R&S FPC1500 custom cal kits ... haha...

[eleguy]

After long long decision process I ended up to FPC1500. Before R&S all-package deal I was considering to buy a Rigol VNA. The unit itself is close to perfect. Silent, easy to use, fast enough, etc. However the "all-inclusive package" deal (or like I thought it would be) does not give option to enter the specs of own calibration kits. Instead it has .ckit files but for R&S own calibration kits only. And those are pretty expensive to my taste. Before reading the manual (yes should have read  ) and finding this sentence "you can create and edit calibration kits with the R&S InstrumentView software package and then transfer them to the R&S FPC." I created own SMA calibration set. Did calibration and...  So almost there.... Load matches perfectly but as one would expect the phase does not. The electrical distance of my own calibration set does not match any out of the box R&S "templates".

I would not like to crawl back and buy R&S InstrumentView neither spending 1k on R&S cal kit. Therefore I am asking for help. Does anyone have R&S InstrumentView? If yes, could that helpful someone pass me one ckit file as example? Even better if the file would correspond to DIY SMA cal kit instruction I followed ( https://www.instructables.com/23GHz-SMA-Calibration-Kit/ ) . Hard to tell if it is even possible as I have not even seen Instrumentview ever.

What else could be done (instead of spending more euros)?

[eleguy]

Software seems to be actually free. Only that as an Linux guy I need to find out working Windows from somewhere.  I just got scared of "request" quote button when landed on the first page

https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/fi/product/instrumentview-productstartpage_63493-718976.html

but the SW can be downloaded for free from these locations

https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/fi/software/fsh/
https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/fi/software/instrumentview/

So... littlebit forward. Next I try to figure out correct lengths and fF values for diy cal kit

[eleguy]

Process going forward (yep maybe too frequent updates)

Interestingly opening of the out of the box calibration files shows that

* All "ZV-Z1xx Network Analyzer Calibration Kits Economy" do have values C0...C3 and L0...L4 ( https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/uk/product/networkanalyzer_acc-products_63492-415488.html )
* but all "FSH-Z2x" have only electrical length ( http://imex.co.uk/FSH-Z28 )

So.. proceeded to enter electrical length to the desired value and letting all other boxes to be zero seems to give almost perfect results up to 600-700MHz. Notice that my measuring methods are not ieee proof  However, I need to get almost whole BW into use which means this side "project" is not yet finished.

[eleguy]

And now ok enough 

0) Study the field
1) RTFM
2) Jump back to 0 enough many times
3) Listen someone who seems to know ( )
4) 
5) Succeed (not perfect but good enough for now)

ps. please advice/correct if and when you notice any stupid mistake I did

[RBBVNL9]

Hi Eleguy,

Also purchased the FPC1500 kit ('FPC-COM2'), just got it a couple of days ago. It's a great device and, many things I still need to try. And yes, the Instrumentview program is free and something not to miss. Too bad it is Windows only, and the FPC1500 does not have a web-based utility/control like their RTB2004 oscilloscope has and which I fund quite convenient at times. So every time I need to go and find a Windows computer.

Like many, I guess, I was surprised how expensive calibration kits can get, but eventually, I also ordered the R&S ZN-Z103, which is their automatically switching unit and which is reasonably affordable - at least compared to other kits. That calibration unit still has to arrive though, but I'm curious to see how it compares to some self-made solutions I want to try. There are two element14 reviews of the PFC1500 that offer rather extensive information on DIY calibration kits.

One thing I still did not get to work, is their MobileView app, allowing you to operate the instrument from a tablet. I tried three different iPads (all running the latest OS, 14.4.2) and the latest MobileView app (1.0.3, released a couple of days ago). The spectrum analyzer correctly shows in the search list, it can be selected, but then... the app hangs on a white screen. Same on all three iPads (iPad Pro 12.9, iPad Pro 10.5 and iPad 8gen). Strangely, the app does work on my iPhone - but that screen is way too small to be usable. I sent a support message to R&S, let's see their reply.

Should you (or anyone else) have an FPC1500 and an iPad, can you perhaps give it a try?
 

[eleguy]

Greetings RBBVNL9!

There are two element14 reviews of the PFC1500 that offer rather extensive information on DIY calibration kits.

Thanks for the hint! I wonder why this page never showed up when I searched the net?

I also ordered the R&S ZN-Z103, which is their automatically switching unit and which is reasonably affordable - at least compared to other kits. That calibration unit still has to arrive though, but I'm curious to see how it compares to some self-made solutions I want to try.

Please let me know your findings. I have managed slightly to improve my own set and so far it has worked at least all cases where I have needed it. In addition of those pictures above I just had to buy simple through SMA connector. Seems to work like a charm as well. However, when "breadboarding" at lower frequencies I noticed that it is better to make calibration as close "target" as possible. Meaning having calibration plane close to whatever I am interested at. For that use I made yet another DIY connector. The SMA connector can be forced in breadboard as well as-is but it seemed to break female counterparts so that at least normal sized through hole components did not anymore attach too well. Pic attached.

Should you (or anyone else) have an FPC1500 and an iPad, can you perhaps give it a try?

Sorry, I have "I"-allergy and cannot therefore use those devices.

[RBBVNL9]

Hi eleguy!

Please let me know your findings.

The R&S ZN-Z103 arrived yesterday. It works like a charm with the FPC1500: the instrument directly recognizes this calibration unit and then starts the procedure where the FPC1500 automatically switches the calibration unit to open, short, and load. The relevant calibration settings are also automatically exchanged between the two devices, and the calibration unit is delivered with a full calibration report with some 130+ measurement points. This convenient process also has a possible downside: since the parameters are automatically exchanged, it seems I cannot view or edit them in the InstrumentView software (I'd be interested in seeing and possibly changing the electrical length parameter so I can change the reference plane.). Anyway, need to experiment a bit more there - and buy a cable with an N male and an N female plug; these cables seem to be rare...

Anyway, what I like is that I can now play around with all kinds of own calibrations, and at the end of the day, connect the ZN-Z103 and bring back my device to (more or less) factory settings. (Indeed, I recall when I unboxed the FPC, it showed that the ZN-Z103 was also used in the factory for calibration). Yesterday I tried one of these "RF Demo Kit" boards that are offered for very affordable prices on Amazon and that have 18 one-port (s11) or two-port (s21) test circuits. Worked very well, I had exactly the VNA measurements I expected to get, but of course, this low-end material only works at lower bandwidth (I did the s21 tests at 300 MHz).

And after this playing around, I recalibrated the FPC with the R&S ZN-Z103 ;-)

For that use I made yet another DIY connector.

I indeed want to do some similar experiments next; thanks for sharing the picture. 

[For others]: short update on the MobileView app on iPads: R&S informed me yesterday they could indeed replicate the problem; both with older and newer iPads. This problem may be related to the 1.0.3 version of MobileView, which was released about a week ago. I hope they soon come with a fix.

[RBBVNL9]

[For others]: short update on the MobileView app on iPads: R&S informed me yesterday they could indeed replicate the problem; both with older and newer iPads. This problem may be related to the 1.0.3 version of MobileView, which was released about a week ago. I hope they soon come with a fix.

It took a while, but two days ago, R&S updated the MobileView app in the Apple App store to 1.3.1. This version has a "Fix for the hang issue seen on iPad in previous versions".

And indeed, now it works on the iPad!