Release 1.209

Release 1.209 (Jan 2025)

• Changes to MISC RLC Automated Test: Added ability to NOT plot reactance
• Added Gain: Linear measurement tile. A gain of 20 dB will show as 10x
• Fixed bug where File->New Settings would sometimes not revert to 48 ksps sample rate

Release 1.208

Release 1.208 (December 2024)

• IMPORTANT: The Settings option to Restore State after Automated Run is now enabled by default when you create new settings. This means that by default, when an Automated Test completes, your settings that were in place BEFORE the Automated Test was run are restored.
• Changes to AmpThdVersusFrequency, AmpThdVersusInOut and PwrThdVersusPower to respect the
  System Measurement Start Frequency for THDN measurements.
• Fixed bug in PwrThdVersusPower where early aborts were causing plots to fail
• Added menu to Help Item to go to the Github Releases page for QA403
• Fixed right axis formatting in Automated Test output. The right axis (when active) will now show THD percentages correctly for 1% and 10% (no more scientific notation for those numbers).

Release 1.207

Release 1.207 (December 2024)

• Fixed bug introduced into IMD calc in 1.206. See https://github.com/QuantAsylum/QA40x/wiki/IMD-Measurements for validation

Release 1.206

Release 1.206 (December 2024)

• Fixed bug in both AMP IMD and PWR IMD where SMPTE input level was being calculated incorrectly.
• Changed PWR IMD to use LOG scale for power

Release 1.205

Release 1.205 (December 2024)

• AmpFreqChirp and other plugins will now autoscale
• Fixed bin centers in bargraph display (Visualizers-> to better align with ISO-266:1997
• Fixed bug so that loading settings during Automated Test will NOT restore averaging. This means if you have averaging used in a settings file, AND you use that file in an Automated Test, the averaging will be turned off. Averaging in an Automated Test never makes sense, and the software tries very hard to disable it.
• Damping Factor is now plotted on the right axis of the PWR Output Impedance plugin.

Sample Output from PWR Output Impedance Automated Test. Note the damping factor is computed for the first load impedance you enter and this is indicated on the right axis.

Sample Output from Spectrum Visualizer (1 octave)

Sample Output from Spectrum Visualizer (1/3 octave)

And finally, sample output from Spectrum Visualizer with two channels. This is the most dense display, and the labels are squeezed atop each other. This will get addressed in a later release.

Release 1.204

Release 1.204 (December 2024)

• Input gain message in upper left of display is now 2 digits after dp
• For power levels in kW, engineering notation is observed beyond 1000W. Previously this was showing as raw exponents.
• Fixed bug where automated test file paths were getting trimmed at 64 chars. Increased to 256.

Release 1.203

Release 1.203 (November 2024)

This release has touched a lot of code in central locations, and so, unless you need the new features, please stick with release 1.202.

REST Changes

• Call added to enable/disable left and right channels. See PUT /Settings/Input/Display/{DisplayOptions}
• LoadFromFile will now do a UrlDecode on the incoming filename. Strings that had been URL encoded weren't properly loading.
• LoadFromFile will not accept relative paths (using \MyDocs\QuantAsylum\QA40x) or absolute paths. If the file exists given the relative path, it will be used. If not, the full path will be used.

Minor Application Changes

• Shortcut to graph tool via 'G'. This will also allow the graphtool to be launched when the hardware isn't connected
• Multitone (and noise) generation had some errors in output amplitude depending on level proximity to relay switchover
• Change I2S 0 dBFS definition. Prior to 1.203, 0 dBV set 0 dBFS, which resulted in a clipped sine (everything beyond +/- was cut off. With this change, the front panel amplitude of 0 dBV means the generated sine will span +/- 1.0.
• Test In Progress dialog is no longer top-most and can be moved behind another app
• Save Image has been removed from graph context menu. Use File->Save As Bitmap instead

Automated Tests

• Automated Tests now have the ability to save/load settings.
• You can now specify any settings file in the Automated Test dialogs. Previously, they had to be in the app data directory.

Visualizers

• THD Bar Graph will now show levels for both left and right
• Spectrum Octave Display has been added:
  

Export J-TEST

File->Export Data->Export J-Test WAV will let you export a WAV file that you can play on clockless DACs (AES, S/PDIF, coax, optical) to get a relative understanding of the jitter experienced by the link. Note that if you are using a USB DAC or I2S DAC, there's no such thing as a "torture test" for clocking because they are synchronously clocked.

The standard J-Test is two square waves: One at +/- 0.5 amplitude at a frequency of Fs/4, and another at +0/-1 lsb at a frequency of Fs/192. A plot of a Topping E70 DAC playing the exported wave is below. As you'd expect over a USB link, there are not problems shown. The 250 Hz square wave is about -138 dB below 12 kHz square wave.

Measurement Tiles

Two new measurement tiles have been added: One to display measurement bandwidth and another to display the absolute amplitude of the distortion products:

Release 1.202

Release 1.202 (June 2024)

• MISC RLC Measurements now smarter about scaling R and Z axis
• Added ability to scroll control panel (click and drag) using finger or mouse
• Expo Chirp Gen tile now reports amplitude in dBV/dBu and volts

To scroll the control, you need to find a area of the panel without button controls. This can be anyplace on the panel, but the marked regions below are large and might be a good place to start. Then you can click (or touch with a single finger) and drag up/down as needed to scroll.

Release 1.201

Release 1.201 (April 2024)

1.201

• Window location is now saved at close and restored at open. This file location will be in user local application data folder.
• Added code to restore window if closed when minimized. This is to help with the app getting stuck minimized (a known C# issue). If the app does become stuck when minimized, Windows allows you to open a task-bar menu via shift+left click, and from there you can select "maximize"
• Fixed bug where Gain dB measurement tile wasn't taking user-specified output gain into account.
• Added ability to enable/disable prepended noise generation in File->Export Data->Export Chirp. Currently, the noise prior to chirp is always present.

Release 1.200

Release 1.200 (April 2024)

NOTE: This release will update the firmware on both the QA402 and QA403 to version 60. You can later downgrade the firmware if needed by reverting to an earlier release such as 1.199. HOWEVER, if don't currently need the bugfix provided by the version 60 firmware, then wait a bit to ensure there are no surprises with the firmware update that might require you to open your unit and manually update the firmware. This is especially true if you are outside the US and might need to send the unit back to have it re-flashed.

• Fixed bug where I2C transactions were hanging once front-panel I2S was enabled. This caused the the input attenuators to get stuck,
  and eventually the processor inside the QA40x hardware would run out of buffers and reset.
• Added annunciator to warn of excessive amplitude (above 0 dBV) if Mirroring or Front-Panel I2S was active.
• Updated manual.