NanoVNA Custom Software

[joeqsmith]

From your answer I realized that you may talk about the Solver while I used NanoVNA 2Plus.

People asked that I name the software.  I did.  It is now called Solver.  I left the VNAs it supports in the title to make it clear.  NanoVNA 2Plus is just the older versions.

Thank you for your software development work even more for the fantastic videos.

This is my last message. I appreciate the huge work to maintain not only the software but the user base, also. On the other hand, it seems to me that your relation to not-expert persons is not really helpful. When a simple problem would be solvable with a simple answer with a definite direction (which software?) you try always push down with remarks of definition not read or the 89-pages blog post is not followed. In this regard I am not the exception, but the rule.

I asked for further data, but you failed to post any.  I suggested you upgrade to the latest version so we could at least have the same software setup but you have not yet done that.  I'm not sure what outcome you would expect if you have no interest in following my advice. 

If what you are seeing is indeed a simple problem,  ask yourself why can't YOU solve it?  It's naive to think that all problems are simple and can be solved by my giving you some magic simple answer.   This isn't something I would expect of any engineer.  Then again, Dave says to become an engineer just call yourself one.   

I agree that people who have problems are indeed the ones who will post about the problems they are having.   Isn't that obvious.    You won't find people who are having success doing this.  So yes, you certainly fall under that rule. 

Anyway, sounds like you have at least taken my advice and are moving on.  There are many open source programs to choose from and while I do not use them, many others have and they should be able to provide you will all the help you need.   Good luck.

[hve]

I messed up...

Compiled the latest master branch of DIslords "F303" firmware and download into a LiteVNA64-0.3.

Device has stopped working, DFU boot is still working..
Tried to reflash  LiteVNA64-220225.bin and LiteVNA64-220830.bin but to no avail..

See https://github.com/DiSlord/NanoVNA-D/issues/57 for details.. 
 
Any chance restoring the old firmware using dfu-util?

UPDATE: This has been fixed, see resolution on github, Thank you Dislord!

[DrNefario]

I just fixed the same link light error Kosmic posted about on January 13th.  When you are integrating the Solver into an existing Labview-VISA setup that may have been running GPIB ports, you need to use NI-MAX to enable what is called a "Passport" to get USB, Serial, or other connectivity.  Enable the NiViUsb.dll NI-VISA Passport for USB. From the Measurement & Automation Explorer.  Use the NIMAX menu item – My System, Software, Visa, NI-VISA xx to show the VISA Options at the bottom of the window.
I have both the NI and Keysight VISA installed and both Solver32 and 64 work fine (with appropriate runtimes).  This window also has a Conflict Manager which allows the selection of either or both VISA's. This allowed selecting the correct Passports as shown:

[joeqsmith]

Tek, LeCroy, Agilent passports all basically work as you describe.  At home, I use Agilent and LeCroy to control some of my equipment.   

[Yannick.R]

Hello,

I have seen some of your video, read a little bit of the documentation and I have noticed that you have many book on VNA but you don’t find useful information. This a video of one year ago and I have not read the 89 pages of this forum. Anyway, about 30 years ago, I have took a course with a German professor: Burkhard Schiek. He was a specialist of this kind of topics. I’d like the way he teach because he used matrix instead of “fluence” graph. I was hoping to find the thesis of his student Eul because most of the publications are on IEEE without free access. I didn’t find it yet but I have found another document that could be useful for you (If you have not yet find the informations you were looking one year ago):
https://www.rfmentor.com/sites/default/files/NA_Error_Models_and_Cal_Methods.pdf
Hope that could help you. (I am not a native English speaker so I hope you understand )

[Yannick.R]

Somebody use the tool of the cpu manufacturer to restore his full bricks litevna:
https://groups.io/g/nanovna-beta-test/topic/93892513#4263

The topic is “How restore LiteVNA after full brick”

Apparently it was successful so I suggest to ask there

[williamlee]

Hi Joe,
Just viewed your videos and I purchased a LiteVNA 64, I try o get the 2011 Labview and setup it looks fine, but when I ran your 32 software it always cannot be hooked up to my desktop.
See the attached and please give me some advice.

[joeqsmith]

It appears that the software is trying to communicate with the M-Drive stepper motors.  I have used these to automate various tests including using one to drive a linear slide with a bit of air line attached to it, as well as investigating the radiation patterns of various antennas.   

You make no mention if you have attempted to replicate my rotor system or what you are trying to use these motors for.  Of course, if you don't have these motors and tell the software you do, you can run into problems.  So, maybe start with explaining how you have the motors wired, if at all. 

