Please turn off "Stable Volume" in the video playback setting (the first menu item after clicking the gear icon) as for some reason, this new TH-cam playback feature made the video much noisier than usual.
Great presentation, Kerry. I have the NanoVNA-F V3, which I very much like; but, I've often wished the screen were bigger and that the software offered more 'automatic' and enhanced functionality which seems to be present in the SV6301A. Looks like I'll be adding it to my RF toolkit. Again, thanks for a great presentation and tear-down!
Would it be possible for you to create a comparison table, since you tested many before? I think its greatly seeked after, at least I for sure would love to see a comparison table to help me decide which to buy.
I’m most impressed with your YT on the SV6301A. I really like the features, layout and size of this device. I’m tempted to buy one. I’m concerned with the number of “fake” devices coming out of China. While these devices are open source so many different manufacturers can build them, the level of quality of the components used and construction varies widely. Before I plunk down that kind of money for one of these gadgets, I want to be sure I’m getting the “real deal”. I would really like to see a tinySA Ultra in this form factor; 7 inch screen, N connectors and a metal case. It would not be as tiny but lots more useful if that’s possible.
I concur U2 is a 1-6000MHz 0-31dB attenuator chip, I use them frequently. Can't read the part number off of the video to know exactly which one, but they tend to have similar pinouts.
Now onto the next problem the analyzer won’t run off of battery power it only turns on when it’s plugged in it doesn’t seem to be excepting a charge so I’m going to replace the batteries and see what happens
Thank you Kerry, a very nice review, I have the previous version SV4401A which is awesome indeed, the only thing which i am still missing is external clock reference input, i was about to get the Libre VNA because it does have the EXT Clk 10 Mhz in, but alas it also have heat problem and hanging issues, so i ended up purchasing the SV4401A, hoping newer models will include the 10 Mhz in. another problem is the Battery indicator, it goes to about 48% in just few minutes after switching on with full battery charged. the calculation percentage is definitely wrong and i am surprised to see the same problem in that newer model too...!
@@KerryWongBlog yes Kerry the battery is somehow limited, but let me explain the point i noticed about the indicator, actually the battery will probably sustain a good one hour of work without any issues, i switched on the unit with fully charged battery, it started by showing 100% @4 volts....then the next 2 minutes the voltage dropped to 3.7V and the indicator is showing something like 70% which is terribly wrong because the battery is only 3.7V ....then the voltage will be stable around 3.6V for the next half hour...then it will drop to 3.5V at this point the percentage is shown as 48% ...this is the problem. ....3.5V isn't 48% of 4V ...i don't think it is a big deal at all and this can be fixed easily.
Hi, thanks for all your interesting reviews! A question about something else: I am interesting about how are you dealing with the fan noise of your old HP spectrum analyzer? I am currently trying to solve the same issue on my Tektronix 2712 which I got recently. This little (6x6x2cm) fan has only 1 speed and that is "full gas". The capacity is quite high, about 31CFM (or 52.6m^3/h). This SA unit has operating range from 0 to 50 degrees Celsius, and has MIL specs, and my logic was telling me that the fan could be running slower, maybe even half speed. But after some thermal measurements my conclusion is that I would prefer this "full gas" of the fan, but it is quite loud and disturbing to me. I am even considering an external fan, connected by a hose. Considering the heavy weight of your setup I don't think you move the SA around a lot 😆 so you could also consider a big(ger) fan outside the unit that can suck out the air but not making to much noise itself. Just curios about your experience with this noise.
I was expecting much better hardware for the price, but the same largely as the V3, plus no SOL calibrators really makes it way-overpriced and a disappointment to me. Thanks very much, as a lot of people would just assume they are getting a much better performing unit as the larger LCD is known to not be 'that' much more expensive. I also think this leave the market wide open for a similar form-factor unit with much better specs...
I have the 0.5.1 version. Keep in mind that it's not official so upgrade at your own risk. It's linked towards the end of my blog post: www.kerrywong.com/2023/10/15/sv6301a-handheld-vector-network-analyzer-teardown-pictures/
I just received mine and very dissappointed that the firmware is a step backwards. All prevous nanoVNA's have S11 screen formats for R and JX. These linear (rectangular) graphs are very important for measuring baluns, chokes, amplifier input impedance, crystal paramters etc. A Smith chart representation is not useful for these measurements and require a lot of interpretation. How can the latest and greatest of the nanoVNA series have omitted these graphs?
