Instruction manual for the

SR-8 ChannelAnalyzer

Version 2.70

Soft dB inc.

By
Alex Boudreau, Ph. D.
&
Bruno Paillard, Professor. P. eng. Ph. D.

August 2003
Instruction manual for the acquisition system SR-8 ChannelAnalyzer

Table of Contents

1.0 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................3

2.0 HARDWARE (SIGNAL RANGER) ........................................................................................3

3.0 INSTALLATION .....................................................................................................................4

4.0 INTERFACE.............................................................................................................................6
4.1 TIME GRAPH............................................................................................................................6
4.2 FREQUENCY GRAPH ................................................................................................................8
4.2.1 Spectrum display..............................................................................................................8
4.2.2 Acquisition and averaging...............................................................................................9
4.2.3 Other indicators and controls........................................................................................12
5.0 CONFIGURATION OF THE ANALYZER ........................................................................15
5.1 INPUT CONFIGURATION.........................................................................................................15
5.2 OUTPUT CONFIGURATION .....................................................................................................18
5.3 SAVING AND LOADING OF A CONFIGURATION .......................................................................19
6.0 CALIBRATION TOOLS OF THE ANALYZER................................................................19
6.1 ABSOLUTE CALIBRATION INTERFACE....................................................................................19
6.2 RELATIVE CALIBRATION INTERFACE ....................................................................................20
7.0 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................20

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Instruction manual for the acquisition system SR-8 ChannelAnalyzer

1.0 Introduction

The program SR-8 ChannelAnalyzer is an 8-channel acquisition and

frequency analysis system, using a DSP board (Signal Ranger) and a Labview
interface on a PC. In addition to the 8 channels working in parallel, the system
has two independent generation outputs.

2.0 Hardware (Signal Ranger)

The Signal Ranger DSP board was developed by Bruno Paillard, professor at
the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of Université de
Sherbrooke. The DSP used on the Signal Ranger board is a TMS320VC5402 100
MHz fixed point DSP from Texas Instrument. The board has 8 analog inputs and
8 analog outputs. The DSP board is connected to a PC via USB allowing the
exchange of data and providing power to the board. The following figure presents
the board and its connectors. All inputs and outputs have individual ADCs, DACs
and integral anti-aliasing filters.

Figure #1 Signal Ranger Board

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Instruction manual for the acquisition system SR-8 ChannelAnalyzer

Input connections table

Input number on the Number in Figure #1 Dynamic (V)

Signal Ranger board
1 18 ±10
2 16 ±10
3 14 ±10
4 12 ±10
5 4 ±10
6 6 ±10
7 8 ±10
8 10 ±10

Output connections table

Output number on Number in Figure #1 Dynamic (V)

the Signal Ranger
board
1 17 ±1
2 15 ±1

3.0 Installation

Installation is done in two steps: 1) installing the software for the

acquisition system SR-8 ChannelAnalyzer. 2) installing the Signal Ranger USB
driver.

The installation of the SR-8 ChannelAnalyzer is launched by running the

setup.exe program on the installation disc.

When the Signal Ranger board is connected to the PC for the first time,
Windows asks to select the USB driver for the new peripheral. The user must
select the driver in the sub-directory UsbDriver.

After installation, three shortcuts in the Start menu allow to access the
three following programs:

- Calibration: Allows to do an absolute calibration of each gain for all 8 inputs

(see section 6.0 for instructions). A distinct calibration must be done for every
Signal Ranger board.
- Caliauto: Allows to do a relative calibration of each gain for all 8 inputs (see
section 6.0 for instructions). A distinct calibration must be done for every
Signal Ranger board.

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Instruction manual for the acquisition system SR-8 ChannelAnalyzer

- SR-8 ChannelAnalyzer: This is the main program of the analyzer. The

sections 4.0 and 5.0 of this document explain how to operate the analyzer.

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Instruction manual for the acquisition system SR-8 ChannelAnalyzer

4.0 Interface

The user interface is presented in Figure #2.

Figure #2 User interface

The interface displays two graphs: a temporal one and a frequential one.

4.1 Time graph

The Input (Y) control allows the selection of the input channel for the time
signal. The label Amplitude(Unit) on the Y scale of the graph indicates that the
units depend on the user’s definition (see section 5.0 for the analyzer
configuration).

