Signal capture and "playback"

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sert
Newbie
Posts: 0
Joined: Sun Jul 02, 2017 5:31 pm

Signal capture and "playback"

Post by sert »

Hi,
is it possible to capture a signal and "play it back"? Like i would use my AWG but not with the predefined settings rather with a signal i previously measured and stored. So that i can do some HW debugging without the need of setting up the whole system all over again to repeat a test scenario.

I got an 2206B.

Best Regards

Gerry
PICO STAFF
PICO STAFF
Posts: 1145
Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2014 11:14 am

Re: Signal capture and "playback"

Post by Gerry »

Hi Sert,

The answer to your question is yes. But you need to be aware of the conditions.

You can save the captured waveform as a CSV file and then import it into the Arbitrary Waveform Generator of the Signal Generator, and use it as your waveform source. However, the AWG expects to see the following:
  • 1/ Just the waveform data --- So you will need to remove the data headings (and gap row), as well as the Time-base column.
    2/ The waveform data lying within values of -1 to +1 --- So you may need to apply a scaling factor to the waveform data in Excel (i.e. divide all of the data values by the largest absolute value) and keep the precision of at least 4 decimal places (because the AWG is 12-bits, and it may need the precision of the extra 4-bits for interpolation accuracy).
    3/ A maximum of 32,768 data points --- however if there are more data points then the AWG will re-sample the data (applying interpolation). Bear in mind that, re-sampling can introduce errors into the reconstruction of the signal, unless you have sufficiently over-sampled the data (e.g. if you have double the expected number of data points, but your sample rate is, say, 20 times your signal bandwidth). Also note that, if you restrict the 'Number of samples' for single or split buffers to 32,768, then the AWG import process won't need to re-sample the data.
Regards,

Gerry
Gerry
Technical Specialist

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