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I can not find any info on how to calibrate or measure components with this test board.
Could someone help me please?
73 Math/PA3GDS

Math, okay here is a little chart i made for myself. Picture below.

(1) All the dots (heavy dots) are connected to the Ground. And the Ground
is connected to the ground of the two "center" SMA jacks (the one on the
left side of my pic, and the one on the right side).

(2) The 4 circles show how those 4 pairs of holes are connected. (Each pair
is an independent connection to the other member of the pair.)

(3) The top and bottom SMA jacks (in my picture, not yours) are not
connected to the 'holes' at all. They connect to the solder pads on the
surface.
Apparently you can solder surface-mount components to customize your board.
Maybe 50 or 100 ohm SMD resistors, or whatever.

(4) The holes marked X (in my chart) connect to the center conductor of the
SMA jack on the right side (of my photo), or to the center conductor of the
SMA jack on the left side.

If you ask me, the board is too small, but it can be used perhaps with a
breadboard to provide more space for connections.
Hope this is helpful. Without the chart, i would be baffled.

73 de WN1Z
Orrin


El lun, 27 ene 2025 a la(s) 1:14?a.m., Pa3gds via groups.io (Pa3gds=
[email protected]) escribió:

I can not find any info on how to calibrate or measure components with
this test board.
Could someone help me please?
73 Math/PA3GDS

Well, this is a prototype board, very handy for designing filters and reasonant circuits. You can use any two SMA connectors for your VNA.
(any VNA) You calibrate your nano, set up for what ever circuit you are putting together.
You want a common ground with the connectors and say an edge row of holes. your componant under test would connect to the center of the SMAs using any emty holes you like for your layout.
SMA componants work fine. These are a bit small for something other than like a simple LC circuit. Plated perf boards you can get up to 1000 holes.
I bought a box of assorted perf boards and a bag of 100 edge mount SMA connectors. The perfect example board for Nano VNA

I believe that the intent is to install short, open (no component) 50Ω components and THRU lines onto the board and use them as calibration standards.
Then build a circuit (filter, etc.) on the "sea of holes" and test it, using the standards to calibrate a VNA.

I suspect that, due to the fact that the board has a lot of parasitic capacitances and inductances, and that the components have not been accurately characterized, that its usefulness is likely limited to the HF and low VHF frequencies.
Best regards, Don Brant

There is a circuit schematic associated with this printed circuit board. Some of the pads in the center section are connected together and some are not. Some are connected to the center ground plane and some are not. Note also that the three ground planes (top, mid and bot.) are isolated from each other. And note also that the center pin of the SMA connector is connected to a few of the terminals on both the IN and OUT sides. This is best observed by looking at the back side of the PCB (where the QR Code is located) using a magnifying glass to see the traces.

Attached to this messages a 2-page PDF that includes some images of the PCB and shows how some of the pads are inter-connected. See page-2.

I hope you find this helpful.

AE5CZ

Daniel, I also bought the Demo Board Kit. Excellent board to relearn all the functions of the VNA. I wish the same people would make one specifically for antennas, Even at scale relearning how to use the VNA can be challenging, and showing the device to others reinforcing the learning curve. This device can fit in a pocket and does not require two men to carry. huge improvement of the devices of the 1970's and 1980's The colour traces make everything so much easier to identify. While the SMA connectors can be fiddly they work fine.

On Mon, Jan 27, 2025 at 01:14 AM, <Pa3gds@...> wrote:

I can not find any info on how to calibrate or measure components with this
test board.
Could someone help me please?

The board you have is derived from a test board designed by DG8SAQ. The main section can be used as a test platform to be used with your NanoVNA (or tinySA if you have one). You can install the supplied socket pins and then plug in discrete components or use "swiss headers" to accommodate SMD components as shown in the attached photos. If you use discrete components the sockets will quickly enlarge due to large diameter wire leads. Users need to be aware that there is considerable stray capacitance and inductance when you use the socket method so there are frequency limitations.

The other two sections have pads for soldering SMD components so that filters and attenuators can easily be constructed. I used one section to make a test jig that I use for S21 and S11 tests. Attached are several documents and graphics that you might find useful.

Swr dofferent

On Mon, Jan 27, 2025, 12:39?PM Roger Need via groups.io <sailtamarack=
[email protected]> wrote:

On Mon, Jan 27, 2025 at 01:14 AM, <Pa3gds@...> wrote:

I can not find any info on how to calibrate or measure components with

this

test board.
Could someone help me please?

The board you have is derived from a test board designed by DG8SAQ. The
main section can be used as a test platform to be used with your NanoVNA
(or tinySA if you have one). You can install the supplied socket pins and
then plug in discrete components or use "swiss headers" to accommodate SMD
components as shown in the attached photos. If you use discrete components
the sockets will quickly enlarge due to large diameter wire leads. Users
need to be aware that there is considerable stray capacitance and
inductance when you use the socket method so there are frequency
limitations.

The other two sections have pads for soldering SMD components so that
filters and attenuators can easily be constructed. I used one section to
make a test jig that I use for S21 and S11 tests. Attached are several
documents and graphics that you might find useful.

I was advised by email that The Test Board from nanovna.com has some extra connections that are not on the SDR Kits board.

Rows C, D & E are the same but A/B and F/G have some additional connected pads. These are shown in green on the attached photos.

Hope this helps users that plan to use these boards.

Roger

As the reference plan is now at the test board level, a set of OSL terminations are required for calibration (DIY, see below). Jumpers are also useful. I have extensively used this board for crystals characterisation.

Jean-Roger

On Monday 27 January 2025 01:36:32 pm Larry Goga via groups.io wrote:

Attached to this messages a 2-page PDF that includes some images of the PCB and shows how some of the pads are inter-connected. ?See page-2.

I hope you find this helpful.

Thanks for that. I have one of those boards, have started to solder the sockets but didn't get the whole way through the process. I didn't get the resistors mentioned in the pdf, but not a big deal...


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Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, ?a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. ?--Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin

Roger,
If you look closely at the SDR board, you will see that it has the same connections as the Nano board. The top row and bottom two rows are connected to ground, which you would need to build some of these test circuits. Wiring examples are done the same for both boards.

A rule that has worked well for me is that attempting to emulate short direct connections with anything else will not work out above 50 MHz.

Thank's for all replies.
73 Math/PA3GDS