TinySA Counterfeit Warning 

Thank you for confirming their business practices. I will NOT buy any more from AliExpress.

It´s scary. Sorry for you. After seeing your video, I gave up to buy a TinySA from Ali Express. I´ve just placed an order from R&L Electronics. Ali Express refused to take your evidences, it´s quite clear. Ali Express, never again. Totally unsafe. Greetings from Brazil.

Thank you for sharing your bad experiences about these clones with us. You saved us a lot of trouble and spent money for nothing.

If you were to plug "stopband fail" into a search engine, the first hit links to a post asking about a self test 7 failure on a new unit. The link also includes a reply from some dude named Erik Kaashoek: Ah, test 7, the band pass filter. The critical part of the stop band is at a rather large offset of -4MHz from center (at the far left of the screen) so this will not have any impact on the performance of the tinySA. The shape of the band pass filter is excellent. I may have set this selftest a bit too strict given the (at the moment of definition) not know spread over a large amount of products.

Good explanation. Refreshing to see that I'm not the only one with dozens of tab's open at any one time 😅

Very useful information about buying this kind of thing, very good tips on precautions to take. Ali Express doesn't exactly distinguish themselves.

I have recently purchased a TinySA through R&L Electronics, and can't wait for it to show up! I was bit by the counterfeit market with a fake NanoVNA, but I wasn't out much, thankfully! The real unit works very well, and makes VNA measurements a breeze. But the ability to hook it to my computer and use the monitor is a big help with my eyes, and the ability to do the same with the Tiny SA was a big plus in my decision to buy it.

Thanks so much for this, I think you may have saved me from a lot of angst. I will certainly be taking your advice.

Good Information

Thanks for that, been meaning to brush up a bit on my rf stuff and get one of these, I'll take extra care where i spend my dosh!.

Since the TinySa project is open source, could an individual take the gEDA files and schematics from get hub, send them to a PCB manufacturer and essentially build their own TinySa? Thanks for the video! BTW , nice Lastname -Jason Burchell

thank you so much!!!!

Thank you !

I understand and sympathize with your experience. Yes, Aliexpress can be hit and miss but just because there are some bad apples selling on the platform doesn't necessarily mean Aliexpress should be avoided, I'm a regular shopper there and my experience has been mostly good, the occasional issue has been sorted out for me but I appreciate your case being a tricky one!

thanks for this video, i was about to buy one from same place.

FYI the version string "tinySA_v1.1-66-g2015f17" looks like the output of the "git describe" command, which can be interpreted as: "commit SHA-1 hash starting with 2015f17 (hex) which is 66 commits after tag tinySA_v1.1 in the history". Of course this doesn't tell much about what was changed, for that one would need an access to the actual source repository.

You mentioned that since it failed the full self test it could not be relied upon for accuracy. Did you assume this or did you actually put the clone thru a series of measurement tests and comparing them to an original unit? If you did it would be nice to know the results. Thanks for the video.

Can you not claim through your Credit Card protection? Also, is the problem fixable? I.e could you get the proper parts and replace to make it pass the test?

Hi Melvyn, your video provoked me to check mine. Fortunately it appears to be genuine, Unusually I have not looked inside but it was not running the "patched" firmware and does have "HIGH" spelt correctly. Have just uploaded the very latest NOV 2022 firmware (V1.3-504) and it continues to pass self test.

Thanks for this info, Melvym . I'm on the verge of buying the Big Brother Tiny SA Ultra, which I'm sure will similarly attract fakers. Mirfield are the place to go, I think. Forty more quid but peace of mind. "Caveat Emptor" as someone once said .

Should you not recalibrate the device before the sef test after reflashing the firmware?

Is there also a counterfeit tiny SA Ultra?

Just more Chinese junk. I bought mine from R&L Electronics and it works great. I don't think the Chinese can design anything themselves. They have to copy everything. Great well-docuemented video. Maybe it will save someone else the grief you had to go thru.

I have just disputed payment on my credit card when they give me hard time about refunds.

I got ripped off on Amazon. I don’t even feel like trying with these gadgets anymore. Juice not worth the squeeze

As with ANY online purchase you have to do your due diligence don't just look at price.

This is why I don't buy from AliExpress or Banggood or any of those RIP OFF trash companies.

Well... a lot of bla bla around a 1 minute test described on the website in 10 lines... no proof of what the real difference is in measuring or signal generating . