Release 1.164

Release 1.164 (October 2022)

IMPORTANT: Use release 1.165 instead located HERE. This will allow to you open older .Settings files.

1.164

• Firmware version 58 for both QA403 and QA402.
• Added IMD automated testing (ITU and SMTPE) for AMPS
• Added IMD automated testing (ITU and SMPTE) for Power Amps
• Changed RMS measurement to 4 significant digits
• Minimum increment value for Automated Tests was changed to 0.1 dB
• Added Tooltips ("hints") if you hover your mouse over a measurement tile
• Added the ability to measure RMS power (in addition to peak power)
• Added Rub and Buzz automated measurement

This release adds 3 new plug-ins. Two plug-ins are for measuring IMD, both in general amplifiers and also power amps. More info on that is here. The third plug-in is for measuring speaker rub and buzz. More info on that is here.

Release 1.161

Release 1.161 (September 2022)

A quick release to fix some bugs found from last weeks larger release.

• Firmware version 58 for both QA403 and QA402.
• Fixed bug where lots of Automated Test data points could exhaust color options, resulting in an exception. Now, the color black will be used if an excessive number of traces are expected.
• Fixed bug where clicking on legend in Oscilloscope would cause exception.
• Fixed bug where oddly named version in last release (1.160B) prevented Tractor for successfully connecting to the QA40x app. The version name was odd because a re-release was needed to build configuration. From now on, letter names won't be used in releases because it causes problems with tractor

Release 1.160

Release 1.160 (Sept 2022)

This is a pre-release with several new features, including two more visualizers. The visualizers are partially functional at this point, and more capability will be coming in time. UPDATE: The initial release was missing the new visualizers. The release was re-built and the new version is 1.160B. It's in the assets link below and the original 1.160 version has been removed.

• Added experimental 384K ADC mode. Use -384K on the command line to enable. Note that the DAC doesn't work at the 384K rate.
• Added dBVRtHz Y-axis units
• Bumped up font size of X and Y axis, bolded certain text. This is to improve legibility.
• For dark on light display theme, the background was darkened behind the various text regions to improve legibility.
• Fixed bug where dBR wasn't correctly displayed in measurement tile when in DBR Tracking mode
• Logo wasn't resizing correctly when window was resized
• Automated Tests now respect Start/End measurement frequencies. Previously, some plugins would consider as low as 1 Hz, which meant
  you needed a large FFT to prevent the DC offset from spilling into lower frequency bins
• Fixed bug where REST mask test was failing and computing mask pass/fail incorrectly. This fix allows Tractor to correctly work for mask tests on frequency sweeps.
• Update manual
• Tracking improvements for Wow and Flutter to help with modulation effects such as flange/phase
• Added experimental visualizer named "Filter Explorer." This tool aims to make it easy to understand filter performance and order with
  specialized tools to analyze filter plots. Currently, only bandpass filters are supported.
• Added in THD visualizer bargraph. This allows viewing THD components as a bar graph.
• Added "Oscilloscope" visualizer. This allows viewing in the time domain separate from the main display time/freq domain

The THD Visualizer output is shown below. Note the visualizer uses the GEN1 frequency setting as the fundamental. And then harmonics 2 through 10 are plotted. This particular plot is of a guitar distortion pedal. Note that if you pick a frequency of, say, 10 kHz, and you have a 48ksps sample rate, the harmonics will exceed the Nyquist, and an error will be display. So, be aware that you need a sample rate that supports 10 harmonics. Future iterations of the visualizer will allow customization for the number of harmonics

The Oscilloscope visualizer is shown below. There are two vertical cursors, with the ability to drag to zoom. This allows time domain display alongside frequency domain display of the main screen.

The Filter visualizer is shown below. You first select the filter type and then you can have cursors automatically placed. For example, on the bandpass filter shown, a button allows you to move a cursor to the peak, and then another button allows you to find the -3 dB points with two more cursors. From there, Q is calculated. The aim here is to make it easy to look at a low-pass, for example, and quickly learn passband ripple, filter corner, resonance, and roll-off. While this can normally be determined with cursors and a calculator, the tool here automates much of the tedium and calculation required. Currently, the visualizer only supports bandpass filters. More features will be coming.

The Wow and Flutter Visualizer had improvements made to help with tracking intentional modulation applied to a signal. Wow and flutter manifests as frequency modulation. That is, if the hole on a record isn't perfectly centered, then the speed of the record will rise and fall as it rotates, which results in changes to pitch. But certain musical effects for guitar and vocals intentionally modulate incoming signals to make the sound "bigger." In the plot below, you can see an unmodulated signal on the left. While the remaining 3 panels show different types of modulation, including vibrato, chorus and flange.

