Hack of Sigllent spectrum analyzer ssa3021X?

[Attenbach]

UPDATE / SMITH CHART ISSUE SOLVED
Ok so maybe this is common knowledge, but I had to find it out for myself after tons of otherwise great advice.

YOU MUST SOLDER THE MISSING SMA CONNECTORS AND WIRE FOR VNA MODE TO WORK


Attached is a fairly tale in 7 pictures, after the key hint from user techneut, who described encountering a similar issue in 2020, with the same culprit. Thank you!

TUTORIAL TO GET THE SVA MODE:

minimum Tools you need:
- a T10 screwdriver
- a spoon
- pliers
- a sharp knife
- a wire
- tape
- a well-lit work area and something to put your 1.6 k€ SSA on. Make sure you disconnect anything from the ports and ideally place the protective caps back on.

Recommended additional materials (I haven't done this yet at the time of writing):
- 2x NARROW SMA Female connectors
- connecting wire...


Steps (all orientations below are in reference to looking at the SSA screen as in normal operation):
- With the T10, open 4 screws at the bottom's front feet. The clips can fall out, don't worry, stow them away
- Open the top two screws hidden under the handle bar
- Carefully scrape away the calibration void sticker at the bottom, it is not too fragile, rocking a sharp knife carefully cleanly gets it off
- (try lifting the plastic cover towards the top, see the first picture attached below to familiarise yourself with the clips that still hold it in place. I did the following, prob. stupid:)
- Using a flat tool, I used a spoon, carefully pry off the plastic housing still held by the top two clips.
Carefully lift up the plastic cover, and stow it away.

Now lets unscrew the metal back housing containing the power supply:
- First, using your pliers, undo the three nuts and washers on the back BNC connectors for REF in, REF out, Trig In.
- Carefully scrape away the calibration void sticker at the top, again it is not too fragile, rocking a sharp knife carefully cleanly gets it off. I used the hot gun from a distance to warm it up a bit (not too hot, you shouldn't burn yourself when you touch the metal)
- Then, going around the side of the metal enclosure, undo the seven (7) screws holding the back metal encasing.
- Carefully lift up the metal cover, undo the power cabling, and stow it away. You should see picture 1

As you can see, the cable is missing (picture 2), AND IT IS NECESSARY. Skip the next paragraph, just FYI:

I quickly bent a wire (picture 3) to check whether this is the culprit, and carefully installed it, using tape to ensure it doesn't short out with the aluminium shield (picture 4). Be cautious, the aluminium shield around the cutouts is not necessarily well deburred, don't cut yourself.
I reconnected the power cabling, placed the metal enclosure back and screwed it in with two screws.
Turning the SSA3021X Plus SVA1032X back on, I am finally!!!!! greeted with normal curves (picture 5, default screen when entering SVA mode), which yields an uncalibrated Smith plot (picture 6) and finally what is to be expected after calibration... (picture 7, with my DIY cal. 50 Ohm load)

I hope this helps. Doing the full fix requires unscrewing all screws, clean soldering, the additional materials and proper care overall. I will do this, but I think it needs no further explanation. Good luck and enjoy your SVA!

[Kean]

Fixed with a spoon and a paperclip.  I love it! 

[Attenbach]

I really CANNOT recommend the full tear down, for what it's worth. I only continued to inform the forum...

If you do though, carefully pull off the two (2) SMB cable ends ending in the aluminium block and rotate them aside. Using a plier, carefully remove the single cable going over as well.

Now, carefully unscrew all screws marked with "1", as well as the two other screws circled in red in picture 8. Then you can carefully lift out the module (make sure you tool the protective caps off the N connectors). Picture 9

Then, make yourself a jig to keep track of all screws and remove all other screws (Picture 10). Not much has changed PCB-wise from a first glance (Picture 11). As you can see, actually only the connectors are not populated! (Picture 12).

The straight-line distance between the center of both SMA connectors is about 27 mm.

[Attenbach]

Concluded modifications.

TLDR: Idk. I am an absolute noob and won't do RF, and I would NOT recommend it for people like me. Simply fasten a wire, maybe even a coax properly and you will be fine.

Alternatively, reserve one hour at least, unscrew countless of screws, be super careful because when orienting the assembly such that you can solder the SMA/Bs, the backplate wants to fall off. You will smear your fingerprints everywhere, trying to temporarily fix the pcb to the aluminium backplate.

