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Reading the sticker at the backside of two NanoVNa units I see a difference. One is HW version 4.2 and the other is HW 4.3_MS
I have understood that the additional _MS refers to the MS5351M (message thread #26386)
But what should be the difference between version 4.2 and 4.3?

On the NanoVNA unit with HW 4.3_MS I read (via Config->Version) firmware 1.2.43 [p:401, IF:12k, ADC:384k, Lcd:400x320], Build Time: Feb 19 -2025
The NanoVNA HW 4.2 has firmware 0.5.0
When I look to the Menu Structure Map of the The NanoVNA HW 4.3_MS unit then I see a huge difference w.r.t. the HW 4.2 unit.
A lot of added Menus. Some of them are clear, but from a lot of them I have to guess.
Is there an overview or document of what these new menu items have for meaning and how to use them and under what circumstance should they be used?

Your help would be very greathfull.
Kees

Hi Peter. I limited the number of traces to two because that's the minimum number that allows comparison for optimization. I didn't think about your application, which is more documentation. To do more than two traces I'd have to use a different display mode. The current mode is limited to 16 colors and I just used up the last free color this morning. I'd have to figure out what using a different display mode entails (many things change). The other issue is that I want the user to be able to set each trace and grid color. That becomes cumbersome for many traces. But I'll think about it. If you could email your article to me, I'd appreciate it. I want to see what the eight return loss curves look like.

I know this isn't what you meant by analog computing, but I when I read that phrase my mind flashed back to the time I programmed an underwater acoustics simulation on a a vacuum tube analog computer. I was told it was the largest installation in the world. It covered a whole wall and had zillions of vacuum tubes.

I'll post version 2.06 of the plotter in an hour or two:



Brian

Hello Brian,

I've been following the evolution of your Smith chart plotting and am pleased you've been able to add the feature to your plotting package. As a user of Smith charts in both RF design and acoustics I think it's a useful feature to retain for visualization purposes, although it's a long time since I've been motivated to do any actual analog computing.

If you'll forgive a more general question on your plotting software, is there a reason why (at least) the rectangular coordinate plots are limited to two traces? I only ask because I've just finished a short article on my LF/MF IoT antenna coupler (with the big coil!) and I had a bit of a search to find a free plotter that coped with all 8 return loss curves generated by the embedded vector analyzer in response to tap changes on the impedance matching transformer. In the end I found that RigExpert AntScope did a passable job, but the presentation is a little "functional" compared with more refined packages. (That's not a criticism of the value of the instruments or the software - just a comment about my need to get some publication quality plots). Anyway, if the limit on the number of traces displayed doesn't have to be a low-ish hard one, I think your plotter could offer even more advantage over many other packages.

Best wishes,
Peter.

Correct Brian.

It is a clever engineering concatenation of the two descriptions for Y and Z COMBINED... Good stuff!

On Tue, Apr 29, 2025 at 05:44 AM, alan victor wrote:

a portion of the immittance chart

Alan, when I first read this I thought it was a typo for admittance. I learned this morning that it means impedance or admittance. I have been using Y + Z for lack of a better term. The next version of my program will use immittance. Thanks for the education, however unintentional.

Brian

Hi Hugen

Thanks
Pse did you mean slightly better below 100Khz or below 100Mhz ?

73s Nizar

Thank you for your information.

Kees, PE0CWK


Op 30-4-2025 om 04:05 schreef Hugen via groups.io:

Hello, after NXP discontinued the SA602A we designed a compatible chip for the continued production of the NanoVNA. This chip has a slightly lower noise figure, but also a slightly lower IIP3. I modified the circuitry of the NanoVNA-H and NanoVNA-H4 to accommodate these new chips. the difference in effective dynamics between the NanoVNA-H4 V4.4 and the NanoVNA-H v4.3 is not very large, the main difference is a slight improvement in the dynamic range below 100kHz.

If my memory serves me correctly the major difference between the ne and se
version had to do with the temperature range they were spec'd over.

