Boonton 4530 Peak Power Meter User Manual - Manual (Page 93)

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Boonton Electronics Chapter 4
4530 Series RF Power Meter Remote Operation
4.5.6 SENSE Subsystem
The purpose of the SENSe command subsystem is to directly configure device specific settings used to make measure-
ments, generally parameters related to the RF power sensor and signal processing. The SENSe commands are used to
configure the power meter for acquiring data. SENSe enables you to change measurement parameters such as filtering
or averaging, sensor bandwidth, operating frequency and calfactors, and measurement gain or offset. The numeric
suffix of the SENSe program mnemonic in the SENSe commands refers to a hardware measurement “channel”, that is
SENSe1 and SENSe2 represent the power meter’s SENSOR 1 and SENSOR 2 signal paths, respectively. The SENSe
commands generally DO NOT affect the data processing and display portion of the measurement (see the CALCulate
subsystem, below). Note that SENSe2 commands will generate an error if used with a single channel Model 4531.
SENSe:AVERage
Description: Set or return the number of traces averaged together to form the measurement result on the
selected channel. Can also be used to reduce display noise on both the visible trace, and on
marker and automatic pulse measurements. Trace averaging is a continuous process in
which the measurement points from each sweep are weighted (multiplied) by a appropriate
factor, and averaged into the existing trace data points. In this way, the most recent data will
always have the greatest effect on the trace shape, and older measurements will be decayed
at a rate determined by the averaging setting and trigger rate. Note that for timespans faster
than 50uS, the 4530 acquires samples using a technique called equivalent time or inter-
leaved sampling. In this mode, not every pixel on the trace gets updated on each sweep,
and the total number of sweeps needed to satisfy the AVERage setting will be increased by
the sample interleave ratio of that particular timespan.
Syntax: SENSe[1|2]:AVERage <n>
Argument: <n> = Numeric value from 1 to 4096 (1 = no trace averaging)
Valid Modes: Pulse
SENSe:FILTer:STATe
Description: Set or return the current setting of the integration filter on the selected channel. OFF
provides no filtering, and can be used at high signal levels when absolute minimum settling
time is required. ON allows a user-specified integration time, from 10 milliseconds to 15
seconds (see
SENSe:FILTer:TIMe command). Note that setting the filter time will force the
state to ON. AUTO uses a variable amount of filtering, which is set automatically by the
power meter based on the current signal level to a value that gives a good compromise
between measurement noise and settling time at most levels.
Syntax: SENSe[1|2]:FILTer:STATe <asc>
Argument: <asc> = OFF, ON, AUTO
Valid Modes: CW and Modulated modes