June 2017
This file contains important information about NI-RFSA, including new features, supported hardware, a partial list of bugs fixed for NI-RFSA 17.1, and known issues.
Installed Software, Documentation, and Examples
Product Security and Critical Updates
IVI Compliance Package Functionality
Automating the Installation of NI Products
Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 10
Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 8.1
This software installation provides support for customers using vector signal analyzer hardware, as specified in the Supported Hardware section. To program your vector signal analyzer, use the NI-RFSA instrument driver or NI-RFSA Soft Front Panel (SFP).
The getting started guide for your device provides information about how to install, configure, test, and begin using a vector signal analyzer.
NI-RFSA 17.1 includes the following new features:
NI-RFSA 17.0 adds support for LabVIEW 2017 (32- and 64-bit)
NI-RFSA 16.0 includes the following new features:
NI-RFSA 15.6 includes the following new features:
NI-RFSA 15.0.2 includes the following new features:
NI-RFSA 15.0 includes the following new features:
The following table shows which hardware products are supported in the NI-RFSA instrument driver and the NI-RFSA SFP. The following hardware products are supported in all operating systems listed in the Supported Operating Systems section.
| Hardware Product | NI-RFSA | NI-RFSA Soft Front Panel |
|---|---|---|
| PXI-5600 | √ | |
| PXIe-5601 | √ | |
| PXIe-5603 | √ | |
| PXIe-5605 | √ | |
| PXIe-5606 | √ | |
| PXI-5661 | √ | √ |
| PXIe-5663/5663E | √ | √ |
| PXIe-5665 | √ | √ |
| PXIe-5667 | √ | √ |
| PXIe-5668R (PXIe-5668) | √ | √ |
| PXIe-5644 | √ | √ |
| PXIe-5645 | √ | √ |
| PXIe-5646 | √ | √ |
| PXIe-5693 | √ | |
| PXIe-5698 | √ | |
| PXIe-5820 | √ | |
| PXIe-5840 | √ | √ |
Note MXI Express and MXI-4 are supported on Windows 10/8.1/7.
Device-specific information about these modules is included in the NI RF Vector Signal Analyzers Help.
NI-RFSA has the following minimum requirements:
*Depending on the amount of data acquired and/or processed, a larger amount of memory may be required.
Note Guest accounts are not supported under any OS.
NI-RFSA 17.1 and NI-RFSA Soft Front Panel 17.0 support the following operating systems:
Note In 2016 NI-RFSA dropped support for Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and installations of Windows 7 without any service packs. NI-RFSA 17.1 will not install or run on an unsupported OS. You cannot deploy or distribute applications that use NI-RFSA 17.1 to an unsupported OS. Additionally, after installing NI-RFSA 17.1, you cannot use any installers built on this computer with any version of LabVIEW, LabWindows™/CVI™, NI TestStand™, or Measurement Studio on an unsupported OS.
For more information about the changes to our OS support for 2016, refer to KB 79UC78LS, Why Does My LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, Measurement Studio, or TestStand Built Installer Fail on Windows XP/Vista and Server 2003?.
1NI software installs VC2015 Runtime and .NET 4.6.2. Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 require Microsoft updates to support these items. Refer to Microsoft KB2919442 and KB2919355 for more information about how to install these updates.
2 NI software is signed with a SHA-256 certificate. Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 require Microsoft updates to support SHA-256. Refer to Microsoft KB3033929 for more information about how to install this security update.
Note NI-RFSA 17.1 and NI-RFSA Soft Front Panel 17.0 do not support Windows Server non-R2 editions.
NI recommends that you have the most recent service pack for your operating system installed.
NI-RFSA supports the following application software versions, including service packs. You should install application software, such as LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI or Microsoft Visual Studio®, before installing NI-RFSA. To add support for ADEs installed after installing NI-RFSA, modify your NI-RFSA installation or launch the NI-RFSA installer again. If you are not using NI application software, refer to Microsoft Visual Studio Support.
| Application Software | Versions Supported by NI-RFSA |
|---|---|
| LabVIEW | 2014 SP1, 2015 SP1, 2016, or 2017 |
| LabVIEW Real-Time Module | 2014 SP1, 2015 SP1, 2016, or 2017 |
| LabWindows/CVI | 2010 and later |
| LabWindows/CVI Real-Time Module | 2010 and later |
Note When using NI-RFSA with LabVIEW Real-Time Module or LabWindows/CVI Real-Time Module, the PXIe-5644/5645/5646, PXIe-5668, and PXIe-5820/5840 are not supported.
Note Install any toolkits or add-on software you intend to use with the NI-RFSA instrument driver after NI-RFSA installation is complete. Refer to the getting started guide for your device for more information about software and hardware installation.
