TSP #69 - Keysight EXA Signal Analyzer / Spectrum Analyzer Review, Teardown & Experiments

[@lucasng3330]

Awesome on the explanation of block diagram. This will be my Friday night movie! I'll watch it many many times! Thanks

[@JetNmyFuture]

As usual, fantastic! Thank you. All of these videos send me directly into research and learning mode so that I can go back and see if I understand better. This video bites off a big chunk of information which will keep me busy.

[@richsmith46]

Excellent video and certainly pushed my RF knowledge to the limit and beyond. I always learn something from you each time I watch, many thanks!

[@Zadster]

Note the time and date on the SA on-screen clock. From early Christmas day morning, to afternoon. :D Thank you for the seasonal present Shahriar! I hope Keysight or someone can loan you a VNA some time, there is definitely a need for a thorough walk-through of one of those.

[@InXLsisDeo]

+Zadster If Rohde & Schwartz aren't doing this, they are missing out.

[@ToniT800]

4:04 here. I just wanted to go sleep. But no, time for tea, apple pie and signalpath.:)

[@Thesignalpath]

+Toni T800 Hehe... Well, prepare yourself, this is a very technical video. :)

[@mikehorrod4367]

Fantasic to see they provided you the boards. Thanks for another great video.

[@thewyliestcoyote]

GREAT VIDEO! I used to work with a lot of the (HP/Agilent/Keysight) Vector Network Analyses and was repeatedly told not to "Have a look inside of them". Maybe you could tear down a VNA and explain the design and operation?

[@ravindranmohanavelu9511]

Excellent video. I need to watch it a again to get everything. EVM question: Signal Hound EVM shape: Seems to be a sinc kind of modulation. Is it related to limited time of signal capture? PA Periodicity: Is it related to DAC segmentation? Thank you

[@dufflepod]

Definately one of your best videos ever.

[@Fake0Name]

Hey, your intro finally isn't a camera pointed at a LCD!

[@Thesignalpath]

+Connor Wolf :)

[@owieccyt]

+Connor Wolf It was a CRT screen connected to a VHS system. Nice to see a better quality.

[@AureliusR]

+The Signal Path Blog 4:45AM On Dec 25th?! Good to see I'm not the only one with crazy sleeping habits, especially when it comes to electronics :)

[@marco56702]

23.38, somebody really love this board :D Great video! really interesting ,thank you!

[@MadManMarkAu]

I have a question about QAM demodulation. I understand QAM is decoded by the IQ signal being at a specific code point on every "tick" of the symbol clock. I also understand that when you down-convert a single tone to IQ baseband, it will ideally have a fixed vector. However, if the tone is even a fraction of a Hz off, the vector will rotate. When decoding QAM, how does the decoder prevent rotation of the constellation due to frequency mismatches? Or, am I completely misunderstanding how QAM demodulation works?

[@Thesignalpath]

+Mark McGough No, you are correct. The constellation will rotate if there is any frequency offset, furthermore it will be tilted if there is a phase offset. Both of those are surely present. However, the clock and data recover algorithms of the VSA software corrects for that.

[@douro20]

Micron-scale through-silicon vias have been used in the past by HP to make grayscale images on silicon, and these images were once quite common in their larger chips. It was a technique unique to HP and probably will never be seen again.

[@jimm2099]

Another fantastic video, thanks Shahriar!

[@ruhnet]

Great video with fantastic experiments. The capabilities of the EXA combined with an EXG/MXG are truly incredible; I had no idea it was so versatile in measurement capabilities! (With $$$ software options anyway...)

Amazing video as always!

[@rcleveacp]

Wow very impressive! It looks like Santa was very good to you this year. I loved the experiments, very good review and explanation. I look forward to your next video. Thank you.

[@rolfdieterklein]

Great video as always - just bought the VSG25A as result - the question with the error vector not being flat signal as you ask, maybe comes from the restricted length o the pseudeo rnd sequence of the used bitpattern from teh VSG ?

[@hendersonroger]

Are the LO filters embedded/stripline to permit the dielectric to be the same on both sides of the filter trace? That should improve the performance of the filters vs microstrip filters.

[@jzpxxx]

I think at 25:00 the circuit should be 5.1G prefilter and LNA. Lowband mixer should be in the sealed box.

