1.614 Preview Release

This release is getting closer to use in production settings. If you just purchased a QA401 and are running on a version of Windows prior to Win10 v1803, then we suggest you try this version. If you are running on Windows v1803, then you must use this version.

1.614 (26-June-2018)

• Fixed bug where control panel settings weren't updated when settings were loaded from file
• Added on-screen text to indicate which user-weighting function had been loaded
• Fixed exception that could occur during loading of malformed weighting file

1.613 Preview Release

Bugfixing continues on this release after switching to WinUSB library. This is still not ready for production. If you are running a production setup, you should really defer the Win1803 update as long as possible and setup a parallel machine where you can evaluate the QA401 app atop Win1803 in isolation.

Fixes in this release:

1.613 (10-June-2018)

• Fixed status text on lower left that was missing in previous release. This was unrelated to the WinUSB change.
• Swapped R and L software outputs (which had been re-wired incorrectly during USB changes in 1.61). This was hard to see unless you were muting channels.
• Fixed the control key + space bar operation (which should do single run), as it wasn't cleaning up gracefully and left the button illuminated
• Fixed a bug where adding adding traces before SW was ready could cause exception. This was due to the changes from WinUSB and the fact that the re-structuring left some vars null on start.
• Cleanup of limits and error handling in various dialog boxes. This was unrelated to the WinUSB change.
• Minimize the number of resets the codec is subjected to during starting and stopping tone generation as these can pop and cause issues readily apparent on high-gain stages driving speakers. Still not perfect, but it's very, very difficult to hear a click at this point even with 20 dB of gain external to the QA401. But be aware if you are working on very sensitive circuits. The QA401 coded will be reset when the application is first launched. After that, there are no further resets.
• Fixed bug where swept test menu wasn't getting re-enabled after test completion. This was unrelated to the WinUSB change.
• Added ASIO driver. Only left channel 48K atten active is functional right now. See "readme" in driver directory for instructions on how to install as its not installed by default. This driver won't be actively supported by us,, but we'd love to hear from you if it works as provided. With this driver, you should be able to move back and forth between Arta and the QA401 software. Note, though, that both apps cannot be running at the same time. if you have an Asio app open and try to open the QA401 app (or vice versa), the USB open will fail.

1.612 Preview Release

Another pre-release, not for production use!

This is another set of fixes for the post Windows 1803 fixes.

If you already installed 1.60 or later, you don't have to un-install and you don't need to re-install dirver (thought it shouldn't hurt). Just download and run and it should over-write itself. If you have NOT installed 1.60 or later, please see the notes with those releases or you will run into issues here.

Thanks very much for the quick feedback! We're almost over the Win1803 hump!

1.612

• Fixed RUN LED
• Fixed text label on start
• Added changes for rough ASIO driver testing
• Replaced code for fixed tone generation

1.611 Preview Release

NOTE: See the instructions below for release 1.61 if you are installing this over a previous release.

• Fixes issue where sample rate wasn't correctly on cold-start of app + USB re-plug

1.61 Preview Release

Windows version 1803 started getting pushed to desktops several weeks ago, and reports of issues started trickling in. And as more accepted the Windows 1803 upgrade, the issues mounted. What is clear at this point is that the previous version of the QA Analyzer app was broken by 1803. We don't know specifically why, but it appears to be something in the Cypress SuiteUSB dll. In the release of Windows version 1803, Microsoft did an automatic in-place upgrade of the dotnet framework. What this means is that apps that had been using version 4.x of the framework were suddenly using a slightly different version of the framework. Bugs that used to not matter suddenly mattered. This upgrade impacts applications that could have been written as long as 10 years ago.

We spent a few days trying to fix the issue. But we've long planned and had prototyped a move to WinUSB, which is MSFT's USB library. We'd prototyped with it and found it rock solid. So, we took this as an opportunity to make the shift. This has been an enormous change, touching huge amount of code the QA401 application. But it went smoothly, and we've eliminated the dependency on the Cypress DLLs. Those were always a bit awkward, and written by folks that didn't really seem to "get" C#.

This first release isn't without problems, but they will be fixed rather quickly in the next few days. If you are running a production test setup, do not migrate to Win1803 until version 1.6x gets some more QA, otherwise you will be stuck.

For now, the aim with this release is to ensure folks can install and use the app. We have more QA to do on this, so please don't trust it for analysis at this point.

