Example VI for reading Touchstone data files

[kathar]

Can someone please suggest an example VI for reading a touchstone data file (A__S_params.s2p) for me as a starting point. I want to get the magnitude and phase data of S21 to design a filter. I have tried to use Touchstone Data Plugin with the (DataPlugins - ATML) project from the LabVIEW example finder to first convert Touchstone file to TDMS format but have not been successful. Thanks.

[kathar]

Sorry I forgot to attach the data file last time. Here it is.

[Zwired1]

Still no data file.  Seems to be a lot of that recently.  Anybody at NI monitoring?

[AGJ_CR · Accepted solution]

Hi Kathar,

The links below might be helpful for you:

http://www.ni.com/example/28433/en/

http://www.ni.com/example/31284/en/

Regards,

AGJ

[billko]

A touchstone file is really just a tab delimited text file with some header info.

[ben64]

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@billko wrote:

A touchstone file is really just a tab delimited text file with some header info.

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Actually I've seen different flavors depending on the originator of the file. The Touchstone File Specification data line formatting rule just says that individual entries are separated by whitespace. HP-ADS separates the values with multiple space characters, the N5230A and C uses a single space character, the E5071C uses a single tab character. I usually replace multiple spaces or tabs with a single tab before processing the data.

Ben64

[billko]

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@ben64 wrote:

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@billko wrote:

A touchstone file is really just a tab delimited text file with some header info.

---

Actually I've seen different flavors depending on the originator of the file. The Touchstone File Specification data line formatting rule just says that individual entries are separated by whitespace. HP-ADS separates the values with multiple space characters, the N5230A and C uses a single space character, the E5071C uses a single tab character. I usually replace multiple spaces or tabs with a single tab before processing the data.

Ben64

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That's the truth.  I don't know why I said "tab" because I've seen different formats, too.  The point I wanted to make was that ultimeately it's just a parsable text file.  🙂

[kathar]

I am grateful to all of you who have responded. I have downloaded the Touchstone Toolkit v1.00. Here are the instructions for installing the toolkit:

Touchstone Toolkit v1.00

Installation Instructions

1. Place the Touchstone Toolkit v1.00 and the errors folders in the C:\Program Files\National 
  
   Instruments\LabVIEW 6.1\user.lib directory.

2. Restart LabVIEW to refresh palettes

3. Two new palettes will be added

 Controls Palette- User Defined Controls sub palette : Touchstone Toolkit Palette

 Functions Palette -User library sub palette: Touchstone Toolkit Palette

I have two questions:

1. Is there a more recent version of Touchstone toolkit? If so where can I find it from?

2. I am using LabVIEW 2013. In which folder I should place the above two folders so that two new palettes are added.

Thanks.

PS: I am having difficulty adding screenshots and files to these messages.

[billko · Accepted solution]

Put it in your corresponding user.lib folder.  That's really neat that you dound a toolkit!  It will probably work just fine.  🙂

[kathar]

I have just placed both the folders in the user.lib folder and have restarted LabVIEW.  I can see both the palettes now with all the functions and controls. That should help solve my problem. Thanks to all of you.

Regards and best wishes,

Kathar