Then make sure that your soldering doesn't drip on that fancy PCB, ideally create a cutout as big as the sma connector into a piece of new A4 paper, place it onto your PCB to prevent flux from dripping on those beautiful traces. Make sure your soldering skills and your soldering iron is high-end, be informed those 4 holes for the SMA standoffs for grounding are insanely well thermally coupled to a huge plane. You will need a fast regulating, high power soldering iron to do a proper job. Do a good job on that 27mm coax cable (I use a JBC at home, here I had only a generic hardware solder iron and it was pain).

Then reassemble everything carefully...add that coax and wrap up. Congrats, you got a SVA now.

[Bicurico]

Excellent job!

And even better description and documentation of the process.

But the best: your advise against doing it for those not it possession of the required equipment and capabilities.

Regards,
Vitor

[DH7DN]

Fixed with a spoon and a paperclip.  I love it! 

In before eBay prices for paperclips and spoons explode 

Great hack! 

[tv84]

Then, make yourself a jig to keep track of all screws and remove all other screws (Picture 10).

  

[Jah2024]

Good day, I hope you are doing well. Lately, I have been experiencing problems with the SSA3021 web interface. I can connect to the SSA and select all the menus, but when I click "Instrument Control", the screen becomes blank.
Do you have any idea what may cause this?
Thank you.

[tautech]

Good day, I hope you are doing well. Lately, I have been experiencing problems with the SSA3021 web interface. I can connect to the SSA and select all the menus, but when I click "Instrument Control", the screen becomes blank.
Do you have any idea what may cause this?
Thank you.

Welcome to the forum.

Please state the exact model, is it SSA3021X Plus ?
V3.2.2.6.2R5 is the latest firmware, do you have this version installed ?

[ozkarah]

Concluded modifications.

TLDR: Idk. I am an absolute noob and won't do RF, and I would NOT recommend it for people like me. Simply fasten a wire, maybe even a coax properly and you will be fine.

Alternatively, reserve one hour at least, unscrew countless of screws, be super careful because when orienting the assembly such that you can solder the SMA/Bs, the backplate wants to fall off. You will smear your fingerprints everywhere, trying to temporarily fix the pcb to the aluminium backplate.

Then make sure that your soldering doesn't drip on that fancy PCB, ideally create a cutout as big as the sma connector into a piece of new A4 paper, place it onto your PCB to prevent flux from dripping on those beautiful traces. Make sure your soldering skills and your soldering iron is high-end, be informed those 4 holes for the SMA standoffs for grounding are insanely well thermally coupled to a huge plane. You will need a fast regulating, high power soldering iron to do a proper job. Do a good job on that 27mm coax cable (I use a JBC at home, here I had only a generic hardware solder iron and it was pain).

Then reassemble everything carefully...add that coax and wrap up. Congrats, you got a SVA now.

Good work Attenbach,

How is the VNA functionality affected by the existence and loss of the bridge cable?
Is it possible to make a test with and without the cable, so that we could understand if the bridge cable exists or not without opening our devices?

[Attenbach]

Hi ozkarah,

I have yet to learn how to be able to link to a specific message in this forum, but you can find my odysee here when looking for the "bode plot" or "weird smith chart" threads. (I will add the links once I learned this).

In short, if your (smith) charts looks like a hot mess, you know you need that cable (picture 1 and 2, the bottom two...). If you have curls, curves or dots (picture 3 and 4), you likely have a cable pre-installed.

[Jah2024]

Welcome to the forum.

Please state the exact model, is it SSA3021X Plus ?
V3.2.2.6.2R5 is the latest firmware, do you have this version installed ?
[/quote]

Thank you for the warm welcome.
Yes, the model number of the tool is SSA3021X Plus.
The firmware I am using is V3.2.2.5.0. Where can I find the new version (V3.2.2.6.2R5).

Thank you for your assistance.

[tautech]

Welcome to the forum.

Please state the exact model, is it SSA3021X Plus ?
V3.2.2.6.2R5 is the latest firmware, do you have this version installed ?

Thank you for the warm welcome.
Yes, the model number of the tool is SSA3021X Plus.
The firmware I am using is V3.2.2.5.0. Where can I find the new version (V3.2.2.6.2R5).

Thank you for your assistance.

Siglent HQ have all firmware available to download for most of the products they ever made.
SSA3000X Plus:
https://int.siglent.com/download/firmwares/?ProId=48

[davorin]

Good evening from \.ch (o;

Been a while I've done electronics...but now as I was laid off from my employer at the age of 57 I will receive hopefully tomorrow a SSA3021X Plus as my xmas present (o;

Tried to follow this thread, which isn't easy with 52 pages of information...but is the upgrade to 3032X Plus still possible with the mentioned python script here and all the other options?

