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Hi,

is anyone able to implement a new feature in the nanoVNA menu?? I need to locate the nanoVNA inside a mokup of a cubesat to take S11 measurement for a while (10 minutes, for example). I cannot use have any cable running out from the satellite (to not disturb measurement), so I would like to set the nanoVNA in order to take and store measurements, for example a measurement every minute.

Is it a dream? Is there anyone able to create this feature?

Best regards

Piero, I0KPT

On Tue, 4 Aug 2020 12:25:34 +0200, you wrote:

Hi,

is anyone able to implement a new feature in the nanoVNA menu?? I need
to locate the nanoVNA inside a mokup of a cubesat to take S11
measurement for a while (10 minutes, for example). I cannot use have any
cable running out from the satellite (to not disturb measurement), so I
would like to set the nanoVNA in order to take and store measurements,
for example a measurement every minute.

Is it a dream? Is there anyone able to create this feature?

Best regards

Piero, I0KPT

The nanovna is there, just take one and hook it up.
where is the problem?

wabi

On 8/4/20 3:25 AM, Piero Tognolatti wrote:

Hi,
is anyone able to implement a new feature in the nanoVNA menu?? I need to locate the nanoVNA inside a mokup of a cubesat to take S11 measurement for a while (10 minutes, for example). I cannot use have any cable running out from the satellite (to not disturb measurement), so I would like to set the nanoVNA in order to take and store measurements, for example a measurement every minute.

Have you got room for a RPi or Beaglebone? Use the USB interface and NanoVNA-Saver? Can you tolerate WiFi? you can use VNC to remotely operate it.

Use a fiber optic link into the cubesat. I used one a few years ago to isolate a radio for field testing. Sorry that I can't remember much about it but it was not a big deal. We had some kind of fiber optic to USB device...one a the radio and one at the lap top. See no reason why this wouldn't work for the cubesat. 73, Pete

On 8/5/20 2:59 PM, WB2UAQ wrote:

Use a fiber optic link into the cubesat. I used one a few years ago to isolate a radio for field testing. Sorry that I can't remember much about it but it was not a big deal. We had some kind of fiber optic to USB device...one a the radio and one at the lap top. See no reason why this wouldn't work for the cubesat. 73, Pete

We use those at JPL for testing too.. Mostly to provide galvanic isolation.

Look for "Fiber USB Extender" and you'll get plenty of choices.

They're in the $100-200 range.

You'll also see "USB Active Optical Cables"

Thank you to everyone who proposed solutions.? Indeed, I was planning to use a RPi connected to nanoVNA (There is enough room inside the mokup) and make&store measurements.?? Anyway the idea to add, to further firmware release, the option I was dreaming could be nice.? Also to make measurements to antennas on a pole, when someone hasn't cables and/or baluns already available.

Best 73

Piero, I0KPT

Thank you to everyone who suggested solutions.? Indeed, I am now planning to use a RPi connected to nanoVNA (there is enough space inside the mokup) and measure&store without any human interaction.

However the firmware option I was dreaming about could be useful also to measure antennas on a pole, when cables and/or baluns aren't already available.

Best 73

Piero, I0KPT

On Wed, Aug 5, 2020 at 04:27 PM, Piero Tognolatti wrote:

is anyone able to implement a new feature in the nanoVNA menu?? I need
to locate the nanoVNA inside a mokup of a cubesat to take S11
measurement for a while (10 minutes, for example). I cannot use have any
cable running out from the satellite (to not disturb measurement), so I
would like to set the nanoVNA in order to take and store measurements,
for example a measurement every minute.

Is it a dream? Is there anyone able to create this feature?

That could be done Piero if you have an SD card socket fitted on your NanoVNA. Does your VNA have the SD card socket fitted ?

Could add a firmware option to record the measurement onto an SD card every so often easily enough, though the problem we have with the small NanoVNA now is that we've run out of flash area to add more options/features, but for your needs a firmware could be compiled with other features disabled in order to make room.

Another option would be to enable one of the hardware serial ports in the firmware on the VNA CPU, and then attach say a cheap (HC5 as an example) serial port bluetooth module to the VNA board.

I've added the ability to auto save to SD card every 'n' seconds for those that have SD cards on their nano's.

The option is in the "SD CARD" menu. A setting of '0' seconds disables auto save.

You can find the NanoVNA-H firmware (and windows software to upload the firmware) in the "Release" folder here ..



I can't do H4 firmware because I don't have a H4 to test with.
===========================

Good way to take the life out of the SD card! But I hope you only save when a change is detected?

Cheers,
David
--
SatSignal Software - Quality software for you
Web:
Email: david-taylor@...
Twitter: @gm8arv

David,
The writing to the SD card is every few seconds which will do nothing to prematurely wear out the device. I use an SD card in my dashcam that is written to regularly and it's been good for 3 years now
Besides, you don't put a 128gb part in the Nano, you use a small capacity card that costs $2
... Larry



On Thu, 6 Aug 2020 at 6:46 AM, David J Taylor via groups.io<david-taylor@...> wrote: I've added the ability to auto save to SD card every 'n' seconds for those
that have SD cards on their nano's.