On Tue, Apr 29, 2025, 2:15 PM PE0CWK via groups.io <pe0cwk@...>
wrote:

At when selected Zeenko then one may
order a NanoVNA H4 HW version 4.3
Enlarging the photo of the backside of the housing, it shows HW version
4.4_ZK

I found at the page descrition why HW
version 4.4_ZK is released:

"The latest version is NanoVNA-H rev3.6 and NanoVNA-H4 rev4.3. NXP has
discontinued the dual balanced mixers SA602A/SA612A/NE602A/NE612A in
November 2022,
Hugen is using ZeenKo NE602A to replace the SA602A/SA612A starting with
the NanoVNA-H v3.7 and NanoVNA-H4 v4.4 versions,
and that the version also improves the dynamics when using the base wave.

I am curious what the improvement of the dynamics
entails.Doesanyonehaveexperiencewiththis?

This shows what I'm considering for my default Smith grid colors. The user can override the defaults for any color (except text), as shown in the second image.

I may do some grid tuning before I release this.

Brian

At when selected Zeenko then one may order a NanoVNA H4 HW version 4.3
Enlarging the photo of the backside of the housing,? it shows HW version 4.4_ZK

I found at the page descrition why HW version 4.4_ZK is released:

"The latest version is NanoVNA-H rev3.6 and NanoVNA-H4 rev4.3. NXP has discontinued the dual balanced mixers SA602A/SA612A/NE602A/NE612A in November 2022,
Hugen is using ZeenKo NE602A to replace the SA602A/SA612A starting with the NanoVNA-H v3.7 and NanoVNA-H4 v4.4 versions,
and that the version also improves the dynamics when using the base wave.

I am curious what the improvement of the dynamics entails.Doesanyonehaveexperiencewiththis?

I've posted a new version of the plotter with admittance here:



Brian

I think that having two grid colors is pretty important to help visually distinguish between the impedance and admittance grids. Traditionally impedance has been plotted in red and admittance in green or blue.
Thanks for your work.
73, Don N2VGU

On Tue, Apr 29, 2025 at 08:21 AM, Donald S Brant Jr wrote:

I suspect that the expanded-center function would be most useful for the
majority of the users

That's what I was hoping, Don. It was so easy to implement!

I think I'm going to leave two grid colors for another time. I could do two gray intensities without much trouble, but I don't think that would help much.

Incidentally, I have no plans to label the grids. To do that properly requires a smaller font, which I don't have. I assume people mainly use the grids for basic orientation and then use a marker to extract values.

Brian

There is a hook/mouse click "box" in nanosaver to reset any previous cal.
Look for it and click it.

Dave - W?LEV

On Tue, Apr 29, 2025 at 5:02?AM Fran?ois via groups.io <18471=
[email protected]> wrote:

Using nanaovna-saver, on a -f, I noticed that sometimes the circle on the
Smith machine (on a simple capacitor, for example) could be larger than the
grid circle.

Now, systematically, even before calibrating with nanaovna-saver, I
perform a RESET on the case, which nanovna-saver doesn't seem to do (0.3.8
because W7). This RESET solves the problem.
--
F1AMM
Fran?ois

--

*Dave - W?LEV*


--
Dave - W?LEV

On Tue, Apr 29, 2025 at 09:28 AM, Brian Beezley wrote:

Would a magnification function be helpful?

Analog Instruments (Phillip Smith's firm) sold expanded Smith charts of 3 kinds: expanded about the center with two magnification factors IIRC, and expanded about the high- and low-impedance areas, the latter two for working with open- and short-circuited stubs respectively. They also made admittance charts and charts with negative real part, for parametric amplifiers, oscillators, and the like. I have samples of most of them in a tote somewhere......

I suspect that the expanded-center function would be most useful for the majority of the users; I doubt that anyone is doing graphical solutions of stubs any more..
73, Don N2VGU

Here's what I have at the moment. I can see that two grid colors are important so let me see how much trouble that is.

Brian

Try again...

Here is an example with the display and the captured movement to implement a matching system.

I see. Displaying both grids simultaneously is easy. Do you also need impedance and admittance values
displayed at the same time?

Yes, that is helpful

73
Jeff G8HUL