If you don't have any M-Drives attached, don't enable them when you create your defaults file.  Don't expect old defaults files to work with different revisions of the software. 

If you still can't figure it out, provide a screen shot of the setup/diagnostics menu. 

[joeqsmith]

Guessing our new friend sorted out their problem.  For others not understanding how to select the M-Drives or how to save your defaults, see attached. 

[Kartika]

In LiteVNA used AT32F403
https://www.arterychip.com/en/product/AT32F403.jsp
Allow use DFU mode, but need ATlink software
https://www.arterychip.com/download/AT_Link_EN_20210427.zip
For enter in DFU mode need connect bootpins on board and power on.

You can`t detect hardware version in bootloader mode (all devices answer as i write)

I can add command for enter in booloaded mode in next version firmware, example write in registers[0xef] = 0x5e, but only on next firmware version.

Do you have already make step by step instruction how to install your latest firmware fir lateVNA 64 4"?

https://nanovna.com/?page_id=103

[joeqsmith]

Was going to use the original NanoVNA and noticed a screw fell out of the packing bag when I took it out.   Then noticed the battery had expanded.   

[joeqsmith]

Just a few updates.   I am thinking about changing to a different file hosting platform and have closed my Github account.  Github was never designed to host files the way I have been using it.     

In the future,  I have no plans to support the original NanoVNA (old protocol).  This includes VNAs like the -H and H4. 

Because the V2Plus / 4 locked out any firmware development, these VNAs have really fallen behind compared with the LiteVNA.  OWO did release new hardware.  I have not seen it but the cost for the VNA6000 with 95dB dynamic range is over $800 with tax.   You can go with the B model which is 110dB for $1,499.00.

https://www.tindie.com/products/hcxqsgroup/nanorfe-vna6000/?utm_source=sel

It's still a two port one-path with square wave drive and limited low frequency support.  My guess is they still modulate the output as well which makes it useless for narrow band work.   At this price point, the full 2-port LibreVNA would make a lot more sense.   Personally, I would rather stay with with the LiteVNA.  Much lower cost, smaller, and having Dislord developing the firmware makes it an A+++ rating.   My plan is to only support the LiteVNA moving forward.   Of course, my software may work with other VNAs that use the LiteVNA's protocol.

Because of the vast amount of feedback, I will no longer offer an installer.  This seemed to work out fine for Solver64 where users were savvy enough to sort it out on their own.   

I still have no plans to update or maintain a manual for my software.  It's a lot of effort for something that provides little benefit.  Much the same reason for not offering an installer. 

Any new software releases will be 64-bit only.     It's been over a year since leaning the hard way that NI (formally National Instruments) had changed to a rental model.   Since then, Emerson acquired NI.   After a year had lapsed, I was contacted by NI three times asking me to pay my rental fees.  The last call, they threatened to lock me out of my software.   I explained that I had removed all of their software after discovering it was a rental and NI had refunded my payment, but they could certainly attempt to extort me by shutting down my perpetual licenses.   We would go to court over that one.   I can only guess that they had left some accounts like mine on the books to overstate the value in hopes of increasing the amount of the buyout?  Hard to say.   Fuck them and their strong arm tactics.

***
I have been looking at a few generic file host programs and am planning on setting up a Dropbox.

[joeqsmith]

The following lists the changes from 3.0 to the proposed 64-bit release.   Moving forward any software I release will require a different runtime than the others.   The basic version of Dropbox allows up to 2G storage which is more than enough to store the runtimes and VISA.  It also allows large file sizes, so there is no more spanned ZIPs.   I plan to archive the last version that supported the original NanoVNA, H, H4 in a separate directory.   

4.00, 08/17/2023
Public Release

3.18, 8/17/2023
Add Rnorm (normalized impedance) to the defaults file
Add VNA PGM Image to the defaults file
Change gating select button for  notch (remove inside the gate) vs bandpass (removes response outside the gate).
Change the gate blanking from a hard 0 to avoid discontinuities when running the FFT.    (windowing, Kaiser window with shape minium (rectangualr), normal and maximum
Trigger gating after importing a Touchstone file

3.17, 8/02/2023
Remove reorder when lower sideband selected when creating touchstone files.   Order is in ascending order.  This
was a bug.

3.16, 4/3/2023
Add relative when using both the external coupler and frequency extender
When using the external coupler and/or extender, use the targeted freqs for the front
  panel settings.   Saves user from having to calc the target.
Allow memory to autoscale XY return loss graphs
Add the connector type and cutoff frequency to the calibration standards rather than manual entery. 
Maximum frequency was also added but is not used at this time.   

