Agilent Technologies E8663B, N5181A/82A, N5183A MXG manual Using Advanced Programming Languages

Creating and Downloading Waveform Files

Downloading Waveform Data

Line Code Description—Download the I/Q data

6Download the I/Q waveform data to the signal generator by using the function call (agt_waveformload) from the Agilent Waveform Download Assistant. Some of the arguments are optional as indicated below, but if one is used, you must use all arguments previous to the one you require.

Notice that with this function, you can perform the following actions:

•download complex I/Q data

•name the file (optional argument)

•set the sample rate (optional argument)

If you do not set a value, the signal generator uses its preset value of 125 MHz (N5182A) or 100 MHz (E4438C/E8267D), or if a waveform was previously play, the value from that waveform.

•start or not start waveform playback after downloading the data (optional argument) Use either the argument play or the argument no_play.

•whether to normalize and scale the I/Q data (optional argument)

If you normalize and scale the data within the body of the code, then use no_normscale, but if you need to normalize and scale the data, use norm_scale. This normalizes the waveform data to the DAC values and then scales the data to 70% of the DAC values.

•download marker data (optional argument)

If there is no marker data, the signal generator creates a default marker file, all marker set to zero.

To verify the waveform data download, see “Loading, Playing, and Verifying a Downloaded Waveform” on page 224.

7–9

If the download fails, display an error message.

Using Advanced Programming Languages

This procedure uses code from the C++ programming example “Importing, Byte Swapping, Interleaving, and Downloading I and Q Data—Big and Little Endian Order” on page 249.

For information on creating I/Q waveform data, refer to “Creating Waveform Data” on page 212.

There are two steps in the process of downloading an I/Q waveform:

1.Open a connection session.

2.Download the I/Q data.

1. Open a connection session with the signal generator.

The following code establishes a LAN connection with the signal generator or prints an error message if the session is not opened successfully.

Line Code Description—Open a Connection Session

1char* instOpenString ="lan[hostname or IP address]";

//char* instOpenString ="gpib<primary addr>,<secondary addr>";

2INST id=iopen(instOpenString);

3if (!id)

4{

5fprintf(stderr, "iopen failed (%s)\n", instOpenString);

6return -1;

7}

Agilent N518xA, E8663B, E44x8C, and E82x7D Signal Generators Programming Guide 221