Siglent SSA3000X and SSA3000X-Plus Spectrum Analyzers

[dirtcooker]

After crossflashing a new SSA3021X+ to an SVA1032X: "Vector Network Analyzer" is still greyed out, BW is still 2.1 GHz, TG is the only permanent license. I would be grateful if someone could offer suggestions. Perhaps I have missed something. Is there a "PRO" option?
On the system message screen, it says "605 LIC_INVALID" I don't know if that is normal.

I just purchased an SSA3021X plus, it has FW 3.2.2.4.0. I downloaded SVA1032X_V3.2.2.4.0.ADS from siglent and modified the first line with a hex editor per tv84's instructions and verified the checksum, loaded it onto a FAT32 thumb drive, did a firmware update. It went into the "Upgrading now, please wait..." screen and then rebooted. After that, system info still shows model as SSA3021X Plus, there are 4 temporary options AMK, EMI, DMA, AMA. Mode has "Vector Network Analyzer" "Distance to Fault" greyed out. TG also is nonfunctional. I think this is all normal, e.g., the firmware flashed OK, but there are no licenses enabled. I did a firmware update with telnet_11410.ads, which hangs, but allows telnet access. After getting in, I performed the modifications under item V of electr_peter's post 16124, and also added "  /sbin/telnetd -l /bin/sh -p 10101 &" to startup_app.sh to make it easy to get back in.
 
contents of NSP_config_upgrade_info.xml (I didn't touch this file)

?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>^M
<nsp_upgrade_info_root>^M
        <device>^M
                <upgrade_static_id>11410</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


contents of NSP_sn_bandwidth.xml after editing (verified after rebooting)

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<nsp_system_info_root>
        <device>
                <system_information>
                        <serial_number>
                                <chip>0123456789</chip>
                        </serial_number>
                </system_information>
        </device>
        <serial_number>SSA3PCDXXXXXXX</serial_number>
</nsp_system_info_root>

NSP_trends_config_info.xml

...<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<nsp_trends_info_root>
        <device>
                <language>english</language>
                <pid>0x1301</pid>
                <vid>0xf4ec</vid>
                <product_type_1>SVA1032X</product_type_1>
                <manufacturer>Siglent</manufacturer>
                <Support_Touch_Flag>1</Support_Touch_Flag>
                <Support_VXI11_Flag>1</Support_VXI11_Flag>
                <file_prefix>CP_</file_prefix>
        </device>
</nsp_trends_info_root>

[tv84]

I performed the modifications under item V of electr_peter's post 16124

It looks like you didn't do this correctly or, at least, complete...

[dirtcooker]

I performed the modifications under item V of electr_peter's post 16124

It looks like you didn't do this correctly or, at least, complete...

yes probably, but I can't see what is wrong. I also renamed the two files to nsp_data_b1x and nsp_data_bx, adding an x at the end of each. Those two files are still there upon reboot, although the system added new ones with the original names after rebooting. I suppose that is normal. Perhaps I should remove them and reboot.

[passedpawn]

I performed the modifications under item V of electr_peter's post 16124

It looks like you didn't do this correctly or, at least, complete...

yes probably, but I can't see what is wrong. I also renamed the two files to nsp_data_b1x and nsp_data_bx, adding an x at the end of each. Those two files are still there upon reboot, although the system added new ones with the original names after rebooting. I suppose that is normal. Perhaps I should remove them and reboot.

I can tell you that I performed the changes per this post (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent-ssa3000x-spectrum-analyzers/msg3563577/#msg3563577) and nothing else and it was painless.  Perhaps start over and go through that list. 

[dirtcooker]

I can tell you that I performed the changes per this post (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent-ssa3000x-spectrum-analyzers/msg3563577/#msg3563577) and nothing else and it was painless.  Perhaps start over and go through that list.

That is exactly what I did, with several exceptions: I did not modify NSP_config_upgrade_info.xml to change the product ID's, since I had already crossflashed to the sva1032x, and even after mount -o remount,rw /usr/bin/siglent/firmdata0, I had to add write permission chmod o=rw NSP_sn_bandwidth.xml in order to modify it. maybe I should change it back to read only. I can't see how that would make any difference, but who knows?
It will not flash back to SSA3021_3032XP_V3.2.2.4.0.ADS so I cannot start over from scratch. I could try reflashing with the factory SVA1032X_V3.2.2.4.0.ADS, maybe something went wrong with the first time. That will likely remove telnet access, so I hope that telnet_11410.ads will get me back in.
Another difference from peter's summary, he says "serial number shows XXXX." however my serial number is shown in the system info screen, and starts with "SSA3....). Maybe I should change it to XXXX
Does anyone have a better idea?

