Re: TinySA Ultra - screen fixings
Very good. I forgot about the thicker jell even though we use it on our RC Planes and Helicopters. Much more controllable than the thin stuff. Glad to here you got it fixed. 73'S? Clyde KC7BJE?
On Sun, Nov 24, 2024, 12:42?PM Martin via <martin_ehrenfried= [email protected]> wrote: I appreciate the comments, and understand the points being made. However, I think you need to see the actual fixing.
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I used tiny dots of Gel superglue between the plastic backplate of the LCD display, and the rectangular holes in the existing metal retaining strips, where the clips are located.
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The amount of glue required is miniscule, and in this instance is only required to stop the screen sliding within the clips, so I judged any risks to be minimal.
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Regards,
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Martin
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On Sun, Nov 24, 2024 at 02:00 PM, Igor Feher wrote:
In short there are better solutions if you are willing to learn how to use epoxy glue.
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Re: TinySA Ultra - screen fixings
I appreciate the comments, and understand the points being made. However, I think you need to see the actual fixing.
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I used tiny dots of Gel superglue between the plastic backplate of the LCD display, and the rectangular holes in the existing metal retaining strips, where the clips are located.
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The amount of glue required is miniscule, and in this instance is only required to stop the screen sliding within the clips, so I judged any risks to be minimal.
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Regards,
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Martin
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On Sun, Nov 24, 2024 at 02:00 PM, Igor Feher wrote:
In short there are better solutions if you are willing to learn how to use epoxy glue.
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Re: The upper part of the signal goes up when I activate the lna
Does the difference go up with frequency? I wonder if this might be related to the speed of the SA's clock chip??
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How do you know that the signal power with LNA off is the "real value" and not vice versa? You would need a very precise signal.
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I also seem to remember Erik once saying the SA's precision was about 2-3dBm...?
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Re: TinySA Ultra - screen fixings
Regarding possible gluing solutions please read this thread:
In short there are better solutions if you are willing to learn how to use epoxy glue.
Super glue is quicker but in the long term not so good. Also vapor deposits from glue will leave a permanent white mate non transparent layer around a deposit area. You can read more details about experiences we had with it in the post I linked to.
What is not written in the post explicitly is that when superglue breaks it will permanently damage surfaces. So a better easy fix is hot glue, also mentioned in the post.
On Sun, Nov 24, 2024 at 1:21?PM Martin via <martin_ehrenfried= [email protected]> wrote: Hi All,
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I recently noticed a problem with the screen used in my TinySA Ultra. It was beginning to physically move from side to side within the plastic case.
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The problem is that the screen assembly is secured in place along three edges by metal strips, and these are fastened to the PCB. The fourth edge, with the ribbon connectors, has no metal strip present.
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The metal strips have small clips that engage with the plastic backplate of the LCD display, and over time the plastic tabs have worn away, allowing the screen to slide from side to side. As there is no fourth strip to stop this from happening, the movement puts additional strain on the Mylar PCB interconnection between the screen and main PCB.
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The solution is simple, add just a few drops of "superglue" to hold the LCD in the correct position within the metal mounting frames.
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This is not a big problem, but if you notice a slight movement of the screen, it may be worth checking, before it becomes any worse.
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Regards,
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Martin
-- SOFTECH, IGOR FEHER S.P.
Liminjanska cesta 96
6320 Portoro?
Slovenija
Tel: +386 41 872 601
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TinySA Ultra - screen fixings
Hi All,
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I recently noticed a problem with the screen used in my TinySA Ultra. It was beginning to physically move from side to side within the plastic case.
?
The problem is that the screen assembly is secured in place along three edges by metal strips, and these are fastened to the PCB. The fourth edge, with the ribbon connectors, has no metal strip present.
?
The metal strips have small clips that engage with the plastic backplate of the LCD display, and over time the plastic tabs have worn away, allowing the screen to slide from side to side. As there is no fourth strip to stop this from happening, the movement puts additional strain on the Mylar PCB interconnection between the screen and main PCB.
?
The solution is simple, add just a few drops of "superglue" to hold the LCD in the correct position within the metal mounting frames.
?
This is not a big problem, but if you notice a slight movement of the screen, it may be worth checking, before it becomes any worse.
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Regards,
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Martin
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Re: Using the built-in OIP3 measurement function via program
Greetings,
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? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Nice OIP measurement display example - many thanks for the post! The TinySA Ultra is certainly a wonderfully versatile instrument with many capabilities!
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? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?I noticed a minor technicality in the display text which might be worth refinement consideration within a future firmware release.
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? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?The OIP values are shown in dB units which technically refer to relative power ratios instead of absolute power levels. To be specifically correct the OIP values should, in this case, be shown 42.6dBm and 42.3dBm which reference 1mW.?
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73
Tom
VA7TA
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Re: The upper part of the signal goes up when I activate the lna
In the FMM zone, the difference between the LNA on and off is not noticeable. In the zone around 500MHz, I get between 0 and 2,5 dB of difference. From a practical point of view, when the LNA is activated, it is to see what is below the noise level. If anyone wants to know the real value of the signal, they only have to look at the trace without the LNA.
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Re: The upper part of the signal goes up when I activate the lna
It is true, by doing the tests with a clean carrier, the difference with and without LNA is minimal, even at higher levels where it is not necessary to use the LNA. Thank you Dave and Erik.
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 ? ? ?  ? ? ? ? ? ??
Toni
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Re: The upper part of the signal goes up when I activate the lna
Your signals are modulated.? Please pick unmodulated signals to run your tests.
