Applied Instruments XR-3 User manual

XR-3 Modular Test Instrument
Cable Air Module
Operation Manual
Revision 1.00
Date 04/03/2015
PURCHASE THE CABLE-AIR MODULE FOR THE XR-3
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XR-3 Cable Air Module Operation Manual XR-3
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1.INTRODUCTION TO XR-3’S CABLE AIR MODULE .................................................................. 4
STANDARD ACCESSORIES............................................................................................................................ 5
2.RUN SCREEN ...................................................................................................................................... 5
SOFT KEYS .................................................................................................................................................. 7
3.MAIN MENU........................................................................................................................................ 8
4.CHANNEL PLANS .............................................................................................................................. 8
STANDARD CABLE PLANS ........................................................................................................................... 9
STANDARD OFF-AIR PLANS ...................................................................................................................... 10
CUSTOM PLANS......................................................................................................................................... 10
6.LIMITS................................................................................................................................................ 13
7.CHANNEL SCAN .............................................................................................................................. 16
COLLECT TEST DATA ................................................................................................................................ 16
FAVORITES /TILT CHANNELS.................................................................................................................... 20
SAVING DATA ........................................................................................................................................... 22
TRANSFER DATA FILE TO PC .................................................................................................................... 25
INSTALL PC SOFTWARE ............................................................................................................................ 25
ERASING FILES .......................................................................................................................................... 26
PRINT REPORTS ......................................................................................................................................... 26
8.FAVORITES GRAPH / FAVORITES SCAN ................................................................................. 29
TABLE VIEW ............................................................................................................................................. 30
SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................................. 31
SAVING ..................................................................................................................................................... 32
TRANSFER DATA FILE TO PC .................................................................................................................... 32
9.SPECTRUM SCREEN....................................................................................................................... 34
10.CONSTELLATION SCREEN ...................................................................................................... 41
11.VOLTAGE / CURRENT ............................................................................................................... 44
SOFT KEYS ................................................................................................................................................ 44
12.FILE UTILITY............................................................................................................................... 45
13.OPTIONS ........................................................................................................................................ 47
LEVEL ....................................................................................................................................................... 47
SOUNDER .................................................................................................................................................. 47
SHUTDOWN TIMER .................................................................................................................................... 47
14.VERSIONS...................................................................................................................................... 48
15.POWER........................................................................................................................................... 50
LNA POWER ............................................................................................................................................. 50
BATTERY CHARGE .................................................................................................................................... 50
AC POWER ................................................................................................................................................ 51
DC POWER ................................................................................................................................................ 51
16.TROUBLESHOOTING / FAQS ................................................................................................... 51
17.XR-3 REPLACEMENT PARTS & ACCESSORIES.................................................................. 53
18.MAINTENANCE AND REPAIRS ............................................................................................... 53
19.SPECIFICATIONS ........................................................................................................................ 54
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1. Introduction to XR-3’s Cable Air Module
The XR-3 Cable Air module is used with the XR-3 modular test instrument base unit. The XR-3
Cable Air module is a signal level meter and analyzer for cable and terrestrial over-the-air
broadcast TV installation and troubleshooting. It is ideal for CATV and UHF off-air antenna
installers and private cable operators that need fast, easy signal measurements.
