6 ms·
TinySA – small spectrum analyzer and signal generator
- ChrisMarshallNY 3y agoThis looks exceedingly cool. I probably don't have a use for this type of thing, any more, but, at one time, I would have snatched one up, immediately.
- cadr 3y agoMake sure to heed the maximum input and use an attenuator! These are very cool and fun, but I found myself using my NanoVNA a lot more than my TinySA https://nanovna.com/ https://nanovna.com/
- willis936 3y agoBoth are super handy and super cheap (relative to conventional SAs and NAs). Handy for the personal shop of any EE.
- cadr 3y agoFor sure - if you can afford them, get both. I was just surprised because I expected to use the SA a lot more when I got it. But I am mostly either testing filters are designing antennas, and the NA is the way to go.
- 2178393217 3y ago[flagged]
- GeorgeTirebiter 3y agoI have only NanoVNAs, up to the 6 GHz one ( https://nanorfe.com/vna6000.html https://nanorfe.com/vna6000.html ). But the TinySA at the frequencies of interest seems about the same? I guess what I'm asking: What features of the NanoVNA make it the "way to go"? FOR ME: It's the PC SW that allows a big-screen, which converts the fundamental "R+jX" measurement into many different views. https://nanovna.com/?page_id=90 https://nanovna.com/?page_id=90 Awesome.
- cadr 3y agoWell, they are different tools for different situations. I found, for what I do, having a vector network analyzer was more useful that having a spectrum analyzer. Specifically, measuring the SWR of antennas and measuring the resonance frequency of filters.
- codefoster 3y agoI use a nanoVNA for analyzing antennas. Cool tip is you can tether it to an Android device and get a bigger, nicer touch screen.
- cadr 3y agoThat's cool - didn't know that about Android. Another cool tip is to use NanoVNASaver (https://nanovna.com/?page_id=90 https://nanovna.com/?page_id=90)
- 127361 3y agoThese are being used by the Ukrainian army for detecting incoming russian drones. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/eyesonukraine_drone-detector-based-on-the-tinysa-ultra-activity-7116516693933191168-YdNm https://www.linkedin.com/posts/eyesonukraine_drone-detector-... The firmware source is on GitHub at https://github.com/erikkaashoek/tinySA https://github.com/erikkaashoek/tinySA.
- TheLoafOfBread 3y agoIf they know frequency of drones (i.e. Lancet in this case) can they create something like a HARM drone, which will guide itself on source of the signal to intercept the drone itself?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ramses0 3y agoA drone dangling balls of yarn...
- cadr 3y agoIt surprises me that military drones aren't using spread spectrum to make this harder.
- PM_me_your_math 3y agoThe TinySA is excellent for finding sources of RFI, although you want to use a small yagi or loop antenna.
- cadr 3y agoI wish I had it when I was having an RFI issue in my neighborhood. I ended up with my RTL-SDR hooked up to my mac with a homemade copper-on-tape-on-cardboard yagi, and I looked like I was a tinfoil hat away from being needing to be put away. Still would have looked nuts with the TinySA, but... less so.
- polishdude20 3y agoDid you find the source of the issue?
- cadr 3y agoI narrowed it down to something around my next door neighbor's house. The issue was there was something broadcasting a signal that covered the same range that my car key fob did, so I couldn't lock/unlock my car unless I was right up on it. But the signal was intermittent, and I talked to all the neighbors in all three units, and none had anything that sounded like it could be the culprit. It eventually just stopped happening, so I never tracked it down.
- PM_me_your_math 3y ago[dead]
- mmvasq 3y agoI was attacked quite deliberately in another city and was unable to find the source. It was in a high rise, and GSP with Kismet was marginally useful. Precision was not possible. I was able to stop the rogue attacks with Cisco Meraki. This was extremely beneficial. Since I moved, I have had to change channels a few times due to interference. The dashboards in the Meraki, are great at visualizing and identifying sources. I also made it a point to look ridiculous and walk around to meet the neighbors to understand what is not “rogue” and tell them I was having problems. This was to build an inventory and ensure I didn't accidentally jam something thinking it was a rogue attack. I let them know to inform me if they experienced problems. Clearly someone was sending waves of wireless hackers my way as a poorly defined joke. Despite efforts to get inventory of my surroundings, there are still a ton of unknown devices in the area I cannot identify with precision, and the area is not highly populated. No one knows how many access points and devices they are running any more for smart lights, cams etc. Finding the source as far as I can tell may be more feasible here w GPS receiver - yet I have not had a need.
- applied_heat 3y agoAnyone know a signal generator that can do 60.000 Hz? I used to use the HP 3310A but they are analog and really old now
- magicalhippo 3y agoAny decent digital one should be able to do that I imagine. I've got an entry-level Siglent[1], it can do 1 microHz and up. Or am I missing something? [1]: https://www.siglenteu.com/waveform-generators/sdg1000x-series-functionarbitrary-waveform-generators/ https://www.siglenteu.com/waveform-generators/sdg1000x-serie...
- applied_heat 3y agoThanks. A lot of the hobbyist level ones did not do low frequencies at all or precisely enough to compare to electrical grid frequency That one for 350 euros looks good
- 0l 3y agoIm not sure how well it would work, but for a low cost solution try your PC's sound card. Reasonably low distorsion and sufficient frequency accuracy.