update: I found a solution. I deleted /usr/bin/siglent/firmdata0/nsp_data_b1 once more, then sync && reboot. Voila! All options enabled and now the serial number shows as XXXXX. I do not know what happened the first time around. After my changes, I entered sync, but then cycled the power from the front panel. This time, I did sync && reboot. That is the only thing I can think of.
Many thanks to all who unlocked this gem! The built-in directional bridge works well over the full 3.2 Ghz band. After calibration, measuring S11 of a 20 dB pad reads 40 db return loss, just as it should. Clearly my unit has the internal reference cable that was missing on some units.

[rrrrr]

Hello all,

A long time lurker but new poster

I've read with great interest the threads about upgrading a Siglent SSA3021X plus into a VNA and jumped right buying a fresh SSA and starting the upgrade following electr_peter’s excellent step by step guide. I'm not a Linux user but felt pretty confident of managing the upgrade

I used Telnet to perform the initial SA back up and then followed on to backup the main directories, so far, so good

But then after opening the startup_app.sh file with Vi I wasn’t able to see the line ” /usr/bin/siglent/Aladdin &" to insert the command to automatically start Telnet without the USB

Without making any changes and not knowing exactly what else to do I skipped the edit and closed the file with ‘sync && reboot’. The SA rebooted and started normally. No harm done, or so I thought

But now I can’t access the SA with Telnet using any of the ADS files at port 10101. I can still Telnet to the unit and run SCPI commands however

I then tried going back to square one and performed the initial SA backup again on a new USB drive as this doesn’t need Telnet access but that no longer works either, no backup files are created, doh!

Despite the unit working normally it appears that something has gone very wrong with Telnet access. My symptoms appear to be the same as those experienced by user Hostile in post #1598.

I tried reinstalling 3.2.2.4.0 firmware but as expected, that didn’t do much. I’ve tried multiple times, rebooted everything more than once and I have also tried 3x different USB sticks all formatted to FAT32, 2x 32GB and 1x 8GB, as well as formatting a 2G partition to no avail

Do I need to gain access via the internal debug port to straighten things out or can I recover Telnet access with the backup files?

Thanks, in advance

[scotty7]

Hi,

I purchased a SVA1032X and I'm trying to unlock all the features. I followed the instructions here https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent-ssa3000x-spectrum-analyzers/msg3180754/#msg3180754. but I am unable to access the device over telnet. It reads the update file, but then does not hang or reboot, it just fails and exits to the file explorer. From preliminary reading it seems like the telnet enable script is only applicable to devices with the correct device ID, and since the SSA ADS file will not have the correct device ID to enable telnet on the SVA, it's failing. Does anyone know of a script that will enable telnet on the SVA1032X? It's running 3.2.2.4.0

Thank you!

[tautech]

From the Repair threads a SSA3021X front end repair short video repaired a damaged RF input:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/fixing-the-rf-front-end-of-a-spectrum-analyzer/

[eloso]

Another success in running the SSA3021X with all options, full bandwidth and the SVA firmware.  Serial number all the XX of course.
 
Like others I too found that the USB drive was mounted read only and my solution required checking the drive block device name, unmounting it and mounting it again.   More or less a long hand way of doing what has already been described by Weston in 1653 which I hadn’t noticed at the time so I won’t add unnecessary instructions to the thread.

At one point I took a pause of a few minutes to deal with another matter and when I returned the USB drive was read only again. I haven’t checked but I am guessing there is a cron job that is scheduled to do this regularly. I re-enabled write access and all was well.

Can I just add that I am retired and  have no real “need” for a nice SVA1032X with all the options. I am educating myself in some finer arts of RF analysis and will derive no financial gain from doing these upgrades.  But I am deriving much pleasure and knowledge.  I suspect many home customers are the same.

I wouldn’t have purchased an SSA3021X if it would have remained as a base unit.  There are better second hand options on the market for educational purposes.   I would hazard a guess that Siglent are not losing money by us doing these upgrades, probably the contrary.  If I was still in business I wouldn’t dream of doing this kind of thing. Imagine going to the boss to explain why you’ve bricked the test gear and lost the warranty ?!

So thank you tv84 et al,  your extensive work and your time is hugely appreciated.

[tautech]

Another success in running the SSA3021X with all options, full bandwidth and the SVA firmware.  Serial number all the XX of course.
 
