New tinySA-App release



I added the mode, rbw and attenuation comboboxes
As I'm still getting used to the coding style I am not absolutely sory everything will always work.
But a quick test did not blow up the tinySA
The large button to the left of the scan frequency selection boxes resets the scan range to the the full range of the selected mode
Have fun!

On Sun, Oct 4, 2020 at 10:14 AM, Erik Kaashoek wrote:

New tinySA-App release



I added the mode, rbw and attenuation comboboxes
As I'm still getting used to the coding style I am not absolutely sory everything will always work.
But a quick test did not blow up the tinySA
The large button to the left of the scan frequency selection boxes resets the scan range to the the full range of the selected mode

Erik,
? 1. The rbw and attenuation combo boxes work as expected and their values are immediately reflected on the tinySA.
? 2. The mode combo box changes the start/stop frequencies to default values for each input mode, but does not change the input mode itself.
? 3. Entering a new start/stop frequency in tinySA-App and selecting scan is resetting the start/stop frequencies back to their default values, instead of updating the tinySA sweep range to the new values and starting a sweep.? I re-checked the previous version and all works as expected.
? 4. I noticed Trace smoothing and Time averaging have been re-introduced.? Trace smoothing has to be used carefully as there is no threshold parameter and all peaks are reduced (see below).

? ? ?No Trace Smoothing? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Same as previous but with Trace Smoothing = 2

??? ??? ??


- Herb

开云体育

Wondering what kind of PC this software is built for? ?Having issues with usb/ rs232 port emulation crashing on me. ?The firmware update ok, but otherwise a problem on a fast i7 with 16gb ram. ?I do have an early laptop, still with cp, used as a toolbox, that I can use instead. ?It actually has a real rs232 port.

IMO trace smoothing is best for looking at individual modulated signals scanned at high resolution. See attached images of a local FM broadcaster with no smoothing, half, and full.

73

-Jim
NU0C

On Sun, 04 Oct 2020 12:37:36 -0700
"hwalker" <herbwalker2476@...> wrote:

I noticed Trace smoothing and Time averaging have been re-introduced.? Trace smoothing has to be used carefully as there is no threshold parameter and all peaks are reduced (see below).

On Sun, Oct 4, 2020 at 02:34 PM, David Maley wrote:

Wondering what kind of PC this software is built for? ?Having issues with usb/ rs232 port emulation crashing on me. ?The firmware update ok, but otherwise a problem on a fast i7 with 16gb ram. ?I do have an early laptop, still with cp, used as a toolbox, that I can use instead. ?It actually has a real rs232 port.

?

David,
? ?The software should run on any Windows PC or laptop with a USB2 or USB3 interface.? In tinySA-App, select the comport that the tinySA is connected to from the dropdown box (i.e. COM5) and you should be good to go.? The speed setting is meaningless for USB and Erik will probably disable it to avoid confusion.? The NanoVNA version of the program used it for setting up DiSlord's wireless module modification.

- Herb

?

开云体育

Hi Erik,

I noticed point 3 also and later checked 1 and 2 and I agree.

I found another problem: after doing any scan and I try to exit the program with the comm disconnected, it throws : "Range check error". I have to reconnect in order to be able to exit. I does not happens before doing a scan.

And a request: At least the last 3 versions were labeled tinySA App 1.0.203. I usually keep older versions temporarily? as a means to return to a good one if the new fails, but due to this repetition I deleted the 2 previous with the last one, please keep updating the version number on each release unless this means extra workload.

Bet regards,

Ignacio EB4APL

On Sun, Oct 4, 2020 at 10:14 AM, Erik Kaashoek wrote:

New tinySA-App release



I added the mode, rbw and attenuation comboboxes
As I'm still getting used to the coding style I am not absolutely sory everything will always work.
But a quick test did not blow up the tinySA
The large button to the left of the scan frequency selection boxes resets the scan range to the the full range of the selected mode

Erik,
? 1. The rbw and attenuation combo boxes work as expected and their values are immediately reflected on the tinySA.
? 2. The mode combo box changes the start/stop frequencies to default values for each input mode, but does not change the input mode itself.
? 3. Entering a new start/stop frequency in tinySA-App and selecting scan is resetting the start/stop frequencies back to their default values, instead of updating the tinySA sweep range to the new values and starting a sweep.? I re-checked the previous version and all works as expected.
? 4. I noticed Trace smoothing and Time averaging have been re-introduced.? Trace smoothing has to be used carefully as there is no threshold parameter and all peaks are reduced (see below).

I'm still finding my way in the rather large amount of code OneOfEleven wrote.
Hope this time its better, at least its more teste

Release tinySA App 1.0.203.2
Changes:
- Version number increased
- start/stop no longer reset
- mode switch directly reflected on tinySA

Forgot to mention

- Settings panel allows setting of field separator ( such as " " or ";" or ",") and decimal dot (such as "." or ",") in csv files

On Sun, Oct 4, 2020 at 03:18 PM, hwalker wrote:

David,
? ?The software should run on any Windows PC or laptop with a USB2 or USB3 interface.? In tinySA-App, select the comport that the tinySA is connected to from the dropdown box (i.e. COM5) and you should be good to go.? The speed setting is meaningless for USB and Erik will probably disable it to avoid confusion.? The NanoVNA version of the program used it for setting up DiSlord's wireless module modification.

