Author Topic: Siglent SVA1015X and SVA1032X 1.5, 3.2GHz Spectrum & Vector Network Analyzers  (Read 270104 times)

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Offline antenna

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Anyone know the size of the file it writes?  If it is like they say and writes to a new address each time, I imagine by the time it cycles through whats left of that 2Gb of storage and repeats that 100k times, we will all be dead anyhow. 
 
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Offline Johnny B Good

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 Actually, that highlighted in bold statement was precisely what I was trying to get across to IM3. I thought rewording it might help convey the meaning of Siglent's message.
« Last Edit: December 19, 2024, 08:02:29 pm by Johnny B Good »
John
 
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Offline dmytre

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After several months of operation, the reflection coefficient at the startup of the device looks as shown in the attached photo. The device in VNA mode can still be calibrated, but the dynamic range has decreased to S11 levels of -15...-20 dB. Has anyone encountered a similar issue?
 

Offline IM3

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Try checking if you have the correct levels in spectrum analyzer mode. It's possible that the input is blown.
 

Offline IM3

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I think you misunderstood and missed the highlight portion below:

This file system has a balanced management of Flash, which means it is NOT writing to the same physical address.
Our application determines whether the configuration has been modified, and if not modified, it will not be saved.



I’m genuinely trying to understand this.

It seems to me that the configuration changes almost immediately after powering on. The settings are probably adjusted right away—that's just how it goes.

I’m willing to believe that the configuration is stored in RAM, although Siglent doesn’t say that at all in their response. And how do you quickly save it to Flash during a power-down?

After that, I don’t understand what problem Siglent thought they were solving with this option. I could already choose to use the last configuration at startup.

And now Siglent is even saying that in the next update, this new feature can be turned off again.

( sake of the discussion, nothing more.)



Actually, that highlighted in bold statement was precisely what I was trying to get across to IM3. I thought rewording it might help convey the meaning of Siglent's message.

 A reverse variant of all the alternative descriptions used by the disgruntled customer in the Monty Python "Dead Parrot" sketch as in "This flash won't be joining the choir invisible any time soon". :)


Tone can be hard to discern in written text, and it’s possible you intended it as humor rather than criticism. But it might also carry an undertone of "explaining things to someone who doesn’t get it."
And that doesn’t feel right, especially when Tautech follows up with a “Thanks.”

That shouldn’t be the tone we have here.
 

Online tautech

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I think you misunderstood and missed the highlight portion below:

This file system has a balanced management of Flash, which means it is NOT writing to the same physical address.
Our application determines whether the configuration has been modified, and if not modified, it will not be saved.



I’m genuinely trying to understand this.

It seems to me that the configuration changes almost immediately after powering on. The settings are probably adjusted right away—that's just how it goes.
Good.

Let's discuss this further as I understand this.

Always we have had the option to boot from Last settings.
As I see it Siglent has modified how the Last settings are saved to memory in that:

Our application determines whether the configuration has been modified, and if not modified, it will not be saved.

This implies saving was previously done differently and now does a check every 60s when settings are set to Last.

This would be useful for those that suffer power failures for a reboot to provide the same or settings close to those last used.


I have seen NO memory issues with SSA/SVA models since their release and expect Siglent to have made these changes to reduce flash use/wear not increase it.
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Some stuff seen @ Siglent HQ cannot be shared.
 
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Offline IM3

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Wow, do you ever sleep?  :)

Thanks for your addition. It really makes a difference in understanding.

I now also believe that this is not a thoughtless memory destructive option. But it was a concern for many and had been lingering for a while.

In the absence of clarification, I wrote a note to Siglent and had already received an interim response, but now they've answered through you. And that's fine.
 
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Offline Johnny B Good

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Actually, that highlighted in bold statement was precisely what I was trying to get across to IM3. I thought rewording it might help convey the meaning of Siglent's message.