3.15
Allow loading 2D antenna plots  and saving to memory
Allow indexing through the elevation in 2D plots
Add ability to use an external directional coupler by using Port2
data in place of Port1
Add FreqExtender, Sideband and Coupler to the default settings file
Add support for sliding load

3.14
Add grid / mesh select for post processing 3D
Change labels on 3D graph
Turn on light source 1
When using lower sideband, reverse Touchstone order

3.13
Add Gain and Phase to all three plots
*** Major Bug with Lite when using CW?  Fault without PC software.  Appears firmware
When using CW add interpolate for S21 and S12.

3.12
Remove inverter for drawing mesh
Change to switch when pressed
Change default to active
Change all axis to 3 place, SI
Add draw grid selection
Change instructuctions for antenna sweep
Change state 13 Antenna sweep to 22 (don't reset elevation in 2D)
Change state 4  to set elevation to 0 deg if in 2D
Change state 22 to calculate for both 3D and 2D

3.11
Add time domain gating

3.10
Remove the eye trim fringe
Add min/max fast mask limit test

3.09
Add Tab delimiter to the Touchstone file import function
Parallel the accumulator used for average
Limit the eye synthesized test signal's frequecy and data points

3.08
Add Eye Diagrams
When inporting Touchstone, set start and stop freq
Add time domain to plot sensitivity list
Add advanced plot trigger to eye mask and clear

3.07
Add TDR memory

3.02
Add frequency trim

3.01
Add ability to save the main graphs line widths and colors to the defaults file

[deBug]

Hi Joe.
First - thank you for making your software available and for spending time and sharing all the Videoas and documentation, really appriciated.
Secondly - did you got the Dropbox folder set up? I have seen a bunch of your Videos over the last few months and I am ready to start using your software with my newly purshased LiteVNA.


//Harry

[joeqsmith]

Hi Joe.
First - thank you for making your software available and for spending time and sharing all the Videoas and documentation, really appriciated.
Secondly - did you got the Dropbox folder set up? I have seen a bunch of your Videos over the last few months and I am ready to start using your software with my newly purshased LiteVNA.

//Harry

I have some tests I want to run with it first and am planning a quick demo video.   

My advice, with you being a beginner and ham, I would just start with the open sourced programs.  I suspect these will do what you want and should have much better support. Consider joining the groups.io litevna mail list.  There are plenty of hams there that you can ask questions.   

[Fred_B]

I just acquired a NanoVNAPlus5, that's the pro version of the plus4 that supposedly is able to measure crystals. I noticed that your github repository was down and was wondering if and when you might put up on dropbox the software that will run on my machine.

I have the base version of your software 0.10 up and running and was wondering how to update that.

I have done a good bit of simulation for a set of calibration standards I am making, and have touchstone files and delay figures to load into your software, although I having trouble finding the touchstone import command.

Bravo on producing your software.

Regards,

fred b

[joeqsmith]

I thought the V2Plus4 Pro was just a firmware change for an added $100 and still not as capable as the LiteVNA?  Did you dig into the details before you bought it?  Review?   I think you're the first person who posted of having one.

If you read this thread you will find Dislord had added some heavy filtering in the firmware for the LiteVNA to allow it to made narrow band measurements.   Due to the hardware, it is not even close to the performance I get with the original NanoVNA. 

So you made it through the spanned zip file to get the 0.10 installed but didn't download the others?  Had you installed Solver64 that was up on Github,  it may have at least given us some idea if it would work with your Pro VNA.  I have not used the V2Plus4 since I changed to the LiteVNA and I make use of features Dislord has added to the firmware.   With OWO's VNAs being locked, I don't think that Dislord can support them.  In other words,  Solver64 may not work with your VNA.

0.10 may not support importing Touchstone files, or if it did, it may have several problems.   Looks like I released that to the public on 8/25/2019 and it was old then.   It's been 4 years.

[joeqsmith]

Dropbox is now live

[Fred_B]

They stated that this version had additional circuitry beyond that of the plus4 to facilitate measuring crystals. There seems to be an absence of any documentation for the plus5 version, everything I found is for the plus 4.

I bought the VNA a while ago and am now just getting around to using it. I found your videos and blog history just recently. It seems I've been working behind the curve on this. Your Dropbox is currently being overwhelmed by pull requests, so I'll have to wait until they unlock it again to get a copy of solver 64. In any case, I'm glad you have the software up. I'll get it and see.

Cheers,

fred_b

[joeqsmith]

They stated that this version had additional circuitry beyond that of the plus4 to facilitate measuring crystals. There seems to be an absence of any documentation for the plus5 version, everything I found is for the plus 4.

