Welcome to this demo of RFX Surfer, a graphical user interface designed to simplify the configuration, monitoring, and analysis of RFX and WaveBox products over Ethernet. RFX Surfer acts as a versatile client that can connect to many BittWare RF products including the RFX 880, 770, and WaveBox, providing users with detailed control, tone generation, and real-time visualization.

Connecting to Your RFX Card

Getting started with RFX Surfer is straightforward. Simply provide the IP address of your RFX product and hit connect. Once connected, the software retrieves key information stored on the card, including serial number, software version, firmware version, build time, acquisition type, and VCXO frequency. This data is displayed clearly on the host PC, offering immediate insight into the card’s identity and status.

Hardware Monitoring and Diagnostics

Within the hardware monitor tab, users can view vital system information such as temperatures from multiple sensors distributed across the card, and see alerts triggered by the card’s monitoring circuitry. This tab also provides access to the boot log — a valuable resource for diagnosing issues during development or characterization phases.

Configurable Card Settings

The settings tab presents a rich set of configurable parameters that adapt to the specific options of the connected card. These include clock source selection, PLL configurations, and specialized RF ADC and DAC settings associated with the AMD RF Data Converter IP.

RFX Surfer’s GUI intelligently adapts according to the connected card model, enabling or disabling options as appropriate to prevent configuration errors. This smart behavior ensures users can only select valid settings, helping prevent mistakes during setup.

Waveform Generation and Visualization

The waveform tab focuses on the DAC outputs of the RFX card. Here, users can specify tones for up to four DAC channels independently. The interface provides graphical visualization of these tones in both the frequency and time domains, making it easy to understand the output signal characteristics.

Users can select single or dual-tone modes, adjust frequencies and amplitudes, and observe the expected output of waveform. For example, setting a tone to 1.2 GHz reflects in the visualization. When the DAC output is connected to external test equipment such as a spectrum analyzer, you’d see a similar output. Of course, for demonstrations we can use loopback cables from one or more DAC channels to the analog inputs—the ADCs—and use the RFX Surfer Plot tab to see a real-time analysis of the signals from the loopback. In fact, let’s now switch to that now.

Real-Time ADC Capture and FFT Analysis

So now on the Plot tab, RFX Surfer enables real-time capture of snapshot data packets from the card’s ADCs. As data streams in, the tool performs Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis on each packet, presenting live views in both time and frequency domains.

Users control which ADC channels to enable, start and stop streaming, and monitor detailed logs showing card configuration updates. These visualizations can be saved as images for reporting or troubleshooting purposes.

We also support saving a snapshot to a binary file, which you can then open in BinView. This tool allows you to look in more detail, see the raw data, or do further post-processing.

Integrated Signal Generator Control

RFX Surfer also includes the ability to control external signal generators via IP, sending commands to adjust frequency and amplitude remotely. Users can manually set frequencies, sweep across ranges with defined start and stop points, step sizes, power levels, and automatically log FFT measurements at each step.

This integrated functionality streamlines characterization workflows by synchronizing signal generation with data capture and analysis within a single interface.

Dual-Tone and Intermodulation Measurements

For advanced testing, dual-tone configurations are supported on respective DAC and ADC channels. Enabling the intermodulation measurement option allows the software to lock onto multiple tones and display detailed detected tone information from the ADC side.

Cross-Platform Support

RFX Surfer runs natively on Windows and Linux, providing flexibility for a range of development and production environments. This cross-platform compatibility ensures users can deploy the tool wherever needed without compromise.

Documentation and Source Code Availability

Comprehensive user documentation accompanies RFX Surfer, covering all GUI widgets, underlying architecture, communication protocols, and troubleshooting guidance. This helps new users quickly understand the tool’s capabilities and allows experienced users to explore advanced features confidently.

Additionally, the source code for RFX Surfer is included with RFX purchases for you to customize.

Summary and Benefits

In summary, RFX Surfer is a smart, user-friendly interface that automates many of the complex tasks associated with configuring, monitoring, and analyzing RFX cards. It eliminates common configuration errors through its adaptive GUI, accelerates characterization with integrated signal generation and data analysis, and supports Linux and Windows platforms.

Thank you for watching this demo of RFX Surfer. For more information, visit us at BittWare.com.