Sidewinder™/FVAm 2.2.1998.3457 – June 2021
What’s New
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Added Sidewinder support for FCPT-IP9A-P and FCPT-IP9A-R ribbon tips with FCPP-OLA-3 opticalassembly.

Sidewinder™/FVAm 2.2.1992.3425 – March 2021
What’s New

Newly built instruments will ship with 3 additional optical settings installed: FCPT-LC
 FCPT-QODC2-P
 FCPT-QODC2-S
Note: For Sidewinder microscopes already in the field, users can connect their microscope toFiberChekPRO™ software version 2.3.2 (or later) to install these optical settings.

What’s FixedImproved focus quality accuracy when using simplex tips with dynamic sizing.
Fixed an issue where an incorrect focus value could be shown for an inspected simplex fiber.

Sidewinder™/FVAm 2.2.1982.3400 – August 2020
What’s NewAnalysis has been sped up significantly, with 5-second improvement typical
Added support for FCPT-LC simplex tip

What’s ChangedEnhanced contrast in Optical Settings on FVAm to improve particle detection
SR4 Connectors have been renamed to SR4 (4-0-4)“Tip” is now “Optical Setting” in the fiber info popup

What’s Fixed
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Fixed issue where particles were sometimes incorrectly labeled and colored in the inspection
overlays
Fixed issue with MPO inspection where particles outside the cladding were sometimes being
analyzed
Fixed issue where a single-mode fiber core could be falsely marked as a pit
Made improvements to non-125 µm fiber analysis
Miscellaneous bug fixes and reliability improvements

Sidewinder™/FVAm 2.1.1921.3347 – August 2019
What’s New

Supports broader range of connector definitions, including MPO with gaps
Enhanced circle finding and edge particle detection
Added simplex support for FVAm
Added blinking LED indicator during test for FVAm

What’s Fixed

Numerous bug fixes and reliability improvements

Sidewinder™/FVAm 2.0.1814.3236 – May 2019
What’s New


Added support for the FVAm Series Benchtop Microscopes. No change for Sidewinder.

Sidewinder™ 2.0.1776.3236 – November 2018
What’s New

Greatly reduced MPO analysis time.
Added support for System Reset. This is the System Reset threshold version for Sidewinder. For
more information on System Reset, see System Reset & Firmware Update.pdf.
New languages packs – added German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese,Russian, Vietnamese and Chinese.

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Ability to reduce firmware update time by selecting a subset of supported language packs to load
onto the device.
Ability to cancel a running analysis by pressing and holding the trigger button.
Improved autofocus accuracy, especially for 2-row MPO connectors.
Autofocus will now trigger from an inspected view if ‘Autofocus on Insert’ is turned on.
Added icons to indicate USB and WiFi status at the top of the live view screen.
Press and hold the trigger button to go live from the inspected state. This prevents accidentally
discarding the last test result.

What’s Fixed

Numerous bug fixes and reliability improvements

Sidewinder™ 1.3.1641.3169 – August 2018
What’s New
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MM Bright Core Particle Detection Enhanced
Scratch Detection Enabled Includes support for Colorblind Mode
Assisted Manual Focus
 When near peak focus, the resolution of the joystick is scaled for fine control
Menu Updates Removed Autocenter Menu Option
 Removed Date Format Menu
 When reports are imported on a PC, the Windows date format on that machine will
be used Added Key Up/Key Down menu for tip alignment
Auto Lighting Mode beta is available
 Dynamically adjusts lighting to optimize for current DUT
 Will disable itself as soon as a host connects
 Intended to be for standalone operation only
Device/host pairs should be less likely to erroneously time out
A double row fiber (or single row) that is out of center should now result in an inspection error
8x2 [24] Connector definition added

What’s Fixed

Numerous bug fixes and reliability improvements

Sidewinder™ 1.3.1557.3142 – June 2018
What’s New

Support for the new FCPT-MTPA-L long reach ribbon tip
Ability to perform a pan motor calibration (Menu -> System Settings -> Panmotor Calibration)
Improved fiber finding accuracy
Improved startup time
Added USB connect mode setting (Menu -> System Settings -> USB Connect Mode). This can be used
to change the USB speed when there are USB connection issues.
Added Giteki Cert to the System Info screen for Japan compliance
Changed connector names from MTP to MPO (see table above)
INSPECT OUTSIDE ZONES menu removed
Improved image stability in the Optical Setting editor

What’s Fixed

Numerous bug fixes and reliability improvement

Sidewinder™ 1.3.1490.3108 – March 2018
What’s New
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Ability to rotate the screen UI. (Menu->System Settings->Screen Orientation)
Added menu icon to upper-left of live view.
Reorganized menu structure for better usability.
Improved fiber finding accuracy.
Improved user experience for on-board optical setting editor.
Support for connectors with unpopulated fibers (SR4/SR10).
New message to help guide users through switching between ribbon and simplex fiber kinds.
Moving the joystick now clears error messages.
Doubled the results storage capacity.

What’s Fixed

Numerous bug fixes and reliability improvement

Sidewinder™ 1.3.1382.3073 – January 2018
Initial Release