I bought the VNA a while ago and am now just getting around to using it. I found your videos and blog history just recently. It seems I've been working behind the curve on this. Your Dropbox is currently being overwhelmed by pull requests, so I'll have to wait until they unlock it again to get a copy of solver 64. In any case, I'm glad you have the software up. I'll get it and see.

Cheers,

fred_b

I see where they make this claim for the VNA6000 but not the V2Plus4 Pro.  Please provide a link to where this was stated.  Thanks.

Dropbox sent me a notice that it was shutdown due to high traffic.  Of course Github wasn't limited but many people could not figure out how to use it, even with detailed instructions. 

[ch_scr]

On the official website https://nanorfe.com/nanovna-v2.html it is stated almost at the end of the page that:

NanoVNA V2 Plus4 Pro now allows measuring crystals by an adjustable bandwidth setting. All other hardware versions can not measure crystals because of the rapid switching of the test signal.

In the official forum Owo stated:

New in V2 Plus5 (renamed to V2 Plus4 Pro):
- Adjustable bandwidth; possibility of measuring very narrowband devices.
- Maximum sweep speed increased to 600 points/s; speed increases below 140MHz.
- Slightly improved noise compared to V2 Plus4.

V2 Plus4 already has the lowest noise out of all NanoVNAs, so V2 Plus4 Pro is only a small improvement there

Edit:
On the Tindie Store, in specification it is stated:

IF bandwidth: adjustable from 0.8kHz to 10kHz (V2 Plus4 Pro)

[joeqsmith]

On the official website https://nanorfe.com/nanovna-v2.html it is stated almost at the end of the page that:

NanoVNA V2 Plus4 Pro now allows measuring crystals by an adjustable bandwidth setting. All other hardware versions can not measure crystals because of the rapid switching of the test signal.

In the official forum Owo stated:

New in V2 Plus5 (renamed to V2 Plus4 Pro):
- Adjustable bandwidth; possibility of measuring very narrowband devices.
- Maximum sweep speed increased to 600 points/s; speed increases below 140MHz.
- Slightly improved noise compared to V2 Plus4.

V2 Plus4 already has the lowest noise out of all NanoVNAs, so V2 Plus4 Pro is only a small improvement there

And where does that suggest is has "additional circuitry beyond that of the plus4"?    Do you feel that filtering can only be accomplished with hardware?

[ch_scr]

It says "All other hardware versions" implying a hardware change in "V2 Plus4 Pro" to allow the switcheable IF bandwidth (see edit above as well).
Maybe a similar effect could be implemented in software as well, but I feel that I don't know enough to have relevant "feel" there.

[joeqsmith]

It says "All other hardware versions" implying a hardware change in "V2 Plus4 Pro" to allow the switcheable IF bandwidth (see edit above as well).
Maybe a similar effect could be implemented in software as well, but I feel that I don't know enough to have relevant "feel" there.

With firmware development locked out they roll new locked firmware that adds the feature, call it a Pro,  charge $100, roll the revision and good to go.   I doubt there is any difference in the hardware.   While I don't have a problem with them locking out firmware developers to maintain their profits,  the reason I no longer use the V2Plus4 is it is so far behind what Dislord produced.   

There is a fair bit on this thread about the narrow band measurements.   Dislord provided details how the implemented the filter and I added support for it.  I also demonstrated various narrow band filters with the new changes.   While it was a big improvement, it was not nearly as good at the original NanoVNA.   

****
If you are interested in learning more about it, the conversation was somewhere around here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/rf-microwave/nanovna-custom-software/msg4013380/#msg4013380

[Fred_B]

Well gee, I thought I had read that on the nanorfe web page. The only other place I think I could have read that would be on the tindie sales page. Perhaps, I got that confused with the nanoVNA 6000.

When I was shopping for a VNA, I remember how confusing the whole subject was about tracking down which was the original, which were the clones, which were original variants of the original, and which were clones of those.

Then I set myself to the task of attempting to figure out which one provided the best performance per buck, while also satisfying the frequency requirements for my future projects. I looked at the LiteVNA, and remember seeing that it was harmonics based for the upper frequencies and that the nano VNA plus4 series used fundamental frequencies. That turned out to be the closing point for me.

I then decide to pay the extra nickel for the pro version because I eventually want to create some crystal filters, and thought somehow that the other VNA versions lacked the capability to do that. Perhaps, being a new uneducated initiate of nanoVNAs, I placed too much emphasis on the marketing copy there.

GitHub is really for application development teams and individuals who compile applications from source code. For people who just want to grab a pre-compiled binary and go it is a good bit of a hassle. Have you had a look at Sourceforge?