Small NanoVNA and tinySA programs for scripting and automation,
developed on Debian stable (bookworm), but any other Linux/Unix system should work.
Windows and Mac are untested due to lack of HW.
The Python tools can be used without installation on all systems where
a Python interpreter is available, this is standard for Linux and Mac.
For Windows you have to install Python separately.
Some Python tools also require the modules cv2, matplotlib, numpy, PIL and scikit-rf,
which should normally already be present on your computer if you are involved
in processing and visualising RF and microwave data with Python.
If you are working under Linux and want to install the tool in your path,
you can create a Debian package by typing make deb.
For this you need to install python3-stdeb,
the module for converting Python code and modules to a Debian package.
This package contains also an udev rule that allows user access to the USB serial port of NanoVNA and tinySA.
This rule creates also a symlink, either /dev/nanovna or /dev/tinysa
for recent FW versions (since 2022) that announce the device type.
The python commands will detect the serial port automatically,
but can be overruled with the option -d if you have more than one device connected.
A very simple template to explore the NanoVNA or tinySA serial communication and build own applications.
When called without options it connects to the 1st detected NanoVNA or tinySA.
The script sends the command vbat and displays the result.
It does it step-by-step with commented commands to make own modifications easy.
usage: nanotiny_communication_template.py [-h] [-d DEVICE] [-D] [-v]
options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-d DEVICE, --device DEVICE
connect to device
-D, --detect detect the NanoVNA or tinySA device and exit
-v, --verbose be verbose about the communication
A simple gateway to the NanoVNA or tinySA shell commands for use in automatisation scripts, e.g.:
./nanotiny_command.py help
Commands: scan scan_bin data frequencies freq sweep power bandwidth saveconfig clearconfig touchcal touchtest pause resume cal save recall trace marker edelay capture vbat tcxo reset smooth vbat_offset transform threshold help info version color
The same function, coded in C.
Fast command line tool that captures a screenshot from NanoVNA or tinySA and stores it as small png:
- Connect via USB serial or serial
- Autodetect the device on USB
- Issue the command 'pause' to freeze the screen
- Issue the command 'capture rle'
- Checks for a valid RLE header
- If yes, fetch and expand a compressed image
- Else fetch 320x240 or 480x320 rgb565 pixels
- Issue the command 'resume' to resume the screen update
- Disconnect from USB serial
- Convert pixels to rgba8888 values and optionally scale
- Finally store the image as png with date_time stamped name (e.g NanoVNA_20210617_153045.png)
- You can provide an output file name (-o NAME.EXT) to store also as BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG or TIFF.
The program takes less than 1 second to complete.
usage: nanotiny_capture.py [-h] [-b BAUDRATE] [-d DEVICE] [-n | --h4 | -t | -u | -p] [-i] [-o OUT] [-r]
[-s {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10}] [-v]
Capture a screenshot from NanoVNA-H, NanoVNA-H4, tinySA, tinySA Ultra or tinyPFA.
Autodetect the device when connected to USB.
Optional RLE compression if available, especially useful e.g. for slow serial connections.
options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-b BAUDRATE, --baudrate BAUDRATE
set serial baudrate
-d DEVICE, --device DEVICE
connect to serial device
-n, --nanovna use with NanoVNA-H (default)
--h4, --nanovna-h4 use with NanoVNA-H4
-t, --tinysa use with tinySA
-u, --ultra use with tinySA Ultra
-p, --tinypfa use with tinyPFA
-i, --invert invert the colors, e.g. for printing
-o OUT, --out OUT write the data into file OUT
-r, --rle try rle compression, useful for slow serial connections
-s {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10}, --scale {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10}
scale image
-v, --verbose verbose the communication progress
An even faster command line tool that captures a screenshot from NanoVNA or tinySA and stores it as small png.
It works similar to the python above and is a proof of concept how to communicate over USB serial in c.
Usage: nanotiny_capture [NANOPORT] [NAME.EXT] -> Stores screenshot as PNG unless EXT == "ppm".
Opens /dev/ttyACM0 unless the 1st argument starts with /dev/.
PNG format is provided by libpng and libpng-dev, NetPBM format needs no extra library support.
Command line tool to fetch S11, S21 or S11 & S21 parameter from NanoVNA-H. Save as S-parameter (1 port or 2 port) or Z-parameter (1 port) in "touchstone" format (rev 1.1). Connect via USB serial, issue the command, calculate, and format the response. Do it as an exercise - step by step - without using tools like scikit-rf.
usage: nanovna_snp.py [-h] [-d DEVICE] [-o [FILE]] [-c] [-t TIMEOUT] [-1 | -2 | -z]
Save S parameter from NanoVNA-H in "touchstone" format
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-d DEVICE, --device DEVICE
connect to device
-o [FILE], --out [FILE]
write output to FILE, default = <stdout>
-c, --comment add comments to output file (may break some simple tools, e.g.
octave's load("-ascii" ...))
