Siglent SSA3000X and SSA3000X-Plus Spectrum Analyzers

[bozidarms]

Hi,

have someone noticed problems within file management system,
specially, delete function looks that functioning not
completely right (and others inconsistencies with it, too)?

Regards,
Bozidar

[videobruce]

FYI;
Regarding the changing sweep speed interaction with RBW & VBW, I received this reply from Siglent;
.

Engineering has started work on that bug with the sweep time changing. When you set it to manual, it should stay that way.
I entered the information in our bug tracking system. Case 1327. When the case is resolved, I’ll contact you with the solution

 

[DL4RAJ]

And no one noticed this at all??   

I trust this was spelled out enough to get a handle on it. If it wasn't please ask where I lost anyone.

See my post from 16th Nov 2016

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/siglent-ssa3000x-spectrum-analyzers/msg1074734/#msg1074734

"...I've noticed that the sweep time ist set to VERY long times in TG mode when one is playing with
VBW,e.g. 1Hz.When the VBW is reset to higher values,e.g. 30Hz or more,the sweep time
seems to stay at the extremely long value from before...."

Regards
DL4RAJ

[videobruce]

Yes, I now see that mentioned, but it wasn't noticed within the entire post with other details present.
I did detail the entire situation, at least someone else noticed something wrong. I can't believe Siglent didn't. 

[tautech]

A couple of items sourced recently:
RBSSA3X20 option that is software and the reflection bridge:





The Soft Carry Case for SDS1000CFL, SDS2000, SDS2000X, SDS1000X and SSA3000X.
It is quite well padded and has a good # of pockets both inside and out for cables etc.
The SSA3kX is the widest of Siglent's instruments at present and it's a comfortable fit.

[videobruce]

It would of been much nicer if the case material was more substantial. It looks like it's very thin, no padding which surely gives pause using it for that type of equipment.

What is the US price for the bridge??

[tautech]

It would of been much nicer if the case material was more substantial. It looks like it's very thin, no padding which surely gives pause using it for that type of equipment.

The material is a sleek and finely woven synthetic. Front and rear padding is in multiple layers, feels ~8mm thick for each layer and there's at least 2 layers each face. Not your usual soft foam, pretty tough stuff.
The outermost pocket (by my finger) is not padded however a large padded flap folds down over it and Velcro secures the flap shut.
All external pockets are zipped.
Bottom has rubber feet, bottom, sides and top, the padding is a single layer ~6mm thick.
The business sides of the instrument are well protected IMO.

What is the US price for the bridge??

RB3X20 RB (1 MHz~2 GHz), N (M) ?N (M) adaptor (2 pcs) list is US$ 345



It's included when option RBSSA3X20 (Refl?SSA3000X(SW) & RB3X20(HW) ) is purchased.

[videobruce]

The price for that case is $120 US?

Is there a 3GHz version of the bridge?

[tautech]

The price for that case is $120 US?

US $125

Is there a 3GHz version of the bridge?

Not in my listings or on websites.....I'll ask.

[Chig]

Keen to get a reflection bridge too... But i'm not paying that sort of money for it.

That said... i'm struggling to find anything else around online for a reasonable price that doesn't look like it was made in a 16 year old's electronics class...

[tautech]

Keen to get a reflection bridge too... But i'm not paying that sort of money for it.

That said... i'm struggling to find anything else around online for a reasonable price that doesn't look like it was made in a 16 year old's electronics class...

There is the advantage that there's no cables required, it adapts directly onto the TG and Sig In ports of SSA3kX models.
That's 2 cables you don't need, maybe only 1 if you can find F to F N type connectors.
Oh, and the real nice accessory pouch it all comes in.

[Chig]

Yeah, already have the gear to make up the cables anyway, but there's no doubting it's a superior solution, from a professional point of view. I'll probably be using the reflection bridge more for my hobby requirements than my professional requirements, however. When a comparable product is being sold on ebay for $10USD though... (for the cheapy reflection bridge) Hard to justify $345USD

The pouch is a bit overkill, to be honest... It'd probably live in my parts drawer when not in use anyway...

[Chig]

Welp. Officially joined the Siglent club... Now just waiting on the order to arrive!

This will literally be the slowest week ever...

[Sparky]

Since there is no activity in this thread for over a week, I guess it's the new participants are eagerly awaiting delivery of SSA3021X?  Who is latest to receive their unit, and what firmware are they shipping with now?

[tautech]

Since there is no activity in this thread for over a week, I guess it's the new participants are eagerly awaiting delivery of SSA3021X?  Who is latest to receive their unit, and what firmware are they shipping with now?

Others may have had different but one I got a few weeks back fresh from the factory had 8.1 installed. 8.2 is the latest firmware.
I'll have some more in a few weeks and I'll report back with what they have factory installed.

