The Acquire Class provides programmatic access to all of the features of Vision Acquire. Each of the properties and methods described below correspond to a function or feature in Vision acquire accessed through the Vision Acquire UI. The descriptions below are meant to show how to access these functions. Refer to the Vision User Guide.
Properties
Acquire.ArchivePeriod Property
Gets or sets the data collection period.
VB
Public Property ArchivePeriod() As ArchivePeriods
C#
public ArchivePeriods ArchivePeriod {get; set;}
[C++]
public ArchivePeriods ArchivePeriod {get; set;}
Acquire.AutoArchive Property
Automatically archive the trace tables into the database.
Returns a Boolean value indicating True if Vision Acquire is currently running on the same PC; or False if Vision Acquire is not running. This does not indicate the sweeping state, just whether or not the program is running. If True, then you can safely use other Acquire properties and methods to interact with Vision Acquire.
The number of threads represents the number of probes under simultaneous communication. It cannot be more than the number of probes in the database.
Methods
Acquire.AddChannel2Probe Method
Adds new channels to the list according to the parameters.
VB
Public Sub AddChannel2Probe(ByVal Probename As String,ByVal Channel As ChannelInfo)
C#
public System.Void AddChannel2Probe(stringProbename,ChannelInfoChannel)
C++
public System.Void AddChannel2Probe(stringProbename,ChannelInfoChannel)
Parameters
Probename: The name of the probe where the channel is to be added.
Channel: A structure of type ChannelInfo that holds the description of the channel to add.
Acquire.AddGroup Method
Creates a group with the name set in parameters. Group names are used to categorize remote probes. The group name should be a descriptive name and apply to a sub-set of remote spectrum analyzers that you want to see as a set. A group name might correspond to a geographic area, the name of a technician responsible for oversight, or to a transmission or modulation type.
It removes the unused space created by the deletion of old traces from the database. If Vision software seems to be running unusually slow, compacting the database may be necessary.
Acquire.ConfigureEmail Method
Configure email notification with the Parameters set.
VB
Public Sub ConfigureEmail(ByVal Hostname As String,ByVal PortNumber As String,ByVal Authenticate As Boolean,ByVal UserName As String,ByVal Password As String)
Path: The full path to a directory where you would like to create a new database. This is a path name and does not include a file name. If a Vision database already exists at this location, it will be overwritten.
Acquire.DeleteNotification Method
Deletes the email address set in parameters.
VB
Public Sub DeleteNotification(ByVal Email As String)
Databasename: The full path to a directory where you would like to create a new database. This is a path name and does not include a file name. If a Vision database already exists at this location, it will be overwritten.
Acquire.ModifiyChannel Method
Modify a channel set in Parameters.
VB
Public Sub ModifiyChannel(ByVal Probename As String,ByVal Port As Integer,ByVal Channel As ChannelInfo)
GroupName: The name of the group to remove from the database. Any probes that are assigned to this group will become orphans. They will show up in the probe list in Vision Monitor, but will not be listed under a particular group name.
Acquire.RemoveProbeFromDatabase Method
Deletes a remote spectrum monitor, set in Parameters, from the database.
VB
Public Sub RemoveProbeFromDatabase(ByVal ProbeName As String)
ProbeName: The name of an target receiver to be deleted from the database. This will delete all trace history. If you want to preserve the trace history, make a copy of the database before removing the probe. You can make a copy by Archiving the database.
Acquire.SetNotification Method
Sets email notification with Parameters.
VB
Public Sub SetNotification(ByVal Email As String,ByVal Mode As NotifyType)
Sends a test email to the probe set in Parameters. This is used to test the notification set up and configuration. You must have already specified the email server configuration using the Configure Email method.
VB
Public Sub TestNotification(ByVal Address As String)
This function trims the database so there are about 2000 traces per channel. If you have fewer traces in the database, no changes will be made. If Vision software seems to be running unusually slow, compacting the database may be necessary.
Acquire.ViewLog Method
Opens Vision Log Viewer which contains the activity between the Vision Acquire software and the remote spectrum monitors.
Setting this to true will cause the corresponding channel to sweep and for the trace data to be stored each time Vision Acquire does a pass through all of the channels in the active database. If Scanning is turned off in Vision Acquire, this does not turn it on, so it does not guarantee that the channel will actually be scanned.
Antenna Field
Active antenna port number of multiport remote spectrum monitor.
This field holds a time in nanoseconds that represents the time it takes from when a signal hits the antenna until it is time stamped internally. The timing is very important for TDOA measurements. The Channel Delay comes from several factors, such as antenna cable length, GPS antenna location relative to the RF antenna and the GPS cable length. It also includes a small contribution due to internal manufacturing or component difference from probe to probe. This value is typically calculated and set by the TDOA calibration routine.
Direction Field
If this is a directional antenna, perhaps a sector on a cell phone tower, for instance, this value indicates the direction angle from true north for the center line of the antenna sector. Due East is at 90 degrees.
This value does not affect the sweep parameters of the remote probe. It is used to verify that two probes are at the same frequency for interference hunting. This is typically the center frequency where the probe is sweeping. A multiport probe might have 12 antenna ports, arranged in sets of three for different sectors monitoring different signals on a single tower. Perhaps monitoring LTE, GSM and WCDMA. When Vision is asked to do certain measurements, such as Power on Arrival, it wants to verify that the channels selected actually are looking at the same frequency range. Someone may adjust the start and stop scan frequencies to see a slightly wider bandwidth, or capture something along one band edge. This frequency field allows a simple way to know if the traces stored in the database are compatible for comparison and estimation.
MaskName Field
The name of the mask used to validate trace data in Vision Acquire. Masks are stored in the database, and the name used here is the name the mask has in the database.
Sometime a probe will become unresponsive. We do not want to hold up monitoring all other channels and probes waiting for one to come back on line. How long Vision Acquire should wait is a function of the actual sweep rate, which can vary a lot depending on sweep parameters, and also network or connection latency and throughput.
TraceMode Field
Sets the trace mode: Normal, Averaging, Max Hold, Min Hold.