 A reverse variant of all the alternative descriptions used by the disgruntled customer in the Monty Python "Dead Parrot" sketch as in "This flash won't be joining the choir invisible any time soon". :)


Tone can be hard to discern in written text, and it’s possible you intended it as humor rather than criticism. But it might also carry an undertone of "explaining things to someone who doesn’t get it."
And that doesn’t feel right, especially when Tautech follows up with a “Thanks.”

That shouldn’t be the tone we have here.

 My apologies for that "humorous" line. I've snipped it out. I'm afraid I'd gotten the impression that Tautech had been responding to my post despite the quoted text showing he was addressing your apparent confusion. His post had been the final one on page 41 with Antenna's being the first on page 42 of this topic thread and mine the second.

 It wasn't until well after I'd made that post that I turned back to the previous page to re-examine Tautech's post that I realised my mistake. :-[

 As for saving the latest changed version of a configuration data block to the flash, such a short operation can be completed within a matter of a few milliseconds using the energy remaining in the psu's smoothing capacitors (typically a few hundred milliseconds worth).

 This is an already solved problem which I'm sure Siglent must have taken care of, one way or another, otherwise they wouldn't have said what they'd said on the matter.
John
 
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Online tautech

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Wow, do you ever sleep?  :)

Thanks for your addition. It really makes a difference in understanding.

I now also believe that this is not a thoughtless memory destructive option. But it was a concern for many and had been lingering for a while.

In the absence of clarification, I wrote a note to Siglent and had already received an interim response, but now they've answered through you. And that's fine.
Late arising today.....

If we look back at the release notes for V3.2.2.6.2R5 they are a large set where many features have been tweaked or fixed which gave me confidence the complete FW version had been worked on for some time and some changes had been in the plans for a good while but not given to us until they were confident all was well.

Working with Siglent on their private forum they have several branches all working on improvements and from different parts of China but work remarkably well as a team.
Throw in some western input and the complete machine works really well.

Look what your query to the EU GM achieved > Q to SW team > back to EU GM > to me to make a statement here on EEVblog.

Anyways, I hope everybody now has a handle on how Last saves work and that it's NOT a step backward but a improvement in how these analyzers work.
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Offline dmytre

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Try checking if you have the correct levels in spectrum analyzer mode. It's possible that the input is blown.

The SA mode seems to be OK. And tracking generator is also OK. The output power corresponds to the set value.

This positive S11 could be calibrated but the dynamic range degrades.

I have attached the measurement in VNA mode of 8 dB and 20 dB attenuator. S11 ~ -40 dB could not be measured and -16 dB is more noisy than it was before this HW error.

Has anybody seen similar issue?
 

Offline IM3

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Try checking if you have the correct levels in spectrum analyzer mode. It's possible that the input is blown.

The SA mode seems to be OK. And tracking generator is also OK. The output power corresponds to the set value.

This positive S11 could be calibrated but the dynamic range degrades.

I have attached the measurement in VNA mode of 8 dB and 20 dB attenuator. S11 ~ -40 dB could not be measured and -16 dB is more noisy than it was before this HW error.

Has anybody seen similar issue?

I repeated your measurement as you described it and got roughly the same result.

I don’t think there’s anything defective, but you may be making a measurement error. The span of 3 GHz is quite large. Also, the measurement with a 20 dB attenuator can give strange results because the reflection should then be 40 dB. If not everything is set up correctly, you won’t achieve that.

Do this:

    Make sure your stimulus level is -10 dBm. It might have been set much lower in your initial measurement and lowers dynamic range.
    Reduce the span for now because it’s quite large.
    Set a start frequency at for example 250 MHz.
    Set a stop frequency at for example 500 MHz.
    Perform a 1-port calibration with a good LOS (Load-Open-Short).

After that, don’t use your attenuators first for a control measurement but use the Load from your LOS. You should then be able to achieve at least 50 dB Return Loss.

If you achieve this, I don't think there’s anything wrong with your VNA.
« Last Edit: December 20, 2024, 05:40:01 pm by IM3 »
 


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