Release 1.154

Release 1.154 (June 2022)

This is a pre-release with support added for TRACTOR.

• Firmware version 58 for both QA403 and QA402.
• Added ability to specify the graph title via REST. This allows Tractor to capture each measurement screen and the title can reflect the measurement being made
• Added REST support for Audition Start/Stop and Volume control (See Audition in REST docs)
• Added REST support for muting options (mute left, mute right, etc) (See Muting in REST docs
• Added REST support to allow masks to be specified (see MaskTest in REST docs)
• Properly decoded URLs where file paths can be embedded (ie audition and mask)

For REST-based frequency response measurements with a mask, pass/fail detection can be used. In Tractor, each measurement will save a screen capture in the log if needed.

Release 1.153

Release 1.153 (May 2022)

This is a pre-release.

• Firmware version 58 for both QA403 and QA402.
• Fixed bug where stepping GEN2 frequency could result in exception.
• Fixed bug where wrong firmware version was expected on QA403. This caused endless request for a flash update at times.

Release 1.152

Release 1.152 (May 2022)

This is a pre-release.

1.152

• Firmware version 58 for both QA403 and QA402
• Fixed bug where XLIN wasn't correctly persisting between save/loads
• Fixed bug where right channel SNR was being incorrectly calculated if left channel signal wasn't present
• Fixed bug at higher sample rates with fundamentals in excess of 20 kHz where the harmonics weren't correctly picked for THD calcs
• Made it easier to add marker to harmonics at high frequencies. IN some cases, you will still need to zoom in to add the marker
• Added SNR context menu
• Updates to manual

Release 1.149

Release 1.149 (April 2022)

This is a pre-release. The two new plug-ins will need additional scrutiny, so treat the data from the with caution until you have manually verified. Please report unexpected behavior to the 'support' alias or via the forum HERE

• Firmware version 58 for both QA403 and QA402
• Fixed bug where end frequency wasn't used in SPKR THD versus Frequency
• Fixed bug where output relay wasn't always set correctly when settings were loaded
• Fixed clipping bug in "File->Export Chirp WAV for triggered testing"
• Changed precision specifier in plug-ins to be two digits after decimal point. This means if you enter "-9.5" dB you'll see "-9.50" instead of "10"
• Fixed bug where harmonics were missed for higher fundamental frequencies in THD calculations.
• Triggered acquisition will now trigger on left OR right channel activity.
• Fixed bug where DBFS level spec in File->Export Chirped Sine was incorrect (0 dBFS would result in clipping)
• Fixed bug where peak search in dBr "set 1 kHz to 0 dBR" was too wide. This was +/- 50 Hz, but has been narrowed to +/- 5 Hz. This helps with constantly rising or falling curves (such as RIAA)
• Updated Linux install script generation
• The User Weighting Dialog now persists the last directory selected for the session
• Added SPKR THD versus Frequency (more info HERE)
• Added SPKR Chirp Compression (more info HERE)

Release 1.142

Release 1.142 (February 2022)

• Firmware version 58 for both QA403 and QA402
• Fixed bug where ATTEN LED wasn't on after power-up on QA403
• Consolidated CALIBRATION messages. Now there's just ERROR (bad crc), Default: (everything OK), and Unapplied (factory test mode)
• Fixed touch-screen bug where tapped buttons stayed lit after de-activation
• Added Dark on Light display color scheme
• Added "track left channel" to set dbr (aka DBR Track). This means for every acquisition, the left channel peak between measurements limits will be 0 dBr

DBR Track

In the "dBr" context menu, you can now specify that you'd like to track the left channel amplitude. That means the left channel peak that falls between your "measurement start" and "measurement stop" settings (which can be adjusted in the THD context menu) will always be set to 0 dBr on each acquisition. This mode is activated in the "Quick Settings" group of the dBr context menu:

When this mode is active, you'll see an annuciator in the upper left corner of the display:

The disable the DBR tracking, switch to absolute levels OR select another DBR option from the DBR context menu.

Display Color Scheme

In the settings menu, there is now the option to specify UI color scheme. The default is "light on dark," which is how the display has appeared to date. The new option is "dark on light". In this scheme, the color red still represents the right channel, and blue now represents the left channel. The display options are set from the Edit->Settings menu:

The "dark on light" setting appears as below:

Release 1.140

Release 1.140 (February 2022)

• Firmware version 56 for both QA403 and QA402 (unchanged)
• Fixed some QA403 calibration issues for manufacturing

Release 1.139

Release 1.139 (February 2022)

• Firmware version 56 for both QA403 and QA402
• Fixed bug where PDF launch link to manual was wrong
• Changes to manufacturing settings