-t TIMEOUT, --timeout TIMEOUT
timeout for data transfer (default = 3 s)
-1, --s1p store S-parameter for 1-port device (default)
-2, --s2p store S-parameter for 2-port device
-z, --z1p store Z-parameter for 1-port device
The Z-parameter are stored as normalized (R/Z0 + jX/Z0) values, as also mentioned in the comment of the data:
! NanoVNA 20230112_105451
! scan 50000 900000000 101 3
! 1-port normalized Z-parameter (R/Z0 + jX/Z0)
# HZ Z RI R 50
50000 1.042313132 0.000526267
9049500 1.047180375 0.070234472
18049000 1.052795732 0.137763222
...
891000500 0.118583454 -1.276420745
900000000 0.111755060 -1.256828212
Plot a *.s[12]p file in touchstone format. Render S11 as smith diagram and S21 (if available) as magnitude and phase into one figure.
usage: plot_snp.py [-h] [-x] infile
Plot S11 as smith chart and S22 as dB/phase
positional arguments:
infile infile in touchstone format
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-x, --xkcd draw the plot in xkcd style :)
Check S parameter files for values with |S11| > 1 that may indicate a calibration issue.
usage: check_s11.py [-h] [-i INFILE | -r] [-v]
Check all touchstone files in current directory for values with |S11| > 1
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-i INFILE, --infile INFILE
check only the touchstone file INFILE
-r, --recursive check also all touchstone files in subdirectories
-v, --verbose display all checked files, more mismatch details
Remote control for the NanoVNA or tinySA - mirror the screen to your PC and operate the device with the mouse.
The keys + and - zoom in and out, s takes a screenshot with timestamp, ESC quits the program.
usage: nanovna_remote.py [-h] [-d DEVICE] [-n | --h4 | -t | --ultra] [-i] [-z {2,3,4}]
Remote control NanoVNA-H or tinySA
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-d DEVICE, --device DEVICE
connect to serial usb device
-n, --nanovna use with NanoVNA-H (default)
--h4 use with NanoVNA-H4
-t, --tinysa use with tinySA
--ultra use with tinySA Ultra
-i, --invert invert the colors, e.g. for printing of screen shots
-z {2,3,4}, --zoom {2,3,4}
zoom the screen image
Show the RTC time of NanoVNA-H or NanoVNA-H4 and sync it with the system time or calculate time deviation
usage: nanovna_time.py [-h] [-d DEVICE] [-s] [-p]
Show and sync the RTC time of NanoVNA-H or NanoVNA-H4
options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-d DEVICE, --device DEVICE
connect to device
-s, --sync sync the NanoVNA time to the system time
-p, --ppm calculate ppm deviation since last sync
Get a CSV formatted scan from the tinySA
usage: tinysa_scanraw.py [-h] [-d DEVICE] [-s START] [-e END] [-p POINTS] [-r RBW] [-c] [-v]
Get a raw scan from tinySA, formatted as csv (freq, power)
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-d DEVICE, --device DEVICE
connect to serial device
-s START, --start START
start frequency, default = 0 Hz
-e END, --end END end frequency, default = 350000000 Hz
-p POINTS, --points POINTS
Number of sweep points, default = 101
-r RBW, --rbw RBW resolution bandwidth / Hz, default = 0 (calculate RBW from scan steps)
-c, --comma use comma as decimal separator
-v, --verbose provide info about scan parameter and timing
Tool to read or write the configuration and calibration data of NanoVNA[-H|-H4] This is stored on top of flash memory, address and size depend on device and FW variant (select your device in the top lines of script)
The script saves one complete configuration block from the device.
On restore the size of the config file is checked against the flash config size.
Also the MAGIC value at file start will be checked, either TNOC for calibration
or VNOC for configuration - this is 'CONT' or 'CONV' reverse :)
This check helps a little bit to avoid the usage of wrong data.
usage:
nanovna_config.sh SAVE [FILENAME]
if FILENAME is omitted an unique name is created, e.g.:
NanoVNA-H_5_slots_config_DATE_TIME.bin
or:
nanovna_config.sh RESTORE FILENAME
Tool to process the config data block of a NanoVNA-H retrieved with nanovna_config.sh
and save the data as individual files for each calibration slot and global config data
or transfer the config file into the opposite format (5 slot format <-> 8 slot format).
usage: nanovna_config_split.py [-h] [-p PREFIX] [-s] [-t] infile
positional arguments:
infile config file
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-p PREFIX, --prefix PREFIX
prefix for output files, default: NV-H
-s, --split split config file into individual slot files
-t, --transfer transfer 5 slot format <-> 8 slot format
The individual slot files can be downloaded to the NanoVNA-H with the program "dfu-util"
dfu-util --device 0483:df11 --alt 0 --dfuse-address ADDR --download SLOTFILE
ADDR depends on the FW, either DiSlord´s originalFW or FW modified by Ho-Ro
DiSlord´s originalFW FW modified by Ho-Ro
==================== ====================
SLOT ADDR SLOT ADDR
0 0x08013800
1 0x08015000
2 0x08016800
0 0x08018000 3 0x08018000
1 0x08019800 4 0x08019800
2 0x0801B000 5 0x0801B000
3 0x0801C800 6 0x0801C800
4 0x0801E000 7 0x0801E000
config 0x0801F800 config 0x0801F800
In my FW modification, I omitted the SD functions because my NanoVNA-H HW V3.4 does not have an SD card slot. The increased free flash memory can be used to store 8 calibration slots instead of 5.