Virtual Trackgen
Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2018 10:00 am
Hi
I've had a couple of inquiries regarding driving external signal generators that are not connected to an Arduino that's running the Trackgen firmware.
For those who are interested in using the analyser's tracking generator commands to drive their own generator hardware, I've written a simple demo application in C# that shows how you can communicate with the analyser using virtual comms ports. This will allow those using something apart from an AD9850 or an AD9851 to write driver code for their own generator and connect it to the analyser.
The code is not bullet-proof and is provided only as a demonstration. All the information you will need is included in the source file, including a link to where you can download the com0com virtual comms port system.
There are several boards available on Ebay, and other places that are using the AD9959 DDS such as:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-AD9959- ... SwIJlaENQa
and
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/AD9959-DDS- ... SwmgJY1SUd
The second board includes a USB interface card. I have no information regarding how the USB link works, but as it will almost certainly be comms-driven, that should make it easy to interface to the analyser. If anybody has one of these boards, I'd be grateful for any details, particularly the USB version.
You should be able to place the unzipped code in a folder and compile under Visual Studio without any problems - hopefully. If you have problems, let me know.
I've had a couple of inquiries regarding driving external signal generators that are not connected to an Arduino that's running the Trackgen firmware.
For those who are interested in using the analyser's tracking generator commands to drive their own generator hardware, I've written a simple demo application in C# that shows how you can communicate with the analyser using virtual comms ports. This will allow those using something apart from an AD9850 or an AD9851 to write driver code for their own generator and connect it to the analyser.
The code is not bullet-proof and is provided only as a demonstration. All the information you will need is included in the source file, including a link to where you can download the com0com virtual comms port system.
There are several boards available on Ebay, and other places that are using the AD9959 DDS such as:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-AD9959- ... SwIJlaENQa
and
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/AD9959-DDS- ... SwmgJY1SUd
The second board includes a USB interface card. I have no information regarding how the USB link works, but as it will almost certainly be comms-driven, that should make it easy to interface to the analyser. If anybody has one of these boards, I'd be grateful for any details, particularly the USB version.
You should be able to place the unzipped code in a folder and compile under Visual Studio without any problems - hopefully. If you have problems, let me know.