Just asking if anything might have changed in new firmware releases from Siglent.


Also what I would like to know...is there a software like EasySpectrum available for macOS or Linux?
If not...I'll do my own version for macOS/Linux as I have done for my Rigol DS1104Z scope.

[tautech]

Good evening from \.ch (o;

Been a while I've done electronics...but now as I was laid off from my employer at the age of 57 I will receive hopefully tomorrow a SSA3021X Plus as my xmas present (o;

Tried to follow this thread, which isn't easy with 52 pages of information...but is the upgrade to 3032X Plus still possible with the mentioned python script here and all the other options?

Just asking if anything might have changed in new firmware releases from Siglent.


Also what I would like to know...is there a software like EasySpectrum available for macOS or Linux?
If not...I'll do my own version for macOS/Linux as I have done for my Rigol DS1104Z scope.

No.

EasySpectrum offers little the perfectly good inbuilt webserver offers.
The webserver can run with any browser.

LXI Tools may suit your requirements:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/open-source-lxi-tools-v2-0-released/

Do you have a specific requirement for remote control that maybe I can demonstrate ?

Your other questions are answered in in posts from the last few days.

[davorin]

Good afternoon (o;

DHL finally delivered my SSA3021X Plus...

But when I do a:

Code: [Select]

:SYST:LKEY Meas,xxxxxxxx

with the code generated from https://www.online-python.com/PX3v0J8nbs I get a LIC_INVALID message under Sys Messages.

Did I misunderstand something completely?
Having SW 3.2.2.6.0R10.

[Bicurico]

Have you selected the correct model?

You need to edit the script to match your HostID and model:

Code: [Select]

# Enter here the Host ID of your spectrum analyzer (available in System Info)
HOSTID = '0000000000000000'

# Uncomment the Model - depending on the spectrum analyzer you have
#Model = 'SVA1000X'
#Model = 'SSA3000X'
#Model = 'SSA3000X_Plus'
#Model = 'SSA3000R'


[davorin]

Yes...pasted in the Host ID and chose the right model:

Code: [Select]

# Enter here the Host ID of your spectrum analyzer (available in System Info)
HOSTID = '0200001Fxxxxxxxx'

# Uncomment the Model - depending on the spectrum analyzer you have
#Model = 'SVA1000X'
#Model = 'SSA3000X'
Model = 'SSA3000X_Plus'
#Model = 'SSA3000R'



[davorin]

Ah..had a typo in my Host ID (o;

What is the upper frequency limit of the 3021X Plus? 3.2GHZ?
And what do all the option keywords mean in the python script?

[Bicurico]

The option keywords are there because they were in the FW file. Not all work, though.

For the Plus model, you want to use 3032 (max. upper frequency for your model) and ALL (which should activate all options in one go).

[davorin]

Thanks..worked like a charm (o;

[mandor]

Hello.
I've converted my SSA3021XPlus into SVA1032X.
Thanks tomud, electr_peter, tv84, bicurico, tautech, Attenbach. If I missed anyone it wasn't on purpose.
Let me summarize what I have done as there is a lot of different approaches int his thread added over the years that are not all necessary.
I don't take credit for anyones work. It's all in this thread which other people discovered, made, invented, programmed etc.

-----------------------------------
To convert to VNA

you will most likely need to add a 50 ohm cable for what Attenbach has made an excelent guide in these posts.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hack-of-sigllent-spectrum-analyzer-ssa3021x/msg5742239/#msg5742239
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/hack-of-sigllent-spectrum-analyzer-ssa3021x/msg5742267/#msg5742267

I'd add there are two plastic clips holding the housing on top of the device on either side just as the housing starts to round on the corner. I presed between two plastics with a butter knife and that released them. I gues a guitar pick or some plastic pry tool would be better. Do not wiggle the tool just press straight down. On my device, the position of the clips was showing on the darker plastic and Daves video also shows how he does it.

Pictures are very valuable. Attenbach pointed out that screws marked as "1" release the shielded board and pointed out one other screw on the shield that should have been marked "1" and one screw holding the shielded board but not on the shield. So, all screws marked "1" plus two others to remove the shielded board.

It's not hard to remove the shield at all, and if you soldered before there shouldn't be a problem soldering SMA (or SMB) connectors and assemble it back again.
This is what VNA measurement looks like without the cable.

