Very useful in the world of live sound, when you have multiple (diversity) UHF receivers and RF distribution from receiving antennas. Important to know that the correct antenna is feeding the correct input of each receiver and that all cables are functioning and correctly “patched”.

Ideally the noise generator will be arranged to output ~100uV (-70dBm) - use attenuation on the generator to achieve this if necessary!
Connect generator in place of a receiving antenna, easily confirm whether all receivers (on different UHF frequencies) are “seeing” the same level of RF on the same “side” (typical wireless mic diversity receivers have two inputs & RF chains, some have more) of each receiver using the RSSI meters. Repeat for other antenna(s) as required. Can save a lot of time. If generator can be powered by the DC bias on the coax - if present - that helps too.

VNA is not applicable to this application ordinarily.

Yes

Input the noise source and select the applicable START and STOP frequency and TRACE/CALC/AVER4 (or 16), wait for the averaging to come into effect, then do

TRACE/NORMALIZE

and you should see a horizontal flat line

Now insert the filter you want to measure

--

Designer of the tinySA
For more info go to

You are running a very old FW but if there is no need to update then better not do it and use the menu numbers that make sense for your FW

Unless you FW is lacking the menu command, than you better update

The wiki is not outdated but the it relates to the (almost) latest FW and old FW may be missing some menu items

Furthermore the diversity on the PC side is rather big, in particular there is a big problem with ST changing drivers in an incompatible way.

As long as ANY driver is correctly loaded when in DFU mode (see windows device manager) we found the most reliable way to update the FW is using dfu-util as documented in the wiki

--

Designer of the tinySA
For more info go to

Hi Erik,

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Are you implying that "menu 6 2" does NOT work for my firmware version v1.3--556-g9825888?

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Does "menu 6 2" make sense to you? According to the Ultra's menu tree, DISPLAY is the fifth item from the top (image below). So, is there a mistake in this command?

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Assuming that "menu 6 2" is correct and that I will need to update the firmware first. I tried to follow the step in the , but there is no DFU tab is under the Ultra's CONFIG menu!!! Subsequently, I tried to get into the DFU mode using the alternate way of pressing down the jog switch while powering up. The Ultra display goes blank as expected, but the TinySA App cannot find the DFU device (image below).

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Please help because the instructions at tinySA.org are horribly outdated and don't lead to the correct solution!

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Chin-Leong Lim, 9W2LC.

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Is it possible to calibrate the TinySa so that levels are related to level from noise source. Noise source output level usually varies with frequency, so that is usefull.

On Sun, Sep 15, 2024 at 05:13 AM, rich wrote:

Has anyone used these cheap sources, and any recommendations or cautions ?

Just be very careful when you use one of these NG's that you don't exceed the maximum power limitations of the tinySA.? The power per hertz is very low but these are wideband generators so the total power can really add up over hundreds of MHz.

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Put a 20 dB attenuator on the input of the tinySA and measure the power so you know the total output power of the device.

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Roger

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Is there any advantage for this set up over a 2 port VNA ?? ?The applications mentioned wouldn't have me reaching for a spectrum analyser?

I purchased one of these noise source boards off of Amazon and mounted it in a shielded box. Certainly not a lab grade source but it works well.?

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There is a video on YouTube from the ARRL demonstrating using it with the TinySA Ultra:

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I do use a pad to drop the output level down into the TInySA and when working at HF frequencies, especially for lower frequencies I use a low pass filter on the output to limit the bandwidth of the noise since the full range output of the source can affect the TIny SA accuracy (it can cause a passive filter to appear to have "gain"). I have designed and evaluated several filters with this setup and it seems to do the trick for the projects I do.?

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Hope that helps!?

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Usually where it doesn't belong.

73 - Ron

WB5DYG

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Is the wiki page at the best and most up to date commands reference documentation ?? Or is there additional documentation somewhere that I didn't find yet ?

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When I type help on the USB terminal interface it lists all the commands.?? For example 'actual_freq' is in the 'help' list, but not in the commands document.? Of course maybe it isn't very useful, seems to respond 3GHz on my ultra.? Also some sd... commands not defined.?

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There is a command called color, but is there a list of defined 'id' parameters ??

color

sets or dumps the colors used
usage: color [{id} {rgb24}]

I would like to get a low cost noise source for use with tinySA.? For now, my use is lower frequency for antique radio testing and characterization, to see the bandpass of AM and FM IFs, and tuning ranges etc.? Has anyone used these cheap sources, and any recommendations or cautions ?? So flatness over a large frequency range isn't so important, but would be nicer.? I think they all use zener noise and a stage or two of amplification.

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The freq command should be removed from the system as it no longer has any purpose

--

Designer of the tinySA
For more info go to

Are you running an old FW? menu 6 2?works for me

My firmware is v1.3--556-g9825888. Do I need to update the firmware before the MENU command can work?

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Ok, I can use the marker command to do the job. However, I am curious about FREQ intended function and would like an explanation.

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73, Chin-Leong Lim, 9W2LC

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André and Ian,
Always show the first bmp you opened, even if it's not the top one. And when you save, save the content of this first opened file with the filename of the one you tried to view or save.

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Hope this helps,

Toni

Ian

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It only shows the top BMP one (on several PC's , made new screenshots on empty card).

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Hope this helps, André

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v0.11.7 fixed the bug from the previous version where it didn't display the .BMP files correctly.? It should now show any .BMP files that you click on.? I can't check at the moment as I don't have my tinySA with me but I tested the fix a few times.

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Ian

It worked

? Thanks

Did you connect CAL and RF with the supplied coax before running the selftest?

If yes, can you try another coax?

If still fails, contact your seller for a resolution

--

Designer of the tinySA
For more info go to