Dave - W?LEV
I have detected that for signals with a higher level the LNA appears to amplify a little more and for lower signals it seems to amplify a little less. Rather, it seems that tinySA makes weak signals more visible when they are close to the noise level, recovering their real level when the LNA is on because the noise floor has moved away.
Yellow trace the DTT broadcast signal.
Green trace with LNA activated.
The other traces are the respective noise floors.
The respective graphs, the same DTD broadcast signal (WB 8MHz) attenuated by 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 dB at the input.
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It is pleasantly impressive to see signals emerge from the noise when the LNA is activated?
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Re: Load Preset Config from SD: Format err
I did it this way:
- reload old FW, then restore config - get all correction tables with the tinySA app (pc): in tinySA comms use a Commands button - edit one command, and insert all correction requests correction low correction lna ... insert all correction commands
this way the tinySA sends all correction tabels with 1 button click - save them in a file - in excel / libreOffice remove the timestamps and rx tx labels, to get the naked correction data, e.g.: correction ultra lna 0 30000000 0.0
- copy this naked data block back into tinySA app (edit an other command button)
- now make the tinySA FW update etc ...
- from the tinySA app send all correction tables with 1 button click
73, paul
Von meinem/meiner Galaxy gesendet
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Re: The upper part of the signal goes up when I activate the lna
Thanks Toni.
The 3 dB level difference when the noise and signal are almost equal makes sense because the noise and the signal add and create a factor 2 (3 dB) more power
The small difference with strong signals is unfortunate and there is not much I can do to correct it
--
Designer of the tinySA
For more info go to
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Re: Load Preset Config from SD: Format err
The saved settings are binary files copying bit by bit the internal data structure of the settings data.
There probably are one or two new settings data inserted into that structure making a bit larger but fully incompatible for loading.
I considered saving the settings in ascii but have not yet done so as it's a lot of work.
Adding some bytes in binary won't work as there is a checksum and a magic number to protect the data
--
Designer of the tinySA
For more info go to
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Re: The upper part of the signal goes up when I activate the lna
I have detected that for signals with a higher level the LNA appears to amplify a little more and for lower signals it seems to amplify a little less. Rather, it seems that tinySA makes weak signals more visible when they are close to the noise level, recovering their real level when the LNA is on because the noise floor has moved away.
Yellow trace the DTT broadcast signal.
Green trace with LNA activated.
The other traces are the respective noise floors.
The respective graphs, the same DTD broadcast signal (WB 8MHz) attenuated by 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 dB at the input.
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 ? ?  ?
 ? ?  ? ? ??
 ? ?  ?
It is pleasantly impressive to see signals emerge from the noise when the LNA is activated?
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Re: Load Preset Config from SD: Format err
Erik, can you detail specifically what changed in file format/content if minor? Might be quicker for me to write a program to update the files versus redo them all. Would like to stay with latest versions. Thanks.
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Re: Load Preset Config from SD: Format err
?Peter,
Indeed, I forgot to mention the change in presets making thing them incompatible with old saved presets.
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If you do not need the changes in the later FW you better stick with the old FW
--
Designer of the tinySA
For more info go to
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Re: The upper part of the signal goes up when I activate the lna
I had to try this too! I have an external 10db attenuator attached between the supplied antenna and the SA. EXT. GAIN also set to -10db so you are seeing the actual power received. Frequency span is 87MHz to 109MHz, basically the U.S. commercial FM broadcast band. Traces averaged, CALC16. Yellow is LNA off, red LNA on.
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The peaks are exactly where they should be though there are a number of stations that show up with LNA on but hidden in the noise when it is off
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Load Preset Config from SD: Format err
I just updated from v1.4-177 to v1.4-185.
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None of my 50 or so config presets on SD card will load and instead pop up "Format err".
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I am guessing the file formats have again changed as happened with v1.4-145.
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Apologies if I missed discussion on this when I searched the forum.
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Peter
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Using the built-in OIP3 measurement function via program
1. When the OIP3 function is invoked thru the touchscreen, it then asks for the "left-hand" and "right-hand" frequencies.?
However, if the OIP3 function is invoked programmatically via "menu 8 3", ?the centre frequency is strangely changed to 1.5 kHz and the span to 3 kHz. Hence, I will need to send additional commands: "sweep center [Hz]" and "sweep span [Hz]" to positions the markers 1-4 on the correct frequencies. Is there a way to send "left-hand" and "right-hand" frequencies via command??
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2. The measured OIP3 values are displayed on the TinySA's screen - 2nd line from the top (attached image). Is it possible to read these values programmatically? My present solution is to read the markers 1-4 individually via "marker [#]" and then calculate the OIP3, but it takes too many lines of code. ?? Thanks.
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73, Chin-Leong Lim, 9W2LC.?
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Re: The upper part of the signal goes up when I activate the lna
These are probably digital signals. For a true comparison you have to use TRACE/CALC/MAX HOLD for a minute of so.
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This is what I get
Yellow is no LNA
Green is with LNA
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And even with maxhold for a minute there is still a difference
--
Designer of the tinySA
For more info go to
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Re: The upper part of the signal goes up when I activate the lna
The antenna is connected to a UHF antenna, before the tinySA4 there are several attenuators so that the lna does not saturate. The noise level of the device is the red trace. The low part of the signal amplified by the lna looks really spectacular. The label is worn and practically nothing can be seen. The internal data of the device are
sw tinySA4_v1.4-7-gbd4f5a2 HW Version:V0.4.5.1 (167)
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Clyde Lambert