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Instruction manual for the acquisition system SR-8 ChannelAnalyzer

The Sensitivity indicator indicates the number of mV per unit defined by

the user for the selected input (see section 5.0 for the analyzer configuration).

The UNITrms indicator indicates the RMS level of the signal block that is
currently selected.

These graph controls configure the time signal display. The small locks
activate the autorange mode when they are locked. The scales can be adjusted
directly on the edges of the graph’s axes when the locks are unlocked (see Figure
#3).

Figure #3 Adjustment of the scales in Labview

Zooming, panning and cursor management functions are also available

through these controls:

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Instruction manual for the acquisition system SR-8 ChannelAnalyzer

4.2 Frequency graph

4.2.1 Spectrum display

The type of frequency graph is selected by the Spectrum type control. The
following table presents the characteristics of each of those graphs. In this
notation x represents the reference, while y represents the other inputs.

Type Description
Instant spectrum (Syy) Instantaneous autospectrum of the signal y
Auto spectrum (Syy) Autospectrum of the signal y
1/12octave (Syy) 1/12 Octave Autospectrum of the signal y
1/3octave (Syy) 1/3 Octave Autospectrum of the signal y
Octave (Syy) Octave Autospectrum of the signal y
Cross spectrum (Sxy) Cross-spectrum between the reference x and the signal y
Fr. Response H1 Transfer function y/x calculated by Sxy/Sxx
Fr. Response H2 Transfer function y/x calculated by Syy/Sxy
Fr. Response H3 Transfer function y/x calculated by (H1+H2)/2
Coherence Coherence between the signals x and y calculated by
H1/H2

The Reference(X) indicator displays the input channel selected as the

reference. To change the reference, see section 5.0 on configuring the analyzer.

These two controls allow the configuration of the frequency graphs. They
do not have any impact on the coherence graph. The Amp. Format control allows
to select the linear, dB or dB(A) representation. The dB(A) representation is not
possible for all Hx graphs.

This control adjusts the reference used for the dB calculation for
autospectra and cross-spectra. For example in the case of the autospectrum:

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Instruction manual for the acquisition system SR-8 ChannelAnalyzer

Amplin
Ampdb = 10 * log10 ( )
dBref 2

These are the units used for the display of the auto-spectrum and cross-
spectrum. The following table describes each display type:

Unit type Description Example for a sine of 2V of

amplitude
(2 Hz frequency resolution)
Vrms RMS voltage 1.414 Vrms
Vpk Peak voltage 2V
Vrms2 Signal energy 2 Vrms2
Vpk2 Peak energy 4 V2
Vrms/rtHz Spectral density of RMS voltage 1 Vrms/Hz1/2
Vpk/rtHz Spectral density of peak voltage 1.414 V/Hz1/2
Vrms2/Hz Spectral density of signal energy 1 Vrms2/Hz
Vpk2/Hz Spectral density of peak energy 2 V2/Hz

These two indicators present the total and the delta total of the spectrum (real part
or amplitude following the display selection). The delta total is the summation of
the spectrum between the two cursors of the spectrum graph. Both the total and
delta total are calculated using the with for the following graph type selected:

1/12octave (Syy)
1/3octave (Syy)
Octave (Syy)
Fr. Response H1
Fr. Response H2
Fr. Response H3
Coherence

4.2.2 Acquisition and averaging

These three controls start the acquisition (Start Average), reset the average
(Reset Average) and stop the acquisition (Stop Average).

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The Average Type control selects the type of averaging used during the
acquisition. In exponential mode, the Nbr of averages control adjusts the time
constant of the exponential. For each acquisition block, the average is calculated
following the equation:

1 1
Averagei = * Input + (1− ) * Averagei−1
Nbraverages Nbraverages

The Nbr of averages control specifies the number of data blocks used to
calculate the linear average. In the case of an exponential average, this control
specifies the integration time constant as a number of blocks. In linear mode, the
average stops automatically when the selected number of blocks have been
processed. In exponential mode, the average never stops by itself.

This indicator displays the number of blocks acquired since the average
was started.

