Suite PRO is precisely tailored to the powerful and robust hardware and supports the use of multiple SPECTRAN® V6 X.
The stackable aluminum housing facilitates the parallel use of several units.
The SPECTRAN® V6 X will initially be delivered in three versions: V6-RSA250X, V6-RSA500X and V6-RSA2000X - with a max. instanta­neous bandwidth (complex I/Q) of up to 245MHz (via 2xUSB). The analyzer is compatible to all common Aaronia antennas.





Highlights
• Frequency range: 10MHz to 6GHz
• Instanta­neous bandwidth (complex I/Q) of up to 245MHz (2x122MHz)
• Unlimited continuous true I/Q streaming over up to 2xUSB 3.0
• I/Q vector signal generator bandwidth of 120MHz (opt. 245MHz)
• Sweep speed up to 1THz/s
• Several devices cascadable!
• Parallel measurement of several frequency bands
• World's first and only Dual USB true I/Q streaming up to 784MBytes/s
• POI up to 97ns (FFT based)
• POI up to 10ns (I/Q based)
• Exceptional dynamic range through the use of a 16-bit ADC with 2GSPS (Giga Samples per Second)
• Sample rate: 500 MSPS (16 Bit Dual 256 MSPS I/Q-Data)
• FPGA: 930GMAC/s
• FFT rate: 960 million FFT points/s (120 million FFTs/s)
• Full MATLAB support
• Stackable accessories
• Light and compact
• Including the software RTSA-Suite PRO with daily updates
• Made in Germany



More Images Of The Spectran V6

It Uses up to 2 x USB 3 ports for data transfer for the real- time analysis with the RBW, it has its main USB and then a second boost. The model I have will do upto 184Mhz IQ Rate









Some RTSA-Suite PRO screen shots with the missions profiles showing both options for Spectra and IQ Data Output, Capture and Analysis.








I am just scratching the surface on this at the moment but there is a massive amount of capabilities with this hardware and software, I will be posting some videos over the coming weeks as well if anyone is interested.

[Noy]

Don't turn it on... Take it apart!! And do some nice pictures..

[jjoonathan]

2xUSB 3.0

LOL, Cypress dragging their heels on the 10Gb/s EZ-USB FX3 has absolutely wreaked havoc on the USB test equipment market. First SignalHound bolts on 10GbE at enormous expense and now Aaronia uses two USB ports? 

[thm_w]

Agreed, teardown please.

LOL, Cypress dragging their heels on the 10Gb/s EZ-USB FX3 has absolutely wreaked havoc on the USB test equipment market. First SignalHound bolts on 10GbE at enormous expense and now Aaronia uses two USB ports? 

Yeah USB thing is funny but would not surprise me at all if it is massively cheaper, same for the case of 10GbE.
I guess they could have a single cable and a 3.2 hub inside too.

[Doodly2000]

I think they use USB since it offers a highly advanced package loss/fix protocol: https://v6-forum.aaronia.de/forum This seems to be essential for reactive IQ processing (as far as i see they can use the Rx and Tx at the same time) and for handling such a high amount of data (245MHz IQ streaming is a real killer challenge for hard and software).
10G Ethernet would be for sure a very bad choice for this job and even worth it is very uncommon. 10GbE us super rare but every PC or laptop offers plenty of fast USBs incl. the power distribution. So in my opinion USB is clearly the better choice especially in future with USB4 comming soon.
BTW: Congratulation to Aaronia for the idea combining two USB for IQ streaming. Never seen such a hardware/software feature so far. It must have been a hell of work and i am still wondering how it works! 

Even though the signal hound offers a 10GE it can only stream 40MHz IQ which is quite poor (5%-10% of the possible data rate).  It seems that this cant be changed: https://signalhound.com/support/forums/topic/compressed-iq-stream/  Better use USB in future instead of burning money on 10GbE? 

[jjoonathan]

Yes, everybody wants to use 10Gb USB, but the Cypress chip isn't ready, which is why both SignalHound and Aaronia did something silly. SignalHound did 10GbE so that they could stream full 160MHz, Aaronia did double USB.

