Sunday, June 26, 2016

How to setup your NWT Spectrum Analyzer on Linux. (Ubuntu)

How to setup your NWT Spectrum Analyzer on Linux. (Ubuntu).



NWT70 in picture.

I got my Spectrum Analyzer and here are the steps I use to install and configure it on my Linux (Ubuntu) laptop.

Download the software here. http://www.dl4jal.eu/  link to the file http://www.dl4jal.eu/linnwt4_V4_11_10.tar.gz

Copy the file to your favorite directory
mkdir nwt
cd nwt
cp /home/anton/Downloads/linnwt4_V4_11_10.tar.gz  ./
Unzip the file in the directory.
unzip linnwt4_V4_11_10.tar.gz
Check if the files has unziped
There should be a directory linnwt4_V4_11_10 and cd to it.
cd linnwt4_V4_11_10
Check if you have qmake installed
qmake -v
 You need vertion QT 4 + if you don't have it, install it.
sudo apt-get install build-essential
now install QT
sudo apt-get install gcc qt4-qmake libqt4-dev
now create a directory build inside the linnwt4_V4_11_10 directory
mkdir build
Change to the build directory
cd build
run the gmake command
qmake -qt4 ../
Then run the make command
make
Get coffee ;-) it takes 2 min
There should the be a new file in exsiting directory called linnwt.
Connect your spectrum analizer to your laptop USB connector.
then run the apllication linnwt
sudo ./linnwt
mmmmm, its German!
no problem, run it with this parameter to get it in Englesh
sudo ./linnwt ../app_en.qm

USB device error could not find your NWT device.
So how do I identify my USB device and configure it in the software ?

Run the command tail -f /var/log/syslog


Then unplug your spectrum analyzer usb cable from laptop and reconnect it after 2 seconds to laptop.

There will be new text appearing in the terminal console. Something like this below.

Jun 26 11:55:07 anton-SATELLITE-P755 kernel: [51330.537093] usb 2-1.2: USB disconnect, device number 5
Jun 26 11:55:07 anton-SATELLITE-P755 kernel: [51330.537573] ftdi_sio ttyUSB0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now disconnected from ttyUSB0
Jun 26 11:55:07 anton-SATELLITE-P755 kernel: [51330.537628] ftdi_sio 2-1.2:1.0: device disconnected
Jun 26 11:55:10 anton-SATELLITE-P755 bluetoothd[800]: Authentication attempt without agent
Jun 26 11:55:10 anton-SATELLITE-P755 bluetoothd[800]: Access denied: org.bluez.Error.Rejected
Jun 26 11:55:11 anton-SATELLITE-P755 kernel: [51334.756112] usb 2-1.2: new full-speed USB device number 6 using ehci-pci
Jun 26 11:55:11 anton-SATELLITE-P755 kernel: [51334.855421] usb 2-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0403, idProduct=6001
Jun 26 11:55:11 anton-SATELLITE-P755 kernel: [51334.855430] usb 2-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Jun 26 11:55:11 anton-SATELLITE-P755 kernel: [51334.855434] usb 2-1.2: Product: FT232R USB UART
Jun 26 11:55:11 anton-SATELLITE-P755 kernel: [51334.855437] usb 2-1.2: Manufacturer: FTDI
Jun 26 11:55:11 anton-SATELLITE-P755 kernel: [51334.855440] usb 2-1.2: SerialNumber: AL01PTLP
Jun 26 11:55:11 anton-SATELLITE-P755 kernel: [51334.858330] ftdi_sio 2-1.2:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
Jun 26 11:55:11 anton-SATELLITE-P755 kernel: [51334.858406] usb 2-1.2: Detected FT232RL
Jun 26 11:55:11 anton-SATELLITE-P755 kernel: [51334.859036] usb 2-1.2: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0
Jun 26 11:55:12 anton-SATELLITE-P755 mtp-probe: checking bus 2, device 6: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.2"
Jun 26 11:55:12 anton-SATELLITE-P755 mtp-probe: bus: 2, device: 6 was not an MTP device

You will be looking for ttyUSB?? in the text.

I my example, my usb was ttyUSB0

So now enter your ttyUSB?? in this usb port detail screen below. and then save your configeration.

Select the Settings > Options Menu from the pulldown menu in LinNWT4 application.

Change the value to /dev/ttyUSB?? Your port number found above.
In my case it was /dev/ttyUSB0

O.k., lets now setup a Frequency Spectrum scan.

Add frequency svan limits and then select a single or continuos scan option.

Connect your filter or circuit for testing on SMA terminals.

Then click on your Graphics display to see the return loss of you filter or circuit under test.

Scan display.
Hope this helps.
This spectrum Analizer is available from Giga Technology http://www.giga.co.za/ocart/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=226

7 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. can i do this in raspberry pi model 2 or in android tablet?

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  3. Hi

    Yes it should work on raspberry pi. I dont of any code for Android.

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  5. Had a really hard time tracking down the file linnwt4_V4_11_10.tar.gz as dl4jal doesn't provide it anymore. Finally found it and it's built with QT4 with qt3support needed. I'm long since on qt5. I understand that dl4jal didn't ask for his software and hardware to end up borrowed heavily from him. Funny that no one else provides it since the licence is GPL. Looks like it could be uploaded to github or similar. Sadly my nonexistent coding skills can't port the code.

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  6. Just installed the software on Ubuntu 20.04. Had to first install qt4. Adding this repository helped: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rock-core/qt4.
    73 Jon LA3JJ

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