This indicator switches from the left state to the right state at the end of a
linear average

These two indicators evaluate the real time rate for the continuous
acquisition mode. Data transfer from the DSP board to the PC requires a certain
amount of time that depends on the PC, on the USB port and on the analyzer’s
configuration. When the acquisition time is sufficiently long, data transfer can be
done in real time without introducing additional delays. The instantaneous delay
indicator (Delay(ms)) is updated between each acquisition block and is zero if the
acquisition is in real time. A non-zero delay indicates the amount of signal that is
lost between each block. In addition, the Real tine rate indicator display the real
time rate. The rate is calculated using the following equation:

Rate = Total acquisition time / Total acquisition time for the real time case

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The rate is equal to 1 when the acquisition is in real time.

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4.2.3 Other indicators and controls

These indicators are highlighted when the corresponding input saturates,

that is when the voltage is above 10V after the input gain. If saturation appears
more than 5 times on one or more inputs, an autorange procedure is
automatically launched if the autorange control is on.

This control saves the current frequency graph. The user interface used for
the save operation is displayed below in Figure #4.

Figure #4 Saving interface

Delimiter :

A mode compatible with Excel (tabs between data columns) and a mode
compatible with Matlab (; between data columns) are both available.

Save all inputs :

With the No (current only) option selected, only the selected frequency
graph (Spectrum type) is saved. With the Yes option selected, the frequency
graphs of all inputs are saved. In the case of the Hx frequency graph, the
coherence is included in the file in addition to the real and imaginary parts.

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Header

The user can also request that a header presenting the saved data be
included in the file. Below is an example of the structure of the file for a H1 type
graph with the options Save all input and Header set to Yes (for a case with two
frequency values).

Graph Type : H1
Freq (Hz) : Real(1) : Imaginary(1) : Coherence(1) : Real(2) : Imaginary(2) : Coherence(2) :
0.00E+00 1.00E+00 0.00E+00 1.00E+00 3.56E+02 0.00E+00 5.13E-04
5.30E+00 1.00E+00 0.00E+00 1.00E+00 -4.93E+01 -1.97E+01 1.01E-01
… … … … … … …

This control exits the application. It is only available when there is no

ongoing acquisition.

This control selects the automatic dynamic range management mode.

When one or more inputs are saturated and if Autorange is On, the analyzer
automatically performs an autorange. Upon opening the analyzer, this mode is
always set to On. When the user executes the function Range Adjust, the
Autorange mode is forced to Off. This way, the user can always force the gains
and the dynamic range on the inputs.

Allows the adjustment of the dynamic range of the inputs. The user can
afterwards choose to have the range automatically adjusted (autorange) or to
perform the adjustment manually (manual adjustment). Figure #5 shows the
interface for the manual mode:

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Figure #5 Manual gains adjustment interface

This control activates and deactivates the sources from the main panel.
This panel is only available when there is at least one active source. The user
must first configure and activate one of the outputs using the configuration
functions (see section 5.0).

These controls allow the adjustment of the output volume for both
outputs.

This control launches the configuration of the analyzer. The next section
discusses this topic.

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5.0 Configuration of the analyzer

The configuration of the analyzer is entirely done using an interface that is

independent of the analyzer. The configuration is accessed via the Configuration
control of the main interface. The following configuration panel is then presented:

Figure #6 Configuration panel

5.1 Input configuration

This panel is launched by the Input Configuration control.

Number of inputs:

Number of input channels. Minimum of 2 and maximum of 8.

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Ref Input No:

During the calculation of transfer functions (Hi), the analyzer uses the
selected signal as a common reference for all the inputs.

Acquisition mode:

The analyzer uses three acquisition modes:

- Continuous mode (continuous): This acquisition mode uses a double

buffering technique to allow a real time acquisition under certain
conditions. Data transfers, FFT calculations and result displays are
done concurrently to the acquisition on the DSP board. The indicator
Real time rate of the main interface allows the verification of the
obtained real time rate. The disadvantage of this acquisition mode is
the large size of the memory required on the DSP board. The number
of lines is more limited in this acquisition mode. The configuration
interface automatically limits the number of spectral lines as a function
of the number of inputs used. The following table shows the allowed
number of lines as a function of the number of channels:

Number of channels Maximum number of lines in

continuous acquisition mode
2 3466
3 2598
4 2079
5 1733
6 1485
7 1298
8 1155

- Block mode (Block): in this acquisition mode, all the calculations on

the PC are done between two acquisition blocks. Real time acquisition
is never reached. However, a single buffer is used to store the results
on the DSP board. The number of spectral lines allowed is larger than
in the continuous mode. The following table shows the allowed
number of lines as a function of the number of channels for the block
mode:

Number of channels Maximum number of lines in

block acquisition mode
2 5198
3 4159
4 3466
5 2970

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6 2598
7 2310
8 2079

- Sequential mode (Sequential): in this mode, acquisition is done with

only 2 inputs at a time (the reference X and an input Y). All the
channels are scanned sequentially. The acquisition time is much longer
in this mode. This mode is used only when a large number of spectral
lines are required. In this mode the maximum number of lines is
constant at 5198, whatever the number of channels.

