NanoVNA

nanoVNA-v2-plus-4

The nanoVNA-V2 is an Open Source two-port Vector Network Analyser that operates between 25kHz to 4GHz with 90dB dynamic range - for U$199!

The planned nanoVNA-V3 is a 6GHz version wtih 120 dB dynamic range for U$500 (and I want one of those in case I have to work on 6G antennas - lol)

The nanoVNA-V2 is powered either by an internal 3.7 volt Li-Ion/Lipo cell or from a USB port (battery not included when shipped via FedEx due to dangerous goods legislation - so I identified that Jaycar carry a suitable 18650 2600mAh cell ).

The official supplier is https://www.tindie.com/

• NanoVNA V@ Plus4 https://www.tindie.com/products/hcxqsgroup/nanovna-v2-plus4/?utm_source=hackaday&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=fromstore
  • https://nanorfe.com/nanovna-v2.html
  • https://nanorfe.com/nanovna-versions.html

Open Source software & hardware

• github https://github.com/nanovna-v2
  • firmware https://github.com/nanovna-v2/NanoVNA2-firmware
  • NanoVNA-QT https://github.com/nanovna-v2/NanoVNA-QT
  • hardware https://github.com/nanovna-v2/NanoVNA2

• https://nanorfe.com/nanovna-v2-software.html
  • Linux 64bit https://nanorfe.com/nanovna-v2-software.html
  • media:NanoVNASaver-Linuz.zip
  • media:NanoVNA_QT-x86_64.AppImag.zip - ELF executable format
  • media:nanoVNA-v2-20201013--v2plu4.bin.zip firmware

Battery listed here https://www.tindie.com/products/hcxqsgroup/4-nanovna-v2-plus4/?pt=ac_prod_search

• user manuals
  • user manual https://nanorfe.com/nanovna-v2-user-manual.html
  • NC4BR media:nanovna-v2.pdf

nanovna-save

This is a laboratory standard piece of hardware when running this software, though a little strange in the UI department, and there are a couple of annoyances - which I will no doubt fix some time if I manage to get a development environment working (See #TODO).

Usage in a nutshell:

• Stimulation >> start set the frequency
• Stimulation >> stop set the frequency
• Calibration >> Load .cal file
• (alternative) Calibration (do)
  • Open
  • Short
  • Load
• Marker
  • set 1
  • set 2
  • set 3
• Display >> Trace
• Display >> Format
  • VSWR
  • Smith
  • S11 R + J
  • log S11 S21 for delta-gain when using antenna in S1 and ref antenna in S2
  • TDR for cable length and breaks
• Sweep setup >> steps
• Sweep

Then look at the display; here are the plots for my ADS-B antenna before I "tuned" it to 1090MHz:

4G antenna before tuning

Antenna on roof at YSWG WCAC

Building

The nanovna and its applications use QT which is a cross-platorm application development framework for desktop, embedded and mobile systems using C++ or PhP.

The nanoVNA-QT program requires QT development to be installed in order to build. This is a bit of an ask on my host (semi-production) system and why I upgraded it to Debian 11 to get the latest Python because I thought some of it was written in Python.

• install necessary development tools

apt install automake libtool make g++ libeigen3-dev libfftw3-dev qt5-qmake

• now install the QT installer

sudo apt update
sudo apt install snapd
sudo snap install core

I need to verify what components really needed installation so the application would run.

It might be possible to just run the web-supplied application with the QT runtime supplied only TBA.

• obtain the QT runtime

sudo snap install qt551