GENERAL FEATURES
• Works with the XR-3 Modular Test Instrument
• Friendly user interface
• Tune by frequency or tune by channel number
• Field replaceable type F-female barrel connector
• Fast system boot-up time
• Compatible with digital and analog signals
• Store measurements for Proof-of-Performance
• Programmable Pass/Fail limit scan for all channels
• Quick scan of all channels
• Easily create new custom channel plans or use standard base plans
• Spectrum Screen (frequency on x-axis, amplitude on y-axis)
• Constellation Screen (I and Q demodulator values)
VHF / UHF OFF-AIR FEATURES
• Supplies Pre-Amp / LNA power
• Simultaneously displays signal level and quality of multiple channels
• Displays measurements for analog and digital signals
• High signal sensitivity assures Off-Air antenna alignment optimization
• Manually tunes to custom channels
• Audible tone for signal lock and peak
CATV FEATURES
• Compatible with analog and digital CATV signals
• Frequency range from 5 MHz to 1 GHz
• Tilt measurement
XR-3 base unit
XR-CA-01
tuner module
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XR-3 Cable Air Module Operation Manual XR-3
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MMDS FEATURES
• Powers frequency block down-converters
MEASUREMENTS
• Digital and Analog Signal Level (dBm, dBmV, or dBμV) with present and peak bar graph
• Analog Signal Quality (C/N)
• Digital Signal Quality (MER & BER)
• Locks on 8VSB (ATSC A/53) UHF digital Off-Air signals
• Locks on 64QAM and 256QAM (ITU-T J.83, Annex B) CATV signals
• Tilt
• Analog Video and Audio Carrier Measurements (NTSC, PAL, SECAM)
• Current draw of off-air antenna pre-amp / LNA
Standard Accessories
Accessories included with your XR-CA-01 Cable Air module include:
• Quick Start Guide
2. Run Screen
The Run Screen displays valuable information used to test a cable network or to point an off-air
antenna.
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Main Run Screen Fields
1) Name of active channel plan
2) Channel number – When in Tune by Channel mode (chosen via top right Ch/Freq soft-
key), use up or right arrow keys to toggle to next highest channel in active channel plan.
Use down or left arrow keys to toggle to next lowest channel in active channel plan. To
direct-tune to a particular channel, use numeric keypad to type desired channel number
to tune to and then press Enter button.
3) Channel frequency – When in tune by channel mode, field displays frequency related to
selected channel. When in Tune by Frequency mode (chosen via top right Ch/Freq soft-
key), the up or right arrow key toggles to the next highest available frequency (0.125 MHz
increments) in the active channel plan. The down or left arrow key toggles to the next
lowest available frequency (0.125 MHz increments) in the active channel plan. To direct-
tune to a particular frequency, use numeric keypad to type desired frequency to tune to
and then press Enter button.
4) Signal type – 8VSB, QAM64, QAM256, or Analog (NTSC, PAL, SECAM)
5) Channel label (network, i.e. ESPN or station identifier, i.e. WRTV) – to be entered by you
by editing Channel Parameters
6) Lock status indicator (for digital channels)
a. Empty white space is shown when searching for a matching signal
b. Padlock icon is displayed when signal lock is obtained
7) Battery level icon
8) Signal Quality (MER or C/N)
a. Right bar graph (with peak hold center line)
b. MER (for digital channels) or C/N (for analog channels), in dB
c. Scale: 0 to >40 dB MER
9) RF Signal Level (dBm, dBmV, or dBµV)
a. Left bar graph (with peak hold center line)
b. Numeric value in dBm, dBmV, or dBµV
c. Scale: default scale is -30 to +10 dBmV
Note: Entire amplitude range -40 to +60 dBmV (-89 to +11 dBm) (+20 to +120
dBμV) is not shown on scale by default, but will auto-scale when appropriate,
according to level measured
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Soft Keys
1) Spectrum screen shortcut soft-key
2) Channel Scan shortcut soft-key
3) Favorites Graph shortcut soft-key
4) Channel Number / Frequency toggle soft-key – toggles between tune-by-channel and
tune-by-frequency modes. Active mode is indicated by gray rectangle shown around the
channel field or frequency field.
5) Constellation / BER shortcut soft-key
6) Main Menu shortcut soft-key
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3. Main Menu
Pressing the MENU soft-key on the main Run screen takes you to a menu of all of the XR-3
screens. Some of these screens are also available via shortcut soft-keys from the Run Screen.
You can navigate the Main Menu using the up/down and Enter keys. Some functions are also
available via soft-keys as a shortcut. “Exit” takes you back to the Run Screen.
The functions are described in the sections that follow.
