Forums › BB Series Discussions › BB60C–external trigger–bbFetchRaw(buffer, triggers) › Reply To: BB60C–external trigger–bbFetchRaw(buffer, triggers)
It looks like maybe the phase of your I/Q data doesn’t match up. Is this what you are seeing?
You should not expect the phase of two demodulated signals to line up. Even if the BB60s use the same external trigger and external time base, there is still a fractional-N PLL that can lock to several different phases each time you change the LO frequency.
Multi-channel phase coherent receivers exist, but they are generally more expensive.
If you need to make phase coherent measurements with two BB60Cs, generally you would:
1) Use a common external 10 MHz reference to align frequency
2) Use a common trigger to align time within 50 ns.
Now, all that is missing is phase alignment, and this is where it gets tricky.
3) Select your frequency on both devices, and begin streaming I/Q data. Do not change frequencies or interrupt the I/Q data stream for the next steps.
4) Send a known signal to both devices to calculate a phase offset (and possibly amplitude offset if needed) between devices
5) Connect your unknown signal. You can now measure relative phase between the two streaming devices, until you change frequency or the I/Q stream is interrupted.