Note MXI users must install the software included with the MXI hardware.
| Note | $(IVIROOTDIR32) is configured as an environment variable on the target system. |
If you upgraded an installation of IVI, your files may be located in the following location:
|
| Note | $(IVIROOTDIR64) is configured as an environment variable on the target system. |
| Item | Installed Location |
|---|---|
| NI-RFSA | <IVIROOTDIR32>\Drivers\niRFSA |
| NI-RFSA Function Panel | <IVIROOTDIR32>\Drivers\niRFSA\niRFSA.fp |
| NI-RFSA Examples | <NIDocDir>\NI-RFSA\examples |
| NI-RFSA Header file | <IVIROOTDIR32>\Include |
| NI-RFSA Import Library files | <IVIROOTDIR32>\lib |
| NI-RFSA DLL (32-bit) | <IVIROOTDIR32>\Bin |
| Item | Installed Location |
|---|---|
| NI-RFSA Function Panel | <IVIROOTDIR64>\Drivers\niRFSA\niRFSA.fp |
| NI-RFSA Header files | <IVIROOTDIR64>\Include |
| NI-RFSA Import Library files (64-bit) | <IVIROOTDIR64>\Lib_x64 |
| NI-RFSA DLL (64-bit) | <IVIROOTDIR64>\Bin |
Note To use the .NET API, you must install the the .NET class libraries or the .NET Wrapper in addition to the NI device driver. For information about versions of the .NET Framework and the drivers each supports, as well as the download location of the installer files, refer to the National Instruments .NET Driver Support document at ni.com/info and enter Info Code NETAPIdriversupport.
To launch the NI-RFSA Soft Front Panel, navigate to the following location:
Documentation for NI-RFSA is located at Start»All Programs»National Instruments»NI-RFSA»NI-RFSA Documentation. The documentation set is composed of the following documents.
| Document | Format | Description |
|---|---|---|
| NI RF Vector Signal Analyzers Help | HTML/Windows Help | Contains primary help content for NI-RFSA products. The help is an HTML version of a traditional user manual that includes the following information:
|
| Getting Started Guide for your device | Printed and PDF | Contains software and hardware installation, MAX configuration, signal connection, and troubleshooting information for your device. |
| Specifications for your device | Lists technical specifications for your device. | |
| Calibration Procedures for your device | Contains calibration instructions for your device. | |
| NI RF Signal Analyzers Readme | HTML (this document) | Contains information about supported hardware and operating systems, new features, fixed issues, and legal notices. |
| Introduction to NI-RFSA | HTML | Contains information about driver documentation, examples, connecting to your instrument, configuring instrument settings, and known issues. |
| NI-RFSA IVI Compliance Document | TXT | Contains information about IVI compliance. |
For the most recent revisions of documentation and for newly released documentation, visit ni.com/manuals.
Note To view PDFs, you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed. You can install the viewer from www.adobe.com/reader.
To access the LabVIEW sample projects and templates from the New Project dialog, select Sample Projects in the left pane and navigate to the project that best matches your application requirements.
NI-RFSA palette VIs are available from the Functions»Measurement I/O»NI-RFSA palette.
NI-RFSA functions are available in LabWindows/CVI from the Instrument menu. To load the NI–RFSA function panel (.fp), select Instrument»Load, and navigate to IVI\Drivers\niRFSA\niRFSA.fp.
In LabVIEW and LabWindows/CVI, you can use the NI Example Finder to search or browse examples. Select Help»Find Examples from LabVIEW or LabWindows/CVI to launch the NI Example Finder. NI-RFSA examples are classified by keyword, so you can search for a particular device or measurement function. The NI Example Finder offers two ways to access all installed LabVIEW example VIs (including NI-RFSA and Modulation Toolkit examples) and their descriptions:
You can also access all the installed NI-RFSA examples for LabVIEW and LabWindows/CVI at Start»All Programs»National Instruments»NI-RFSA»NI-RFSA Examples.
Examples also are available online that demonstrate integrating signal analyzers with RF signal generators and NI toolkit software, including the Modulation Toolkit. Refer to ni.com/examples for these examples and for more information.
Visit ni.com/security to view and subscribe to receive security notifications about National Instruments products. Visit ni.com/critical-updates for information about critical updates from National Instruments.
As part of the NI-RFSA 17.1 installation, the following software is installed. To completely remove the NI-RFSA 17.1 installation from your system, you must also remove all of the following packages:
Caution Several of the software packages listed above are shared with other NI software packages. If you attempt to remove a piece of software that something else is dependent on, a message launches to warn you about the software dependencies. You can choose to either uninstall all of the software or to leave the shared software installed. If you choose to uninstall the shared software, some of your other NI software may no longer function correctly.
Note Do not attempt to uninstall by manually deleting files.
NI-RFSA no longer installs IVI Compliance Pacakge. NI-RFSA supports IVI configuration and runtime, but no longer supports the following features:
If you want to use the above features, you must install IVI Compliance Package separately, either from ni.com/downloads or from the NI Device Drivers 2017 DVD.
You can access the software and documentation known issues list online. Refer to the following locations at ni.com for an up-to-date list of known issues in NI-RFSA 17.1 and the NI-RFSA SFP 17.0.
