Use the command-line interface if you require controlling the IQ stream through another software package, or if you want to script the data transfer, is very convenient.
To run the command-line interface, open a console window to the application folder (typically C:\Program Files\Anritsu Company\IQ Acquisition Tool). You can easily open a console window by browsing to the application folder using Windows File Explorer, then entering ‘cmd’ in the address bar.
Note
Note: if you want to use the command-line interface to stop services that might interfere with data transfer, you will need to open the console window in Administrator mode
The command-line application is named ‘IQConsole.exe’. All options and settings are entered with this application as command-line directives. Some directives can be entered together on a single command-line, and some need to be entered singly. All commands begin with a hyphen (-). Many commands take an argument, and a colon separates the directive from its argument.
As an example for format, consider the directive to set the ip address (analyzer hostname).
Iqconsole –h:192.168.0.22
The ‘-h’ tells the application that we are setting the hostname. The colon separates the directive from the value passed in, and the hostname follows.
As another example, we can set the output filename:
Iqconsole –n:C:\datafiles\Data.bin
The ‘-n’ tells the application we are setting the output filename. The color separations the directive from the filename, and the filename follows. Please note, the default value is ‘Data.bin’. The default value does not contain a path specifier, so the file will be written to the current folder. If you are running from the application folder, this is write protected and the transfer will fail. Specify a folder that you have write privileges to.
In the descriptions below, angle brackets (‘< >’) represent input values. Do not include the angle brackets, and replace the text between the brackets with the desired value. A vertical bar (‘|’) should be read as ‘or’. Include a single value from the list separated by vertical bars.
For convenience, certain common directives can be shortened to a single letter:
-s for stream -a for abort -d for display -m for metadata
Use any combination of the following command-line directives to configure and control the spectrum analyzer. These can be used together on a single line.
-h:<Hostname>
=> IP address or hostname of the spectrum analyzer.
-f:<Frequency>
=> The center frequency in MHz.
-b:<BW>
=> The capture bandwidth in MHz.
-r:<RefLevel>
=> The reference level in dBm.
-a:<Attenuation>
=> The attenuation in dBm (Use 'Auto' to set auto-attenuation).
-d:<8|16|I32|F32>
=> The bit-depth.
-p:<on|off>
=> Turn preamp on or off.
-c:<count>
=> The number of 4 MB packets to transfer in I/Q stream.
-e:<yes|no>
=> Indicates if data capture should continue if an error in the data stream is detected.
-n:<filename>
=> Set the output filename (Default: 'Data.bin'.)
All of the above settings are remembered and do not need to be re-entered, except to change settings.
The following commands should be used singly. Other commands will be ignored.
-? or –help
=> Display a summary list of all command directives.
-pcie
Set output port to PCIe
-Ethernet
Set output port to Ethernet
-stream
=> Start streaming I/Q data.
-metadata
=> Create metadata file (.dgzm) for most recent capture. (May be invalid if not done promptly)
-abort
=> Abort IQ streaming.
-display
=> Display all saved parameter values.
-info
=> Display PCIe interface summary information.
-kill
=> Stop many common Windows processes that might interfere with data throughput.
-scpi:<cmd>
=> Pass through any supported SCPI command to the analyzer.
-reset
=> Reset the spectrum analyzer to factory default settings.
-restart
=> Reboot the spectrum analyzer.
The following commands are for testing the interface. If source is set to ‘test’ then a test pattern is returned. You can use the –t directive to set the transfer rate of the test pattern (for instance, to test at 50 MHz, use ‘-t:50’)
-s:<source>
=> Source is either 'iq' or 'test'.
-t:<rate>
=> The transfer rate when using test ramp data.
-wt
=> Perform disk write test to verify disk performance is adequate for IQ stream.
-verify
=> Perform verification of all file formats.
When streaming over Ethernet, the transfer is accomplished by a series of network packets. As the size of these packets are not controlled, the application has no control over the size of the transfer. The transfer will stop when the time or size requirement is met. However, the actual time and file size may be much longer or larger than anticipated depending on the size and transfer time of the last packet.