Clock

Overview

A clock is any type of single-frequency oscillator. A single clock may have multiple independent output channels, each of which may be at a different frequency, and it may or may not be tunable. Clocks may be assigned to different logical roles within the program (see Rf Configuration for details), and Blackchirp supports up to 6 different clock devices.

Note

Currently there is no means for controlling the power output of a clock from Blackchirp. This is planned for the future; if you require this functionality, please make a feature request on Github.

Settings

  • lockExternal (true/false): Whether the clock should be locked to an external reference. Some implementations may use this to force the clock to lock (or raise an error if unsuccessful); however, this is not used by all implementations.

  • manualTune (bool): If true, Blackchirp prompts the user to manually tune the clock if needed (e.g., for LO or DR scans when the clock is not controlled by Blackchirp).

  • maxFreqMHz (float): Maximum frequency, in MHz.

  • minFreqMHz (float): Minimum frequency, in MHz.

  • outputs (menu): This contains the settings made for each output in the Rf Configuration menu and should not be edited manually.

  • tunable (bool): Whether the frequency of the clock is adjustable. Currently this setting is not used anywhere in Blackchirp.

Implementations

FixedClock (fixed)

A fixed clock is a virtual implementation of a clock. This is the implementation that should be selected in the event you use a fixed-frequency oscillator (e.g., a PLDRO) in your setup. Up to 6 different “outputs” are available for each fixed clock.

Valon Technology 5009 (valon5009)

The Valon 5009 is a two-channel synthesizer; each channel is independent and has a maxiumum frequency of 6 GHz. It can be locked to an external reference. If lockExternal is set to true, the device is set to use a 10 MHz external reference at the start of an experiment, and otherwise it is set to use its internal 20 MHz reference. The device has an internal USB-RS232 converter, so connecting it to a computer via USB generates a virtual serial port on the computer.

Valon Technology 5015 (valon5015)

The Valon 5015 is a single-channel synthesizer with a maximum output frequency of 15 GHz. Its implementation is otherwise identical to the 5009.

Hewlett-Packard 83712B (hp83712b)

The HP 83712B is a single-channel synthsizer that is tunable between 1-20,000 MHz. It is configured to connect through GPIB. The implementation has not been thoroughly tested.