[@catt87]

Very comprehensive video. Well done. Thank you

[@hpux735]

Fantastic, as always. Is the "obvious" reason for having the separate power supplies because you don't want to modulate the PLL output of the transmitter with noise from the PA?

[@partygeek1986]

Hi, How much EVM should change if there is only 1 degree of phase error in Quadrature signal coming from DAC/ADC? Is there any simple formula to check effect of I.Q imbalance on EVM without knowing any other information?

[@martijn4740]

wow that was a lot of info to take in awesome and way above my understanding of RF

[@cthree87]

Awesome video, thanks!

[@jaa93997]

is it because the instrument is aplying fft to the displayed signal?

[@Enzaie]

Mind blowing stuff.....

[@InXLsisDeo]

+Enzaie My brains are all over the place.

[@alextrofimov7947]

Shahriar did I get you right, the upconversion is performed for to be able to use a microwave cavity filter? The heart shape on the board is really nice)) I love it!) Incredible video, thank you so much!

[@dwDragon88]

This must be a response video for the haters complaining about him doing Arduino stuff. :) Very interesting episode, thanks.

[@Thesignalpath]

I really don't know why they didn't like the IoT video. I thought showing the block diagram of the SoC and actually getting it to work with your cell phone was pretty fun!

[@AF6LJSue]

Very well done.

[@lukasmiglbauer915]

Ever got the hands on a R&S FSW? Did you like the UI?

[@AlexBlate]

Awesome tutorial! :)

[@bhagathsingh7354]

Can someone explain briefly why it's the output matching network and not the input matching network which caused the dip in the gain at around 6Ghz (1:04:21)

[@maxsnts]

why the hell do i feel compelled to look at these videos since it's completely outside of my processional and monetary scope?!?

[@simonfitch1120]

+maxsnts Same for me. Maybe some of what he says will soak in and stay! Every 2 minutes or so he says something that I have to pause and look up. I'll never use any of this information, but I find it fascinating, just fascinating.

[@DantalionNl]

Hello Shariar I am a bachelor software engineer who does some EE and radio ham in its free time, Is their a spectrum analyzer in the 500 dollar range second handed or old both ofcourse for this price are not a problem.

[@yaghiyahbrenner8902]

What a great video, what a way to end 2015, you really did great things for this channel the EE student, EE hobbyist and up and coming RF enthusiast (such as myself). I would like to see better lightning in 2016. :)

[@pauldeboer]

So how do you mix 34.4 to 44GHz to 322.5MHz with an LO that has to pass a 14GHz low pass filter?

[@Thesignalpath]

It is a sub-harmonic filter.

[@alperenalperen2458]

Great!

[@DavidLeeMenefee]

I have been thinking about getting one of these. May I can find one real cheap on ebay. Thumbs up.

[@gacherumburu9958]

👍👍

[@TKomoski]

Hello very cool

[@totaldude155]

How do you afford all of that gear? Are you sponsored or something?

[@warrentb1]

+totaldude155 If I remember correctly Shahriar is a practicing EE at Bell Labs, so it is probably a combination of intense interest and great deals from manufacturers due to his professional position (and youtube channel?). I can't remember him mentioning being married either :)

[@jaa93997]

(looks at the price tag)(geek engineer soul dies a little more)

[@yaghiyahbrenner8902]

+W Bailey un-married => afford better equipment, un-married with no-kids => expensive equipment. he does have a girlfriend in the masters EE space, so the general rule doesn't apply. :)

[@InXLsisDeo]

+totaldude155 +W Bailey I believe he had a good price on the Keysight/Tektronix scope indeed because of his position at Bell Labs, but mostly, except for the chinese brands (Rigol, Siglent) that he can afford, I believe he buys non working equipments from eBay and repairs them. Non-working equipments can be had for a fraction of the price of used equipments, which are themselves several times cheaper than new equipments. That's how you can get for a few hundreds $ equipment that used to cost several grands when new. But then you must be pretty confident that you can repair most of these complex electronics, which obviously isn't a given.

[@SirMo]

No doubt an amazing piece of gear, but am I the only one who feels Keysight should really do something about their ugly UIs? I understand it may seem unimportant but R&S instruments have much more tastefully designed UIs. Even my old FSEA from the late 90s looks more modern.

[@joelholdsworth]

Ugh why do all these high end instruments have to use Windows? it would be much better if they used embedded Linux - faster boot, no danger of viruses etc.

[@babybearkill1]

1.5 hour nerdgasm