I always install the latest FW before dispatching as AFAIK this has no effect on any ability to hack them, study the hacking thread carefully. 

[NikWing]

Hey all

I got my SSA3021X yesterday. I'm just starting to learn about SAs and everything that has to do with them, so please be patient with me and my questions
I've already been in an EMI/EMC lab to have some products analyzed though.

Playing around with the SSA and EasySpectrum caused some questions popping up
Maybe you experienced users or Siglent may have some informations about that.

So I'll just ask them here, if that's okay:

1: In the lab the guys easily found leaks using a probe connected to a (way more expensive) SA.
They turned up the volume of the built in speaker and the noise de-/increased with the amount of radiation at the probe's location.
The Siglent SSA also has an option to connect headphones. I used my Samsung Galaxy headphones and demodulated some radio stations already
The volume was set to "1" and my ears nearly started bleeding. So either it's an output to connect a speaker or the pre-amp inside the SSA is not yet adjusted right.
Is there any way to ask Siglent for a better handling of the volume?
Is there any way to listen to (probably transposed) signals that are going into the SSA?
IMO (if it doesn't exist already) it would be great to make the SSA play some kind of audio signal (like 500 Hz sine or whatever) and make its volume de-/increase with the signal strength? With an amp connected to the SSA this would be helpful for leak hunting.

2: EasySpectrum is quite nice. Being able to set EMI limits and start (automatic) measurements.
It would be nice if there was an option to set the window size according to the PC's screen size/resolution. That way viewing the charts would be a lot better/nicer.

3: I've also bought the beehive 101A probe kit. There's a datasheet with formulas to calculate their output power if I'm not wrong. Stupid question, but is there a way to tell the SA what kind of probes are connected or to enter some correction data about the connected probe?
A DSO can be told what probe (1:10, 1:100 etc) is connected so it shows the correct values.
Beside cable attenuation etc, how do I know what power levels I really measure?

4: Some keypress beep feedback would also be great, maybe Siglent could add an option in the system settings ...

5: I set the SSA to show some peaks in the noise (for example: radio stations). Using the peak list I only saw one of them listed and I had a hard time to jump to the next peak that was clearly visible on screen. I used the rot-enc wheel to get to the desired/next/previous peak but that was quite uncomfortable.
Is there any easier way to jump to peaks while the measurement is not stopped (trace set to view)?

7: pushing peak button, stopping the measurement (trace -> view) and going back to peaks shows a list of them.
"Marker" is set to "normal". The button "next peak" does nothing here. "left" and "right" jump to the expected peaks. But pushing the "peak peak" button sets marker from "normal" to "delta pair" making a "1r" appear on screen on the lowest falling edge peak.
Is that to be expected?

6: How can I scroll or "scan" through the frequency band? Either there's a bug or I misunderstood something.
For example: start freq: 2.7 GHz, stop freq: 2.8 GHz, resulting span is 100 MHz
Selecting center freq (which results in 2.75 GHz), with a freq step of 10 MHz and turning the rot-enc wheel, shouldn't the next step be at 2.76 GHz? Here it jumps to 2.7505 GHz, doing 500 kHz steps ...

Thanks for any advice, hints and stuff like that

[videobruce]

The Siglent SSA also has an option to connect headphones. I used my Samsung Galaxy headphones and demodulated some radio stations already
The volume was set to "1" and my ears nearly started bleeding. So either it's an output to connect a speaker or the pre-amp inside the SSA is not yet adjusted right.

1. That was brought out in a very good review on YouTube. The guy did connect a small speaker by itself and it worked.

5. Is there any easier way to jump to peaks while the measurement is not stopped (trace set to view)?

Turn 'Cont Peak' on & and choose 'Peak Peak'.

Selecting center freq (which results in 2.75 GHz), with a freq step of 10 MHz and turning the rot-enc wheel, shouldn't the next step be at 2.76 GHz? Here it jumps to 2.7505 GHz, doing 500 kHz steps ...

It is here. You must be doing something wrong somewhere.

[NikWing]

Jie from Siglent wrote me a message, they will try to see if changing it to logarithmic volume increase makes it better.

5: the problems I had mainly came from wrong peak detector settings. of course it's hard to jump to peaks that are jumping around ^^;

but I already tried your suggestion using the "peak peak" button. in 7 in wrote that this enables delta pair mode here and the 1r marker appears ...

and Jie told me: When using the wheel, the frequency steps is 1/200 of span. When using the Arrow which under the wheel, the frequency steps will be the manual setup.

