While we are on this subject [BTW good rant Gary :-) ], do we really need that many save and recalls in cal and setup?
Cal some of that memory be freed up to save a "display state?
I was making a measurement outside on a G5RV I am putting back, and had to revert to a pen and paper to mark the resonances. And since we have given up on the SD card (because it was removed),? I could have save what was on the screen (to local memory), and gone to the computer to "download" it.? I could gave made better measurements on? my computer.
Any thoughts?
Frank
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On 8/7/2019 4:23 PM, Gary O'Neil wrote:
Now stay grounded gang... especially if you feel your NanoVNA is nothing short of junk because it falls short of meeting your routine anddemanding avocational requirements.
i know... I know... I forked over nearly $50 myself, so I feel your pain. I too am working hard at scrutinizing both the hardware and software of these devices, with the intent of contributing to the burdensome task of convincing the world that they are fools to invest such an outrageous price for something that improves their RF measurement capabilities by just a minimally few orders of magnitude, while for just a mere 30 dB more we all could own a piece of quality test equipment far more worthy of complaining about.
EUREEKA! I believe I¡¯ve found it!
There¡¯s no provision for saving data collected in the field other than being tethered to a laptop or a similar collection platform. OMG! Did we get ripped off or what??? I knew I should have sprang for the $45 K <Sheesh!>
Oh well? As a wise person once told me many times over... Hind sight is 20/20. Live and learn I guess! That¡¯s the way the cookie crumbles... It¡¯s water over the dam. Another fine mess mess I¡¯ve gotten us into Ollie!
I¡¯ve discovered however... that there¡¯s more than one way to skin a cat... even if it risks running out of clich¨¦s... or other perfectly unreasonable reasons to gripe.
There actually is a means to gather data, disconnect from the DUT, relocate to your workstation area, connect the device to your computer, and finally download the data for use in the analysis software of your choosing. It¡¯s a bit of an inconvenience... BUT GIVE ME A BREAK!!! SHOULDN¡¯T I AT LEAST GET SOMETHING USEFUL FOR MY FIFTY BUCKS?
On a humorous note however... here¡¯s the procedure.
The NanoVNA must remain powered on at all times for this to work successfully.
1) With the data you wish to ¡°save¡± and port to your remotely located workstation, navigate to STIMULUS > PAUSE SWEEP. The data at the top of the screen will freeze to confirm you have paused the sweep.
2) Take care to not inadvertently alter the current state... either by the toggle switch or touchscreen, remove the NanoVNA from the DUT, observe that the desired data remains on the display, transport it to your workstation, hotplug the device into a USB port, then tap on the display a couple of times. This appears to initiate handshaking and establishes its connection with the workstation.
3) Launch NanoVNA Sharp on your workstation and click on connect.
The result will (should) be the a displayed copy of the same data displayed on the NanoVNA. You can then use the facilities of NanoVNA Sharp to save a copy of the data to your workstation.
To be clear, the data is not saved within the NanoVNA, and once the pause is lifted, or the device is power cycled, the data will be purged and replaced.
A note to those who may exercise influence over the firmware developer, I have a suggestion that I think might add some value to the NanoVNA... ALTHOUGH IT WONT LIKELY EVEN COME CLOSE TO MAKING IT WORTH IT¡¯S OUTRAGEOUS 50 DOLLAR PRICETAG FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. GEESH! WHAT SHYSTERS!!!
.. but to get back on my soapbox... It might be a relatively easy task to enable the firmware to allow the user to optionally store either CAL or measurement DATA in the 5 memory locations, in any mix or order of their choosing, by simply assigning C0, M1, C2,... etc. as an identifier in the vertical column, and providing the choice in the RECALL/SAVE menu. i.e. RECALL DATA, RECALL CAL, SAVE DATA, SAVE CAL.
I¡¯m going to figure out how to get my $50 worth out of this extraordinarily sturdy, stable, accurate, capable and and incredibly useful piece of junk if it kills me... before I finally toss it where it belongs... in my shirt pocket... so I at least have it where I can get access to it without having to walk all the way across the room to make a measurement. Gads! What a rip off! How did I ever fall for this?
Oh well... It¡¯s only money... Easy come, easy go!
... jus sayin¡¯
72/73
Gary, N3GO