- wila 3y agoThe tinySA can also be used for that, it's not only a spectrum analyzer, it can also generate signals and optionally modulate those for you. edit: https://tinysa.org/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=Main.Specification https://tinysa.org/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=Main.Specification here says it works from 100kHz for the low output. When I just tried it did let me select 60kHz and turn it into output mode. Haven't hooked it up to a scope to see what it does. Sorry no time to set it all up now. 60kHz is very low though, if you browse AliExpress then I'm sure plenty of signal generators will offer that for a really low price (cheaper than the tinySA) edit 2: Sorry my European brain kicked in and missed you are looking for a 60Hz one that is very precise and not a 60kHz one. I'd better get some sleep.
- tverbeure 3y agoCheck out the function generators from FeelTech on Amazon or AliExpress, like the FY6900 or FY6800. They’re cheap in a flimsy plastic case, but they’re good enough for many applications.
- ijhuygft776 3y agowow, cheap.
- rkangel 3y agoSimilarly can anyone recommend an affordable oscilloscope? Ideally mixed signal and PC attached. Picoscopes are great and very affordable on a work budget, but a bit much for my home budget particularly if you want a mixed signal one.
- gte525u 3y agoAnalog discovery series is cheap and good enough for a lot of tasks.
- GeorgeTirebiter 3y agoI've found Analog Discovery true to its name -- great for exploring analog. The scope portion is limited in channel sensitivity and frequency. It's also a bit of a kludge, in that the probes attach via a 2x20 (?) front-panel 0.1" center connector to an adaptor board that has BNC females for the scope probes. I have one of those (AD2; there is a newer AD3 available), and it's quite a lot of 'stuff' in one package. I wish I had one when I was learning EE. But these days, I use them as 'data acquisition and control' modules to generate and capture signals under program (Python) control. I think of them sort of as a fancy Arduino -- although it can do many more analog tricks. Recommended.
- GeorgeTirebiter 3y agoGet a used TDS-2xxx series used on ebay. I prefer Tek scopes, great trigger, and the TDS 210, TDS220 and their ilk continue to work very well. As to PC attach, yes, you can do that, but that will need some s/w. Many people like the newer Chinese scopes; see https://youtu.be/S8jrpCoZyx8?si=oaI_gxOylYhOSp-m https://youtu.be/S8jrpCoZyx8?si=oaI_gxOylYhOSp-m but I have only limited experience with those. Their UI seems less obvious than Tek scopes. The other very important specs besides what you've mentioned are # of channels, and highest operating frequency. Others today would be how fast is the ADC, how many bits, storage depth, post-capture analysis capabilities, and so much more.
- tverbeure 3y agoI have a lot of experience with Tek, HP and Siglent scopes. The Tek scopes are IMO some of the least intuitive. But if you want to remote control the scope, stay away from the Chinese ones: that part of the FW is often very buggy.
- wkat4242 3y agoReminds me of that other small and cheap spectrum analyzer the RFExplorer. That's been on the market for 10 years or so. It has a similar need to be careful with strong signals. I didn't know of this one, I'll check it out. It looks way better and the basic one is a lot cheaper too!
- nullc 3y agoThe related NanoVNA has been transforming amateur radio, now almost everyone that can afford a radio can afford a VNA that lets them characterize, tune, and repair antennas and other RF components. Gone are the days when you had to beg a club member with a $10,000 MSRPed bench VNA in the back of his truck to swing by. You can pull a VNA out of a bag while still up the tower. High-Q antennas designs that are sensitive to construction and mounting are much more realistic to use when you can VNA them in situ.
- K0balt 3y agoCan you use the nanoVNA hardware tor this by just loading the firmware? They look identical.
- an_aparallel 3y agoAnyone know of a hardware spectrum analyzer that renders with a cruder display, only showing the main harmonics/or harmonics above certain thresholds as straight lines? I would love something like that for FM synthesis intuition. idk if when looking i found one i liked even in software :(
- mmvasq 3y agoSomeone (actually probably someone commenting on this threads) , with way too much money and time, has been playing catch me if you can. They use a blend of retail analytics, ambient noise and other NLP tuning features of phones and actual visuals I haven’t figured out yet. I had a bug sweeper over to the home, and he basically ran away as fast as he could after realizing I had a sane witness with me - and tons of screen shots. My question is if someone is actually using advanced satellite surveillance capabilities to augment their running joke by looking in my window, (which can’t be ruled out in my world unfortunately), would one of these devices pick up the RF? I was supposed to have gone crazy blah blah blah while they tell me what is on my counter in a mobile game. Sadly, we decided they also are just leveraging the housekeeper and making some good guesses in a few cases. Yet there is one window they kept coming up with what was in front of it. No visible cams in line of sight.
- mmvasq 3y agoThe whole thing is pretty nuts. I'm sure most would just ignore. One of the individuals involved did something quite criminal and deeply personal to a family member, so I am genuinely looking for an answer on how to sweep for possible eves-dropping in this scenario. I have actually worked with people who have access to satellite and security product testing (not privacy filtered consumer services) and they could have motive.