The following items are the IDs and titles of a subset of issues fixed between NI-RFSA instrument driver revisions. This is not an exhaustive list of issues fixed in the current version of NI-RFSA.
NI-RFSA 17.1
| ID | Fixed Issue |
|---|---|
| 589447 | Fixed an issue in which an incomplete error description was returned if the value of the Spectrum OSP Sampling Ratio property or the NIRFSA_ATTR_OSP_SAMPLING_RATIO attribute was invalid for the PXIe-5840. |
| 601860 | Fixed an issue in which an error occured when changing the device name of the PXIe-5840 in MAX. |
| 456000 | Fixed an issue in which an installer built with LabVIEW Application Builder and NI-RFSA 2.7.5 failed. |
| 642621 | Fixed an issue in which the PXIe-5668 could not initiate before settling was complete when switching IF filters or settling configurations. |
| 640124 | Fixed an issue in which the PXIe-5840 could show a slow phase drift below 400 MHz. |
| 541356 | Fixed an issue in which attribute names did not show up correctly in I/O trace. |
| 361166 | Fixed an issue in which passing NULL as the value for some parameters caused exceptions. |
NI-RFSA 16.0
| ID | Fixed Issue |
|---|---|
| 577048 | Fixed an issue in which NI-RFSA caused an exception with I/O trace enabled. |
| 579468 | Fixed an issue in which NI-RFSA returned a ADC or DSP overflow warning multiple times when the niRFSA Check Acquisition Status VI was called after an acquisition was complete. |
| 576744 | Fixed an issue in which simulation caused the PXIe-5644/5645/5646 devices to return an invalid reference error. |
NI-RFSA 15.6
| ID | Fixed Issue |
|---|---|
| 566038 | Fixed an issue in which large temperature changes on the PXIe-5665 and PXIe-5668 did not force new settings to deploy, causing deviations from spec performance. |
NI-RFSA 14.5
| ID | Fixed Issue |
|---|---|
| 509550 | Fixed an issue in which spurs were observed every 385 kHz for low reference level measurements. |
| 458168 | Fixed an issue in which read power spectrum returned incorrect data when called continuously. |
| 489736 | Fixed an issue in which the system displayed an ambiguous error when setting the IQ Power Edge Reference Trigger in a multispan acquisition. |
| 501291 | Fixed an issue in which the niRFSA_GetRelayOperationsCount function was not supported by PXIe-5606/5668 devices. |
| 505948 | Fixed an issue in which an unexpected data overflow error occurred with sample rates greater than 500 MS/s on PXIe-5606/5668 devices. |
NI-RFSA 14.1
| ID | Fixed Issue |
|---|---|
| 492490 | Fixed an issue in which the proper LabVIEW Run-Time Engine was not installed. |
The following items are the IDs and titles of a subset of issues fixed between NI-RFSA SFP revisions. This table is not an exhaustive list of issues fixed in the current version of the NI-RFSA SFP.
NI-RFSA SFP 16.0
| ID | Fixed Issue |
|---|---|
| 581172 | Fixed an issue in which Classic NI-RFSA SFP launched from the MAX Tools Menu instead of the new NI-RFSA SFP (64-bit). |
NI-RFSA SFP 14.1
| ID | Fixed Issue |
|---|---|
| 453860 | Fixed an issue in which the automatic video bandwidth value in NI-RFSA SFP Control (Local) mode was being incorrectly calculated. |
| 442518 | Fixed an issue in which clicking preset after closing a device session in NI-RFSA SFP Control (Local) mode returned an error. |
| 486765 | Fixed an issue in which the NI-RFSA SFP Launcher example for NI TestStand did not automatically enable NI-RFSA SFP session access. |
| 485420 | Fixed an issue in which certain NI-RFSA SFP trigger coercion warnings were automatically cleared when entering NI-RFSA SFP Control (Local) mode. |
You can automate the installation of most NI products using command-line arguments to suppress some or all of the installer user interface and dialog boxes. However, starting with the August 2012 releases (products using NI Installers version 3.1 or later), you may need to perform additional steps before or during a silent installation of NI software.
If the NI product you are installing uses Microsoft .NET 4.0, the .NET installer may run before any NI software installs and may require a reboot before the installation of NI software begins. To avoid a .NET reboot, install .NET 4.0 separately before you install NI software.
For more information about automating the installation of NI products, refer to the following KnowledgeBase articles:
Microsoft Windows 10 is the latest version of the Windows operating system and features significant changes compared to previous versions. Windows 10 introduces several new capabilities and also combines features from both Windows 7 and Windows 8. For more information about NI support for Windows 10, visit ni.com/windows10.
When you install NI software on Microsoft Windows 8.1, you will notice a few additional tiles in the Apps view, including shortcuts to NI application software products such as NI LabVIEW, Measurement & Automation Explorer (NI MAX), and NI Launcher. For more information about NI support for Windows 8.1, visit ni.com/windows8.
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