In part this is because if you're using a particularly expensive piece of equipment, it's generally going to be presumed that you know what you're doing (if only because as a general rule, such equipment is owned by companies and no sane company is going to let anyone near such equipment unless they've demonstrated that they know what they're doing).
In part this is because if you're using a particularly expensive piece of equipment, it's generally going to be presumed that you know what you're doing.
Yes, and legend has it that these special people never make mistakes either (or so they say). That is why you never see expensive RF test equipment with fried inputs or butchered connectors.
Yes, and legend has it that these special people never make mistakes either (or so they say). That is why you never see expensive RF test equipment with fried inputs or butchered connectors.
More seriously, robustness is definitely still a desirable quality in high-end equipment. If nothing else, working with a special snowflake instrument consumes extra time and mental bandwidth just to make sure you don't break it.
It's true that performance requirements may limit your options when it comes to input protection. But then you don't have other constraints on big, expensive lab equipment. For example, the maximum input power on the TinySA is pretty much limited by its low supply voltage. And if a SA has a dedicated baseband path (direct to the ADC) for low frequencies anyway, like most high-end instruments do, then the cut-off frequency in the RF path can be a lot higher and protecting it from DC bias actually becomes easier.
So they really can't have over a few uW's of power inputted ?
There are different reasons for different maximum input levels:When talking about a -30dBm level it is probably about avoiding internally generated harmonics when doing harmonics measurements.
- Avoiding Damage
- Avoiding internally generated harmonics
The damage level to avoid is probably much higher, staying below 0dBm is safe for all SA's I know.
Just watching a video on the do's and dont's for SA's. So they really can't have over a few uW's of power inputted ? The SA in the video says -30 dBmW max, so isn't that 1uW ?
Can I use the tiny SA Ultra to adjust coax cable tv frequency tilt?
One problem is: coax cable tv is a 75 Ohms system whereas
the tiny Ultra SA input impedance is 50 Ohms. So i will need a
suitable balun. Any recommendations?
Can I use the tiny SA Ultra to adjust coax cable tv frequency tilt?
One problem is: coax cable tv is a 75 Ohms system whereas
the tiny Ultra SA input impedance is 50 Ohms. So i will need a
suitable balun. Any recommendations?
Ok thanks guys, I'll have a look for the extra accessories before I commit to buying anything. Just watching a video on the do's and dont's for SA's. So they really can't have over a few uW's of power inputted ? The SA in the video says -30 dBmW max, so isn't that 1uW ?
So is that just to minimize the loading on the DUT, and be able to work into the GHz ? Or what's the real reason the front-ends of SA and VNA are so easy to blow up?
I would be using these for pretty low frequencies, like FM radio circuit experiments. Or much lower, like probing control circuits on a SMPS. Maybe they won't be the right tools for that.
Latest firmware update was 5 days ago on the TinySA Ultra. I wonder if they fixed that bug. There's been significant updates apparently since the version I had. I was using 1.4-120, now they're at 1.4-159.
As we can see, on any change in frequency or amplitude it has a brief period during which it outputs all sorts of crap. Frequency sweep output is the easiest way of catching it.
Moving the discussion concerning the output frequency glitches in the signal generator mode from another topic to here.
Someone please check if it reproduces with your TinySA Ultra to see if it's not only my unit that has these glitches.
I wonder if this is something they care about or not since it's not the primary function of the device. Cleaner would be nicer though.