Please help with Windows XP and SplTrace

[madisonears]

In another thread I started about my OB design, I was encouraged by many respondents to use simulation to assist in developing a Xover design more refined than my crude textbook formula attempt.

I have zero experience with simulators, but many DIY'ers have had success with them, so I'm willing to learn. The ones I have seen require importing frd and zma files. I don't have measuring equipment to generate my own files, so I tried to use SplTrace and some reliable graphs to generate the files. Now I discover that wonderful Windows XP and SplTrace are incompatible. Despite numerous attempts, I cannot get anything loaded into Passive Crossover 6.20. I see the file SplTrace created with the extension .frd, but I can't get it to import and I can't open it to see if there is even anything in it.

Is this, indeed, due to XP and SplTrace problems, or am I doing something else wrong? Is there an alternative method by which I can generate frd and zma files? Is there a simulator to which I can add FR and impedance data manually?

I know you experienced designers would rather generate and use your own files than borrow someone else's, but I'm a little desperate and I would happily make use of anyone's files for Peerless drivers 810921 and 830854 if you're willing to share.

Peace,
Tom E

[abpc1]

Works for me

Hi:

I'm running XP and SplTrace works fine. You should be able to open .zma or .frd files in notepad without issues as both are just ASCII files.

Regards,

[Paul Ebert]

Both PCD and SplTrace work fine on XP. PCD will not load a file that doesn't meet its expectations with regard to the FRD format. My guess is that your frd files (assuming they are from SplTrace) do not have the phase data. Each entry in the file should have the frequency, whitespace (a tab and/or spaces), the amplitude, whitespace, and then the phase. Take a look at your files in notepad to see if this is the case. If so, I suggest loading it into Word or Excel and adding zeros for the phase data. Also, make sure that the extension of the file is '.frd' or '.zma'. Often, the Windows tools will append '.txt', making it '.frd.txt' or '.zma.txt' when you save it as raw text.