New to this... a few questions if I may...

[Darryl VanNort]

Greetings, I'm new to this device and the Windows software.  My 6G Combo + -Slim arrived yesterday and I had already installed the software suite in anticipation of its arrival.  I must say that I was impressed at the ease of which this all came together given the difficulty I've had with other Windows USB drivers on Win10.  The first thing on the software screen was "update available" and it allowed me to update the firmware in mere minutes without the usual hooplah of downloading a firmware file, downloading and installing a separate app, and then wrestling with getting it to load.  I was instantly impressed.  So my unit is at FL 3.36, and the Windows Client is 2.6.2204.2.

The unit arrived with the power switch in the ON position, and I feared that the battery may have been drained beyond the ability to charge it up, but no, the battery protection firmware kept it alive "enough" so that it charged just fine.   

Sorry to be so long on intro... but I've got some noob questions:

1.  in the software there's the "Power Channel" tab.  What exactly am I looking at here?   I couldn't find any documentation on it, and the needle shows red, but the signal it's indicating is something like -30dB and around 9uW.  So I'm confused (and old, so that's easy to do!  LOL).  
2. On the device itself, I can set attenuation levels to "direct", 30dB, 60dB.  In the offset value do I include the internal attenuation, or is that already compensated for?  I ask because I am using some of the internal attenuation plus an external attenuator just to protect the instrument.
3. In the attenuation menu, when selecting "direct", 30dB, 60dB, or LNA, when is the selection actually implemented on the device?  I hope only when I exit the menu, because otherwise if I'm scrolling through the choices, I could fry the mixer by turning on the amp when I don't want it on, but just want to adjust internal attenuation.

Thanks for any and all assistance!

...Darryl

[RF Explorer]

Hi Darryl,

Thanks for your feedback, we have made a significant effort in last releases to integrate a more advanced firmware upgrade tool which is simpler for the user to keep the device up to date with latest improvements. We are happy to know you find it now easy for the device to upgrade.

On your questions:

1 - Check user manual https://j3.rf-explorer.com/rfetouch-manual section Power Channel. You can set up the top/bottom range with the Amplitude control, and the colored sections are just indicators of the limits of the selected range, therefore red/blue sections are defined by your configured top/bottom amplitude set.

2 - When you select internal attenuators the firmware internally compensate and offset for the device readings. You only need to setup OffsetDB in case you use external attenuators or amplifiers, or if want to compensate for cable or connector losses. More details at www.rf-explorer.com/manual

3 - The selection of these settings are changed as soon as you make them in the menu. You should have the input power off or very low if you need to iterate through all the options, i.e. have the right choice before exposing the instrument to external power.

Best regards,

RF Explorer Team

[Darryl VanNort]

Thanks for your quick responses.  Somehow I missed that manual... grabbing a copy now... didn't realize it was part of "touch".

As to the attenuation settings, I'm mostly using this with antennas doing field surveys of wireless control transceivers, so it's hard to know what I'll see in a given environment.  I guess I'll have to set the instrument to 60dBm attenuation before entering the location and removing the 50 ohm terminator then  attaching the antenna.    If it's too much it means I have to leave the space to adjust it down from that point without going "direct."   The other alternative is to always use 50ohm in-line attenuators.  The sequence of Direct / 30dB / LNA / 60dB means that I can't sequence them between 30 and 60 without going through the amp.  Maybe consider a way of using the L/R arrows to adjust back and forth, and put the amp back at the bottom in a future firmware release?

...Darryl