Test Platform Uses Software Updates for Major Functionality Upgrades
Liquid Instruments, a provider of precision software-defined instrumentation, recently released a variety of software updates for its Moku:Go, its complete portable engineering lab solution, and Moku:Pro, a solution for higher-bandwidth research. Less bulky and more cost-effective in some ways than legacy test and measurement hardware, software-based tools help scientists and engineers do some of their T&M and evaluation tasks more efficiently and effectively.
These FPGA-based devices offer multiple professional-grade, software-based instruments, running on one piece of hardware, which can be reconfigured rapidly based on application needs. The company’s over-the-air updates include functionality enhancements to Moku:Go and Moku:Pro, and bring increased efficiency as well as an elevated user experience.
“Liquid Instruments is committed to producing groundbreaking products that are intuitive, practical, convenient, and affordable to accelerate engineering progress for the world’s most seminal scientific research,” said Daniel Shaddock, co-founder and CEO of the company.
He added, “Our latest updates for Moku:Go and Moku:Pro give users across education, aerospace, defense, semiconductor, LiDAR, and quantum more options for advanced research and a smoother experience overall. These updates also underscore the value of software-defined instrumentation, which enables us to quickly bolster our platform, so our customers consistently have access to the latest and best instruments on the market.”
Laser Lock Box
The software updates to the Moku:Go and Moku:Pro products include Laser Lock Box (LLB) desktop capability, providing easy laser locking in a cost-effective manner, enabling staged locking with customizable steps. These steps include things like enabling integrators, with workflow integration with desktop application support for Windows or macOS. Less experienced users will especially benefit from the simplified process, as locking a laser is typically a procedure, rather than an action.
In some legacy LLB interfaces, one needed to establish a procedure with the order in which features turned on and off to bring the system into lock. This updated staged locking interface allows users to codify the procedure inside the desktop application, simplifying the act of locking, especially in environments where smart device usage is unavailable.
A frequency response analyzer (FRA) is provided in both Moku:Go and Moku:Pro products, offering saturation warnings and dynamic amplitude adjustment. This optimizes the amplitude automatically for all channels independently.
It's useful for characterizing electrical components, circuits, and systems, as well as rapidly detecting the response to stimuli in both magnitude and phase with a dynamic range of approximately 150 dB. The FRA’s latest update will reduce erroneous measurements in complex or highly resonant systems. Furthermore, Gaussian noise is now available for both the Moku:Go and Moku:Pro Waveform Generator with custom bitstreams using Moku Cloud Compile, addressing control systems when using pulse-width modulation (PWM) in conjunction with the PID controller.
Data Logger and FIR Filter Builder
The Data Logger in both devices can stream data to each user directly over the network at data rates of up to 0.5 Msamples/s for Moku:Go, and 10 Msamples/s for Moku:Pro. API data streaming is available in the standalone Data Logger instrument as well as any instrument with an embedded data logger, allowing users to monitor and record crucial data from various sensor types. This feature will simplify running scripted measurements, with data available to script in real-time to create live graphs, make real-time measurements, and build up images as they’re scanned.
A finite-impulse-response (FIR) Filter Builder now comes with Moku:Pro, enabling advanced users to design and implement low-pass, high-pass, bandpass, and bandstop FIR filters with up to 14,819 coefficients. It's now possible to fine-tune a filter’s response in the frequency and time domains for a specific application, selecting from four frequency-response shapes, five common impulse responses, and up to eight window functions. With the FIR Filter, users can implement much sharper cutoffs and arbitrary transfer functions, and the linear phase aids those who need to pre- or post-process their signals.
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