This is VNA measurement with added cable


This is me adding the cable


-----------------------------------



If you just want to add software options

------------------------------------------------------------
Installing software options and convert to SSA 3032X Plus
------------------------------------------------------------
On Siglent device
    Press "System" button
    Select "System Info" on screen
    Make note of Host ID

Open python script http://tpcg.io/_SV2SRE
Inside script change HOSTID to your device Host ID
Uncommentt (remove "#") in front of 'SSA3000X_Plus' (or other models)
Run the script with "Execute" button on top left
Make note of "ALL" and "3032" codes generated. This is the key to install all software options at once.

On Siglent device
    Choose "Load Option" (on system info screen)
    Type in key from python script ("ALL") using number keys ("+/-" switches between numbers and letters)
    Press "Enter"
    Device is checking the key for a few seconds, then confirms the key and offers to reboot.
    Choose to reboot device
   
    Repeat steps
    Enter code "3032" to unlock 3.2 GHz bandwidth
------------------------------------------------------------




if you want to convert to SSA to SVA - Crossflash (This is only for SSA 3021X Plus, not SSA 3015X, not SSA 3021X)
You need USB drive formated FAT32.

------------------------------------------------------------
How to open ADS file on Siglent
------------------------------------------------------------
On Siglent device
    Press "File" button
    Put USB drive with .ADS in the front USB port
    Select file .ADS from USB
    Press "Open/Load"
    Press "Enter"
    Device reboots
------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------
1. Note system information
------------------------------------------------------------
On Siglent device
    Press "System" button
    Select "System Info" on screen
Take a picture of all the information on screen or write it down

Mine were
Serial SSA3PAxxxxxxxx
Host ID EA00001Fxxxxxxxxx
SW1 3.2.2.6.0R10
SW2 20231127-1601
SW3 000000D4
HW 01.00.00
------------------------------------------------------------


You probably only need telnet for backup and system info files change.
This is how I did it, but i believe Skipping to step 6. is possible.
(Can someone please confirm?)


------------------------------------------------------------
2. Install Telnet on Windows 11
------------------------------------------------------------
Open Windows start menu
Search "features"
Click "Turn windows features on or off"
Mark checkbox "Telnet Client"
Click "OK"
Reboot computer
------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------
2A. Open telnet and turn it on by default
------------------------------------------------------------
Open browser interface (type Siglent device IP address into browser on PC)
Click on "SCPI"
Type in command "DEBTTT"
Click "Send"

Open Powershell
Type "telnet 10.11.20.113 23" (change to your device IP)
login as 'root', pw 'ding1234'
------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------
2B. Open telnet to Siglent for the first time
(if step 2A. didn't work. If it did, skip to 3.)
------------------------------------------------------------
https://mega.nz/file/f4Ey3aSI#iUI-JWDMABce_L32IbyRbTyq5kYcVmTd6B_hBLGbNhM

Save SSA3000X+_telnet_11411.ADS to Flash drive
On Siglent device
    Put USB drive with SSA3000X+_telnet_11411.ADS in the front USB port
    Press "File" button
    Select file SSA3000X+_telnet_11411.ADS from USB
    Press "Open/Load"
    Press "Enter"
        (Siglent device hangs with "Upgrading now" message)
On PC
    Open Powershell
    Type "telnet 10.11.20.113 10101" (change to your device IP)
        prompt /usr/bin/siglent # appears
    Type exit
------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------
3. Make Siglent device Open telnet by defult without flash drive (optional)
------------------------------------------------------------
Learn how to use VI editor https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/navigation-in-vi/
On PC
    Open Powershell
    Type "telnet 10.11.20.113 10101" (change to your device IP)
   
    Type or copy-paste commands:
    Make files writeable
        mount -o remount,rw /usr/bin/siglent
    And add telnet server startup line in file /usr/bin/siglent/startup_app.sh
        vi /usr/bin/siglent/startup_app.sh
    type "i" to go to insert mode
    Enter the following line exactly close to the end, just before line "/usr/bin/siglent/Aladdin &" (you can paste with ctrl+v)
        /sbin/telnetd -l /bin/sh -p 10101 &
    To write file and exit VI press Esc, type ":wq" and press Enter
    Finalise changes and reboot
        sync && reboot
------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------
4A. Backup files from Siglent (optional)
------------------------------------------------------------
On PC
    Open Powershell
    Type "telnet 10.11.20.113 10101" (change to your device IP)

