Jackson Labs PHASE STATION 53100A, User Manual

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PhaseStation 53100A User’s Manual V1.04 25-Apr-2022 34
to the jumble of line segments and shaded areas that can appear on the graph when all nine
available slots in the legend table are populated with visible plots!
•
Regardless of the choice of Display → Browse or Display → Overlay mode or the visibility
status of any given plot, the “selected plot” concept is still useful for indicating which plot
should contribute to the frequency-count chart in the
Measurement → Frequency
Difference (
f
)
view, the sigma-tau charts in the various xDEV measurement views, and the
noise marker and spur tables in the noise measurement views. The selected plot is also the
only one that’s saved, exported, modified, edited, or moved up and down in the legend
table when the corresponding commands are issued.
The last point above is an important one – many users new to TimeLab are surprised to discover that a
single .TIM file doesn’t represent an entire screen full of plots. Each plot must be saved, loaded, and
otherwise processed individually. None of the commands on the File or Edit menus in TimeLab operate
on more than one plot at a time, except for
File → Close all plots (Home) and the various image-based
operations like File → Print image (Ctrl-p) , File → Copy image to clipboard (Ctrl-c) , and File → Save image
or .TIM file (s) when the latter command is used to save a .png, .bmp, .tga, .gif, or .pcx image of the
entire screen.
Tips for new users
•
In TimeLab, almost everything you can do from the menus has a keyboard
equivalent, in many cases a single key.
Time spent becoming familiar with the
keyboard shortcuts will be rewarded!
•
Use the 53100A in an environment with good ambient temperature control for best
results. Avoid placing the hardware near HVAC vents or other sources of drafts
when making sensitive measurements.
• Also for best results, avoid placing the 53100A immediately next to equipment that
may operate at high temperatures, as well as equipment that should not be exposed
to heat. Normal case temperatures may reach 35C to 40C after several hours’
operation.
• Do not disturb the measurement setup mechanically, move cables around, or
otherwise interact with the environment unnecessarily during acquisition. After the
measurement ends, you can use TimeLab’s phase-record editing features to get rid
of known glitches, but nothing can be done to restore a corrupted noise plot. Any
glitches that affect the phase noise or AM noise plots will require a retake.
•
At startup time, TimeLab will open any .TIM file(s) specified on the timelab[64].exe
command line. Alternatively, a JavaScript program filename ending in .JS may be
specified for execution.