Ignorance, impatience, and miserliness are why the charlatans are able to continue duping people.
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Re: TinySA Ultra 28 kHz Spurious?
On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 07:47 AM, Erik Kaashoek wrote:
You battery indicator is yellow
Please charge fully and see if this improves
The low battery indicator, could it also affect the detection of weak or very weak signals with TinySA Ultra ?
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Re: What are the biggest damage risks when using stock antenna?
On Thu, Feb 15, 2024 at 01:15 PM, Andrew Harman wrote:
.. Mine is the 6th generation X13 ...
Some time ago I was considering the purchase of a similar device, but the most critical and technical reviews (X13 was not tested) indicated them as unreliable toys that generate false alarms where there is no signal and on the contrary do not detect anything where the signal is present. Have you had a chance to understand if X13 is reliable, by checking with TinySA Ultra if the detected source is really existing or if it detects the same sources that TinySA Ultra sees ?
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Re: Recognizing a damaged TinySA Ultra with the self test
Thank you for clarifying.
I was aware that certain electromagnetic fields may pose a risk for the TinySA Ultra, but only after reading this post I knew that the risk exists even when the device is turned off with the antenna connected.
My concern increased when I verified that both one of the antennas of the Ubiquiti radio bridge, placed outside on a pole about 3.5 meters from my workplace, and the Wi-Fi access point that is under the table where I laid the TinySA Ultra to perform various tests, have a power output of 23 and 20 dBm respectively.
In any case fortunately the Self Test indicates that everything is OK.
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Re: OT - Is there an Erik born version of the Nano VNA series ?
Andy, if you opt for the TinyVNA H4 variant, it can be loaded with TinyPFA firmware, and just as easily swapped back. The TinyPFA is a phase frequency analyser that is used to compare two oscillators running at the same nominal frequency. Typical uses include checking/calibrating the oscillators in test equipment, such as frequency counters and signal generators.
Another use is comparing a GPS disciplined oscillator against a standard, such as surplus rubidium one... you will be surprised at how you can home brew a GPSDO that is stable to within a few parts in 10^11, then measure it with a low cost "Tiny" instrument and free Windows software.
Mirfield Electronics (Martin, G3ZXZ) stock both.
See how "easy" it is to make a GPSDO, ? You might be heading down a slippery slope and become a frequency/time nut as they are called!
73 Dave
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When I buy from R&L I am helping out a USA ham radio vendor who I know has a stellar reputation. That is worth something to me. 73 -Jim NU0C On Sat, 17 Feb 2024 00:35:04 -0500 "Shirley Dulcey KE1L" <mark@...> wrote: If you buy from any other seller on Amazon, you're taking your
chances and you're not getting your tinySA for significantly less money
than if you buy from one of those two, so I can't see any reason to do that. -- 73 -Jim NU0C
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The wiki at tinySA.org lists two Amazon stores that sell authentic tinySA and tinySA Ultra analyzers: SeeSii and AURSINC. Buying from either of those stores is more expensive than buying from Aliexpress (cheapest) or R&L (a bit more but you get it faster), but you do get free two day Prime delivery (if you're a member) and free returns. If you value those things enough to pay the extra money, buying from either?of those Amazon stores is reasonable. If you buy from any other seller on Amazon, you're taking your chances and you're not getting your tinySA for significantly less money than if you buy from one of those two, so I can't see any reason to do that.
The OP mentioned SEEII on Amazon. They might have meant to write SeeSii (good), or it might have?been a seller trying to trade on their reputation by using a similar name (bad).
Comparing prices and delivery times today of the TinySA Ultra delivered to the US as I write this (sales tax depends on which state you live in; non-US based sellers such as AliExpress don't collect it):
AliExpress: $130.21, one month maximum R&L Electronics: $150 plus sales tax (approximate, shipping varies by location), one week maximum when in stock (varies by location) SeeSii on Amazon: $174 plus sales tax (after applying coupon), two days AURSINC on Amazon: $174 plus sales tax, two days Least expensive seller on Amazon: $156.75 plus sales tax (after applying coupon), two days (most sellers are in the $165-170 range)
On Fri, Feb 16, 2024 at 9:04?PM Jim Shorney < jimNU0C@...> wrote:
1. Ignorance
2. They want it NOW
3. They want it cheaper
73
-Jim
NU0C
On Fri, 16 Feb 2024 14:26:35 -0800
"Jason Ringas" <pantheriusmaximus@...> wrote:
> Can someone explain to me why you wouldn't buy from Zeenko or an approved dealer?