EDIT: No, SignalHound is not limited to 40MHz streaming over 10GbE. That's the USB limitation, not the 10GbE limitation. Come on, look at the dates in the thread.

[Doodly2000]

You are right so Aaronia can stream 245MHz IQ via 2xUSB and the SH 160MHz via 10GbE (40MHz via USB). Lets see what is next since the next generation seems to offer 450MHz IQ streaming https://v6-forum.aaronia.de/forum/topic/44ghz-90ghz-spectran-v6-pro-series/#postid-619 

[Doodly2000]

I am wondering how they connect this monster with over 2GHz RTBW to the PC? https://v6-forum.aaronia.de/forum/topic/ultra-wide-band-array-20-rx-10-tx-as-19-rack/

[BitBangingBytes]

Any other testing or highlights you can share? In the market for a Spectrum Analyzer like this but curious your overall impressions after using it for a while?

How would you compare it to the Rigol RSA series if you have used those.

-Hash

[tv84]

  I had not yet seen these "beyond realtime" devices!!!

They came with PC or we have to buy the PC?

[Doodly2000]

I think it depends on the form factor. They have an overview at: https://v6-forum.aaronia.de/forum/topic/spectran-v6-x-series/

I have seen some interesting developments from GNURadio and others using those units:

[Yashu]

Yea.. 2 USB ports seems kludgy, but what works... right.

The software seems interesting and more mature than SignalHound. FMT looks available. Deep recordings and playbacks w/ nice mouse wheel control. Software supports configurable processing flow via a block-based GUI build editor. Simul multiple devices seem to be supported in the editor.

I wonder if zero-span multilevel triggering can be built in the GUI.

I can't seem to find a real engineering teardown and review of the software features and capabilities.

I wonder if a VNA / SNA software upgrade package is on the way.

Was getting ready to pull the trigger on an SM200C, but I think I saw where a 26GHz version of this unit is on the horizon and the software seems quite rich.

[Doodly2000]

@Hundleton1 made a nice video on the SPECTRAN V6:

[Bicurico]

I have never felt very confident in Aaronia products. They seemed a bit fishy to me.

I would like to see a video showing the "realtime" spectrum across the whole supported freqeuncy range.

Also, I would like to see a video showing the accuracy of the measurments. Like measuring the centre frequency of a known transponder or, even better, signal of a signal generator.

Hopefully I can be proven wrong: it seems that Aaronia uses lots of spectacular graphs to render the swept data, but i wonder about the quality of those samples.

Finally, please let us know the price range of the device you are testing.

Regards,
Vitor

[Qw3rtzuiop]

I have never felt very confident in Aaronia products. They seemed a bit fishy to me.

I have the same feeling. They also produce e-smog shielding and e-smog detectors   

In a german forum they posted stuff without disclaimer under different names.
https://www.mikrocontroller.net/topic/277913#2928466

[Doodly2000]

I would like to see a video showing the "realtime" spectrum across the whole supported freqeuncy range.

Regards,
Vitor

Are you up to something like this?

[HighVoltage]

I have never felt very confident in Aaronia products. They seemed a bit fishy to me.

About 12 years ago I bought a complete Aaronia system with antennas brand new from them, because I was convinced that it would work for my application at the time. But their marketing material was much much nicer than the reality.

A few years later I sold it all for like 20% of what I had paid.

[Bicurico]

I would like to see a video showing the "realtime" spectrum across the whole supported freqeuncy range.

Regards,
Vitor

Are you up to something like this?

That looks amazing!

What does It cost?

Would be great to have a comparative test against the equivalent SignalHound model.

[Doodly2000]

I would like to see a video showing the "realtime" spectrum across the whole supported freqeuncy range.

Regards,
Vitor

Are you up to something like this?

That looks amazing!

What does It cost?

The sky is the limit since there seem to be a lot of hardware and software options (even a drone detection SW) available but a price tag of 3500 Euros is mentioned at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_software-defined_radios