qVNAmax, the software to control VNA Max vector network analyzers

Introduction

qVNAmax is an open source software to control various antenna analyzers based on IW3HEV design. Those analyzers can measure impedance of antenna (or other circuit) connected to its terminals in a frequency range from near 0 to 70, 180, or 500MHz, depending on DDS chip used. Some of them can also measure transmittance of two port circuits (filters, transmission lines).

qVNAmax is written in C++, using Qt4 framework, with Qwt widgets for ploting display. The QtSerialPort library is used for serial and USB communication support. The software was written for GNU Linux operating system, but can be ported to other operating systems. The software is released on GNU GPL version 3 license.

Supported hardware

original analyzer by IW3HEV (Funkamateur 12/2004) - parallel port,
its development VNA 3p2 by SP3SWJ - parallel port,
the above with serial/USB adapter,
niniVNA (USB) - untested,
MAX 2, MAX 3 and MAX6 analyzers by SP3SWJ

Features

The supported features are:

measurement of reflectance of a RF circuit (SWR, return loss, impedance),
return loss extension to 40dB mod,
measurement of transmitance (if supported by analyzer),
RF frequency generation,
graphical presentation of measurement results,
readout at two markers,
indication of the minimum SWR point,
printing results to PDF file,
saving and retrieving files in several formats

binary (standard),
binary (gVNA),
comma separated,

support for parallel port, serial and USB devices,
support for up to 4 different devices.

Parallel port mode requires direct access to IO ports, so most likely the software has to be run with root privileges. For serial / USB mode, the software can (and should) be run by an unprivileged user, providing he has read/write rights to given interface.

Screenshot

Main window screenshot (version 0.3.1):

Source code

The source code is available on the download page:
http://www.ire.pw.edu.pl/~wkazubski/software/qvnamax-0.3.3.tar.gz
Development code is available on GitHub:
https://github.com/wkazubski/qVNAmax

Required items

Qt4, version 4.7.0 or greater,
QtSerialPort library (for Qt4),
Qwt library, version 5.2.2, 6.0.1 or greater,
C++ build environment (compiler, etc.).

The source tarball of QtSerialPort library can be downloaded from:
http://www.ire.pw.edu.pl/~wkazubski/software/qtserialport-0.0.20121214.tar.gz

Recommended items

Qwt-rmb library for right mouse click support

Marker 2 can be placed in desired point of the plot by clicking right mouse button.
The source tarball of Qwt-rmb library can be downloaded from:
http://www.ire.pw.edu.pl/~wkazubski/software/qwt-rmb-6.0.1.tar.gz
http://www.ire.pw.edu.pl/~wkazubski/software/qwt-rmb-6.1.0.tar.gz
http://www.ire.pw.edu.pl/~wkazubski/software/qwt-rmb-6.1.1.tar.gz
Choose the same version as Qwt library used by the system.

Basic installation


> qmake qvnamax.pro

> make

> su

> make install

qmake options

install into specified location (/usr):
      PREFIX=/usr

right mouse button support:
      CONFIG+=qwt-rmb

add parallel port support for AD9851 based devices:
      CONFIG+=ad9851

add parallel port support for AD9951 based devices (not working yet):
      CONFIG+=ad9951

enable test input data:
      CONFIG+=test

add several options simultaneously:
      "CONFIG += ad9851 test"

Binary packages

Binary packages for Fedora 20, Fedora 21, Fedora 22, openSUSE 13.1, openSUSE 13.2 and openSUSE Tumbleweed are available at https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/home:wkazubski/qvnamax on Opensuse Bulid Service. Select apropriate distro, enter download repository and download binary package from subdirectory suitable for your architecture.
You can add repository URL like this

http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/wkazubski/openSUSE_13.2/

to yum or zypper repositories (replace openSUSE_13.2 with your distro name) to get automatic updates.

If you can build binary package for other distro (Debian, Ubuntu, etc) supported by OBS, please send me the build script (spec or dsc file).
If you port the program to another operating system, let me know too.

Contacts

For more information or comments:
Wojciech Kazubski w.kazubski at ire pw edu pl

Thanks

Some parts are taken from gVNA by Davide Tosatti IW3HEV and J. C. Remis
also, thanks to authors of numerous code examples, posts on forums, etc.

qVNAmax