Lumiloop RF Mux 1.0 User manual

User’s Manual
RF Mux 1.0
D C – 1 2 G H z
12 : 2 R F S w i t c h M a t r i x

All trade names are the registered namework of their respective owners. Specifications are subject
to change without notice.
© Copyright 2018 LUMILOOP®GmbH. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be copied
without written permission from LUMILOOP GmbH.

RF Mux 1.0 User’s Manual
Contents
1 RFMux Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2 RFMux Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1 Operation using the GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Operation using SCPI commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3 Built-in RF Mux PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3 SCPI Communication Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.1 National Instruments VISA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.2 Raw TCP socket communication using PuTTY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4 SCPI Command Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.1 Generic Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.1.1 *CLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.1.2 *ESE <ESR> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.1.3 *ESE? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.1.4 *ESR? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.1.5 *IDN? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.1.6 *OPC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.1.7 *OPC? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.1.8 *RST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.1.9 *SRE <int> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.1.10 *SRE? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.1.11 *STB? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.1.12 *TST? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.1.13 *WAI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.2 :SYSTem Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.2.1 :SYSTem:ERRor[:NEXT]? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.2.2 :SYSTem:ERRor:COUNt? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.2.3 :SYSTem:MAKer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.2.4 :SYSTem:DEVice? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.2.5 :SYSTem:VERSion? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.2.6 :SYSTem:DEBUG <Value> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.2.7 :SYSTem:DEBUG? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.2.8 :SYSTem:CONnected? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.2.9 :SYSTem:TYPE? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.2.10 :OUT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.2.11 :OUT? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.2.12 :OUTA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.2.13 :OUTB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.2.14 :CNT? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5 Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6 Warranty Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
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RF Mux 1.0 User’s Manual
7 Revision History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
8 EC Declaration of Conformity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
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RF Mux 1.0 User’s Manual
1 RFMux Hardware
The RF switch matrix RF Mux supports switching of up to twelve independent signal sources to up
to two receivers. The block schematic is shown in Figure 1. Figure 2 and 3 show the device from the
outside.
IN1
IN12
IN2
IN3
IN4
...
IN9
IN10
IN11
CTRL
USB
OUTA
OUTB
MUX 12->1
MUX 12->1
SUPPLY SUPPLY
100..240VAC
Ethernet
USB HUB
USB0
...
USB11
SPDT
SPDT
SPDT
SPDT
SPDT
SPDT
6 x SPDT
Figure 1: Block schematic of RF Mux
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Figure 2: Front-side view of RF Mux
Figure 3: Back-side view of RF Mux
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RF Mux 1.0 User’s Manual
2 RFMux Software
Switch settings are controlled using SCPI commands that can be issued via the RF Mux USB or Ether-
net (TCP/IP) interface. Additionally, a touch sensitive display can be used for manual switch control.
2.1 Operation using the GUI
Switch channels can be selected by pressing any input or output button. As shown in Figures 4 and 5,
selecting an input allows choosing either output or "OFF", selecting an input allows choosing any of
the twelve inputs or "OFF".
The active switch path are highlighted by the GUI, the number of switching cycles is shown in the
representations of each RF relay. The GUI will update in case of remote operation.
Figure 4: Manual channel selection via input button
2.2 Operation using SCPI commands
Section 4 details all SCPI commands. The commands »:OUT«, »:OUTA« and »:OUTB« are used to
connect both or a single output to any of the twelve inputs. The commands expect the input number,
between one and twelve as parameters. Specifying zero will turn the respective output off.
The »:CNT?« command can be used to check the number of switching cycles for each RF relay.
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RF Mux 1.0 User’s Manual
Figure 5: Manual channel selection via output button
2.3 Built-in RF Mux PC
RF Mux can operate as a regular PC incorporating a USB hub which is available for connecting addi-
tional USB devices. A USB keyboard and mouse can be attached to any USB port. Pressing moving
the mouse pinter into the upper left corner of the screen will give access to the Gnome desktop en-
vironment.
The RF Mux PC runs a 64 bit Debian GNU/Linux 9.5 as its operating system. Note that both the root
password and the user password of the default user are "qwer1234".
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3 SCPI Communication Basics
The RF Mux TCP Server provides a convenient text command-based interface, it supports up to 32
concurrent TCP/IP client connections on port 10002. Alternatively, RF Mux may be connected via
the USB port labeled "USB Serial". The USB port uses an FTDI USB to Serial converter and needs to
be configured to 9600 Baud, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, i.e. 9k6 8N1, employing no flow control.
All commands sent to the TCP Server are ASCII text commands terminated by a newline (\n), carriage
return (\r) or semicolon (;) character or any combination thereof. Replies sent by the TCP Server
in reply to queries are single lines of text terminated by a carriage return character followed by a
newline character (\r\n).
This section gives examples of communication with the TCP Server using standard libraries and util-
ities.
3.1 National Instruments VISA
NI VISA is a cross-platform library for unified communication with measurements connected via
GPIB, serial port, Network socket, etc. NI VISA handles all low-level configuration and provides
buffered bidirectional IO streams. This sections explains how to configure a socket connection to
the RF Mux TCP Server using the debug tool provided with the NI VISA library and how to test it. NI
VISA needs be downloaded from the "National Instruments" homepage and installed first.
Open the NI VISA Measurement and Automation Explorer (NI MAX). Add a new network device by
selecting the subsection“Network devices” of “Devices and Interfaces” next click on “Add Network
Device”. As shown in Figure 6(a), select “Manual Entry of Raw Socket” and click “Next”. As shown in
Figure 6(b) enter the correct “Hostname or IP” the TCP “Port Number”, click “Validate” to connect to
the LSProbe TCP Server. Both NI MAX and the TCP Server’s output will indicate a successful connec-
tion. Click “OK” and “Finish” to return to the NI MAX main window.
Right-click on the newly created network device and select “OPEN VISA Test Panel” as shown in Fig-
ure 7. No changes are required in the “TCP/IP Settings” tab. Set “Enable Termination Character”
in the “IO Settings” tab, click “Apply Changes” and observe the return data output as shown in Fig-
ure 8(a). This step needs to be repeated for every NI VISA Input/Output debug session. The “View
Attributes” tab in Figure 8(b) shows shows the VISA parameters “VI_ATTR_TERMCHAR_EN” set to
“VI_TRUE” and the “VI_ATTR_TERMCHAR” attribute set to “0xA”. When using the NI VISA library for
connecting to the LSProbe TCP Server make sure to set all VISA parameters identically.
Click on “Input/Output” to start testing NI VISA communication. Clicking “Query” will retrieve the
identification string using the “*idn?” command.
3.2 Raw TCP socket communication using PuTTY
Run PuTTY and enter the host name or IP address and the TCP port number. Set “Connection type”
to “Raw” as shown in Figure 9. Optionally, save the session configuration for later use. Click “Open”
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(a) (b)
Figure 6: Connection to RF Mux TCP Server through NI MAX
Figure 7: Starting NI VISA Test Panel
(a) (b)
Figure 8: Configuring VISA TCP/IP socket parameters
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