4. Channel Plans
From the Run screen, press ‘Menu’ soft-key, then select ‘Channel Plans’ from the Main Menu to
reach the Channel Plans screen. Select a channel plan corresponding to the type of channels in
the system you are testing. This step is essential since the XR-3 only tunes to relevant channel
numbers and their frequencies and signal types based on this information.
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This screen is a simple menu selection. To select and activate a plan, use the up/down arrow
buttons to highlight the selection you want to use and press ENTER. To create a new custom
channel plan, highlight a standard plan to be used as the base plan and press the Edit/Create
soft-key. See more details below in the Custom Plans section about how to create custom
channel plans. To edit a custom channel plan, select an existing custom channel plan and press
the Edit/Create soft-key.
Due to the large variety of systems in use, the Channel Plans selection is divided into three
sections:
1) Standard Cable Plans
2) Standard Off-Air Plans
3) Custom Plans
Standard Cable Plans
When the unit is shipped from the factory, it will have the most common compatible cable channel
plans for North America loaded:
EIASTD – This plan is designed for and automatically detects North American EIA analog
(NTSC) & digital (QAM64 or QAM256) signals from 55.25 MHz to 997.25 MHz (analog)
or 57.00 MHz to 999.00 MHz (digital).
HRC
IRC
PAL BG
PAL I
SECAM
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Standard Off-Air Plans
When the unit is shipped from the factory, it will have the most common compatible off-air
channel plans for North America loaded:
NTSC ATSC – This plan is designed for and automatically detects North American
analog (NTSC) & digital (8VSB) signals from 55.25 MHz to 747.25 MHz (analog) or 57.00
MHz to 749.00 MHz (digital).
FM N. Am – This plan tunes to the 100 analog FM carrier frequencies from 88.100 MHz
to 107.900 MHz.
Custom Plans
Create a Custom Channel Plan
There are 3 ways that you can create a custom channel plan:
1) Use the Channel Scan feature and then from the Save menu, select “Save Found
Channels as new Plan”.
This method is desirable if you’re at a site and want to find which channels are present on
the existing cable or off-air system. After selecting the appropriate base Standard Cable
or Standard Off-Air channel plan, connect the meter to a coax cable and run a Channel
Scan. The meter will automatically find the active channels and determine if they are
analog or digital and will save the channel plan with the signal type detected.
2) Manually edit all of the desired channel numbers and frequencies using the meter. In the
Channel Plans section of the Main Menu, highlight a Standard Cable or Standard Off-Air
plan to be used as the base plan and press the Edit/Create soft-key. This allows you to
save the standard channel plan lineup under a different file name (Save As) so that the
new custom plan can be edited. This method is desirable if you just want to slightly
modify the channel lineup from the way it is in the Standard Plan.
Or highlight a custom channel plan in the Custom Plans section and press the
Edit/Create soft-key to edit the channel lineup and individual channel parameters. You
can change the filename, if desired (Save As), to create a new custom channel plan from
an existing custom plan.
3) Use the MeterMaid application on a PC to load a custom channel plan (.pln) file after
editing the plan file using a text editor (i.e. Notepad or Notepad++)
Create Custom Channel Plan by Scanning Channels Present On Active System
1) Connect the XR-3 to an off-air antenna (that is already aligned) or to your cable system
and detect your channels to create a custom channel plan
a. Press Menu soft-key to enter the Main Menu
b. Select ‘Channel Plans’ and press Enter.
c. Highlight the desired channel plan to use as your base plan and then press
Enter.
d. If you haven’t already, connect a coax cable from the cable system or off-air
antenna’s output to input port of XR-3’s Cable Air module.
e. While on the main Run screen where your bar graphs are, press the ‘Chan Scan’
soft-key to initiate a channel scan. The meter will sound an audible tone (beep)
when the scan is complete.
f. If you wish to pick favorite channels and tilt channels, highlight the desired
channel using the up/down arrow buttons and then press the Fav/Tilt soft-key
(by pressing the #1 button on the alphanumeric keypad that corresponds to that
soft-key). Press soft-key once to flag the channel as one of your favorites. Press
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