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Re: What are the biggest damage risks when using stock antenna?
Our plant electrician would go around once a year and tested every anti-static mat. He left it up to us to police the actual grounds. Since he knew stuff about electricity (and internal politics) he was sympathetic. He also knew that we knew stuff about electricity also. You didn't want management to walk by and see someone inside the yellow lines and not wearing a smock. It took some convincing to get the PHBs to understand that there were exceptions for people dealing with high voltage. Like our electrician, and the guys who fixed monitors. Then they got their hooks into the arc flash issue. Again, much convincing to drive it home that working on a 48V alarm power supply did not present an arc flash hazard. 73 -Jim NU0C On Sat, 17 Feb 2024 03:37:43 +0000 (UTC) "Paul Sherman via groups.io" <pauldylansherman@...> wrote: Did you have a "grounding guru" who always made sure the "Holy Grounds" were being well respected? -- 73 -Jim NU0C
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Re: What are the biggest damage risks when using stock antenna?
This iz most entertaining for a rainy Friday night, Jim. You describe our ESD guru of the hard drive subassembly manufacturing operations perfectly. It's uncanny. Yes, the key is neutralizing potential.
Funny thing---all that hard black ankdize finish of equipment was later deemed cause kf ESD, because it's insulative rather than dissipative. The surface is an oxide whixh holds charge. We switched almost all tooling to electroless nickel plating later. Expensive but beautiful. Of course all grounded with high impedance.
Did you have a "grounding guru" who always made sure the "Holy Grounds" were being well respected?
Yeah, it's astonizhing the induztry. As was said famously in Death kf a Salesman, "money talks and bullshit walks.
Paul
On Feb 16, 2024, at 6:00 PM, Jim Shorney <jimNU0C@...> wrote:
On Fri, 16 Feb 2024 11:59:42 -0800
"Paul Sherman via groups.io" <pauldylansherman@...> wrote:
Lastly, it's a terrible waste of effort, time, and money to worry about desk mats, floor mats, wrist straps, and expensive anti-static floor waxes and ionizer bars, except of course in rare circumstances. In humid climates, there is enough moisture to make a dissipative (n.b., not conductive! keep the rate of charge movement slow, avoiding ESD!) environment.
I tend to agree with this, although perhaps coming from a different direction. I've worked with PCs since the late 80s, well before ESD protection became a profit center. In recent years I worked for a concern that required us to use smocks and wrist straps. We had an ESD guru who knew little about electricity but would run around with a meter to tell us how many ESDs we had on our clothes, etc. It was hard to get away from the suffocatingly oppressive smocks but I ditched the wrist straps whenever the prying eyes were elsewhere. They were only good for dragging things off the bench. Before that I rarely used them. The reason was that I developed good personal ESD habits in the early days before they became a "thing". The goal is that you should be at the same potential as what you are working on. This is the finger across the coax idea mentioned earlier. Whether you or either conductor of the coax are connected to ground is irrelevant except in the case of a non-current limited high voltage source at the other end of the coax. Which you would probably know about in the first place. When you grab your SA touch the outer shell of the SMA first. Everyone is at the same potential. IMO straps, mats, smocks, etc. are CYA crutches for those who are sloppy and don't employ good personal ESD practices. That wrist strap can fail at any time of your day and you would not know it. But if you have the habit of touching the chassis before reaching inside the box the parts are protected because you are at the same potential.
