EX7000 SERIES MICROWAVE SWITCH ASSEMBLIES WITH LXI-COMPLIANT LAN INTERFACE USER’S MANUAL P/N: 82-0121-000 Release December 14, 2007 VXI Technology, Inc.
VXI Technology, Inc.
www.vxitech.com TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Certification ..........................................................................................................................................................5 Warranty ...............................................................................................................................................................5 Limitation of Warranty .....................................................................................................
VXI Technology, Inc. VXI Technology Logo ..................................................................................................................................27 EX7000 Title Block ......................................................................................................................................27 Soft Front Panel ..................................................................................................................................................
www.vxitech.com CERTIFICATION VTI Microwave, a business unit of VXI Technology, Inc. (VTI) certifies that this product met its published specifications at the time of shipment from the factory.
VXI Technology, Inc. DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY Declaration of Conformity According to ISO/IEC Guide 22 and EN 45014 MANUFACTURER’S NAME VXI Technology, Inc. MANUFACTURER’S ADDRESS 2031 Main Street Irvine, California 92614-6509 PRODUCT NAME Microwave Switch Assembly with LAN Interface MODEL NUMBER(S) EX7000 Series Microwave Switch Assemblies PRODUCT OPTIONS All PRODUCT CONFIGURATIONS All VXI Technology, Inc.
www.vxitech.com GENERAL SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS Review the following safety precautions to avoid bodily injury and/or damage to the product. These precautions must be observed during all phases of operation or service of this product. Failure to comply with these precautions, or with specific warnings elsewhere in this manual, violates safety standards of design, manufacture, and intended use of the product. Service should only be performed by qualified personnel.
VXI Technology, Inc. SUPPORT RESOURCES Support resources for this product are available on the Internet and at VXI Technology customer support centers. VTI Microwave A VXI Technology Business Unit World Headquarters VXI Technology, Inc.
www.vxitech.com SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION The EX7000 series of modular microwave switch assemblies consist of standard products as well as custom factory configured enclosures. All are rack mountable and range in size from 1U to 4U.
VXI Technology, Inc. EX72SF: High-Density 26 GHz Modular Microwave Switching, Latch with Self-Terminating Options FIGURE 1-2: EX72SF (SHOWN WITH A FULL COMPLIMENT OF AGILENT SWITCHES) The EX72SF is a 2U (3.5”) enclosure that can house up to six Agilent SPDT switches as well as up to six full-size Agilent multi-pole single throw latching terminated or unterminated switches.
www.vxitech.com expansion boards, are available for large designs. Extremely large designs, that require five to eight relay driver boards, can be accommodated with special HW and SW updates. Consult the factory for details.
VXI Technology, Inc. FIGURE 1-4: JAVA-BASED GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE RELAY DRIVE CONTROL The EX7000 contains a proprietary circuit board set consisting of a Relay Driver Board (RDB)and LXI LAN Interface Board, which is known as the EX7000-OEM when supplied as a set without an enclosure. They have been designed to provide maximum flexibility for controlling virtually any type of RF/microwave relay or component. Each RDB provides 72 high-current drivers, which are divided into twelve sections of six lines.
www.vxitech.com Data is latched to the gate of the output coil drive FET dictating whether or not the FET will sink current and energize the relay coil. See the EX7000-OEM Manual (P/N: 82-0118-000) for more details. INTERFACING WITH OTHER COMPONENTS The EX7000 board set is capable of controlling other programmable components, such as filters and attenuators, through either the high-current channels or the 32-bit parallel I/O. Access to the control lines can be achieved in various ways.
VXI Technology, Inc. EX7000 SPECIFICATIONS GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS PHYSICAL DIMENSIONS EX71HD EX72SF EX7400 CONNECTORS Host interface Trigger bus GP digital I/O AC power RESET 19” (48.2 cm) width x 24.25” (61.6 cm) depth* x 1.75” (4.5 cm) height 19” (48.2 cm) width x 24.25” (61.6 cm) depth* x 3.50” (8.9 cm) height 19” (48.2 cm) width x 24.25” (61.6 cm) depth* x 7.0” (17.
www.vxitech.com SECTION 2 PREPARATION FOR USE OVERVIEW This section provides a step-by-step process for setting up the EX7000 series assemblies for use. For simplicity, the EX7000 series assemblies, including the EX71HD, EX72SF, and EX7400 will be referred to as EX7000 in this section. It covers hardware installation, input connections, and software installation.
