Virginia Diodes Erickson PM5, Operational Manual

Page 1: ...979 Second Street SE Suite 309 Charlottesville VA 22902 6172 USA Tel 434 297 3257 Fax 434 297 3258 www vadiodes com 2019 Virginia Diodes Inc All Rights Reserved PM5 Operational Manual 2019 ...

Page 2: ...ction 7 PM5 Software Guide USB and GUI Pages 11 13 Introduction and Software Startup Page 11 GUI Control Buttons and Overview Page 12 GUI Control Buttons Detailed Functions Page 13 Appendix 1 Programming Commands Communications Pages 14 18 Programming Communications and Commands to the PM5 Page 14 Communications and Protocols from the PM5 Page 15 Status Byte 1 Status Byte 2 Status Byte 3 Tables Pa...

Page 3: ...interface with the PM5 thanks to open source coding Safety Read all instructions and information in this PM5 product manual before turning on or using your power meter Start Up Operation procedures must be followed for proper function of the PM5 If you have questions contact VDI at 434 297 3257 before using your power meter 1 Use of any attachments not authorized by VDI may void the PM5 s limited ...

Page 4: ...AC Power Input 90 240V 50 60 Hz Calibration Input Banana jacks for DC calibration max 15V USB Interface Type B jack Analog Output via BNC to other equipment 10 to 10 VDC Front Panel Rear Panel Sensor Head Overview Section Two Sensor Head with a 1 inch WR10 straight waveguide and a 1 inch waveguide taper to WR10 are attached Copper Flange is nickel plated tapped holes are easily stripped Keep waveg...

Page 5: ...correspond to correcting for input loss and negative values correspond to correcting for input gain The maximum correction is 29 9 dB The correction for the internal waveguide loss is only about 0 2 dB at 100 GHz See Section 5 for details about using tapers and horn antennas See Appendix 2 for a detailed description of WR10 SWG and taper frequency dependent insertion loss Rear Panel Power Switch a...

Page 6: ...C corresponding to 0 mW A USB Type B port is provided for full instrument control Temperature drift is compensated to 2 μW C Auto Scale Mode allows for relatively rapid range changes 30 seconds compared to the normal ranges The range will change automatically based on input power Operational temperature range 10 30 C Required power 90 240 V 50 60 Hz Typical Performance Scale FS Time for 90 Respons...

Page 7: ...ng Use of Tapers in High Frequency Measurements located in Section 5 11 Review conditions affecting Power Meter Response Times located in Section 6 12 See additional information detailing PM5 software the USB and GUI located in Section 7 Modes of Operation Range Switch Selections Fixed Range Mode Fixed Range Mode can be entered by setting the Range Switch to 200 μW 2 mW 20 mW or 200 mW the setting...

Page 8: ...ibrium takes over one hour to achieve under such conditions Significant drift and zero offset can be induced by physically rotating the sensor head A noticeable source of apparent drift is due to the wideband response of the sensor The sensor response band extends from 60 GHz to at least the visible spectrum and so it responds to thermal emission from any object Viewing an object only a few degree...

Page 9: ...pected beam size and a precise beam match is not needed since the waveguide can carry several modes DO NOT use a horn tapering down to single mode size and then a taper up to WR10 since this adds greatly to the waveguide loss and makes mode matching much more critical Flange Details The UG387 waveguide Flange is nickel plated copper and its tapped holes can be stripped very easily compared to wave...

Page 10: ...w Figure 3 Response on the 200 µW scale 90 response is at 12 sec while 99 is at 31 sec After 60 sec the reading changes insignificantly Figure 4 Response on the 2 mW scale 90 response is at 0 6 sec while 99 is at 5 sec After 8 sec the reading changes insignificantly Figure 5 Response on the 20 mW and 200 mW scales After 3 sec the reading changes insignificantly Response settled to 99 is at 1 0 sec...

