Sometimes I get asked how we can simplify and even automate, a series of pre-defined
measurements that a rigger (or less experienced technician) can perform automatically out
in the field. The new Option TPN Task Planner capability
of the N9342C allows us to do exactly that. By stepping the operator through a series
of up to 20 tests and automatically saving the measurement results of each test into
the instrument's internal memory without needing a PC out on site.
Let us say we want the operator to make the channel power and occupied bandwidth measurements
that we stored previously for this 2 GHz WCDMA transmitter.
First we copy these State files - TONY1 and TONY2 - onto a USB memory stick and transfer
them to our PC. Now, we will use the free HSA software that
comes with the N9342C to sequence them into a test plan.
We can change the order in which the tasks execute.
We can give each task a more descriptive name. We can enter a start message and an end message
that will be displayed to prompt the operator. We can set how many times each task should
execute, or for how long, and in the Report Contents section we can tell the Task Planner
what information to save to the test report: marker values,
Pass/Fail values, specific measurement results - such as from
this channel power measurement the power value in dBm or the spectral density in dBm/Hz,
and we can even tell the Task Planner to save the screen image or the trace values as part
of the test sequence. We can tell the Task Planner how we want the
operator to step through each of the tests: Automatically or manually.
Finally we give the Task Plan a name and description and save it onto our USB memory stick for
loading back into the analyzer. I will press SHIFT,
and FILE, and you can see the media type is USB,
and here are the files on the USB stick. We will scroll down to the WCDMA Test Plan
that we have just saved, and we will press FILES OPERATION,
COPY TO, and select INTERNAL MEMORY,
and COPY. Our Test Plan is now saved into the internal
memory of the N9342C. If I press ENTER,
you will see here it says Task Planner Overview, it gives the name of the Task Plan, the description
we gave it, and the two tasks. So if I press RUN.
It says here the instruction that we typed in for the operator "Connect the transmitter
to the analyzer..." So we will connect the Transmitter and then
press ENTER. The instrument is now making the first measurement
which is WCDMA Channel Power. It is saving the screen shots and creating
a text file with the test results. Here you can see the measurements it is making
of the marker value - whether it pass or fail - and here are the Channel Power measurement
results, again indicating pass or fail. The operator is then given the options of
re-do the measurement, move onto the next measurement,
or skip. So we will press NEXT for the next measurement
and now it is measuring automatically the occupied bandwidth measurement that we asked
it to do in step 2 of the Task Planner, Again, it is saving the JPG images of the
screen and it is added the measurement results now from the second task to our test report
text file. We press NEXT,
and RETURN. You will see all the test results have been
saved into a new directory on the N9342C called WCDMA Test Plan #1.
If I press ENTER, you will see here the results of the tests
we have just performed. The JPG files of the screen captures and the
test results as a text file. All of these can of course be copied onto
your PC saved and printed as required. Do not forget that now we have created a Task
Plan and loaded it into the analyzer the operator can run all of these automated tests without
the need for a PC out on site. Everything is contained within the N9342C
and all the results are saved directly into the internal memory of the analyzer.
If you would like further information on these products including;
demonstration guides, operating manuals,
or application notes, please visit: www.agilent.com/find/hsa