Freq. Span:

The maximum frequency span is 8.48 kHz.

Nbr lines:

The number of lines is limited automatically by the interface as a function

of the acquisition mode and number of channels.

Res. (Hz):

This indicator displays the frequency resolution. To calculate the

resolution, the program divides Freq. Span by the number of lines.

Board input:

For each of the selected inputs, the user must specify the physical input
number on the acquisition board.

Sensitivity:

The sensitivity of the sensor in mV/unit can be specified. In the case where
the units are volts, the sensitivity 1000 mV/unit can be used.

Integration:

For each input, a single or double integration can be specified. The

integration is performed in the frequency domain on the PC.

Windows:

For each input, a weighting window can be specified. Care must be taken
in the case where two inputs are not specified with the same window. In this case,
the window specified for the reference will be used for the calculation of H1,H2

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and H3 and of the cross-spectra (Sxy). Autospectra always use the window
defined by the user.

5.2 Output configuration

The acquisition system has two independent generators. They are

configured via the Output Configuration panel.

Noise Type and F-Fc (Hz):

The following table presents the various types of noise and their
characteristics:

Noise type Characteristics

White noise White noise is generated using the LCG developed by Almarri and
Balda [1]. This generator is able to synthesize unusually long
pseudo-random sequences.
Pink Noise White noise low-pass filtered with a 1st order filter, with a cut-off
frequency adjusted with the F-Fc (Hz) control.
Sine A variable frequency sine is generated by a technique developed
by Alex Boudreau and Bruno Paillard [2]. This technique allows
the generation of an unlimited length harmonic sequence with a
continuously adjustable frequency. The frequency of the sine is
adjusted using the F-Fc (Hz) control.
Sine Sweep Frequency sweep from 0 Hz to 0.4Fs
Off ---

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All the noise source types, except the Sine Sweep, are generated
continuously by the DSP. In the Sine Sweep case, the output signal is
synchronized with the acquisition.

Amplitude (V):

The output amplitude can be adjusted between 0 and 1 volt.

5.3 Saving and loading of a configuration

All the inputs and outputs acquisition and configuration parameters can be
saved and loaded using the Save config and Open config functions.

6.0 Calibration tools of the analyzer

Two types of calibration are suggested here. First an absolute calibration

which requires an external generator. The second type of calibration is much
simpler and no external device is required. But, the second type of calibration is a
relative calibration. It means that each gain is calibrated one in comparison with
the others. The relative calibration is suitable and the when an external calibrator
is used to calibrate the sensor (microphone or accelerometer calibrator).

6.1 Absolute calibration interface

For increased precision, the gains of the inputs of the DSP board must be
calibrated for every Signal Ranger board. The calibration technique is simple: a
100 Hz sine with an amplitude of 0.1 Vpp is applied to the inputs. An external
generator must be used to generate this signal. The panel shown in the following
figure allows the calibration of all the gains and the generation of a calibration
file named caligains.ini.

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Figure #7 Inputs gains absolute calibration interface

In order to simplify the connections during calibration, the process is

divided into two parts (inputs 1 to 4 and then inputs 5 to 8).

6.2 Relative calibration interface

The figure #8 shows the interface of the relative calibration tool. When the
program is launched (caliauto.exe), each gain factor for all input is estimated
using the loop-back configuration of the input/output. All inputs and outputs of
the Signal Ranger board must be disconnected during the calibration process.

Figure #8 Inputs gains relative calibration interface

7.0 References

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[1] K. A. Almarri, J. C. Balda, “Simple Multi-Level Linear Congruential

Pseudorandom Number Generator Having a Large Period Length”, Conference
Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Computer Science and
Informatics (CS&I'2000), Atlantic City (NJ), February 27 - March 3, 2000.

[2] Alex Boudreau, Bruno Paillard “Fast and high precision sine generator for
a TMS320C54x fixed point DSP”. Soon to be published - Texas Instruments
application note.

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