Page 11: ...o that the drivers may be automatically loaded 5 Run PM5 exe installed during setup in the installation directory Doing so will open the window shown in Figure 6 6 Enter the serial number found on the sensor head in the SN field Default is 235V 7 Run the program by clicking on the arrow in the top left corner 8 Clicking the Run Continuously button from ON to OFF will stop the program Figure 6 Scre...

Page 12: ...file for logging power measurements Start Logging starts or stops logging data to a selected file Start Strip Chart starts or stops plotting to the graph below Get Rev populates the Version field with the PM5 firmware revision number Run Continuously starts stops continuous data collection Measurement Interval sets time Sec between points in strip chart plot High Resolution switches command set re...

Page 13: ...r than the sampling rate of the PM5 as described in the specifications High Resolution switches the program to a different command set that returns more bits when measuring power The default command set returns 16 bits for the power measurement over the USB same rate as PM4 However the PM5 has up to 10 times less noise Sixteen bits does not provide enough resolution to realize the full benefits of...

Page 14: ...x3f and terminated with a carriage return x0d There is no checksum or other method of validation within the protocol The first second third and last bytes are ASCII characters The first second and third bytes are the command characters as shown in Table 1 below Set commands start with the character In this instance values are written to the PM5 Query commands start with the character In this insta...

Page 15: ...m the query D1 or DS has the following format Byte 1 is D Byte 2 is the LSB of the data Byte 3 is the MSB of the data Byte 4 is Status Byte 1 Byte 5 is Status Byte 2 Byte 6 is Status Byte 3 No response from the host is expected after receipt of this message In the returned response Bytes 2 and 3 together constitute the data in 16 bit integer format short integer These two bytes should be unpacked ...

Page 16: ...ocal Remote 1 Remote 0 Local Status Byte 2 Definition bit 7 4 Cal Factor ones digit binary encoded bit 3 0 Cal Factor decimal point digit binary encoded Status Byte 3 Definition bit 7 5 Range Status Bits Range Selected Auto determined by Byte1 bit7 000 OFF no range selected 001 200 µW 010 2 mW 011 20 mW 100 200 mW 111 Error multiple ranges selected bit 4 Cal Factor Sign digit 1 is 0 is bit 3 0 Cal...

Page 17: ...to Remote this will change the range to 2 mW Bytes 4 7 must be sent but the receiver ignores R3 if the front panel rotary switch is set to Remote this will change the range to 20 mW Bytes 4 7 must be sent but the receiver ignores R4 if the front panel rotary switch is set to Remote this will change the range to 200mW Bytes 4 7 must be sent but the receiver ignores R5 if the front panel rotary swit...

Page 18: ...l the PM5 gets a D1 command or until the power is turned off The internal sample rate is 1 Hz on 200 W range 5 Hz on 2 mW range 20 Hz on 20 mW range and 35 Hz on 200 mW range VC will request the firmware code and secondary firmware code revision data Bytes 4 through 7 must be sent but the receiver ignores High Resolution Get Power Command The PM4 command structure returns 16 bits representing meas...

Page 19: ... measurements Possible methods to compare power measurements made by different research laboratories are also important topics but they have not been considered here VDI will update this document from time to time to reflect improved measurement techniques and equipment upgrades Figure 8 This table lists VDI correction factors for various waveguide bands Figure 7 Data for taper and PM5 sensor head...

Page 20: ...ensor Head weighs approximately 8 ounces about 22 kg Despite its robust construction it should not be dropped or roughly handled since its internal components connection points and the Flange can be misaligned or damaged Appendix Three PM5 Mechanical Drawing Sensor Head ...

Page 21: ... 2019 Virginia Diodes Inc All Rights Reserved WR10 1 Inch Self Symmetric Taper PM5 Mechanical Drawing WR10 1 Inch Taper ...

Page 22: ...GHz The Virginia Diodes staff of engineering and physical science professionals works to continually improve our products We also depend upon feedback from colleagues and customers Ideas to simplify the meter s operations improve performance or add capabilities are always welcome Be certain that Virginia Diodes has your latest contact details including a phone number and an email address to receiv...