    Backup main directories (copy and paste commands to Powershell)
        cd /
        cp -R /usr/bin/siglent/usr/backup /usr/bin/siglent/usr/mass_storage/U-disk0/SA-backup
        cp -R /usr/bin/siglent/usr/config /usr/bin/siglent/usr/mass_storage/U-disk0/SA-config
        cp -R /usr/bin/siglent/usr/usr /usr/bin/siglent/usr/mass_storage/U-disk0/SA-usr
        cp -R /usr/bin/siglent/usr/vnacalikitdata /usr/bin/siglent/usr/mass_storage/U-disk0/SA-vnacalikitdata
        cp -R /usr/bin/siglent/firmdata0 /usr/bin/siglent/usr/mass_storage/U-disk0/SA-firmdata0
        exit
Take out flash drive from Siglent device, plug it in PC and copy backup files from flash drive somewhere safe
------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------
4B. Backup (optional) - this didn't work for me.
------------------------------------------------------------
https://mega.nz/file/X1lRXYoC#d7i9niYaERasr614-EAszG4-ToacVMa50f5eS9XzoWE
On Siglent device
    Press "File" button
    Put USB drive with SSA3000X+_backup_11411.ADS in the front USB port
    Select file SSA3000X+_backup_11411.ADS
    Press "Open/Load"
    Press "Enter"
    Device reboots
------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------
5. Check product ID
------------------------------------------------------------
open telnet
vi /usr/bin/siglent/config/NSP_config_upgrade_info.xml

Should look something like
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>^M
<nsp_upgrade_info_root>^M
        <device>^M
                <upgrade_static_id>11411</upgrade_static_id>^M
                <upgrade_start_id>11400</upgrade_start_id>^M
                <upgrade_end_id>11499</upgrade_end_id>^M
        </device>^M
</nsp_upgrade_info_root>        ^M
                ^M

upgrade_static_id is product ID (11411), so the crossflash should work
------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------
6. Crossflash (SSA to SVA)
------------------------------------------------------------
https://mega.nz/file/7sViFCyY#FCM4FJbRaQU5l6GcqHofCAndgWm8qccJ_sW-v7fcjSQ
Load SVA1032X_V3.2.2.4.0_11411.ADS to USB drive
Load file to siglent device
------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------
7. Edit configuration to change product name (optional)
------------------------------------------------------------
Telnet into Seglent device

vi /usr/bin/siglent/firmdata0/NSP_trends_config_info.xml
type "i" to go to insert mode
Change product_1 line to:
    <product_type_1>SVA1032X</product_type_1>
Delete <product_type_2>, <product_type_3>, <product_type_4> lines
Press "Esc" to exit edit mode
Type ":wq" to save and close
Finalise changes and reboot
    sync && reboot
------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------
8. Flash newer firmware (SVA update)
------------------------------------------------------------
This was newest firmware at the time. You can also download from Siglent but check if someone else had done it before.
https://mega.nz/file/OpsR3YYA#zKapRHVb5p-5EVa7__acbg6sC5B3P7BEBKemgZzD2os
Load SVA1000X_V3.2.2.6.2R5.ADS to USB drive
Load file to siglent device
------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------
9. Install software options if missing
------------------------------------------------------------
Use same python script as for SSA just uncomment SVA1000 line instead of SSA3000.
------------------------------------------------------------

[IDontKnow]

Worked like a charm.

Thank you!

[ozkarah]

Hi ozkarah,

I have yet to learn how to be able to link to a specific message in this forum, but you can find my odysee here when looking for the "bode plot" or "weird smith chart" threads. (I will add the links once I learned this).

In short, if your (smith) charts looks like a hot mess, you know you need that cable (picture 1 and 2, the bottom two...). If you have curls, curves or dots (picture 3 and 4), you likely have a cable pre-installed.

Thank you Attenbach,

I did some tests. I could calibrate the VNA with the kit that came with Lite VNA64.
Then, I measured results similar to those of Lite VNA64.
Looks like my device has the cable installed.

[vsilves]

Could the folks with an SSA3021X Plus and the missing connectors/wire post their Siglent's certificate of calibration "calibration date" ?

Mine is 2024-10-30.  Trying to see if yours is older or newer than mine, without opening the instrument or installing the VNA firmware. 

I'm pretty sure I'm hosed too, just trying to compare and confirm.

Edit: I ask because I ordered mine directly from Siglent USA now in December and the back has no date of manufacture, made in China.  There is hope that it took a while to get here from China (but delivery was within a week, so it was already here in the USA).

Edit 2: Impatient, so opened and had the same missing connectors. All working now.  Had to use a regular 15 cm extension cable.  At least until I can source something shorter.  Get good results on Smith chart so not in a rush now.