LeCroy LSA1000 User manual

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Operator’s
Manual
LeCroy
LSA1000 Signalyst
Revision B —October 1998

Corporate Headquarters
700 Chestnut Ridge Road
Chestnut Ridge, NY 10977–6499
Tel: [phone], Fax: [phone]
European Manufacturing
2, rue du Pré-de-la-Fontaine
1217 Meyrin 1/Geneva, Switzerland
Tel: [phone], Fax: [phone]
Internet: www.lecroy.com
Copyright © October 1998, LeCroy. All rights reserved. Information in this publication supersedes all
earlierversions. Specifications subjecttochange.
LeCroy, ProBus and SMART Trigger are registered trademarks ofLeCroy Corporation. MathCad is
a registered trademark of MATHSOFTInc. Centronics is a registered trademark ofData Computer
Corp. Epsonis aregistered trademark of Epson America Inc. PowerPC isa registeredtrademark of
IBM Microelectronics. MATLAB is a registered trademark of The MathWorks, Inc. DeskJet, ThinkJet,
QuietJet, LaserJet, PaintJet, HP 7470 and HP 7550 are registered trademarks of Hewlett-Packard
Company. I2C isa trademark ofPhilips.
LSA1000-OM Rev B 1098

iii
Contents
Foreword
Explaining the LSA1000.........................................................................v
LSA1000: Legacy of the Oscilloscope .............................................vi
Chapter 1 —Read This First!
Warranty and Product Support......................................................... 1–1
Chapter 2 —About the LSA1000
What the LSA1000 Does and How.................................................. 2–1
Block Diagram......................................................................................... 2–2
Capture ...................................................................................................... 2–5
Measure..................................................................................................... 2–9
Analyze......................................................................................................2–10
The LSA1000 —Front and Back.....................................................2–12
Chapter 3 —Installation and Safety
Installation for Safe and Efficient Operation......................... 3–1
Chapter 4 —Connecting PC or Network
Connecting the LSA1000 to its Host ............................................. 4–1
Chapter 5 —LSA1000 Software Tools
Introducing the LSA1000 Software................................................ 5–1
Installing and Launching Software ................................................ 5–3
Operating the LSA1000 Using Remote LSA ............................... 5–6
Performance Verification with Remote LSA .............................5–11
Using ActiveDSO ...................................................................................5–13
Using ScopeExplorer .........................................................................5–19
About NET_CON ...................................................................................5–21

iv
Contents
Appendix A —Specifications
Appendix B —NET_CON Source Code
Appendix C —Parameter Measurement
Appendix D —Program Examples
Appendix E —Suggestion Forms
Index

iii
Contents

v
Foreword
Explaining the LSA1000
There are two manuals that explain the LSA1000.
This, the Ope rat o r’ s Man ual, takes you through
the initial steps and gets you started using the
instrument. It explains basics such as how to
connect to a PC and use the software tools
supplied. Once f amiliar wit h the LSA1000’s basic
operation, use the accompanying Remote Control
Manual. It contains detailed descriptions of all
the remote commands used to operate the
LSA1000 from the computer.
Chapter 1 describes warranty, maintenance agreements,
service and return procedure.
Chapter 2 covers the instrument’s architecture, as well as
the fundamental technical concepts behind the LSA1000, to
show how these concepts have been integrated to deliver
superior performance.
Chapter 3 gives operating environment and safety
information.
Chapter 4 covers the connection requirements for LSA1000
and host PC, using the Ethernet.
Chapter 5 offers a step-by-step process to get you started
using the LSA1000 and its software tools.
Appendix A gives the product’s detailed technical
performance specifications of the product, and recommends
optimum operating conditions.
Appendix B is the source code for the Net-Con program.
Appendix C offers a general explanation of how the
instrument’s standard parameters are computed.
Appendix D provides several real-life program examples
you can use with LSA1000.
Appendix E provides suggestions forms that welcome your
input for improving both the product and the manuals.
About This Manual…

vi
Foreword
LSA1000: Legacy of the Oscilloscope
In this publication and its companion, the
LSA1000 Remote Control Manual, references are
to be found to functions not directly applicable to
the LSA1000. Some examples are references to
"time/div", "cursors", and "display".
Their presence in dedicated LSA1000 manuals is owing to the
legacy of LeCroy DSOs (Digital Storage Oscilloscopes) in the
development of the LSA1000. Although the current practicability
of these functions may not immediately be apparent, the basic
concepts to which they adhere remain valid for the LSA1000,
and the functions are supported by remote control commands.
Moreover, in order to maintain compatibility, the LSA1000’s
remote commands have been made a subset of the commands
for the LeCroy digital oscilloscopes.
Terminology borrowed from the oscilloscope should thus be
understood to refer to the LSA1000 conceptually, as if it
possessed an oscilloscope display. It should be noted, for
example, that all commands that refer to "divisions" on a DSO
are applicable to the LSA1000: there are eight divisions full scale
in the vertical (voltage) direction, and 10 divisions in the
horizontal (time) axis.