VXI Technology, Inc. DRIVER INSTALLATION The EX7000 is shipped with a VXI Technology, Inc. LXI Drivers and Product Manuals CD which includes software drivers, user’s manuals, the VXI Technology Product Catalog, as well as some third-party software. Please refer to the ReadMe.txt file included on the Distribution CD for installation instructions specific to revision of the CD provided.
www.vxitech.com To illustrate the AutoIP mechanism, Table 2-1 lists the AutoIP default address for some example MAC addresses. MAC Address 00:0D:3F:01:00:01 00:0D:3F:01:01:01 00:0D:3F:01:A3:28 00:0D:3F:01:FE:FE 00:0D:3F:01:FF:FE AutoIP Default Address 169.254.1.1 169.254.1.1 169.254.163.40 169.254.254.254 169.254.254.254 TABLE 2-1: AUTOIP DEFAULT ADDRESS ASSIGNMENT If a static IP address assignment is preferred, one can be optionally assigned via the embedded web page interface.
VXI Technology, Inc.
www.vxitech.com SECTION 3 BASIC OPERATION INTRODUCTION The EX7000 Series modular microwave switch assemblies require only ac power and a LAN connection to a PC or network. The PC must have an Internet browser, such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, installed. The imbedded web page in each EX7000 allows easy access and control of the internal microwave components.
VXI Technology, Inc. Trigger Bus Connectors The EX7000 provides an LXI compatible trigger bus connector set on the rear panel of the instrument. Both connectors have the same pin assignments and are wired in parallel. For more information on the LXI Trigger Bus and creating an appropriate cable, please visit www.lxistandard.org and refer to LXI Standard Revision 1.2 and LXI Trigger Bus Cable and Terminator Specifications Rev 1.1. The trigger bus pin assignments are provided on the next page.
www.vxitech.com When enabled as an output, each channel also has the ability to generate a 1 µs pulse upon command. An example application of this pulse is to use the EX7000 to externally trigger another piece of test equipment. The specific operation of the pulse depends on the static level programmed for that channel. When a channel is programmed with a static level of high, the pulse will be low-going. When a channel is programmed with a static level of low, the pulse will be high-going.
VXI Technology, Inc. Reset Button The reset button, accessible through a hole in the rear panel of the EX7000, implemented according to the LXI LAN Configuration Initialize (LCI) Mechanism specification, can be used to restore default network settings. This is useful for recovery from an incorrect or unknown network configuration. To perform a network reset: 1) Press and hold the reset button. 2) Continue to hold the reset until the LAN LED flashes (approximately 5 s). 3) Release the reset button.
www.vxitech.com EX72SF The EX7SF enclosure , shown in Figure 1-2,can accommodate a large number and various types of Agilent latching switch modules. The upper six switch mounting locations, designated SW1 to SW6, are designed for SPDT switches. The lower six switch mounting locations, designated SW7 to SW12, are designed for SP4T, SP6T, and transfer switches.
VXI Technology, Inc. Installation is in the reverse order. Carefully insert the multi-pin white plastic connector, at the end of the switch module cable, into the mating cable extending from the EX72SF enclosure opening. Press the two plastic connectors firmly together until you can feel slight clicking action as the release tab on the enclosure side connector drops into place, locking the two connectors together.
www.vxitech.com SECTION 4 WEB PAGE OPERATION INTRODUCTION The EX7000 offers an embedded web page which provides network configuration control, soft front panel access, time configuration, and the ability to perform firmware upgrades. To open this web page, enter the EX7000’s assigned IP address or host name into an Internet browser application, as shown in Figure 4-1.
VXI Technology, Inc. Use of the entry-type web pages in the EX7000 are governed by a common set of operational characteristics: • • • Pages initially load with the currently-entered selections displayed. Each page contains a Submit button to accept newly entered changes. Leaving a page before submitting any changes has the effect of canceling the changes, leaving the instrument in its original state. Navigation through a parameter screen is done with the Tab key.
www.vxitech.com FIGURE 4-3: EX7000 PASSWORD PAGE NOTES 1) The instrument password uses lower-case letters. 2) This password mechanism provides only the most basic security. Applications requiring additional security should consider using private, dedicated subnets, firewalls, etc. to limit access to the instrument on the network. VXI Technology Logo The VXI Technology logo that appears on the upper left of all EX7000 web pages is a link to the VXI Technology, Inc. corporate website: http://www.vxitech.