I port Serial connection code to tinySA (see branch?) so it can be used to connect over COM port vs Serial to TTL convertor om MAX232 for example.

Will integrate as the serial interface is a nice option to avoid the USB communication disturbances

Hi Erik,

Everything you mention works, but if I try to close the program once I made a scan, I got the message "Range check error" and the comms disconnects. In order to be able to quit I have to connect again and close the program without doing any sweep this time.

I saw a nice feature: the frequency settings are got by the tinySA and effective when the App scan is finished

Kind regards,

Ignacio EB4APL

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Hi Erik,

The same "Range check error" is thrown when trying to save a CSV file without previous errors. I will check if this can be caused by something related to the localization of my Window installation.

Ignacio EB4APL

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On Mon, Oct 5, 2020 at 12:32 AM, Erik Kaashoek wrote:

I'm still finding my way in the rather large amount of code OneOfEleven wrote.
Hope this time its better, at least its more teste

Release tinySA App 1.0.203.2
Changes:
- Version number increased
- start/stop no longer reset
- mode switch directly reflected on tinySA

Erik,
? ?I'm sure before OneOfEleven refactored her code navigating through the code base would have been even tougher.? It looks like you are getting more familiar though.? The only new feature I am still finding an issue with is as follows:

? 1. Low Input | 0-350MHz | 30MHz Cal Out-ON | Single Scan
? 2. All O.K.
? 3. Mode High| Single Scan
? 4. tinySA changes to high mode, 240-960MHz but no scan occurs.? The battery voltage just seems to randomly change values.
? 5. Returning to the low mode restores normal program operation.

?BTW, any chance of returning the external attenuation/gain setting (s21 attenuation)?? Its not absolutely necessary because tinySA provides an "Externa Amp" setting but it would be an added convenience.



- Herb

Hi Erik,

I found another minor nuisance: When changing mode from Low to High the default frequencies also changes, which is nice, but the CW frequency not, which is ok being CW mode not allowed in High mode, which is grayed out, but it gives an exclamation mark alarm (error:? invalid CW frequency), which I must clear entering a "in range" value such as 500 in order to allow the scan. When changing back to Low mode, the value persist and I got the same alarm.? I think that the range check in the CW field should be disabled when in High mode.

I'm quite good finding software bugs, as a friend used to say "I have a sexual finger: anything that I touch, I screw it".

Regards,

Ignacio EB4APL

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Made a new release based on the latest code from OneOfEleven, lots of changes.....
Hope it works better now

Hi Erik,

I have played with the Windows localization settings and found that the use of the comma as de decimal separator in Windows, not in the program settings for csv files)? is the cause for the "Range check error", and it happens when the program tries to write the tinySA-App.ini and the live.csv files, as there are decimal separators involved.

Even the tinySA-App.ini file written with other separator settings throws the same error when invoking the program, but it is not important, it is supposed that a user keeps this regional settings steady.

While testing this I found that in the .ini file there are some inherited parameters that contribute to the problem and could be deleted, for example:

inline_s21_attenuator_db 0.000000
edelay 0.000000
vswr_gamma 2.500000
velocity_factor 0.660000

A possible solution is to use the same approach as in the frequency settings, that are all in Hz so they are all integers. This could be applied to the graph scale table (if needed), disregarding the decimal part since it looks to me that they are not used, or multiplying all decimal values by a suitable number and keep them integers.

Kind regards,

Ignacio EB4APL

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On Mon, Oct 5, 2020 at 07:16 AM, Erik Kaashoek wrote:

Made a new release based on the latest code from OneOfEleven, lots of changes.....
Hope it works better now

Erik,
? ?Yes! All major functions related to changing high and low input modes and related sweep settings appear to be working as expected.? Only minor UI related artifacts noted:

? S11 label below? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?TDR window should be RBW? ? ? ? ? ? ? Label5?
??? ? ? ? ? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??


The new release adds some new scaling options such as using the mouse wheel or dragging the axis to change values.? Looks like things are definitely getting there.

- Herb

The trace smoothing as is isn't really that useful on a spectrum analyser due to it flattening out wanted peaks, it's use will remove/corrupt useful data. As was suggested a 'threshold' setting would help to alter the way the frequency domain smoothing works.

The time averaging is different though, that maintains frequency detail, it smooths/averages in the time domain rather than in the frequency domain.

The tinySA supports averaging per point (reading the same frequency multiple times) so I guess it is better to change the flattening to set the amount of averaging per point? inside the tinySA

On Mon, Oct 5, 2020 at 03:20 PM, EB4APL wrote:

I have played with the Windows localization settings and found that the
use of the comma as de decimal separator in Windows, not in the program
settings for csv files)? is the cause for the "Range check error", and
it happens when the program tries to write the tinySA-App.ini and the
live.csv files, as there are decimal separators involved.

I've fixed the settings ini file problem. Erik will need to use the updated code to solve the problem in his TinySA-App program.