I've spent the past days watching a lot of videos about spectrum analyzers and read many how-tos, too - and already gained some more knowledge
Though there are questions left about measuring and EMI debugging. I've also seen the 5µH LISN thread(s) etc. I guess I'll open a new thread and ask things there. Which part of the forum would be the right place to do so?
Test Equipment, Other Equipment, Projects/Designs or Beginners?

[tautech]

@ NikWing
There are many examples of advanced usage in rf-loop's posts throughout this thread. Many features of this instrument are tucked away within the UI and it takes some little time to know where each is and become familiar with their correct usage.
Spend some time to become competent with basic settings to get the displayed results you seek and then start to apply the measurement features. I like you had to learn to use this instrument but I had zero previous experience with SA's. There are some pdf's offered in this thread and there is some good reading in them.

One thing at a time, just like walking, start with small steps before being able to run. 

As each and every SA is different IMO discussion of correct SSA3000X operation is best kept here so that other and future owners can benefit from combined experience. As the screenshots are small and easy to add to a post please do show them as we can see much information from the UI to offer advice.

[Joel_l]

Hi,

I've had my SSA3021x for a couples weeks now and just got around to trying it out for one of my intended purposes. One of my my uses is to work on my vintage RC equipment. I had been using my HP 8920B but for some uses I needed more than 1GHz and also more complete SA features. Anyway,

I'm looking at the RF output of one of my AM TXs. I use the AM demodulator and hook the audio output to my scope to see the serial PPM signal.
The main thing I noticed is that the SA can't seem to sweep the display and demodulate at the same time. I either need to use zero span or set a long demodulate time.
If I set the time to say 10 seconds, I see my PPM stream on the scope with a hickup every 10 seconds while the SA sweeps. So I figure the demodulate time is really time between sweeps ( not the same as sweep time ). My 8920B doesn't have this issue.

It's not a big deal but just curious if anyone else using this SA to demodulate signals has noticed the same thing?

Same thing when just listening to FM broadcast, either need to use zero span or set a long demodulate time ( each new sweep cuts the audio ).

Another thing I notice is that the SA does not remember that last setting I used. Haven't gone through the manual completely yet, so maybe just on option to set.

So far, please with the SA.

Joel

[rf-loop]

This is how it works. For continuous listening; Zero Span.  How sweeping SA can work different if it have only one "receiver". Try same with radio, tune freq continuously and try listen.  This Agilent old AN-150 is very mandatory to read and understand for every peoples who use SA. It also explain well how also Siglent SSA works.

About other question.
Go to System menu, open there "Power On/Preset"  menu. There you have  options for power on: Default, Last, User defined. 

Also you can configure "Preset" button for Default, Last, User.
There is selection "User Config".  Do first SA setup what you want, after then go to this menu and save this setup. It is now as "User defined" what you can also assign for blue "Preset" button if need.

[Joel_l]

I'll have to double check my 8920B, I don't recall it having any skips, but maybe.
I figured I could set the default startup behavior, just haven't gone through the manual well yet. I've been pretty much just been pushing buttons and playing.

Thanks for the tips.

Joel

[rf-loop]

I'll have to double check my 8920B, I don't recall it having any skips, but maybe.
I figured I could set the default startup behavior, just haven't gone through the manual well yet. I've been pretty much just been pushing buttons and playing.

Thanks for the tips.

Joel

If you compare 8920B RF Communications Test Set and normal Spectrum analyzer it need note that they are extremely different machines. Yes it have also spectrum function but...  example 8922 can listen AND sweep SA at same time, 8920B I do not have any own experience. (least these units (GSM  test set's) what I have owned and used.)  These machines  are very different, and if look these units (new) prices and example Siglent SA (new) price.

[nowlan]

Bit late to the party, but saw AfroTechMods video last night.

[Joel_l]

You are right. The 8920B is very versatile and a different instrument all together. It does what it was made for very well. Its SA and scope functions were limited but useful. When I bought it, I was actually looking for an SA. At the time I couldn't touch a real SA for what I got the 8920B for. I made do with the 8920B and it has served my limited use of it well.

Now with the SSA3021x I am very pleased. The sweep and audio point is not really an issue and I don't think I would ever need to do both at one time. It was just something I noticed while getting familiar with it.

Thanks for the insights

Joel

I'll have to double check my 8920B, I don't recall it having any skips, but maybe.
I figured I could set the default startup behavior, just haven't gone through the manual well yet. I've been pretty much just been pushing buttons and playing.

Thanks for the tips.

Joel

If you compare 8920B RF Communications Test Set and normal Spectrum analyzer it need note that they are extremely different machines. Yes it have also spectrum function but...  example 8922 can listen AND sweep SA at same time, 8920B I do not have any own experience. (least these units (GSM  test set's) what I have owned and used.)  These machines  are very different, and if look these units (new) prices and example Siglent SA (new) price.