To install:

1. First you MUST uninstall the old version of the QA Analyzer app. Do this by typing "remove" from the windows flag menu, and you'll see the option to "add/remove programs" pop up. Make sure the QA401 is not plugged in.

2. Next, plug in the QA401 and open Device Manager and ensure the QA401 is listed as an "unknown device". If you still see the QA401 listed as the "QA401" in the USB tree, then you MUST right click and opt to "uninstall device" and check the box that says "Uninstall software from my machine". Replug the machine, and repeat the process until the device shows up as an "unknown device"

3. Next, download and install the app. You MUST opt to "install drivers" when prompted. It is selected by default. Once you have installed version 1.61 or greater once, you no longer need to worry about this process.

4. Run the app as you normally do.

The key thing we're looking for at this point is whether the install went OK and whether or not you can see traces on the screen. Beyond that, stay tuned for another round of bug fixes.

Thanks for your patience!

1.603 Preview Release

UPDATE 28-MAY-2018

The QA401 software isn't running reliably on the new Windows build 1803 that is currently being pushed out by Microsoft. We've been working on this for the last few weeks, and hope to have a new release ready by June 1, 2018. This will be release 1.604. Thanks, Matt

19-Apr-2018

• Moves to version 4.5.2 of the DotNet framework (had been 4.0 Client Profile). This was needed for compatibility with upcoming Tractor release

• Fixes bug where the X Axis ignored user settings once you had gone into time-domain and then switched back to freq domain.

1.602 Preview Release

9-Apr-2018

• Fixed bug in remoting SNR calculation
• Fixed issue where MULTITONE text was overwriting SNR test. The new behavior is that if MULTITONE is enabled, then GEN1 and GEN2 settings aren't displayed at all. And vice versa.

1.601 Preview Release

This is pre-release not for production testing.

This fixed a bug that prevented you from switching back to dBV mode once you had selected dBU mode.

Also studying if noise density calculations are correct as a question has been raised there.

Release 1.60 Preview

March 29, 2018

Don't use this release for production testing. Please consider this a beta release.

Changes:

• Improved time-axis display. Some users were zooming in a lot to inspect waveform quality and weren't able to see time markers on the X axis.
• Fixed but where adding a marker to a low-frequency signal would result in a search span that was too big, and the marker didn't "stick" to the expected location
• When Y axis span is less than 20 dB (as set by ymin and ymax knobs), then 1 dB resolution lines are drawn
• When in stopped mode, a cursor will appear allowing you to display precise frequencies.
• Fixed a bug in remoting code where was difficult to turn generators on and off
• Added ability to fetch a screen shot via remoting code
• Added ability for remoting code to set log/lin axis
• Added multitone generation
• Added ability to display dBV/rthz on left axis.
• Added display of gains when a single siggen is active
• Added ability to get SNR via remoting interface.
• Added the ability for a user to specify weighting file. This is useful for mic cal, checking RIAA curves, etc
• Fixed bug where displayed weighting didn't match button state
• Added space option to permit a single capture to be performed. This is useful on high-power setups where you have to be worried about a load getting too hot.
• If multitone is selected AND you've selected the option to display watts AND you've specified a non-zero load impedance, then RMS display will also indicate watts. This was needed because the peak display reading isn't very helpful in multitone mode.
• THD sweep plugin now allows THD or THD+N to be selected. Upper bound (stop frequency) can also be specified for THD and THD+N measurements. Previously, the upper bound was hardcoded at 20KHz which meant a 10 KHz THD measurement wasn't possible. Remember to set sampling frequency is correctly if you wish to measure higher harmonics beyond 20 KHz

Bugfixes

1.51 June 2017

• Ensured that precise stop frequency will always be the final point in both freq and THD test plugins
• Fixed bug where sometimes the option for graph generation wasn't shown. This was due to install
  problem where the old DLL wasn't overwritten.
• Fixed bug where time domain display could be stuck in log mode. This was evident based on axis.

1.50 Jan 2017

• Added ability to tweak offset (zero point) of DAC
• Fixed bug where constant tone generation left outputs and indeterminant DC value
• Added plugin to allow DAC sweep
• Added ability to change delay after ramp-amp to account for test situations such as bluetooth where additional latency was introduced
• Fixed bug where API calls were returned values that missed the state of the attenuator

1.481

• Correction made to phase computation. Output/Input filter phase response of ADC and DAC are taken into account
• Slight tweak to DBV level computation (0.08dB) based on historical yield data