ADF4350 and ADF4351 evaluation board control software

Question:

Thanks for adding the repetitive sweep function to the
ADF435x software! It works in principle, but strangely
the sweep speed goes down during the sweeping
(whether repetive or whether I repeat the sweep
manually), up to more than a second per step. If I quit
the software and restart the sweeping is fast for a short
while and then slows down again. Do you have any idea
what could cause this?
Thanks a lot,

Reply:

That delay is associated with the USB controller on your PC.

When the software does a sweep, it:

1. Sets a frequency
2. Send the USB commands to write the register(s)
3. Sleeps for x ms - x is the user set value
4. Increases the frequency
5. Send the USB commands to write the register(s)
6. ....

The issue is, when the software sends the USB command, it is processed by the PC's USB controller which can take a random amount of time. It is usually around 1 ms, but maybe it can stretch to 1 s.

I recommend removing all other USB devices and minimizing the amount of software running on the host PC. This should minimize the USB delay time.

Hi Rob,

Thanks for your quick reply. I've tried the things you suggested, but unfortunately they don't make the sweeping faster. I've also tried using a different port and a different PC: still the same. Do you really think the USB controller could be behind this? When I say one step takes about a second I am not exaggerating...

I've looked at the memore usage while sweeping, and that seems to be ok. However, I've noticed that while sweeping ADF435x takes up half my CPU. Is that normal? Could the reporting on the screen of what is written in the registers have something to do with this?

What sweep rates do you typically get?

I really hope we figure this out!

Guinevere

I am getting similar performance - one second per step, ~20% CPU usage. I tried a few things in the software but the performance is the same.

You can try modifying the source code to do it faster. If you only use the software to do your sweep, then there is definitely a better way to implement it.

Source code here: https://ez.analog.com/message/52311#52311

The sweep function is in: "#region Sweep and hop" > "SweepStartButton_Click()"

I also meet the preoblem, I change the source code , in the function log , I simplely add "return", because add the log to the control of EventLog will slow the sweep speed, by doing this, the speed of sweep is 10 times faster than before.

Thanks for the feedback. I've added an option to the Tools menu to disable the event log. See v4.3.4.

Hello .

I can store the settings in EEPROM ?

I can use the eval - board without USB connection , after I set the data ?

regards

ROBERTO

It may be possible by writing your own firmware for the Cypress microcontroller. However, we don't support this.

I would start with the microcontroller source code but I think there is a good amount of work in this: https://ez.analog.com/message/52311

Hi,

The SPI on the supplied evaluation board is too slow. Also, the auto-calibration takes a minimum of 20 us. If you wish to keep using the ADF4351, you will need a faster microcontroller than what we provide with the evaluation kit.

It may be better to take the ADF4356, and use a look-up table routine to eliminate the auto-calibration time. But again, a faster micro-controller is necessary.

hii sir

i am working on adf4351, i need to generate the high speed sweeping frequency using ADF4351 software, as I am trying to jam any wireless network  example(mobile signal or wifi). I searched online the frequency range of cellular network (4G LTE (1800 MHZ and 2300 MHZ).

I am trying to generate the frequency sweep  between (1800 to 2300 MHz) but i dont see any effect on the mobile network signal. I want to know , how can i increase the frequency sweep speed and make it sweep at the fastest rate possible to jam the wireless network?  In ADF4351 i am generating sweep using Sweep and HOP tab. where i can see the frequency start and stop function.

Thank you 

Kiran