In retrospect I wish I had invested some money in the ESD industry way back. It is interesting to see the difference in price when you paint a tool black and slap an ESD-safe label on. Have you ever seen the video from the fellow who invented pink poly? It's informative and humorous in spots but tells the tragic story of an incident at an arms manufacturer involving a missile and a an ESD discharge. Yes, ESD is real. My own most memorable experience was at a computer repair seminar given by one of the big names many years ago. We were in a modern carpeted air conditioned conference room at a nice hotel and the instructor had some of his computers set up on a table along one wall. One high end server PC was running with the side cover off. You can probably guess where this is going. He walked across the front of the room and moved to point at one of the big spiked heatsinks on a cached RAID controller board. You could see and hear the lightning bolt from across the room. Naturally the computer stopped working. Everyone had a good laugh about it. If he had discharged himself to the chassis first all would have been good.
Yes, protect you Tiny device.
--
73
-Jim
NU0C
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1. Ignorance 2. They want it NOW 3. They want it cheaper 73 -Jim NU0C On Fri, 16 Feb 2024 14:26:35 -0800 "Jason Ringas" <pantheriusmaximus@...> wrote: Can someone explain to me why you wouldn't buy from Zeenko or an approved dealer?
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Re: What are the biggest damage risks when using stock antenna?
On Fri, 16 Feb 2024 11:59:42 -0800 "Paul Sherman via groups.io" <pauldylansherman@...> wrote: Lastly, it's a terrible waste of effort, time, and money to worry about desk mats, floor mats, wrist straps, and expensive anti-static floor waxes and ionizer bars, except of course in rare circumstances. In humid climates, there is enough moisture to make a dissipative (n.b., not conductive! keep the rate of charge movement slow, avoiding ESD!) environment. I tend to agree with this, although perhaps coming from a different direction. I've worked with PCs since the late 80s, well before ESD protection became a profit center. In recent years I worked for a concern that required us to use smocks and wrist straps. We had an ESD guru who knew little about electricity but would run around with a meter to tell us how many ESDs we had on our clothes, etc. It was hard to get away from the suffocatingly oppressive smocks but I ditched the wrist straps whenever the prying eyes were elsewhere. They were only good for dragging things off the bench. Before that I rarely used them. The reason was that I developed good personal ESD habits in the early days before they became a "thing". The goal is that you should be at the same potential as what you are working on. This is the finger across the coax idea mentioned earlier. Whether you or either conductor of the coax are connected to ground is irrelevant except in the case of a non-current limited high voltage source at the other end of the coax. Which you would probably know about in the first place. When you grab your SA touch the outer shell of the SMA first. Everyone is at the same potential. IMO straps, mats, smocks, etc. are CYA crutches for those who are sloppy and don't employ good personal ESD practices. That wrist strap can fail at any time of your day and you would not know it. But if you have the habit of touching the chassis before reaching inside the box the parts are protected because you are at the same potential. In retrospect I wish I had invested some money in the ESD industry way back. It is interesting to see the difference in price when you paint a tool black and slap an ESD-safe label on. Have you ever seen the video from the fellow who invented pink poly? It's informative and humorous in spots but tells the tragic story of an incident at an arms manufacturer involving a missile and a an ESD discharge. Yes, ESD is real. My own most memorable experience was at a computer repair seminar given by one of the big names many years ago. We were in a modern carpeted air conditioned conference room at a nice hotel and the instructor had some of his computers set up on a table along one wall. One high end server PC was running with the side cover off. You can probably guess where this is going. He walked across the front of the room and moved to point at one of the big spiked heatsinks on a cached RAID controller board. You could see and hear the lightning bolt from across the room. Naturally the computer stopped working. Everyone had a good laugh about it. If he had discharged himself to the chassis first all would have been good. Yes, protect you Tiny device. -- 73 -Jim NU0C
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Can someone explain to me why you wouldn't buy from Zeenko or an approved dealer?
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Re: OT - Is there an Erik born version of the Nano VNA series ?
Thanks Erik, much appreciated.
I'll be digesting this stuff over the next few day and reach a conclusion as to whether I upgrade
my basic 900Mhz unit (which does seem to work well) or not.
I seem to be getting into educating myself a bit more about the lower Ghz range of measuring
components, silly things like how much inductance might a simple 1206 SMD 50R resistor
at 3Ghz might give for some homebrew projects etc.
73 de Andy
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On Fri, Feb 16, 2024 at 05:48 PM, Erik Kaashoek wrote:
I may be a bit biased as I have made small contributions to all of these but looking at the price quality ratio these are the nanoVNA variants I would recommend.