v
Foreword

1–1
Read This First!
1
Warranty and Product Support
It is recommended that you thoroughly inspect the contents
of the LSA1000 packaging immediately upon receipt. Check
all contents against the packing list/invoice copy shipped
with the instrument. Unless LeCroy is notified promptly of
any missing or damaged item, responsibility for its
replacement cannot be accepted. Contact your nearest
LeCroy Customer Service Center or national distributor
immediately.
Warranty LeCroy warrants this product for normal use and operation within
specifications for a period of three years from the date of
shipment. Calibration each year is recommended to ensure in-
spec. performance. Spares, replacement parts and repairs are
warranted for 90 days. The instrument's firmware has been
thoroughly tested and is thought to be functional, but is supplied
without warranty of any kind covering detailed performance.
Products not made by LeCroy are covered solely by the warranty
of the original equipment manufacturer.
Under the LeCroy warranty, LeCroy will repair or, at its option,
replace any product returned within the warranty period to a
LeCroy authorized service center. However, this will be done
only if the product is determined after examination by LeCroy to
be defective due to workmanship or materials, and not to have
been caused by misuse, neglect or accident, or by abnormal
conditions or operation.
Note: This warranty replaces all other warranties,
expressed or implied, including but not limited to any
implied warranty of merchantability, fitness, or adequacy for
any particular purpose or use. LeCroy shall not be liable for
any special, incidental, or consequential damages, whether
in contract or otherwise. The client will be responsible for
the transportation and insurance charges for the return of
products to the service facility. LeCroy will return all
products under warranty with transport prepaid.

1–2
Read This First!
Maintenance Agreements LeCroy provides a variety of customer support services under
Maintenance Agreements. Such agreements give extended
warranty and allow clients to budget maintenance costs after the
initial three-year warranty has expired. Other services such as
installation, training, enhancements and on-site repairs are
available through special supplemental support agreements.
Staying Up to Date LeCroy is dedicated to offering state-of-the-art instruments, by
continually refining and improving the performance of LeCroy
products. Because of the speed with which physical modifications
may be implemented, this manual and related documentation may
not agree in every detail with the products they describe. For
example, there might be small discrepancies in the values of
components affecting pulse shape, timing or offset, and —
infrequently —minor logic changes. However, be assured the
LSA1000 itself is in full order and incorporates the most up-to-date
circuitry.
LeCroy frequently updates firmware and software during
servicing to improve LSA1000 performance, free of charge
during warranty. You will be kept informed of such changes,
through new or revised manuals and other publications.
Nevertheless, you should retain this, the original manual, for
future reference to your LSA1000’s unchanged hardware
specifications.
Service and Repair Please return products requiring maintenance to the Customer
Service Department in your country or to an authorized service
facility. The customer is responsible for transportation charges to
the factory, whereas all in-warranty products will be returned to
you with transportation prepaid. Outside the warranty period, you
will need to provide us with a purchase order number before we
can repair your LeCroy product. You will be billed for parts and
labor related to the repair work, and for shipping.

1–3
How to Return a Product Contact the nearest LeCroy Service Center or office to find out
where to return the product. All returned products should be
identified by model and serial number. You should describe the
defect or failure, and provide your name and contact number. In
the case of a product returned to the factory, a Return
Authorization Number (RAN) should be used. The RAN can be
obtained by contacting the Customer Service Department.
Return shipments should be made prepaid. We cannot accept
COD (Cash On Delivery) or Collect Return shipments. We
recommend air-freighting.
It is important that the RAN be clearly shown on the outside of
the shipping package for prompt redirection to the appropriate
LeCroy department.
What Comes with LSA1000 The following items are shipped together with the standard
configuration of the LSA1000:
➢Getting Started Software CD-ROM
➢AC Power Cord and Plug
➢Operator’s Manual (this manual)
➢Remote Control Manual
➢NIST Calibration Certificate
➢Declaration of Conformity
➢Warranty