Like others I too found that the USB drive was mounted read only and my solution required checking the drive block device name, unmounting it and mounting it again.   More or less a long hand way of doing what has already been described by Weston in 1653 which I hadn’t noticed at the time so I won’t add unnecessary instructions to the thread.

At one point I took a pause of a few minutes to deal with another matter and when I returned the USB drive was read only again. I haven’t checked but I am guessing there is a cron job that is scheduled to do this regularly. I re-enabled write access and all was well.

Can I just add that I am retired and  have no real “need” for a nice SVA1032X with all the options. I am educating myself in some finer arts of RF analysis and will derive no financial gain from doing these upgrades.  But I am deriving much pleasure and knowledge.  I suspect many home customers are the same.

I wouldn’t have purchased an SSA3021X if it would have remained as a base unit.  There are better second hand options on the market for educational purposes.   I would hazard a guess that Siglent are not losing money by us doing these upgrades, probably the contrary.  If I was still in business I wouldn’t dream of doing this kind of thing. Imagine going to the boss to explain why you’ve bricked the test gear and lost the warranty ?!

So thank you tv84 et al,  your extensive work and your time is hugely appreciated.

Welcome to the forum.

You will find needs just as I have.
Enjoy your SVA. 

PS.
You belong here how:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent-sva1015x-1-5ghz-spectrum-vector-network-analyzer-(coming)/

[rrrrr]

Hello Scotty7,

It looks like we both may have a similar problem with Telnet access to the unit

Maybe one of the local blog scholars can give us a hand?

[Bicurico]

Each device type of the Siglent SSA family has its own Device ID.
Within the same model (i.e. SSA3000X) there might be different Device ID's to prevent FW downgrade: a new FW might increase the Device ID number.

Every FW has a header with the compatible Device ID.

tv84 has done fake FW upgrade files that TEMPORARILY activate telnet on a specific port (don't remember which port - it is normally not the common port 21!). Once the FW upgrade is finished/the device is rebooted, the telnet functionality is gone (unless you use the telnet session to restore a permanent telnet function).

tv84 made different telnet FW upgrade files, matching the different Device ID's: you need to use the one that matches your Device ID - if you have an SVA (original or cross-flashed) you need to use the SVA telnet FW version.

Thats all there is to it.

Regards,
Vitor

[tv84]

files that TEMPORARILY activate telnet on a specific port (don't remember which port - it is normally not the common port 21!).

Usually I use port 10101. Port 21 is FTP, telnet is 23.

[_pavel_]

Can also confirm the upgrading recently bought Siglent SSA3021X Plus into VNA.
I performed all steps carefully but anyway faced with the problem described in the post #1655.
Finally deleting /usr/bin/siglent/firmdata0/nsp_data_b1 once more helped (update from #1659).

[rrrrr]

I gave up and went in through the debug port, re established Telnet access using the method of post #1578 and then ran through the steps outlined in post #1624 from electr_peter. Apart from a few hiccups, all went well and I now have a fully unlocked SVA1032X!

I did have to change the file system to read/write from read only using $ mount -o remount, rw /dev/sda1 before I could complete step V) 2). And in some cases had to retry a particular step more than once before it succeeded

Big thanks to everyone who contributed to the project! Cheers!

[Kuikie78]

Hi to you all,

I just received an SSA3021X from the widow of my colleague who passed away last year.
The current running firmware is 1.3.9.6
Is there a way to brick(hack) this unit/FW to activate the AMK option?

Currently, the unit has an officially installed license for the options reflection & TG.

Any help is welcome!

[tv84]

Brick?   

[Kuikie78]

Hi,
By brick, I meant modified FW in order to activate the licenses.

[Barossa]

G'day,

I have a SSA3021x that developed a problem with the display becoming unstable after warming up for a few minutes. A video showing the problem can be viewed here -

https://www.ping.net.au/SSA3021x_Display_Fault.mov

AFAICT, everything else continues  to work just fine. This unit is about 5 years old and has performed flawlessly until now. It is running firmware 1.3.9.7 on HW 07.03.00,  which I believe is current. I suspect the fault to be either the power supply, video controller or LCD. At the moment I'm lost  without a circuit diagram and spare parts. Has anyone seen this before and fixed the problem? I really appreciate any help you can provide.

[Bicurico]

Hello,

I need some help from owners of the SSA3000X-Plus and SVA3000:

My "VMA Simple Spectrum Analyser Software for SSA3000X" (https://vma-satellite.blogspot.com/2017/03/vma-simple-spectrum-analyser-for.html) does not work with the Plus and SVA models.

