NTIA/ITS Preselector API

This repository provides a general software API to control preselectors regardless of their components and control mechanisms.

Currently, this API provides a general abstract Preselector class that uses an rf_path array to describe the available combinations of calibration sources, filters, and amplifiers. A simple set_state method allows users to specify the state of the preselector by the state key specified in the preselector config. Different switching control mechanisms are supported by extending the base Preselector class. Currently, this repository provides an implementation for a WebRelayPreselector that includes an x310 WebRelay. See below for additional details on using the WebRelayPreselector.

This software will grow over time to support additional components and control mechanisms.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Usage
• Development
• License
• Contact

Introduction

A preselector is a device, connected between an antenna and a signal analyzer, designed to improve the RF performance and capability of a sensor. As illustrated in the diagram below, it may include a variety of components, e.g., filters, amplifiers, calibration sources, and switches. An example preselector is shown in Figure 1. Just as the components within a preselector may change, so too may the way in which the switching is controlled.

Figure 1: Block diagram showing an example RF measurement system with a preselector.

Usage

To install this Python package, clone the repository and enter the directory of the project in the command line. Execute the following commands depending on your OS (you may have to adjust for your version of Python):

# Windows
py -m pip install .

# Linux
python3 –m pip install .

WebRelayPreselector Configuration

The WebRelayPreselector requires a SigMF metadata file that describes the sensor preselector and a config file to describe the WebRelay settings for the RF paths specified in the metadata and for any other desired sources. Below is an example config file for the WebRelayPreselector to describe how it works:

{
  "name": "preselector",
  "base_url" : "http://192.168.1.2/state.xml",
  "control_states": {
      "noise_diode_on" : "1State=1,2State=1,3State=0,4State=0",
      "noise_diode_off" : "1State=1,2State=0,3State=0,4State=0",
      "antenna" : "1State=0,2State=0,3State=0,4State=0"
  },
  "status_states": {
    "noise diode powered" : "relay2=1",
    "antenna path enabled": "relay1=0",
    "noise diode path enabled": "relay1=1"
  },
  "sensors": {
    "internal_temp": 1,
    "internal_humidity": 2,
    "tec_intake_temp": 3,
    "tec_exhaust_temp": 4
  },
  "digital_inputs": {
      "ups_power": 1,
      "ups_battery_level": 2,
      "ups_trouble": 3,
      "ups_battery_replace": 4
  },
  "analog_inputs": {
      "door_sensor": 1,
      "5vdc_monitor": 2,
      "28vdc_monitor": 3,
      "15vdc_monitor": 4,
      "24vdc_monitor": 5
  }
}

Note, the config above is specifically for a prelector with a ControlByWebWebRelay. Other Preselectors and WebRelays may require a different configuration. The base_url and name keys are the only required keys for the WebRelayPreselector. The base_url should map to the base URL to interact with the WebRelay (see https://www.controlbyweb.com/x310 for more info). The keys within the control_states key should correspond to RF paths documented in the SigMF metadata. The keys within the status_states should map to the RF paths documented in the SigMF metadata, or to understandable states of the preselector for which it is desired to determine whether they are enabled or disabled. The get_status method of the preselector will provide each of the keys specified in the status_states entry mapped to a boolean indicating whether the preselector states match those specified in the mapping. Each of the entries in the config provide mappings to the associated web relay input states and every RFPath defined in the sensor definition json file should have an entry in the preselector config. The sensors, digital_inputs, and analog_inputs keys define the sensors, digital inputs and analog inputs configured on the device. Within each of the sections, each key provides the name of the sensor or input and the value specifies the assigned sensor or input number. The get_satus method will provide each sensor/input value with the specified label. Every status_state, sensor, and input must have a unique name. Attempting to create aControlByWebWebRelay with duplicate status_states, sensors, or inputs will cause a ConfigurationException.

In this example, there are noise_diode_on and noise_diode_off keys to correspond to the preselector paths to turn the noise diode on and off, and an antenna key to indicate the web relay states to connect to the antenna.

Note: with this example configuration, you would have to set the path by the name of the source rather than the index in the rf_paths array.

WebRelayPreselector Initialization

import json
from its_preselector.web_relay_preselector import WebRelayPreselector


with open('config/metadata.sigmf-meta') as sensor_def_file:
    sensor_def = json.load(sensor_def_file)

with open('config/config.json') as config_file:
    preselector_config = json.load(config_file)

preselector = WebRelayPreselector(sensor_def, preselector_config)
preselector.set_state('antenna')

Preselector Interactions

Access instance properties

• preselector.amplifiers[0].gain
• ...

Helper methods

• preselector.get_amplifier_gain(rf_path_index)
• preselector.get_amplifier_noise_figure(rf_path_index)
• preselector.get_frequency_low_passband(rf_path_index)
• preselector.get_frequency_high_passband(rf_path_index)
• preselector.get_frequency_low_stopband(rf_path_index)
• preselector.get_frequency_high_stopband(rf_path_index)

Control

• preselector.set_state(rf_path_name)

Development

Set up a development environment using a tool like Conda or venv, with python>=3.7. Then, from the cloned directory, install the development dependencies by running:

pip install .[dev]

This will install the project itself, along with development dependencies for pre-commit hooks, building distributions, and running tests. Set up pre-commit, which runs auto-formatting and code-checking automatically when you make a commit, by running:

pre-commit install

The pre-commit tool will auto-format Python code using Black and isort. Other pre-commit hooks are also enabled, and can be found in .pre-commit-config.yaml.

Building New Releases

This project uses Hatchling as a backend. Hatchling makes versioning and building new releases easy. The package version can be updated easily by using any of the following commands.

hatchling version major   # 1.0.0 -> 2.0.0
hatchling version minor   # 1.0.0 -> 1.1.0
hatchling version micro   # 1.0.0 -> 1.0.1
hatchling version "X.X.X" # 1.0.0 -> X.X.X

To build a new release (both wheel and sdist/tarball), run:

hatchling build

License

See LICENSE

Contact

For technical questions, contact Doug Boulware, dboulware@ntia.gov