Both views are valid. They knew were the fault lay but gave me the benefit of the doubt.
OSHPark is software driven online point of sale order system that probably does the penalization automatically as well. I doubt there is a person involved. One comment made to me was the software can't check for this kind of error. The board house uses an automatic process and is too dumb to question such a thing as no plating on any hole of a double sided board. There are other board houses where this would never happen because a person checks the files for errors. This service is done for free but the boards are a lot more expensive. Perhaps I should learn my software better. You know RTFM.
OSHPark is software driven online point of sale order system that probably does the penalization automatically as well. I doubt there is a person involved. One comment made to me was the software can't check for this kind of error. The board house uses an automatic process and is too dumb to question such a thing as no plating on any hole of a double sided board. There are other board houses where this would never happen because a person checks the files for errors. This service is done for free but the boards are a lot more expensive. Perhaps I should learn my software better. You know RTFM.
So I got my QA400 the other day and it works great. I've got my rebuilt HP 400E AC voltmeter so I can do the calibration when I get a chance. I'm using a USB 3.0 Express Card on my laptop for connecting to the QA400. I don't really like the control knobs in the software because my laptop does not have a "mouse wheel".
Apparently, I need to RTFM:
"See page 16 in the manual (pasted below). Does this not work for you?
If you don't have a mouse wheel or if you are working on a laptop, then you adjust a knob by clicking on
the knob, and then moving the mouse up or down while holding the click. On a track pad, then you
would slide your finger up and down while holding the left mouse button. When you are done with the
adjustment, just release the click. The same accelerator keys (CONTROL and ALT) work using this
method too."
"See page 16 in the manual (pasted below). Does this not work for you?
If you don't have a mouse wheel or if you are working on a laptop, then you adjust a knob by clicking on
the knob, and then moving the mouse up or down while holding the click. On a track pad, then you
would slide your finger up and down while holding the left mouse button. When you are done with the
adjustment, just release the click. The same accelerator keys (CONTROL and ALT) work using this
method too."
I’ve shelved my QA400 until I can build a front end for power amp testing. Has anyone built the front end offered by OSH Park? OSH Park ~ QA400 frontend
Is so, what is your evaluation of the finished product?
I believe Demian's design will end up being superior , but not sure how close he is to completion.
I'm actually very close but not done yet. The OSH design is very similar to my first gen design. It works quite well, however the noise floor it limiting. The internal resistors are higher values and its SNR/THD+N really only equals the QA400 at operating levels close to 7V in and out. I consider it a lesson in noise management. If 100 dB is OK then its not a problem.
The next gen is surface mount and more complex. Based on what I just read from Bruce Hofer I will make a few layout changes before I send it off.
The next gen is surface mount and more complex. Based on what I just read from Bruce Hofer I will make a few layout changes before I send it off.
3/4/14 update from the Quantasylum QA400 forum
"The next round of features are being driven by AV testing needs in China and are being finalized right now. Next up will be 3 additional stimuli in the freq response measurement. Today there is impulse (dirac), and we're adding ExpoChirp, Farina Chirp and white noise. We'll probably also add in diff measurement under the experimental menu (use left + right as a mono diff input). The max FFT in 48Ksps will be bumped up to 128K (some computers might have trouble with this and for that there's not much we can do), and several new API have been added. We'll also display measured phase when a single channel of the sig gen is active.
For the chirp functions, please don't expect an approach on room/system characterization yet. Instead, it's for providing a stimulus that can be externally analyzed for fast characterization of noise and distortion in a production environment. In time, after we've gained experience with those algorithms in external software, we'll move the algorithms into the core QA400 processing and at that point should have a simple, push button chirp characterization available.
One more important note: Next month (April, 2014) marks the end of Microsoft's support for XP and it looks like this time they might really mean it. We have gone through some issues on XP compatibility on this release that have been a real mess. We'll likely freeze a machine for emergency XP builds related to factory support in the future, but folks should understand that at some point XP support will vanish suddenly. The tension is between the tool chain and the features. At some point, we'll need to upgrade the build environment and that upgrade will spell the end of XP support for our software."
