Programmatic control of Windfreak's SynthNV Sig Gen

[SunshineDesign]

I am trying to programmitically control the Windfreak SynthNV Sig Gen and am not able to communicate and control the unit.

has anyone else worked with this and been successful at automating control for it? I am using Labview 2013 SP1 and am using latest document from Windfreak. The Synthizer does not respond to any inputs.

[ChrisStrykesAgain]

Can you see the devices COM port in MAX?

If so, I would open a test panel and try sending it a command. I am not familiar with this device, but looking over the command datasheet(located at http://www.windfreaktech.com/docs/synthnv/serialcomm.pdf ), I would suggest "?" without the quotes. From what I understand that should yield a response.

[SunshineDesign]

Christopher yes I can see the ASRL8::INSTR address in MAX and in Labview. I have contacted the company owner and discussed with him. The issue is the Synth NV does not have a com service loop to process input commands sent to it.

I get no response from the SynthNV.exe, so all calls fail. I use the same com port char send/read routine they use inside the application and no response. Looks like I will have to use it manually as owner indicated no quick solutions to the issue. I strongly lobbied for the programing cabability and certainly a Labview driver we can work with would certainly make this a much better test equipment offering.

[ChrisStrykesAgain]

Are you saying that device itself won't respond to signals because the device doesn't continuously look for new commands? If so, that confuses me a lot, as it says it accepts serial commands for control purposes. 

If that is the case, however, I'm afraid there's not much that can be easily done.

[SunshineDesign]

That is correct Christopher. I think we have a means to fix the problem. If you sen d commands to the device, the operator must manuall press the "Download Settings" button for the changes to be read and placed into the control panel. Not my iodea of automation. So we are going to add a timing loop and a user event to firce the read and transfer of the inputs to the control app. This should address the problem and allow full automation. I alreadyy  discussed with Windfreak owner and may have a driver for them soon.

[ChrisStrykesAgain]

Alright, that makes sense then. Glad to know you got things pseudo worked out.

[SunshineDesign · Accepted solution]

I worked with the owner to resolve the issues with automation control. I only coded the functions I needed. Although testing did show high harmonic levels, making it unusable for my application. I did show the owner how a typical labview driver would be written. He didn't have the extra budget to support writing the full driver. Not a bad product for what it does, just performance is not high enough for my application.

[Windfreak]

Many if not all of these lower cost USB controlled RF Signal Generators are based on PLL+VCO chips that fundamentally generate fairly large harmonics, especially after RF dividers are kicked in at the lower frequencies.  Windfreak has done something to combat this issue by releasing the SynthNV PRO that has a 16 band switched harmonic filter on its output that helps out tremendously with this issue.

https://windfreaktech.com/synthnv_pro_wamicon/

Windfreaks communication protocol with this device is similar to other WFT products released since 2014.  It requires opening a virtual serial com port (drivers included in Win10, Mac OS and Linux).  Sending a command like f1000.0 will change the frequency to 1000MHz.  Sending a command W-10.12 will program the power level to -10.12dBm for that frequency.  There are other single character commands that will generate sweeps, or sweep and measure outputs.  Further making use easier for the Labview user, Windfreak ships every product with the Labview GUI sourcecode, so the user can just cut and paste what they need into their application.