You signed in with another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.You signed out in another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.You switched accounts on another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.Dismiss alert
Boonton 4530 Series RF Peak Power Meter (Model 4531 single-channel / 4532 dual-channel).
Measures CW and pulsed RF power from 10 kHz up to 110 GHz (sensor dependent) with a
video bandwidth up to 20 MHz for pulse analysis. Peak range -40 to +20 dBm, CW range
-70 to +44 dBm (sensor dependent).
Why
New vendor: Boonton (Wireless Telecom Group, now part of Maury Microwave) is not
among the 8 covered vendors, and no Boonton driver exists.
New category: the codebase has no RF power meter / peak power meter base class at all
(base.py defines ElectronicLoad, FrequencyCounter, Multimeter, PowerSupply,
SpectrumAnalyzer, NetworkAnalyzer, Oscilloscope, SignalGenerator, FunctionGenerator).
Peak-power measurement is a genuine coverage gap: pulsed RF testing (radar, wireless,
EMC, production ATE) is exactly what the SA/NA/SG drivers cannot do.
Widely used: the 4530 series is a staple in RF production test and repair labs,
with a large fleet of compatible Boonton sensors covering to 110 GHz.
SCPI 1993 over IEEE-488 (GPIB) and RS-232 serial. Full SCPI command tree documented in
the instruction manual (46 SCPI mentions, 83 GPIB mentions, 14 RS-232 mentions across
170 pages). No USB/LAN on this generation -- GPIB/RS-232 only, which fits the existing
pyvisa RealDriver path for VISA-GPIB/ASRL resources.
Programming Manual
https://www.rftesolutions.com/pdf/meters/power_meters/4530--Instruction_Manual.pdf
(170-page instruction manual, verified live: HTTP 200, application/pdf, 1.0 MB).
The official boonton.com copy (Portals/0/Products/RF+Power+Meters/4530/...v20140106.pdf)
now 404s after the Maury Microwave site migration; the mirror above is the reachable copy.
Scope
New PowerMeter base class (CW power, peak power, relative offset, sensor selection).
Peak/pulse measurement: trigger setup, video bandwidth, pulse parameters (prf, width).
Digital Twin / simulated mirror alongside the real driver, matching repo convention.
Complexity
Moderate. The SCPI core is plain (measurement queries, units, offsets), but pulse/trigger
modes and sensor-dependent ranges add real surface area. Similar effort to the SR830
Lock-In driver (#180) -- well within reach.
Instrument
Boonton 4530 Series RF Peak Power Meter (Model 4531 single-channel / 4532 dual-channel).
Measures CW and pulsed RF power from 10 kHz up to 110 GHz (sensor dependent) with a
video bandwidth up to 20 MHz for pulse analysis. Peak range -40 to +20 dBm, CW range
-70 to +44 dBm (sensor dependent).
Why
among the 8 covered vendors, and no Boonton driver exists.
(base.py defines ElectronicLoad, FrequencyCounter, Multimeter, PowerSupply,
SpectrumAnalyzer, NetworkAnalyzer, Oscilloscope, SignalGenerator, FunctionGenerator).
Peak-power measurement is a genuine coverage gap: pulsed RF testing (radar, wireless,
EMC, production ATE) is exactly what the SA/NA/SG drivers cannot do.
with a large fleet of compatible Boonton sensors covering to 110 GHz.
this is a wideband RF peak power meter -- a different measurement domain.
Protocol
SCPI 1993 over IEEE-488 (GPIB) and RS-232 serial. Full SCPI command tree documented in
the instruction manual (46 SCPI mentions, 83 GPIB mentions, 14 RS-232 mentions across
170 pages). No USB/LAN on this generation -- GPIB/RS-232 only, which fits the existing
pyvisa RealDriver path for VISA-GPIB/ASRL resources.
Programming Manual
https://www.rftesolutions.com/pdf/meters/power_meters/4530--Instruction_Manual.pdf
(170-page instruction manual, verified live: HTTP 200, application/pdf, 1.0 MB).
The official boonton.com copy (Portals/0/Products/RF+Power+Meters/4530/...v20140106.pdf)
now 404s after the Maury Microwave site migration; the mirror above is the reachable copy.
Scope
PowerMeterbase class (CW power, peak power, relative offset, sensor selection).Boonton4531/Boonton4532drivers registered asPM/PEAKPM(or similar).Complexity
Moderate. The SCPI core is plain (measurement queries, units, offsets), but pulse/trigger
modes and sensor-dependent ranges add real surface area. Similar effort to the SR830
Lock-In driver (#180) -- well within reach.