The option is in the "SD CARD" menu. A setting of '0' seconds disables auto
save.

You can find the NanoVNA-H firmware (and windows software to upload the
firmware) in the "Release" folder here ..



I can't do H4 firmware because I don't have a H4 to test with.
===========================

Good way to take the life out of the SD card!? But I hope you only save when
a change is detected?

Cheers,
David
--
SatSignal Software - Quality software for you
Web:
Email: david-taylor@...
Twitter: @gm8arv

On 8/6/20 12:30 AM, OneOfEleven wrote:

On Wed, Aug 5, 2020 at 04:27 PM, Piero Tognolatti wrote:

is anyone able to implement a new feature in the nanoVNA menu?? I need
to locate the nanoVNA inside a mokup of a cubesat to take S11
measurement for a while (10 minutes, for example). I cannot use have any
cable running out from the satellite (to not disturb measurement), so I
would like to set the nanoVNA in order to take and store measurements,
for example a measurement every minute.

Is it a dream? Is there anyone able to create this feature?

That could be done Piero if you have an SD card socket fitted on your NanoVNA. Does your VNA have the SD card socket fitted ?
Could add a firmware option to record the measurement onto an SD card every so often easily enough, though the problem we have with the small NanoVNA now is that we've run out of flash area to add more options/features, but for your needs a firmware could be compiled with other features disabled in order to make room.
Another option would be to enable one of the hardware serial ports in the firmware on the VNA CPU, and then attach say a cheap (HC5 as an example) serial port bluetooth module to the VNA board.

I think separating the "instrument functions" (on the nanoVNA) and the "data collection funtions" (on the Pi) is actually how you want to do it.

Focus on instrument capability, not data logging. There's myriad different data logging applications, and most of them will not want "snapshot ever N seconds" - often, there will be other things that need to happen (external configuration of the unit under test).

David,
The writing to the SD card is every few seconds which will do nothing to prematurely wear out the device. I use an SD card in my dashcam that is written to regularly and it's been good for 3 years now
Besides, you don't put a 128gb part in the Nano, you use a small capacity card that costs $2
... Larry
==================================

It's not just how often the card is written, but the data quantity too. It depends on the card design, but each write can cause a much larger block of the card to be written. With intelligent buffering as I suggested. with infrequent small writes, and throw-away cards I agree it's not an issue, but it's something which users may eventually discover - if not in this application then elsewhere.

BTW: the cheapest microSD card I spotted an Amazon were ~$24 for a pack of 5 x 2 GB, or $40 for a pack of 10 x 4 GB!

Cheers,
David
--
SatSignal Software - Quality software for you
Web:
Email: david-taylor@...
Twitter: @gm8arv

On 8/6/20 7:43 AM, David J Taylor via groups.io wrote:

David,
The writing to the SD card is every few seconds which will do nothing to prematurely wear out the device. I use an SD card in my dashcam that is written to regularly and it's been good for 3 years now
Besides, you don't put a 128gb part in the Nano, you use a small capacity card that costs $2
... Larry
==================================
It's not just how often the card is written, but the data quantity too. It depends on the card design, but each write can cause a much larger block of the card to be written.? With intelligent buffering as I suggested. with infrequent small writes, and throw-away cards I agree it's not an issue, but it's something which users may eventually discover - if not in this application then elsewhere.
BTW: the cheapest microSD card I spotted an Amazon were ~$24 for a pack of 5 x 2 GB, or $40 for a pack of 10 x 4 GB!
Cheers,
David

And those smaller cards are handy for things like flashing new images to Pis and Beagles.

The cards are wear leveled - SLC NAND flash is something like 30k-100k writes nominal life per "segment". So if you write every second, you go through that in a day, but since there are thousands and thousands of segments it could be "years" before you wear it out.

MLC NAND flash is a bit shorter 3000 cycles/sector. Super high density NAND is 500 cycles/sector

So if you have a wear leveled 16 GByte SD card, after you've written 16*3000 GB (or 48 TByte) to it, it is worn out.

For those concerned about microSD card wear, look at the Samsung Pro Endurance. Made for continuous video recording, with up to 25X the life of regular cards. I use one in a Raspberry Pi, another for phone ext storage, another for a tablet. Only cost a bit more than a regular card; the 32 GB is $10, the 64 is $17 (Amazon). They are said to be just a bit slower than other "Pro Performance" cards (not enough to notice, even when used as the OS drive in a Pi).
73, --kv5r

On Thu, Aug 6, 2020 at 11:45 AM, David J Taylor wrote:

Good way to take the life out of the SD card! But I hope you only save when
a change is detected?

I have a small security webcam that has been using the same 1GB micro SD card for at least 7 years. It records a frame 8 times a second in a permanent loop. The card is always full, it's still continually over-writing old frames in a loop without any problems.

Does it really matter if a card wears out after a year or two (or not as the case may be) ? I bet we each waste more and spend more in a day (probably every day) on trivial pointless items in life.

OneOfEleven, thank you a lot for your prompt support.? At the moment I haven't available a miniVNA with SD card, but as soon as I can I will get it and install such a new firmware. I hope that this new option will be useful to a lot of users.

Thanks a lot

Piero, I0KPT