1–4
Read This First!
Technical Assistance… Help on installation, calibration, and the use of LeCroy
equipment is available from the LeCroy Customer Service
Center in your country (see contact numbers following index).
See also below.
Hardware Assistance… Before contacting us on hardware-related questions (see below),
try the following:
➢Review Chapter 2 of the Operator’s Manual, which covers
general technical concepts and functions such as
acquisition, triggering, and memory.
➢See Appendix A of the Operator’s Manual for the LSA1000’s
technical specifications.
Software Assistance… Before contacting us with software-related questions, try the
following:
➢Review Chapter 5 and Appendix D of the Operator’s Manual,
which contains several program examples that can be used
as a starting point when writing application-specific software
using the LSA1000.
➢See the Remote Control Manual for questions on specific
commands, or if unsure as to which command to use.
➢Check Frequently Asked Questions at the LeCroy web site:
www.lecroy.com
…Or Contact LeCroy Embedded Signal Analysis:
E-mail: [email protected]om
Fax: ++1 914 578 4485
Phone: (800) 5-LeCroy

1–1
Read This First!
1

2–1
2
About the LSA1000
What the LSA1000 Does and How
The LSA1000 is an ideal instrument for capturing, digitizing
and analyzing high-speed electronic signals. Moreover, it
has been optimized for system-integration applications with
high throughput, ease of use and reliability. The host
computer can easily control and retrieve data from the
LSA1000 via a 10/100Base-T Ethernet interface. The LSA1000
is an intelligent digitizer that will save valuable development
time by acquiring and analyzing complex, high-speed signals.
This chapter covers basic digital concepts and the benefits of
using the instrument.
Overview The LSA1000 has 1 GHz analog bandwidth. It has two channels,
and a 1 GS/s, eight-bit flash Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) for
each channel. Faster sampling rates can be achieved by combining
channels —up to a maximum of 2 GS/s on one channel. The
waveform acquisition memory capacity is 100 000 data points per
channel in the standard configuration, 500 000 with Option M1, 1
million points with Option M2, 2 million points with Option M4, and 4
million points with option M8. Acquisition memory can also be
doubled by combining channels —to as much as 8 million data
points.
The instrument’s central processor is a Motorola PowerPC 603e
microprocessor, which performs waveform processing and controls
the LSA1000’s operation.
A 10/100Base-T Ethernet port is used to directly interface the
LSA1000 to the computer for remote control and data transfer.
The LSA1000's entire functionality is via remote control commands,
which are fully described in a separate, enclosed manual (see
Remote Control Manual). Software tools are also provided for
application-specific program development and integration. They are
explained in the following chapters of the present manual.

2–2
About the LSA1000
Block Diagram
➢LSA1000 Signalyst
What Can it Do? The LSA1000 delivers the same powerful performance as a
high-end LeCroy DSO (Digital Storage Oscilloscope) in a
design optimized for system integration, with:
➢Capture of one-off (single-shot) events, stored in
memory
➢On-board analysis of signals, and precise measurement
results
➢Fast data transfer via Ethernet; remote control of all
major functions.
See this chapter’s “Capture”, “Measure”, “Analyze” and
“Transfer” sections for more…

2–3
Basic Elements These are the basic elements that make up the LSA1000:
➢Amplifier —amplifies and conditions the input signal so that it
can be measured most effectively
➢Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) —converts the analog
signal into digital form by translating it into a series of sample
points that are then measured and transformed into digital
codes representing the signal samples. Multiple ADC
architecture ensures absolute amplitude and phase correlation,
maximum ADC performance for multi-channel acquisitions,
large record lengths and excellent time resolution.
➢Acquisition Memory System —stores resulting digital data
from ADCs. Standard 100K points per channel simplify
transient capture by producing long waveform records that
capture even when trigger-timing or signal-speed is uncertain.
Combining two channels doubles the acquisition memory
length. There are four memories for temporary storage, and
four more for waveform zooming and processing.
➢System RAM Memory of 16 Mbytes as standard. 64 Mbyte
optional.
Bandwidth
Record
Length
Computer
ADC
Amplifier
Acquisition
Memory
System
Memory
Up to 64 Mb
Processor
Input
Signal
Sample Rate

