My HP 8560A & 8593E SAs both have warning labels to not apply *any* DC and the input damage level. I am not aware of any professional piece of RF T&M kit that lacks such warnings.
My HP 8560A & 8593E SAs both have warning labels to not apply *any* DC and the input damage level. I am not aware of any professional piece of RF T&M kit that lacks such warnings.Indeed. Typically I put a 50 Ohm terminator on the inputs of my spectrum / network analysers when they are not in use as they don't like static discharge either.
My HP 8560A & 8593E SAs both have warning labels to not apply *any* DC and the input damage level. I am not aware of any professional piece of RF T&M kit that lacks such warnings.
Serious RF designers will use serious, $$ devices by Tektronix or R&S or Agilent.
That leaves budget hobbyists ... but who? HAM radio enthusiasts? Is that the "intended audience" for products like Tiny?
Or is the "intended audience" just another shopping cart addict wanting another cheap toy to play with?
The high-school student is way ahead of the pack in what he noted. Go back to the internals of a CD player.
And you can even use a NanoVNA for this application.
Serious RF designers will use serious, $$ devices by Tektronix or R&S or Agilent.
That leaves budget hobbyists ... but who? HAM radio enthusiasts? Is that the "intended audience" for products like Tiny?
Or is the "intended audience" just another shopping cart addict wanting another cheap toy to play with?
What TG+tinySA use case do you have in mind that cannot be covered by NanoVNA/LiveVNA/etc. alone?
Quote from: gfWhat TG+tinySA use case do you have in mind that cannot be covered by NanoVNA/LiveVNA/etc. alone?
Some amplifiers might not like the NanoVNA square wave. The TG signal would be easier to control than just swapping attenuators to NanoVNA.
SA with TG can be more convenient because of VNA calibration.
Quote from: gfWhat TG+tinySA use case do you have in mind that cannot be covered by NanoVNA/LiveVNA/etc. alone?Some amplifiers might not like the NanoVNA square wave. The TG signal would be easier to control than just swapping attenuators to NanoVNA.
SA with TG can be more convenient because of VNA calibration.
Well, this has taken a weird turn...
In any case, I noticed that 13hm13's TinySA seems to be labelled "+6 dBm MAX" and not +10 dBm. I wonder what the story behind that is. It certainly has the potential to add to the apparent confusion.
tell me any SG/FG that produces clean sine up to 3-6GHz range at around $100 cost, if you can name, i'll get it today... even better if you can name VNA/SA with TG that can produce that clean sine. i'll throw my Nano/LiteVNA/Deepace KC901V into dustbin... i have EraSynth Micro SG that claim clean harmonics or whatever at ~$250, one step ahead from the other hunglow SG, but it still produces square wave that can screw some amplifiers up.
The only alternative is to use a noise generator. This will basically produce a random signal, hopefully at a constant signal level, over the required frequency range.
This is almost as useful as a tracking generator, as it will allow measuring DUT's like filters.
Any solution to use two TinySA, one to generate the signal, the other to do the spectrum analysis, will fail, because both will not be syncronized during the sweep. Imagine that one TinySA is still generating a signal at 100MHz, while the other is reading in the signal at 101MHz.
A TG produces harmonics, as well, by the way.
The reason the designer did not implement a tracking generator on the tinySA Ultra was because:
"Unfortunately, leakage is the main problem with incorporating a tracking generator, otherwise adding an LO at IF frequency and one mixer would be enough to create a tracking generator.
The LO running at the IF frequency (at least +7dBm) will leak through the shielding and through the two mixers and destroy the dynamic range.
Only heavy shielding and added isolation amplifiers would solve this problem. But this does not fit in the form factor or the intended price-point."
The quoted passage is from the designer.
Herb
No argument with those reasons for not including a tracking generator within the TinySA itself. But a separate unit eases the problems.
Curious about these TinySA
The older model 2.8", seems to have been cloned.? both in a sandwich-style casing?, and one with a casing that resamples the org. but as far as I can tell, the TinySA Ultra there still aint any signs of clones on the market on that unit?
Im asking as I can see Erik refers to a single store on Aliexpress, while there are like 30 to 40 Aliexpres stores that are selling the TinySA Ultra , so for that Ultra model you can just pick and choose.?