"The next round of features are being driven by AV testing needs in China and are being finalized right now. Next up will be 3 additional stimuli in the freq response measurement. Today there is impulse (dirac), and we're adding ExpoChirp, Farina Chirp and white noise. We'll probably also add in diff measurement under the experimental menu (use left + right as a mono diff input). The max FFT in 48Ksps will be bumped up to 128K (some computers might have trouble with this and for that there's not much we can do), and several new API have been added. We'll also display measured phase when a single channel of the sig gen is active.
For the chirp functions, please don't expect an approach on room/system characterization yet. Instead, it's for providing a stimulus that can be externally analyzed for fast characterization of noise and distortion in a production environment. In time, after we've gained experience with those algorithms in external software, we'll move the algorithms into the core QA400 processing and at that point should have a simple, push button chirp characterization available.
One more important note: Next month (April, 2014) marks the end of Microsoft's support for XP and it looks like this time they might really mean it. We have gone through some issues on XP compatibility on this release that have been a real mess. We'll likely freeze a machine for emergency XP builds related to factory support in the future, but folks should understand that at some point XP support will vanish suddenly. The tension is between the tool chain and the features. At some point, we'll need to upgrade the build environment and that upgrade will spell the end of XP support for our software."
Bummmer. 
No XP.
The newer OS releases from mucroshaft leave me very cold.
Bloatware imo.
Perhaps a Linux version or similar might be mo' bettah going forward?
I don't have a problem dedicating a machine for measurement, running Linux or anything else for that matter... but the prospect of a newer microshaft OS there leaves me flat. Ymmv.
_-_-
PS. hope they add a color menu for the traces!
No XP.
The newer OS releases from mucroshaft leave me very cold.
Bloatware imo.
Perhaps a Linux version or similar might be mo' bettah going forward?
I don't have a problem dedicating a machine for measurement, running Linux or anything else for that matter... but the prospect of a newer microshaft OS there leaves me flat. Ymmv.
_-_-
PS. hope they add a color menu for the traces!
Bummmer.
No XP.
The newer OS releases from mucroshaft leave me very cold.
Bloatware imo.
Perhaps a Linux version or similar might be mo' bettah going forward?
I don't have a problem dedicating a machine for measurement, running Linux or anything else for that matter... but the prospect of a newer microshaft OS there leaves me flat. Ymmv.
_-_-
PS. hope they add a color menu for the traces!
It's just an operating system, get over it, and use it to do the work
(they (7 and 8) are quite stable/reliable).
It's just an operating system, get over it, and use it to do the work
Um, no. The newer OS's from MS are huge. I "only" have 2GB of ram on this machine. Man, I remember when 4MB was a lot!
I assume this means that since I'm not "upgrading" to the latest OS from MS, then I should not also ever upgrade the QA400 software, since it does work with XP right now?
You can get 8Gb for less than 50$
The short answer: Yes
The long answer: Get Linux install, Get Wine install and keep on updating the QA software (you still will need the 8Gb (I think)) and running Linux (if you did not before) and Wine on top can get complicated (there is a big learning curve).
P.s. There may/are new/other/different compatibility problems also, you may need some support of fellow QA & Linux users solving these.
You can get 8Gb for less than 50$
The short answer: Yes
The long answer: Get Linux install, Get Wine install and keep on updating the QA software (you still will need the 8Gb (I think)) and running Linux (if you did not before) and Wine on top can get complicated (there is a big learning curve).
P.s. There may/are new/other/different compatibility problems also, you may need some support of fellow QA & Linux users solving these.
Um no. 2GB is the max this laptop can take.
and also no to Linux. I'm not throwing away all of the software that I already paid for just to get Linux.
Your best bet (I think) is Windows 7, but you need to invest in a new PS/Laptop and that hurts. You may be stuck between a rock and a hard place
Between a Rock and a Hard Place - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Your best bet (I think) is Windows 7, but you need to invest in a new PS/Laptop and that hurts. You may be stuck between a rock and a hard place
Between a Rock and a Hard Place - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
P.s. Windows 7 due to its excellent XP-compatibility mode, that will keep you older software running for some time to come (I'm not sure about W8 in this respect).