Adaptor loss: I am yet to find an adaptor so bad, and an instrument so good that I can repeatably measure it. Leave the board-mount SMA connectors alone! Once the N-Types are worn out, you only need a screwdriver and possibly a torque wrench to do a connector swap with no heat stress on the board. Frequency: 6GHz? 30GHz, 10000000000000000000THz! This wierd obsession with turning everything into a laser just drives the price up. 0 - 1GHz is more than good enough for the target market (with the last 500MHz being just for the US market 800-900MHz gear). Output power: If it can't push through a -80dB dip on a duplexer, it goes in the bin. Are we supposed to buy a separate unit with more power? Doesn't make sense! The target market here is hobbyist - Low budget. Up side: This unit looks like it would be easily hackable. ~ Re-case in slightly larger enclosure ~ Larger battery pack ~ Amplifier (lets see 100dBm to get through those duplexers!) ~ Serial tap to have a uC command the RF section to perform common tests with a single button press ~ Several hardware buttons to ask the uC to do the above
Another excellent review, thanks. Would have been helpful if you had mentioned that this unit is approximately 3 X the price of the Nano -F V3. In my opinion a bit of a rip-off.
Why does everyone always have to manually adjust their markers to peaks / troughs, in 90% of reviews I see? Shouldn't one of the most common functionalities be for these things to be able to cycle a marker through however many minimums are present in the graph points, which should be more accurate in 90% of cases than dragging it with a finger / left&right button?
Although most of the VNAs can find peaks, it requires multiple selections and is not convenient to use. Would be nice if there is a dedicated find peak/next peak button on the screen.
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Please turn off "Stable Volume" in the video playback setting (the first menu item after clicking the gear icon) as for some reason, this new TH-cam playback feature made the video much noisier than usual.
Great presentation, Kerry. I have the NanoVNA-F V3, which I very much like; but, I've often wished the screen were bigger and that the software offered more 'automatic' and enhanced functionality which seems to be present in the SV6301A. Looks like I'll be adding it to my RF toolkit. Again, thanks for a great presentation and tear-down!
Perfect. I was curious about the internals. Exactly what I wanted to know. TY
Love vna reviews, so rare.
Would it be possible for you to create a comparison table, since you tested many before? I think its greatly seeked after, at least I for sure would love to see a comparison table to help me decide which to buy.
I’m most impressed with your YT on the SV6301A. I really like the features, layout and size of this device. I’m tempted to buy one. I’m concerned with the number of “fake” devices coming out of China. While these devices are open source so many different manufacturers can build them, the level of quality of the components used and construction varies widely. Before I plunk down that kind of money for one of these gadgets, I want to be sure I’m getting the “real deal”. I would really like to see a tinySA Ultra in this form factor; 7 inch screen, N connectors and a metal case. It would not be as tiny but lots more useful if that’s possible.
Well done
Excellent review - thank you!!!
Excellent Thank you..
I concur U2 is a 1-6000MHz 0-31dB attenuator chip, I use them frequently. Can't read the part number off of the video to know exactly which one, but they tend to have similar pinouts.
Got it it worked perfectly thank you
Great!
Now onto the next problem the analyzer won’t run off of battery power it only turns on when it’s plugged in it doesn’t seem to be excepting a charge so I’m going to replace the batteries and see what happens
Good video - thank you.👍
Wonder who is going to make the first hobbyist type VNA with video out and mouse/keyboard peripherals
Does anyone know the small rf switch ic that marked 5 on it ?
Thank you Kerry, a very nice review, I have the previous version SV4401A which is awesome indeed, the only thing which i am still missing is external clock reference input, i was about to get the Libre VNA because it does have the EXT Clk 10 Mhz in, but alas it also have heat problem and hanging issues, so i ended up purchasing the SV4401A, hoping newer models will include the 10 Mhz in.
another problem is the Battery indicator, it goes to about 48% in just few minutes after switching on with full battery charged.
the calculation percentage is definitely wrong and i am surprised to see the same problem in that newer model too...!
I haven't noticed the battery indicator issue you mentioned, but the battery capacity is somewhat limited.
@@KerryWongBlog yes Kerry the battery is somehow limited, but let me explain the point i noticed about the indicator, actually the battery will probably sustain a good one hour of work without any issues, i switched on the unit with fully charged battery, it started by showing 100% @4 volts....then the next 2 minutes the voltage dropped to 3.7V and the indicator is showing something like 70% which is terribly wrong because the battery is only 3.7V ....then the voltage will be stable around 3.6V for the next half hour...then it will drop to 3.5V at this point the percentage is shown as 48% ...this is the problem. ....3.5V isn't 48% of 4V ...i don't think it is a big deal at all and this can be fixed easily.
