It is probably worth mentioning that these problems can occur not only with the tinySA, but with any spectrum analyzer, even the high dollar professional ones. If something doesn't seem right, find out why! Thanks for another great video, Erik!

Thank you Erik for the recent help you gave me (on the Tiny SA Ultra Firmware) and for this fantastic piece of test equipment. To know of some of the common mistakes is very helpful in not making the same mistakes one's self. I blew the front end/attenuator of my first Tiny SA only a few months ago due to using the Tiny SA on a telescopic whip and at the time I didn't know there was a very strong signal source in the building next to us, this resulted in the Tiny SA's internal attenuator being irreparably damaged. (Unfortunately, my hands are no longer steady enough to work on SMA and replace the attenuator chip and I now have a useless Tiny SA). A lesson learned from this was that my new Tiny SA Ultra ALWAYS has a 10 DB sma attenuator attached to the RF input and as long as you tell the Tiny SA that it has an external gain of -10 db, the readings are as Erik demonstrates here and there is a greatly reduced risk of blowing up the Tiny SA's internal solid-state attenuator. Does anyone feel like replacing the attenuator in a Tiny SA? A GBP 10.00 attenuator is much preferred to a dead Tiny SA. Thank you again Erik. Regards, K W.

Thank you for taking the time to explain why these things happen rather than just stating that they do. Harmonics when it comes to any spectrum analyzer can definitely bring a whole new set of headaches into the mix for sure, knowing how to figure out their origins can be quite useful. All around I find the Tiny SA to be one of my most valuable pieces of test equipment for sure. If I had to choose 1, I'd be pretty torn between it and my Oscilloscope. When working on radios the SA gets way more use, hands down. The ground issues you pointed out is another very useful thing to keep in mind with a lot of test equipment, when it comes to electronics bad ground can cause many strange symptoms to emerge. It reminded me of some of the crazy things I've seen happen with a vehicles 12vdc lighting circuits, and in the end a bad ground was the only issue. A good solid ground is very important where electronics are concerned, it's something I find myself repeating a lot when teaching others, and here again is just another example of what can happen when a solid ground connection isn't achieved. Thanks again, time is valuable, so you sharing yours is very much appreciated.

These are really great tips, thank you. The tinySA is capable of a lot more than I initially thought. While it may be a bit more sensitive to these things than a full sized SA, these things can be adjusted for, and the performance this has compared to its cost is amazing. It brings SA use into the hands of people that could not otherwise afford it.

Eric Thanks for share that valuable knowlegdment.

Thank you for the total video, especially the harmonic section. That explains why in my harmonic tests yesterday the harmonics where a good bit higher than expected. Now I can redo the harmonic tests and get about what I was expecting.

You are very smart and this presentation shows it. Thanks for sharing, Erik.

Absolutely fantastic video, thanks Erik!

Thanks for your videos Erik. Lots of mistakes I've been making explained. You are a real asset to the art of electronics! :)

Erik - Great tips- Thank you so much for this amazing and affordable device. It’s so versatile!

Great video thank you. I discovered those problems quite quickly, but it's very helpful to those that didn't. It's amazing little instrument for the money. Looking at getting the ultra now

Very good Erik. Thanks you

Good job ! 20MHz = 15m wave length. Lambda/4=3.75m so telescopic antenna is short for perfect receive of 20MHz signal, but it's good enough.

Great video Erik. 👌

The 3rd mistake was awesome thanks for that.

Id like to say Thank you. Ive never seen so small thing so huge. Awsome. Greate product.

The problem is the pulsed power supplies, especially the PC PSU. The data flow is also an issue but small compared to pulsed PSUs. When you connect your cable , you only need to make the grounds in contact to see the big noise bump. Place your cable near the PC and run some CPU demanding application like a game on full details etc. You will see even higher 'bump' on the spectrum.

I am learning! Thanks!

Much appreciated, thanks !

This Video ist very helpful to understand, how a SA works and its impact for the measured results. Thank You,

Thanks for sharing.

I wonder if a future version could use opto isolators for a second USB port (not the charging port, obviously) to allow data transfer without a physical connection? Do ferrite chokes help with the USB noise? Thanks for the great product and videos!

