FY6600 - Control Software App Dev Ideas? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: Dundarave
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2019, 03:53:20 am
content: I'm toying with the notion of writing an improved version of the FeelTech FY6600 AWG control application that the manufacturer provides, starting with the arbitrary waveform creation tool. It's so buggy it's painful, and it doesn't appear to be a terribly complex problem, once one has a graphical user interface (GUI) for it sorted.I'm always loath to try to create software from scratch, preferring to leverage what others have already done, and over the years have had good success starting with open source projects that already have the "bones", or critical elements, of what I need and hacking things from there. In this case, I'm looking for an open source project that will ideally be cross-platform (Win/Mac/Linux) and provide a GUI for an instrument of some kind that can handle command data to the device (as in clicks to elements on the screen) and read data from the device (as in displaying info from the instrument to the screen). The coding language isn't terribly important: I've used pretty much all of the popular ones over the years.Are there any suggestions as to possible open source apps? If not for electronic test gear, perhaps something along the musical instrument MIDI line? (I'm not musically inclined, and know very little about the MIDI space). I'm thinking I might possibly have luck there if I can find something that lets the user draw waveforms, a synthesizer interface, perhaps.Thanks for any input

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 17, 2019, 02:08:46 pm
content: MIDI has nothing to do with waveforms. It is a communication protocol which (basically) says 'play this note right now'.

author: simonboydfoley
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 31, 2019, 06:54:12 pm
content: I have just received this unit and I want to bash my head against a wall using that waveform software,I too am looking for some open source arbitrary wave form generator project as that software is unusable.I have just downloaded the latest software version 6 and I notice that they have provided a full breakdown of the serial protocol they use to control the unit. (see attached)So what we want is something like the Logic Analysers have (PulseView/Sigrok) but for waveform generation.... personally I think this is a massive undertaking. I can not see any open source wave form generator out there that is not rubbish,It would make sense to leverage the logic analyser open source software to start with Logic signal generation.I suspect that the ARM based logic analysers that the software is based on do not have the power capabilities to create waveform signals.So the solution may be to leverage their interface to control signal generation devices that do.Initially this would be a wrapper for any protocols that the signal generation devices provide .... but eventually should be an abstraction protocol that eventually manufactures would support,Unfortunately this would initially focus on Digital signal generation due to the community focus of these projects.I don't know if your goals are audio analogue signals or digital.I will ping the community and see if anybody has thought about doing this.THxAxel

author: Scratch.HTF
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2019, 12:28:06 am
content: How about including support for Sigrok?

author: Dundarave
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2019, 02:43:03 am
content: Quote from: simonboydfoley on March 31, 2019, 06:54:12 pmI spent some time looking around for suitable open source software, and came across the free Diligent WaveForms software (sadly, not open source), designed for its proprietary devices. They have a very nice arbitrary waveform design tool, and I considered trying to reverse engineer how the software"talks" to their hardware and perhaps build an emulator that would then talk to the FY6600.I did find, to my delight, that using the WaveForms software in the "demo" mode (i.e. without using any of their hardware) still allows you to use the AWG waveform design tool and save the result: the saved AWG files work perfectly for the FY6600 (you just have to rename the file type). The file formats aren't complex: 8192 rows of floating point numbers between 1 and -1, but the WaveForms tool seems to handle their creation (i.e. the UI) better than the FeelTech software. You still need to use the FeelTech software to load the file into the FY6600, however.

author: TheNewLab
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 07, 2019, 02:01:23 am
content: Have you tried the Agilent (Keysight )application or Tektronix application...if not open source I think you can get the older versions.I agree that is a huge undertaking..to create your own software application for this unit... You might try Joe Smith.. I have noticed that he has built software around Labview..I know Labview is expensive retail software but He may provide a few tips in creating your own open-source. I have also seen people create waveforms for ARB generators using GT Wave and data from a spreadsheet..That might be a route you might want to take Joe is on these forums and has an active YT channel. you might want to watch some of his YouTubes first to get an idea of some of the applications he has developed

author: simonboydfoley
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 08, 2019, 11:32:35 pm
content: Thanks guys for your brilliant suggestions I will look into it.In the mean time I have decided to write a simple c GPIO driver based on accessing the GRF Registers, but the wafeform suggestions will at allow me to test the software.Really appreciated ... thanks for your help :-)