Demo Release of 1.3.15

Temporary Demonstration release....

Dec 7 2022 Full release minor

This is the first release of a 64 bit version of the Windows installer executable. This will also likely be the last release of the 32 bit version of a Windows installer. For other operating systems use Conda package of libsmu/pysmu and run from source code.

Version 1.3.14 Dec 7 2022

• Added Input resistor divider calculator
• Added ability to data-log (2) user chosen waveform measurement values (scalars) to file, i.e. P-P, RMS, Duty Cycle etc. Calculated values written once per sweep.
• Added Power Profiler stand-alone tool
• Released 64 bit version of Windows installer
• Added waveform generator function SinePower(Length, Power, Phase, Ampl)
• Added waveform generator function FourierSawTooth(Length, NumTerms, Ampl)
• A few other misc. typo and bug fixes.

May 2022 release and up date.

Version 1.3.13 May 7 2022

• Added new Color Chooser dialog (found in Options drop down).
• Two new advanced wave shapes were added to AWG. Full Wave and Half Wave rectified sine waves.
• Now possible to lock the frequency of AWG channel B to the frequency entry of AWG channel A.
• In the Phase Analyzer tool, Added ability to display both VA-VB and IA+IB phasors.
• Now possible to copy waveform data buffer to Clip Board or paste from Clip Board to waveform buffer.
• In the Digital filtering controls it is now possible to load filter coefficients from the Clip Board.
• In the Digital filtering controls it is now possible to shift (time skew) both voltage and current time waveforms.
• Fixed a number of places where text font was not being scaled by FontSize variable.
• A few other misc. typo and bug fixes.

January 2022 general update and release

Version 1.3.12 Jan 3 2022

• Extend Bode frequency sweep lowest frequency to 1.6 Hz (100KSPS/65536)
• Extend resistance/div plotting display lowest range to 0.01 ohms/div
• When loading AWG waveform data from CSV files the AWG channel Max value is added as an offset to the data values in the file. Set Max to 0 to add no offset.
• Misc. typographical errors fixed

August 2021 general release

Version 1.3.11 Aug 20 2021

• New slow rolling time sweep mode implemented, similar to strip-chart. Sample rate varies depending on host computer speed.
• In Spectrum Analyzer, vertical amplitude scale can now be in dB or RMS volts as well as Power Spectral Density (PSD) dB/rtHz or mV/rtHz (useful for noise testing).
• Major rework to XY plotting tool to support multiple Y axis traces vs single X axis.
• In the AWG controls it is now possible to add noise to most waveform shapes (except libsmu built-in shapes).
• In the Digital Filter tool it is now possible to apply digital filters to the AWG buffers.
• Optional User Entry widgets added to Scope and XY screens.
• Improvements / simplifications to scripting functionality.
• Pyplot functions from matplotlib now included (as plt).
• Many new test signal and digital filter generation functions added.

Realease Version 1.3.10 May 2021

• add support for conda packages
• Initialization file name (alice_init.ini) can now be passed on command line
• Enhanced external analog multiplexer functions including new Chop Mode
  • Trace averaging for mux traces implemented
  • Export mux trace data to csv file implemented
• More checking is done for allowed combinations when switching to 200 KSPS modes
• Other misc. typo and bug fixes

December Release

Cumulative roll up of changes as listed:
Version 1.3.9 Dec 5 2020

• More changes to the ways to modify UI look and feel.
• Fix Mac OSX specific tkinter typo.
• Fix Mac OSX specific keyboard arrow keys typo.
• Added initialization option to combine Scope and AWG controls in same window.
• Added Function Sine_Phase() to calculate relative phase angle between two sine waves of the same frequency in VBuffA, VBuffB, Removes any DC content returns relative phase in range 0 to 180 deg.
• Added Function SchroederPhase(Length, NrTones, Ampl) to Generate a Schroeder Phase (Multi-tone) of Length samples and having NrTones. Returns a waveform array
• Modified how tracking cursor text is displayed
• Added more display data combinations in XY grid markers
• Added reset buttons to set external channel gain and offset to 1.0 and 0.0.
• Added initialization option to swap the channel range and position labels and entry widgets
• Added first pass at local language configuration by editing language_config.cfg file. File name set in alice_init.ini. Most UI text label text can be modified as well as balloon help text.

Linux Specific Changes

The majority of the changes in this release are Linux specific and relate to mouse wheel support and other aspects of the UI. There remain one or two unresolved issues with Linux but none seem to be fatal, just annoying.

This is the first release to contain an experimental stand-alone Linux executable. It was generated using pyinstaller on Ubuntu-18.04 and Python 3.6.9. The executable seems to be forward compatible with Ubuntu-20.04 but there are no guarantees at this experimental point. Extract the single run file (with included init and config files) from alice-desktop-1.3-ubuntu-18.04.tar.gz

These changes are generally transparent to Windows Users.

There are now two different Windows installers:
alice-desktop-1.3-setup.exe just installs ALICE for Windows (as in the past)
alice-desktop-1.3-libsmu-setup.exe installs ALICE for Windows and includes options to install 64 bit USB divers and 32 libsmu for ALICE (with optional 32 USB drivers).

The single download alice-desktop-1.3-libsmu-setup can be used to combine a couple of the first time installation steps. Once done future updates of just ALICE can use alice-desktop-1.3-setup.

Add New Phase Analyzer Virtual Instrument

This release adds the new Phase Analyzer virtual instrument as well as other enhancements.
New ways to configure UI from initialization file.
Now all the instruments other than Scope (time) and AWG can be optionally shown on right side menu area of main ALICE screen (Time / Scope screen) or not.
One of the new optional things that can be shown on the right side is a sub-set of the curves menus to select CH A and B Voltage and current Traces.

General House Keeping changes

In addition to some general house keeping changes this release now supports AWG channel gain and offset adjustment variables that modify how the controls work when in Amplitude / Offset mode. This allows the controls to account for any gain and/or offset that might be introduced when using an external AWG buffer amplifier. Such as the new AWG buffer board listed in the m1k accessory boards folder under education tools repository.

Some math exceptions are now caught now that were not in past versions.