VXI Technology, Inc. SOFT FRONT PANEL An example of the EX7000 Soft Front Panel page can be seen in Figure 4-4. By accessing this page, the various switch modules, attenuators, and other devices connected to the EX7000 can be viewed, identified, and commanded.
www.vxitech.com NETWORK CONFIGURATION The EX7000 Network Configuration page can be seen in Figure 4-5. By default, the EX7000 will attempt to locate a DHCP server. If one is found, the IP address assigned by the DHCP server will be assumed, along with subnet masks, gateway, etc. Otherwise, after a timeout of 20 seconds, the unit will attempt to obtain an IP address by using AutoIP (IPv4 Dynamic Link Local Addressing).
VXI Technology, Inc. FIGURE 4-5: EX7000 NETWORK CONFIGURATION NOTE The 169.254/16 subnet is reserved by the IANA for AutoIP usage. It should not be used for either DHCP or static IP configurations. However, a much more convenient and recommended way to obtain the benefits of a static IP address is to employ DHCP, but assign the instrument a reserved IP address in your company’s DHCP server configuration.
www.vxitech.com TIME CONFIGURATION This entry page is used to change the time configuration of the EX7000. By default, the instrument has no notion of “wall-clock” or calendar time. The instrument has no battery-backed clock or any other mechanism to retain time between reboots and power-cycles. By default, the instrument’s time and date at power-up are midnight, January 1, 1970 (the beginning of the “epoch”). The time and date can be manually specified on the Time Configuration page (Figure 4-6).
VXI Technology, Inc.
www.vxitech.com NOTE Specifying SNTP or NTP servers by hostname requires that the instrument be configured for DNS, either by DHCP or Static IP. DEVICE IDENTIFY This action page is used to identify the EX7000 that is being commanded in the current session. When the “Turn on” button is pressed, the LAN LED located on the rear panel of the EX7000 will blink. When the “Turn off” button is pressed, the LAN LED returns to its normal operation.
VXI Technology, Inc. FIGURE 4-10: UPGRADE WEB PAGE Perform the following steps to conduct a firmware upgrade: 1) 2) 3) 4) Perform a Reboot or a power cycle. Connect to the EX7000 via the embedded web page. Click on the Upgrade link. Click on the Browse button and select the firmware image file to be uploaded to the instrument. 5) Click the Submit button to initiate the upgrade process. The upgrade process takes approximately 5 minutes to complete and will be followed by a prompt to reboot the instrument.
www.vxitech.com SECTION 5 THEORY OF OPERATION INTRODUCTION This section expands on the description of the internal operation of the EX7000 and explains how to best use them. A full understanding of this operation is not required to operate and use the EX7000. A functional block diagram is provided below. FIGURE 5-1: FUNCTIONAL BLOCK DIAGRAM SYSTEM OVERVIEW Using the drivers provided with the EX7000, commands are issued from the host PC to the Digital Controller Board (DCB).
VXI Technology, Inc. RDBs can either be commanded one board at a time or several RDBs may be commanded simultaneously. The RDB has 72 relay control drive lines capable of sinking 200 mA and twelve very high-current reset lines capable of sinking 800 mA. They are divided into three banks, each can be powered separately. Each bank consists of four 20-pin connectors.
www.vxitech.com Part Number -000 -001 -002 -003 Bank 0 Open-collector TTL TTL TTL Bank 1 Open-collector Open-collector TTL TTL Bank 2 Open-collector Open-collector Open-collector TTL CAUTION It is imperative that TTL banks only have TTL devices connected to them. Connecting an open-collector device to a TTL port will result in damage to the RDB and, potentially, to other equipment in the test system. Failure to comply with this warning will result in voiding the manufacturer’s warranty.
VXI Technology, Inc. FIGURE 5-4: CONTINUOUS OPERATION MODE Pulse Mode Connecting latching devices to any bank of the RDB will dictate that bank must be operating in pulse mode. Commanded by software, the latch signal driving the FET will change state to activate FETs and then change state back when the settling time is reached. All Relay Control Drive bits within a bank will change state at the same time.
www.vxitech.com INDEX A AutoIP.......................................................................................16, 29 C configuration table..........................................................................13 connectors.......................................................................................14 continuous mode.............................................................................37 D declaration of conformity ................................................................
