Monday, August 5, 2019

NanoVNA Vector Network Analyzer 50KHz-900MHz Review

This is my NanoVNA Vector Network Analyzer 50KHz-900MHz with 2.8" LCD Screen Review.  To start with I am used to using a big expensive Agilent RF VNA.  I thought a pocket sized model would be great for hamfests and stuff like that. So I bought one on eBay.

I was very disappointed.  After an hour of trying to set it up to 150 MHz spanning 10 MHz I gave up! The selection switch makes it unusable. Maybe mine was just defective?

This is what the screen looks like when turned on and off..

This is what the guts look like with the back cover and the battery removed.  Note the pads for a SD memory adapter. Some way to save settings would have been nice.
What I do not like about this device is this switch.  It has so frustrated me that I am almost ready to get rid of it.  Should I buy a better switch or just sell the device?  It hangs in one direction and the pressure to move it side to side often results in a key selected response.  Sometime I just gave up and powered off and back on to try setting it up again.  This switch is a disaster!
This is what it looks like with the top cover removed and the LCD screen moved out of the way.


5 comments:

9a5mpv said...

Hi,

You can protect vna littlebit better with https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3818979

U can use styler to go through menu structure, and completely avoid using the wheel switch.



Rob said...

Mine has a similar problem with the selector switch. Someone else broke his switch, and in this thread, a supposedly better one is cited.
https://groups.io/g/nanovna-users/topic/32796736#853
Rob

Larry said...

Bob, calibrate the touchscreen using the usb console interface commands and use that instead. I don't think it's the switch. Rather, I think the switch is polled through software and it's not picked up consistently.
I will be placing 3 buttons on the front of mine to replace that rocker.
I use Teraterm on the usb serial port to run the console commands for the Nano.
Once connected, hit return for the prompt and enter help so see a list of commands.

Cheers
Larry

Jorge Canelhas said...

Does antone have the pinout of that switch ? I'd like to replace it.

thanks

Anonymous said...

My touch screen is not working. is there any link about this problem any help is appreceated
A.Tahir DENGÄ°Z TA2T e-mail: atdengiz(at)gmail.com