Does anybody know the SA6 Spectrum analyser control codes

Question

Does anybody know the commands needed for the SA6 spectrum analyser? The software provided by ARINST on git hub is useless. Each time I try to connect (using USB interface, COM4) the software crashes (tested on a physical windows 10 PC, a virtual machine windows 10 and using WINE. Each time the same effect.)

If I try to connect with self written python code (using Linux instead of Windows) I can already do the following:

1. device is visible as /dev/ttyACM0 (serial via USB)
2. I can open the device and get a file handle (3)
3. I can send an ASCII string terminated with \n\r => spectrum analyser screen flashes
4. I can read the response 'complete\r\n'

But since I don't know the commands needed I can't change any settings and I can't read the results of the measurement sweeps. Taking screen shots using a camera is a bit disappointing for me.

I already tried to analyse the compiled Windows software using ghex but didn't fine anything I can use. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Partial answer:

Found out some properties communicating with the SA6 spectrum analyzer:

1. The SA6 has a 127 byte deep input register. Writing 127 bytes (or less terminated with \r leads to no response.
2. Sending characters in multiple writes leads to an accumulation in the register. (So writing 2 times 64 bytes leads to the same response as sending 128 bytes)
3. Writing 128 bytes or characters terminated with \r leads to a reply. The SA6 returns the content of the register,flashes and returns a second line holding "complete\r\n".
4. writing data terminated with "\n" immediatelly creates the response "complete\r\n"

But control codes still are unknown (by me) and the write access never changed a setting.