#1325b

Episode 1325b
A quick look inside the new TinySA ULTRA
Be a Patron: / imsaiguy

[@tomstrum6259]

Thx much for the "Tear down & Board Analysis" ....I wouldn't ever pop my good working "Ultra" open just to look !! Well done "Under the Hood" report & now I know what I have !!....Thx again....

[@jspencerg]

I just pitched in a few bucks a month. I've enjoyed watching your videos this year. Thanks for helpful advice on learning. Hope you can spring for some minty new T&M gear.

[@IMSAIGuy]

I need more like you

[@andymouse]

Even quicker ! there's a lot of these 'mini' instruments around and they are generally well made...cheers.

[@allenbaltz6114]

I've got a NanoVNA and I'll have to get this TinySA Ultra soon, what else do you recommend?

[@joeteejoetee]

The oval shaped traces are used as "BOM cost=Zero" ULTRA low inductance capacitors for microwave frequency filtering and/or decoupling power & noise sources from one another.

[@Mark-hb5zf]

I was wondering the same thing. Other option could be a transmission line (combined with the the cap mounted on them) for some high freq impedance matching or a LPF on a RF trace. Just a WAG tho, and only pondered it in passing. Didn't even look to see if its on a RF or a power supply trace.

[@R50_J0]

Tear down!!! 😃

[@user-bs3hn8np3y]

Hi, I see that MCU in your Ultra is STM32F302CBT6 with 128k flash, but the original firnware for Ultra builds for STM32F303 and has 176k size. Does it have some different hardware revisions? Did you try to upgrade firmware to the last one?

[@vincei4252]

The minicircuits ADE-25MH+ mixer is a 5 - 2500 MHz model. IF is characterised to 1.5GHz and the LO to 2.5GHz. Datasheet says LO to IF isolation is 32dB. It's mystery how -10dBm is getting out of this sucker unless the mixer is suspect. The ADF4351 is a wideband synth. If I remember correctly that can produce lots of spurs especially if it is being swept. If you're interested look for the OpenTechLab [005] 4.4GHz RF Synthesizer Board ADF4351 Theory, Setup, Reverse Engineering, Experiments ; here on KZbin.

[@IMSAIGuy]

the ADE mixer is used for the normal 800MHz spectrum analyzer. the 6GHz hack introduces a second Lo close to the input, downconverting the 6GHz to 800MHz

[@vincei4252]

@@IMSAIGuy Gotcha.

[@IMSAIGuy]

I was wrong. there is a low pass filter on the input usually, in ultra mode this filter is removed and somehow the Lo does get through that mixer. go figure. it seems to be using about 977 to 1177 MHz

[@arashghasemi]

What are those perforated holes on the gnd copper plate ? Could you please talk about those in details? Thanks for your great work and unmatched energy level.

[@johnwest7993]

They couple the ground layers for both high frequency and thermal coupling. The more plated-through holes, the more identical (uniform,) the ground voltages and temperatures on both top and bottom sides of the board, providing a better ground for GHz RF, and better heat dissipation for the devices.

[@IMSAIGuy]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/aGq8lIGOiKdsga8

[@arashghasemi]

@@IMSAIGuy I watched all 5 parts of vna test ground pad and couldn't find the calculations for the size and distribution patterns of the vias... John west says it's for thermal remedies as well and I think it's pretty cool but how the hell they incorporate those effect into calculations... the guy who did the tniysa pcb in this video , puts those vias on the transmission lines too specially when they get close to the components. That's really cool to know why ... 🙏

[@aronhighgrove4100]

@@arashghasemi The ones close to the transmission lines are likely for fencing/shielding purposes.

[@Mark-hb5zf]

Lots of I/O on the left side of the board. I bet someone will get creative with those.

[@digitalchaos1980]

Nice teardown vid! Hate to be the guy here, but if I remember correctly, that stm32f302c8t6 is a 72MHz processor. Not sure if they're utilizing the full speed in the Ultra or not though. 😎

[@IMSAIGuy]

the external 8 MHz in internally multiplied I believe.

[@digitalchaos1980]

@@IMSAIGuy Ah ok, I wasn't aware they did it that way with those. I'm still a little new to the ST chips. 😁

[@johnwest7993]

I checked the US supplier of these. Their web page said they were "In Stock." So I ordered it immediately. It said my order was complete. Then the next day I got an email notice saying it was on back-order. I'm going to assume that their website didn't keep up with the actual stock. But it could also be looked at in a less than kind manner.

[@Chris_Grossman]

i had one on preorder maybe mine will come soon

[@Chris_Grossman]

It has not been charged to my card yet ☹️

[@vincei4252]

I saw the uncertainty on EU and US sites so purchased one on AliExpress from an approved seller. It was shipped a couple hours ago.

[@Mr.Leeroy]

@@vincei4252 You'll know whethere it is shipped when you get some actual milestone info in tracking (preferably with contact info and weight). Sellers on Ali often assign one tracking number asap and swap it with another one when they actually ship the item.

[@jspencerg]

The LiteVNA goes to 6GHz. Now tiny SA ultra to 5GHz. Is it time to up the Hz in your garage? One of your bargain finds for a vintage 26 GHz HP SA would fit the bill. I'm still growing into my 8561E.

[@IMSAIGuy]

I've been trying to get someone to donate a LibreVNA to the channel. that looks like a true spectrum analyzer/ VNA design.

[@jspencerg]

@@IMSAIGuy Santa YT?

[@johnwest7993]

I have an HP 3585a (20 Hz to 40 MHz,)and an option-loaded Anritsu MS2721B, (9 kHz to 7+ GHz,) and I haven't touched either of them since I got the TinySA and a NanoVNA. I just keep the high-end gear around in case I need to fix some government gear. With a bit of ingenuity and a couple of home-brew accessories I've been able to do everything I wanted to do with the tiny test gear. I can set it wherever I want without having to plug it in, and I can tip it at any angle I like to make the display easy to see, or even display it on a large PC screen much bigger than my high-end gear. And with new versions of the code it now even has several handy (free) features my big old gear doesn't have. About the only thing I might want to do that it can't quite optimally do is tune up repeater cans, and no one has asked me to tune a set of cans since before COVID hit. Even so, I can probably tune a set close enough that they are within what thermal expansion and contraction error would mask over in a non climate-controlled environment, and I can do it on-site with a device I pull out of my coat pocket. I don't even have to worry anymore about blowing out the front-ends on any of my expensive gear with their hard to find parts. I'm just really happy with the tiny, cheap gear that's available now. It takes the worry out of playing with electronics, and I like that.

[@jspencerg]

@@johnwest7993 What range of frequencies have you been measuring/ manipulating? I have the base model picoscope. Really like the software, but going to higher Hz is $$$$. A lab on a board could be made with some thought, these little units plus some of the new voltage/current and signal sources. Nothing I have need for as I'm still supporting the trade of vintage(like me) gear.

[@IMSAIGuy]

@@johnwest7993 you just don't want the tiny box injecting -10dBm into expensive equipment.

[@jeffreywyke368]

EDIT: The battery is 3000 ma...NOT 300! Pretty plain to read...

[@IMSAIGuy]

I read 3000 and my mouth decided to go another route