Tuner View Window

The Tuner View window (Fig. 38) enables visual, mouse-based Tuner control and monitoring. The window can be opened by clicking the Tuner|View menu item or the Tuner button.

To enhance visual detail and provide finer control of stub positions via dragging, the window includes two buttons that will open dialogs for scaling the tuner image:

  • X scales the overall width of the window while maintaining its aspect ratio.

  • Y defines the scaling factor for the waveguide height relative to the motor height, effectively stretching the window vertically.

Fig. 38.  Tuner View window. Right: A case of Motor 2 error and the load reference plane shifted outward by 123 mm.

All Stubs Home

The All Stubs Home procedure (motors initialization) is activated by clicking the Home button sbHome or, equivalently, the Tuner|All Home menu item.

Reading Stub Positions

Clicking the Read button sbReadStubs (or the Tuner|Read menu item) commands HomSoft to query the Homer for the current positions of the tuning stubs. This action is normally not necessary; you may wish to try it in case of doubts about the correctness of the displayed stub positions.

Scenario

Clicking the Scenario button sbScenar (or the Tuner|Scenario menu item) opens the Scenario dialog window enabling the user to define, save, load and run sequences of predefined stub positions with a specified dwell time at each position, or set individual positions of a sequence by a mouse click.

Stubs Movement

Mouse Dragging

A tuning stub can be moved by gripping the bottom edge of its image with the mouse and dragging it to a desired insertion. Releasing the mouse starts the stub motion.

Buttons

Each tuning stub can be moved independently by operating its four buttons:

sbTopHlp    Move the stub upwards to zero-mm position.

sbBottomHlp    Move the stub downwards to the bottom (maximum extension) position.

sbStepUpHlp    Click once or hold to move the stub upwards by small, medium, or large steps.

sbStepDnHlp    Click once or hold to move the stub downwards by small, medium, or large steps.

The step size can be controlled by simultaneously holding a keyboard key as follows:

  • Small step: hold the Ctrl key.

  • Medium step: do not hold any key.

  • Large step: hold the Shift key or use the right-hand mouse button.

The numerical indicators attached to the motors show the current stub positions. The positions can be displayed in millimeters, inches, or as motor steps. Toggle the display by clicking the panel showing the unit.

Keyboard

Stub positions (in the displayed units) can be typed in numerically after clicking the numerical indicators. Confirming the value starts the stub motion.

Note: In the case of CAN Bus, stub dragging as well as stub movement buttons are disabled while the system is measuring or autotuning. Typing via keyboard still works.

Autotuning Activation

Single-Step Tuning

While measuring, a single autotuning step can be invoked at any moment by clicking the sbTune1 button.

Note: In the case of the HoSim Homer Simulation, an approximate time in milliseconds the tuning step takes is shown on the top left. See subsection Plot of the Homer Simulation section on how to customize the HoSim program to represent a real Autotuner (loading a Tun.mem file).

Continuous Tuning

Continuous autotuning can be activated or deactivated by clicking the  AT  button (or the Tuner|Autotune|Active menu item).

Using AUTOTUNE Switch

Autotuning can also be switched ON and OFF by means of the hardware AUTOTUNE switch (the presence of this switch depends on the Autotuner model). The switch overrides the software setting at the instant its position is changed. Conversely, the next click on the  AT  button overrides the HW switch setting. However, starting with Server version V60 and HomSoft version V5.0.3.0, the Autotune LED always reflects the actual state of Homer’s Autotune flag.

Reference Planes

The Tuner View window indicates the location of the planes to which the input reflection coefficient GI and the load (deembedded) reflection coefficient GL are referred.

  • The input (GI) reference plane is located at the axis of tuning stub 1, closest to the generator.

  • The load (GL) reference plane coincides with the output flange of the tuner.

For further details about GI and GL and their reference planes, see section Deembedding in Input and Load Reflection Coefficients.

Plane Extension

The load reference plane (and only the load reference plane) can be arbitrarily shifted by the user. For details, see Plane Ext.

If the load reference plane is shifted, the symbol GL in the Tuner View window and the associated angled arrow are shifted either to the right (if the extension is positive) or to the left (if the extension is negative) from the default location shown in Fig. 38.

The plane extension distance is also written in the Reflection Coefficient group of the full-size Results Window.