- nanoVNA-H or nanoVNA-H4 if your highest frequency of interest is? 300MHz, if you want a bit more functionality, install the DiSlord FW
- LiteVNA of you want to go up to to max 6 GHz and don't need full two port calibration, also a DiSlord FW for a bit more functionality
- LibreVNA of you need a full two port VNA up to at least 6GHz.
You can buy them safely from the same vendors as listed in the tinySA "safe to buy from" list
Please visit the?/g/nanovna-users/topics?, /g/liteVNA/messages?or?/g/LibreVNA-support/messages? ?groups for more info
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Re: Lead free solder and q.c.
Good point about about avoiding Pb-free solder.
Same goes for no-clean, aqueous-based flux ... you waste so much more water and also energy to heat that water to wash off it's residue that there's no longer any point to saving the atmosphere from a fraction of a trace of halide-based resin vapor.
When will all the eco babble ever end?
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Re: Lead free solder and q.c.
Same for car electronics.
I found whiskers growing in the main signal acquisition module, while resoldering (with good eutectic) the cracked joints for the headlamp connector.
Ended up cleaning and reflowing half the PCBs to make the errors go away, the rest were fixed with contact cleaner? on the plugs - no more gremlins.
I won't use lead free in any of my projects.
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I just ordered from Mirfield Electronics in the UK.
Even with the lure of faster delivery, I'd rather do through the official channel.
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Re: OT - Is there an Erik born version of the Nano VNA series ?
I may be a bit biased as I have made small contributions to all of these but looking at the price quality ratio these are the nanoVNA variants I would recommend.
- nanoVNA-H or nanoVNA-H4 if your highest frequency of interest is? 300MHz, if you want a bit more functionality, install the DiSlord FW
- LiteVNA of you want to go up to to max 6 GHz and don't need full two port calibration, also a DiSlord FW for a bit more functionality
- LibreVNA of you need a full two port VNA up to at least 6GHz.
You can buy them safely from the same vendors as listed in the tinySA "safe to buy from" list Please visit the? /g/nanovna-users/topics?, /g/liteVNA/messages?or? /g/LibreVNA-support/messages? ?groups for more info --
Designer of the tinySA
For more info go to https://tinysa.org/wiki/
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Re: What are the biggest damage risks when using stock antenna?
I am looking into getting rubber duckies for a myriad of near field testing. I am not well versed in radio antennas and wondering what a good inexpensive purchase would be?
Thank you.
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Sounds like good advice.?
Sent from Proton Mail for iOS
On Fri, Feb 16, 2024 at 1:55 AM, Toni Ciscar via groups.io < aciscar@...> wrote: I've always bought them from Zeenko. Buying from Zeenko, which is the manufacturer, I am 100% sure that I will not receive a clone, as it comes directly from the factory, without intermediaries where an "infiltration" can occur (desired or not by the seller). It's also cheaper because... Who can compete with factory prices??
Toni
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Audio Listening Tips (tinySA Ultra)
I have spent a bit of time listening to audio with my tinySA Ultra and offer these tips. Feel free to comment with your own tips.
- To hear audio, connect sensitive earbuds. Don't push connector in fully, one click out from full insertion seems to work.
- There is no volume control but the audio level is comfortable, at least with the cheap airline earbuds I use.
- Move the sweep marker to the frequency of interest.
- Select LEVEL / LISTEN. Note that this freezes sweep on the currently marked frequency.
- You can move marker slightly to fine tune.
- It helps to have a narrow sweep span so there are several points per signal to select from to peak the audio quality.
- Only AM modulation is directly supported.
- If RBW is much narrower or wider than the AM modulation bandwidth for the desired signal, audio quality will be negatively impacted.
- Though FM modulation is not directly supported, you can hear FM (poorly) by moving the marker slightly off center frequency, to about the midpoint point between noise and maximum signal. Fine tuning is easier if you narrow the sweep span to about 100khz so the displayed signal displayed is broad.
Peter
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G4AON
Jim Shorney
Shirley Dulcey KE1L
smartwombat