2–4
About the LSA1000
➢Processor —a PowerPC 603e microprocessor controls the
entire system and performs computations and special
monitoring.
➢Interfaces —Ethernet port transfers processed data to the
host computer and receives remote control instructions.
Finding the “Right Fit” For optimum results there must first be a good “fit” between the
character of the signals under analysis and the primary specifications
of the LSA1000. In assessing the overall signal representation,
particular consideration needs to be given to these three cardinal
parameters:
➢Bandwidth: The bandwidth specification of an LSA1000
indicates the ability of its front-end amplifier to faithfully track an
incoming signal. The LSA1000's bandwidth is defined as the
frequency at which a sinusoidal input signal has been attenuated
to about 70% of its real amplitude. This point, at which the
verticalamplitude error is about 30 %, is called the –3 dB point.
➢Sample Rate: The higher the sample rate the better the signal
resolution. This is particularly important for single-shot waveform
capture and measurement. The danger with low sample rates is
that important information may be lost between samples. A
sample rate of at least twice the highest frequency component of
the signal is required to avoid aliasing. A sample rate of at least
five times is advisable for accurate waveform capture.
➢Memory Length: Acquisition memory length determines the
number of input signal samples that can be stored. The greater
the capacity for stored samples, the faster the possible sample
rate for a given waveform duration. The signal captured with a
long-memory LSA1000 has a greater resolution, whereas in the
case of other short-memory instruments, such high sample rates
are only available on short waveform-capture time settings.
Long-memory LSA1000s allow operation at the highest possible
sample rate, and over a far longer capture time.
The LSA1000’s fidelity in reconstructing the input signal is affected
mainly by these three parameters. The bandwidth must be sufficient
to allow all the signal components to pass through the signal-
conditioning system. And the sample rate has to be high enough to
provide a good definition of the signal. Long memory maintains the
sample rate for large time windows.

2–5
Capture
In addition to the primary specifications and three parameters
described above, capture techniques, the triggering system,
channels and ADC specification all impact on LSA1000
performance.
Acquisition Technique Single-shot acquisition is the LSA1000’s basic acquisition technique,
which makes the instrument very suitable for the study of signal
phenomena that have a low-repetition rate or are not repeated —
hence single-shot.
An acquired waveform consists of a series of measured voltage
values sampled at a uniform rate on the input signal. The acquisition
is typically stopped at a fixed time after the arrival of a trigger event
as determined by the trigger delay. The acquisition consists of a
single series of measured data values associated with one trigger
event. The time of the trigger event is measured using the timebase
clock. The timing information of a waveform is determined using the
trigger event as the definition of time 0. Since each channel has its
own ADC, the voltage on each of the input channels is sampled and
measured at the same instant. This allows extremely reliable time
measurements between channels.
Trigger delay can be selected anywhere within a range that allows
the waveform to be sampled from well before the trigger event up to
the moment it occurs (100% pretrigger), or at a time starting at the
equivalent of 1,000 times of the memory size after the trigger.
The captured input data signal is transferred to memory for
measurement and analysis.
Analog–Digital Conversion High-speed LSA1000 performance is made possible by the use of
advanced flash ADCs whose vertical resolution guarantee a clear
representation of the signal. These ADCs measure the voltage level
at evenly spaced intervals and store the digitized value in high-speed
dedicated memory. The shorter the intervals, the faster the digitizing
rate —and the finer the time structure able to be seen. The higher
the resolution of the ADC, the better its sensitivity to small voltage
changes. And the greater its memory capacity, the longer the
recording time available.

2–6
About the LSA1000
Channels The LSA1000 offers two channels for signal input. There are four
additional BNC connectors for an external trigger channel, external
reference clock in, external reference clock out and acquisition status
output. The LSA1000 can be “stacked” to provide more channels
and parallel processing with multiple units. And multiple units can be
synchronized using external reference clock connections.
Triggering Trigger rates of up to 1 GHz are possible with the LSA1000. Single
Edge triggers are described by a source, coupling, slope, and level
condition.
➢Source is selected from:
➢CH1, CH2: the acquisition channel signal conditioned for the
overall voltage gain, coupling, and bandwidth
➢EXT: the signal applied to the EXT TRIG IN BNC connector.
It can be used to trigger the LSA1000 with an ECL signal
level. The input impedance is 50 , terminated to –2V.
Optionally, this input can be configured to accept a TTL level
signal. This configuration must be specified at time of
purchase.
➢Coupling refers to the type of signal coupling at the input of the
trigger circuit. LSA1000 supports DC coupling on all sources,
where all the signal's frequency components are allowed to pass
through to the trigger circuit. This coupling mode is used for
high-frequency bursts.
➢Slope selects the direction of the trigger voltage transition that
generates a trigger event. In addition to the two traditional
choices of Positive and Negative, the Window mode is also
included. In Window mode two trigger levels (one upper, one
lower) are defined with the window region in between. Triggering
occurs when the signal leaves the window region in either
direction, as shown in the diagram on the next page.
➢Level defines the source voltage at which the trigger circuit will
generate an event (a change in the input signal that satisfies the
trigger conditions). The selected level is associated with a trigger
source in the same way as the coupling. Note that the trigger
level is specified in volts and is normally unchanged when the
vertical gain or offset is modified.