Many thanks ! 73 !

Very useful short video, thanks a lot. I’d like to think I would have worked out the first two issues, but the third would likely have been a gotcha :)

Only clean power supply for sensitive, fine measurement is battery... even today we do not heave super clean supply thought ac network...

Being the design engineer of the tinysa, I appreciate this. I have watched several youtube videos where the bozo had his plugged in while testing.

Thank you

Have you tried clamp on ferrite chokes on the USB cable?

Valuable video. Thank You. This simple inexpensive device could be very usefull if used properly. Is it new Tiny SA 0.1 - 950MHz or an old one 0-350MHz?

terimakasih informasi nya erik

Great presentation. Where do you git one of these devices?

Mr. Erik, I'm trying to figure out what I can do with Tinysa. Although Tinysa can detect in a certain frequency range, I want to ask, what can I do to detect at low frequency values? I really need this. For example, I want to see frequencies between 10hz and 30hz on the screen. What can I do for it? there is no possibility to download a suitable software?

what setting did you use, for those markers to suddenly pop up, and populate new signals from 8:46 with only 1 marker active to 8:51 and 3 markers active.. none of the settings seems to give that standby aspect as I can see you only have tracking active on marker1? how did marker 2 and 3 suddenly got activated? is it a threshold?

Due to fact that there are many imitations of these devices, can you suggest a site where we can surely purchase an original one?

Thanks for informative clip. I also noticed the same problem of USB connection to computer. To solve the problem, I am designing isolated ground and power supply on a board that goes in between tinySA and the computer. To isolate the data lines of the USB, I am using two opt-couplers ( one on each direction) , which only passes digital signals. The side that interfaces with TinySA uses a battery and the side that goes to computer uses the computer power. I was thinking to use fiber to isolate them, but I do not think that is necessary. I will let you guys know , how it turns out.

Hello, in the "attenuate" part you explained towards the end of the video, the signal strength for 60Mhz is seen as -56dbm. Can we set a level in this section with the manual Attenuate setting? For example, if we do not want to see signals weaker than -40dbm on the screen, do we need to adjust it from this section?

Hi. I bought this product but the antenna is missing. Only two cables. What should I do?

just a question, I know this is an older video but since i just ordered a tiny sa, would a ferrite bead on the usb cable do anything or little to calm the noise?

Would a ferrite core around the USB cable help?

Is there any way of using the TinySa app to capture data, wtihout introducing noise through the usb-c? Ive tried ferrites, Opto-Isoltors and Lowpassfilters...But it seems nothing realy cleans up the signal well. Its so sad, because its a neat little device, but when youre not able to pick up stuff and record the data at the same time its fairly useless... Thanks in regards!

Hi Eric, I am a bit of a novice , I thought I woukd test a 100mhz AM at -100dBm out of my Marconi 2019A to my Tiny SA , the 100mhz spike on my TinySA is kind of bouncing around 3dB from -100dB on the TinySA vertical scale? am I doing something wrong ? or is this just the loss in the 1ft patch lead I am using? Much appreciated. PeaceFromOz 🇦🇺.

I have a genuine Tiny SA supplied from a NL vendor. I'm using it as a low level signal generator at 1MHz. I find that the indicated attenuation accuracy is good down to approx. -30dBm but errors creep in at greater attenuation levels eg at --45dBm indicated on the TinySA the actual attenuation is approx -50 dBm. Is this normal? Thanks, Mike

So it means you can not do measuring and view live graphs in the PC while USB i plugged in?

Are you using a USB-C cable with ferrite bead?

hello, after changing the settings in the menus, when I close tinysa and open it again, these settings are reset. How can I save my settings?

How do I use the new Menu feature TRACE? Can you give a tutorial?

What difference between tinasa and tinysa ultra?

A usb opto isolator should solve the first problem. To some extent Looping the 'C' end of the usb cable couple of times through a ferrite toroid can also help.

Please activate your video translator. At least it really helps us

So using the PC software to comunicate with the SA is useless.

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹👍

Design flaws

Is it possible to create English subtitles?　The KZfaq auto-translation is wrong and unreadable.

Thanks for sharing.