The 24 MHz clock in that NanoVNA product that this group is not about is
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likely used because it's easy to get a 48 MHz clock for USB from there. A simple frequency doubler can be used. The spec sheet for the Si5351A lists two clock frequencies at the beginning, 25 and 27 MHz, and I believe the original PC software for generating parameters for the Si5351A only worked at those specific frequencies, but it has always listed a range from 25 to 27 MHz later in the sheet. Lots of other programs and libraries will work for an Si5351A that is used at other clock speeds, and a number of products use non-standard speeds. The uBITX, for example, uses a 26 MHz clock. I don't know why; perhaps the manufacturer has a cheap source of 26 MHz crystals. For a while, the 80 and 160 meter versions of the QCX from QRP Labs used frequencies lower than 25 MHz, because their original method of using the chip to generate quadrature clock signals required that change to work at lower frequencies. Hans Summers later found a different method that does not require the change in clock speed, and current production does not use the reduced clock speed. One of the things that drove looking for another method happened because there was a shortage of the Si5351A for a while during the pandemic years, and so some companies (including QRP Labs) switched to an alternative from China, the MS5351M. It's a drop-in replacement in most cases, but it will not work at the 12 MHz clock frequency that was used in the 160 meter QCX. Only one version of the MS5351M is made, the 10 pin MSOP package that generates three clocks. There are no equivalents to the Si5351A in larger packages that have more outputs, nor to the Si5351B and Si5351C that have additional features. Many products, including the original NanoVNA and NanoVNA-H that this group IS about, also operate the Si5351A out of spec in another way. The specifications only guarantee operation up to 200 MHz, but many products push it to higher frequencies approaching 300 MHz. The exact frequency an Si5351A can reach varies by chip, and also depends on temperature. The chip may consume more power than the spec sheet says at those higher frequencies, and specs such as duty cycle and jitter may not be met. The original version of the chip, without the -B at the end, was only specified to 160 MHz, which is why the Adafruit modules list that as their maximum frequency, but that version of the chip hasn't been made for many years and all current production modules use the version that is specified to run at 200 MHz. The specific version used in most of the products familiar to hams is Si5351A-B-GT (or GTR, meaning it comes on a reel rather than loose), which is a 10 pin MSOP rather than a 16 or 20 pin QFN. (The original was also offered in a 24 pin QSOP.) Variants like Si5351A-Bxxxxx-GT are sometimes used because of unavailability of the unprogrammed parts; those are pre-programmed chips that generate fixed outputs at power-up, but they still respond to I2C commands to change the outputs. Some of those also change the I2C port; watch out for that. On Tue, Mar 12, 2024 at 5:54?AM Rasoul <mojtahedzadeh@...> wrote:
I understand that the system needs clocks like 48 MHz (USB), etc. But in |