I suspect this is because the ":TRACe:DATA? 1" command will not output exactly 752 samples as the SSA3000X model, but a different amount of samples.

I wonder if someone can tell me how many samples this SCPI command produces.

Also, if someone happens to know what else could cause the incompatibility, I would appreciate it. The only command that seems to be causing issues with my software is this ":TRACe:DATA?" command. Setting thiings like Start/Stop Frequency works apparently fine. Unfortunately I don't own the Plus model...

Thanks,
Vitor

[tautech]

G'day,

I have a SSA3021x that developed a problem with the display becoming unstable after warming up for a few minutes. A video showing the problem can be viewed here -

https://www.ping.net.au/SSA3021x_Display_Fault.mov

AFAICT, everything else continues  to work just fine. This unit is about 5 years old and has performed flawlessly until now. It is running firmware 1.3.9.7 on HW 07.03.00,  which I believe is current. I suspect the fault to be either the power supply, video controller or LCD. At the moment I'm lost  without a circuit diagram and spare parts. Has anyone seen this before and fixed the problem? I really appreciate any help you can provide.

Welcome to the forum.

Not seen this before.
The way it flickers it suggests it's a display power problem however it could also be the ribbon cable. 
Check all the display cables and reseat all connectors. Take care with the ribbon cable socket lacking tabs. Maybe gently clean the tinned end of the ribbon cables carefully with an eraser. Inspect all socket solder joints.
Service manual:
https://int.siglent.com/upload_file/user/SSA3000X/SSA3000X_ServiceManual_SM0703X_E01A.pdf

[tautech]

Hello,

I need some help from owners of the SSA3000X-Plus and SVA3000:

My "VMA Simple Spectrum Analyser Software for SSA3000X" (https://vma-satellite.blogspot.com/2017/03/vma-simple-spectrum-analyser-for.html) does not work with the Plus and SVA models.

I suspect this is because the ":TRACe:DATA? 1" command will not output exactly 752 samples as the SSA3000X model, but a different amount of samples.

I wonder if someone can tell me how many samples this SCPI command produces.

Also, if someone happens to know what else could cause the incompatibility, I would appreciate it. The only command that seems to be causing issues with my software is this ":TRACe:DATA?" command. Setting thiings like Start/Stop Frequency works apparently fine. Unfortunately I don't own the Plus model...

Thanks,
Vitor

SSA Plus and SVA have a different programming guide to SSA so maybe your code and command set needs to account for the differences.
https://int.siglent.com/upload_file/user/SSA3000X/SSA3000X_ProgrammingGuide_PG0703X_E04A.pdf
https://int.siglent.com/u_file/document/ProgrammingGuide_PG0703P_E02A.pdf

[hendorog]

Hello,

I need some help from owners of the SSA3000X-Plus and SVA3000:

My "VMA Simple Spectrum Analyser Software for SSA3000X" (https://vma-satellite.blogspot.com/2017/03/vma-simple-spectrum-analyser-for.html) does not work with the Plus and SVA models.

I suspect this is because the ":TRACe:DATA? 1" command will not output exactly 752 samples as the SSA3000X model, but a different amount of samples.

I wonder if someone can tell me how many samples this SCPI command produces.

Also, if someone happens to know what else could cause the incompatibility, I would appreciate it. The only command that seems to be causing issues with my software is this ":TRACe:DATA?" command. Setting thiings like Start/Stop Frequency works apparently fine. Unfortunately I don't own the Plus model...

Thanks,
Vitor

See attached file.
You get 751 values not 752 - which matches what it says on the screen.
This was generated from telnetting in on 5024 and sending TRACE:DATA?

(I did a search/replace to insert the carriage returns so the values were easier to count.)

[Bicurico]

@tautech: The SCPI commands are the same, the Plus and SVA models just have further commands to support increased functionality. However, the Siglent SCPI manual is lacking some important information, which is normally included: it fails to mention the exact structure of the replies received from the device for each command - hence  my problem. Perhaps you can forward this complaint to Siglent...

@hendorog: Thank you very much! That is exactly what I was looking for. It seems, on a first look, that the Plus/SVA models send 751 samples, while the standard SSA returns 752 samples. This would explain why my software freezes - it is waiting for the missing sample! I need to double check that, though, as I might be wrong.

Regards,
Vitor

[Bicurico]

I have found and fixed the issue. It seems that the SSA3021X has a slightly different output than the SSA-P and SVA models. I presume that the SSA-R behaves the same.

Anyway, my software now works correctly on any Siglent Spectrum Analyser model. I will upload the new version tomorrow to my blog, for those interested.

Regards,
Vitor