开云体育

There is a new HW version being sold now. I purchased my unit from one of the recommended sellers on the NanaVNA site. (Aursinc on Amazon)

The new version has a different clock generator SMC5351A. Not sure how it compares to the original Si5351, or the supposedly better MS5351. (I know the switch to MS5351 was de to availability, but it was claimed that it had slightly better performance over the Si5351)

I had a lot of trouble finding any info on the new chip, and no proper data sheet. Did find a little information, but not enough to do any comparisons, and I am not an expert in this aspect anyway, so subtle differences would be lost on me. Not sure why the change to this new part, as it forks the FW to yet another version, and this particular nuance of the FW update process is not well documented. Not even any of the newer instructional videos online mention it. The fact that the documented application DFUSE has been replaced by STM32CubeProgrammer, and also that the new DFU driver does not work with DFUSE is also not documented.

I was able to do the FW update using the same method as the TinySA... Which also does not work as various instructions online show. I must use the "Full Chip Erase" command first, then load the new FW onto the device, otherwise the unit will not boot.

This posed a problem for me, when I attempted to update the FW to the latest DiSlord version. The unit booted, but the screen was jumbled. After loading the SM_ST version from hugen79, things are back to working. This FW is a version behind DiSlord's, so hopefully they get an update for this new HW revision soon.

The only question I have now, is which mode under Expert Settings I should use. MS5351 or Si5351 It appears to default to MS5351, so that is probably what it should be set to.

NanoVNA-H version 3.6.1 uses a screen driven by the ST7789 driver, therefore it requires new firmware.
The VCO frequency range of the SMC5351A is close to that of the MS5351M, so you can select MS5351 in the mode. The use of SMC5351A instead of MS5351M is because the SMC5351A has excellent consistency, and almost all SMC5351As can stably output 300MHz, whereas many MS5351Ms cannot operate at 300MHz. Therefore, when producing NanoVNA-H with MS5351M, we must perform screening to meet our requirements. Since 300MHz is an application beyond the manual range, we chose to use the more suitable SMC5351A after testing to replace the Si5351 and MS5351M. The power consumption of the SMC5351A and SI5351A is lower than that of the MS5351M. In addition, the phase noise of the SMC5351A at the IF offset where NanoVNA needs to be used is also the best, but the phase noise of the SMC5351A at other offsets may be very poor. If you need to use the SMC5351A to create other applications, you will need to re-evaluate the phase noise.

Awesome, thanks for the information.

So it is both the screen driver and the clock generator that result in the new FW version. I see the file name references both of those chips.

@hugen
is there any chance to find a compiled AA firmware version with large fonts and two traces for the hardware 3.6.1_SM_ST?
The only firmware i found running properly is version 1.2.7 with small fonts and 4 traces.
Regards

In the latest software version: 1.2.43/NanoVNA-H-ZK_20250220.dfu there is an additional generator setting.
Now we have three options in the MODE 1. MS5351 2. ZEETK 3. Si5351.

What to choose with the SMC5351A chip, NanoVNA 3.6.1 SM_ST?

Use Zeetk (SMC5351A + custom mixer, but this option also work on SM_ST device) or MS5351