Setting up HP83620A to perform power sweep in LabView 6.0

[microwave]

I'm trying to write a code for hp83620a sweeper to sweep RF power from -20 dBm to 0 dBm (1 dB step) at a fixed frequency. I've downloaded the hp836xxa instrument driver from NI library. I'm using Configure Power Modifier VI to control step size and Configure RF Output Power VI to setup start and end power. When I ran the program, the RF power goes from -20 dBm (start power) to 0 dBm to -20 dBm. I want to be able to sweep RF power from -20 dBm to 0 dBm in 1 dB step. Does anyone know/have any idea?

[Jack J.]

Hello,
From your question, I'm assuming that you don't want it to return to -20 dBm once it reaches 0 dBm. You might have already done this but here are some things you can check.
For the Configure Power Modifiers VI, make sure you have TRUE going onto 'step'. and 1 going into 'Step'
Also in the Configure RF Power Output VI, make sure your Entry Mode is Numeric(True).

Hope this helps.

Jack J.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[microwave]

This is a person who posted the question above.
Well... I figured out why sweeper was behaving such a way. Couple of things were need to be fixed.
First, RESET in Initialize VI needed to be in FALSE.
Second, the sweeper was sweeping RF power as I told. It was just sweeping too fast (0.167 sec was a default). To correct this, I added Configure Sweep Time VI and increased sweep time.