Author Topic: Source for .arb waveforms?  (Read 7900 times)

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Offline MatCatTopic starter

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Source for .arb waveforms?
« on: February 25, 2014, 07:56:28 am »
Just got a new DS1074Z-S, noticing that the arb waveform can be 16kpts I am wondering if anyone knows a good resource to find per-existing arb waveforms?  Maybe even start a little thread to keep a repo of them if there isn't already a good source for them.
 

Offline MatCatTopic starter

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Re: Source for .arb waveforms?
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2014, 09:29:38 am »
Wow, 24 hours and nothing!  Does anyone even know of any software that can read / edit them even?
 

Offline KedasProbe

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Re: Source for .arb waveforms?
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2014, 09:43:12 am »
For the DG series there is Ultra Signal Studio.
http://www.rigol.com/prodserv/DG4000/software/
(advanced function are time limited)
screenshot http://www.mikrocontroller.net/attachment/136072/rigol-ultra-signal-studio-1.png

I don't know if the format is the same, but I can upload some that I made.
« Last Edit: February 26, 2014, 09:48:45 am by KedasProbe »
Not everything that counts can be measured. Not everything that can be measured counts.
[W. Bruce Cameron]
 

Offline MatCatTopic starter

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Re: Source for .arb waveforms?
« Reply #3 on: February 26, 2014, 10:22:11 am »
This software makes no sense, it supports my DS1074Z-S so it says, however the software does not see my scope, no problems I can save it, of course it wants to use extension .raf which makes no sense but if I rename it to .arb my scope will see it however it has no data.
 

Offline Rigby

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Re: Source for .arb waveforms?
« Reply #4 on: February 26, 2014, 12:06:23 pm »
Yeah, I can't figure it out either.
 

Offline MatCatTopic starter

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Re: Source for .arb waveforms?
« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2014, 04:19:36 am »
Seeing how I couldn't find a solution I made one!  Thanks to ktempkin poking around the binary the file format was figured out and I made a simple C command line to convert from .csv to .arb, it currently expects a value from -1 to 1 (Based on ArbExpress output), though I do plan to add a way to specify the min and max values.

You can find the source here: https://github.com/MatCat/csv2arb

And a screenshot of a waveform I created in ArbExpress and converted:
 
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Offline MatCatTopic starter

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Re: Source for .arb waveforms?
« Reply #6 on: February 27, 2014, 04:25:39 am »
Oh one thing to note, for now the input has to be exactly 16,384 sample points, I plan to add interpolation support.
 

Offline Rigby

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Re: Source for .arb waveforms?
« Reply #7 on: February 27, 2014, 01:18:51 pm »
Excellent, thank you.
 

Offline Rigby

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Re: Source for .arb waveforms?
« Reply #8 on: March 02, 2014, 12:31:36 am »
At first I couldn't figure out how to compile that on Windows, so I ported it to C#.

Then, I wanted something to compare the output of my program against, so I figured out how to compile yours on Windows in Visual Studio.

They produce the same output, if you ignore a difference in rounding, but the output from my .csv file apparently fails to produce a valid .arb file, while .csv files created by ArbExpress work fine.  They're both full of values between -1 and 1, inclusive, and they're both 16384 points.  Not sure what's up.

Anyway, I was able to get the siggen in the DS1000Z-S to go well beyond 25MHz this way, which is what I wanted.
 

Offline Rigby

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Re: Source for .arb waveforms?
« Reply #9 on: March 02, 2014, 12:56:50 am »
The -3db point for the siggen on my DS1074Z-S is about 44MHz.  Verified on two 100MHz scopes, but I guess it could be the BNC cable coming out of the Rigol.

The trick is to load a .arb file with 2 or more full cycles of whatever waveform you wish to play, then multiply the configured frequency by the number of cycles in the .arb file you've loaded.  I loaded a .arb file with 10 sine wave cycles.  When I turn the frequency up to 4.4MHz, it's actually playing 10x that, 44MHz.

I'm a bit disappointed that the hardware can't go higher than that, but for the price it's not bad at all, I guess.  Can't complain much.

At 7MHz the amplitude REALLY drops off, and at 9.33MHz the waveform starts to alias with the 10-cycle .arb file I loaded.

FYI.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2014, 01:05:03 am by Rigby »
 

Offline zapta

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Re: Source for .arb waveforms?
« Reply #10 on: March 02, 2014, 01:40:57 am »
Does this help?

http://cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/E4400-90627.pdf

Look for example at page 31.
 

Offline Rigby

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Re: Source for .arb waveforms?
« Reply #11 on: March 02, 2014, 03:56:02 am »
Does this help?

http://cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/E4400-90627.pdf

Look for example at page 31.

that tells how to create files for Agilent signal sources, doesn't really help me with my Rigol.  I understand the .arb format well enough, at least when the whole file is one waveform, but I don't know yet why my data fails to create a valid .arb file.  Time to dig out Excel and formula up some tests.
 

Offline 1.21gigawatts

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Re: Source for .arb waveforms?
« Reply #12 on: September 06, 2014, 03:45:20 am »
This software makes no sense, it supports my DS1074Z-S so it says, however the software does not see my scope, no problems I can save it, of course it wants to use extension .raf which makes no sense but if I rename it to .arb my scope will see it however it has no data.
You need to install "Ultra Sigma" from Rigol and a driver from NI to make this work. Having been down this road (success with a DS1074Z-S, not so much with an MSO2072A-S - see my thread about this), I'm currently cobbling together a c# program that takes a .csv and sends it directly to the scope.
 

Offline Sparky

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Re: Source for .arb waveforms?
« Reply #13 on: July 09, 2018, 03:16:38 am »
Just wanted to post that Rigol did provide a specification of the Arb. Wave Gen format across the DG1000/4000/5000 series.  It was written in Jan 2015 but probably came out much later than that.  I just found it when looking for info on the .RAF file format and though this thread is many years old, it's still searchable and has relevant information, so I thought it's worthwhile to reply and upload the document here.  See attachment.

Sparky
 


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