Do
You have the schematics of tthis unit? Could you share IT?
Hi, thanks for all your interesting reviews! A question about something else: I am interesting about how are you dealing with the fan noise of your old HP spectrum analyzer? I am currently trying to solve the same issue on my Tektronix 2712 which I got recently. This little (6x6x2cm) fan has only 1 speed and that is "full gas". The capacity is quite high, about 31CFM (or 52.6m^3/h). This SA unit has operating range from 0 to 50 degrees Celsius, and has MIL specs, and my logic was telling me that the fan could be running slower, maybe even half speed. But after some thermal measurements my conclusion is that I would prefer this "full gas" of the fan, but it is quite loud and disturbing to me. I am even considering an external fan, connected by a hose. Considering the heavy weight of your setup I don't think you move the SA around a lot 😆 so you could also consider a big(ger) fan outside the unit that can suck out the air but not making to much noise itself. Just curios about your experience with this noise.
Thanks for the review. They need to stop using those reflective screens!
Those screens fine OK for daily use, but are horrible when you need to shoot videos.
I was expecting much better hardware for the price, but the same largely as the V3, plus no SOL calibrators really makes it way-overpriced and a disappointment to me.
Thanks very much, as a lot of people would just assume they are getting a much better performing unit as the larger LCD is known to not be 'that' much more expensive.
I also think this leave the market wide open for a similar form-factor unit with much better specs...
You did not show the signal generator performance at the maximum frequency, though you did show 1GHz.
Not seeing the upgrade files on the GitHub page it’s a blank space can you send a link to find these firmware update???
I uploaded to my blog post (towards the end of the post, link in video description).
👍🏻
Can you please share me the 0.5.0 firmware version ??? or tell me where to download it ?? Many thanks
I have the 0.5.1 version. Keep in mind that it's not official so upgrade at your own risk. It's linked towards the end of my blog post: www.kerrywong.com/2023/10/15/sv6301a-handheld-vector-network-analyzer-teardown-pictures/
I just received mine and very dissappointed that the firmware is a step backwards. All prevous nanoVNA's have S11 screen formats for R and JX. These linear (rectangular) graphs are very important for measuring baluns, chokes, amplifier input impedance, crystal paramters etc. A Smith chart representation is not useful for these measurements and require a lot of interpretation. How can the latest and greatest of the nanoVNA series have omitted these graphs?
Sadly, I have not seen any updated official firmware anywhere yet.
@@KerryWongBlog Hi Kerry,
Mine just arrived today- so likely the latest firmware and no linear R or X graphs.
Adaptor loss:
I am yet to find an adaptor so bad, and an instrument so good that I can repeatably measure it.
Leave the board-mount SMA connectors alone! Once the N-Types are worn out, you only need a screwdriver and possibly a torque wrench to do a connector swap with no heat stress on the board.
Frequency:
6GHz? 30GHz, 10000000000000000000THz!
This wierd obsession with turning everything into a laser just drives the price up.
0 - 1GHz is more than good enough for the target market (with the last 500MHz being just for the US market 800-900MHz gear).
Output power:
If it can't push through a -80dB dip on a duplexer, it goes in the bin. Are we supposed to buy a separate unit with more power? Doesn't make sense! The target market here is hobbyist - Low budget.
Up side:
This unit looks like it would be easily hackable.
~ Re-case in slightly larger enclosure
~ Larger battery pack
~ Amplifier (lets see 100dBm to get through those duplexers!)
~ Serial tap to have a uC command the RF section to perform common tests with a single button press
~ Several hardware buttons to ask the uC to do the above
Another excellent review, thanks. Would have been helpful if you had mentioned that this unit is approximately 3 X the price of the Nano -F V3. In my opinion a bit of a rip-off.
Why does everyone always have to manually adjust their markers to peaks / troughs, in 90% of reviews I see? Shouldn't one of the most common functionalities be for these things to be able to cycle a marker through however many minimums are present in the graph points, which should be more accurate in 90% of cases than dragging it with a finger / left&right button?
Although most of the VNAs can find peaks, it requires multiple selections and is not convenient to use. Would be nice if there is a dedicated find peak/next peak button on the screen.
Neeeeed.
thanks! your microphone recording is very noisy
Well, that's a known issue of the Sony A6000. For now that's the only camera I have.