Playing and Verifying a Downloaded Waveform

The following procedures step you through loading, playing, and verifying a downloaded waveform using SCPI commands. For help on enabling these functions in the PXB's user interface, refer to Tutorials and Example Configuration Setups.

Playing the Waveform

Before waveforms can be played, you must have selected a configuration and applied it to the PXB hardware. (Refer to Basic PXB Commands for a command sequence that sets up basic instrument functionality.) The number of each type of commands will depend on your

  1. Select the waveforms for playback.

Send one of the following SCPI commands:

[:SOURce]:RADio[1]2|3|4:ARB:WAVeform "<file name>"
This will select the "file_name" from the directory path that you specify. 

:SOURce:RADio[1]2|3|4:ARB:WAVeform "NVWFM1:<file_name>"
This will select "file_name" from D:\Waveforms\Channel1.

The RADio number corresponds to the baseband block in the currently loaded configuration where the waveform will be played.

 

  1. Set I/O features, playback, and fading parameters as desired:

    Send the following SCPI commands to set I/O features, playback, and fading features respectively depending to your selected configuration.

    :CONTrol:IO:[1]2|3|4|5|6|7|8
    [:SOURce]:RADio[1]2|3|4:ARB
    [:SOURce]:FSIM     [1]2
     

  2. Download a waveform to a specific baseband or download waveforms as selected to all basebands.

    [:SOURce]:RADio:[1]|2|3|4:ARB:LOAD ON
    This is the PXB command to download a waveform to a specific baseband.
    or
    [:SOURce]:RADio:ARB:ALL:LOAD ON
    This is the PXB command to download waveforms to all basebands. 

  3. Play the waveform:

:CONTrol:PLAY[:STATe]1|0 ON|OFF
This command starts or stops the waveform playing depending on the trigger setting.

Verifying the Waveform

Perform this procedure after completing the steps in the previous procedure.

  1. Connect the PXB as shown in the following figure.

 

 

  1. Set an active marker point on the first waveform point for marker one.

Select the same waveform selected in Playing the Waveform.

 

Send the following SCPI commands:

[:SOURce]:RADio[1]2|3|4:ARB:WAVeform "file name"

[:SOURce]:RADio[1]2|3|4:ARB:MARKer1:ENABled ON

[:SOURce]:RADio[1]2|3|4:ARB:MARKer1:TYPe:PERiodic

[:SOURce]:RADio[1]2|3|4:ARB:MARKer1:TYPe:PERiodic:PSTart 1

[:SOURce]:RADio[1]2|3|4:ARB:MARKer1:TYPe:PERiodic:PWIDth 500

[:SOURce]:RADio[1]2|3|4:ARB:MARKer1:TYPe:PERiodic:PPERiod 2000

[:SOURce]:RADio:ARB:ALL:LOAD ON

:CONTrol:PLAY[:STATe]ON

  1. Compare the oscilloscope display to the plot of the I and Q data from the text file you created when you generated the data.

If the oscilloscope display, and the I and Q data plots differ, recheck your code. See sample programs for examples of programmatically creating and downloading waveform data. For information on the waveform data requirements, see Waveform Data Requirements.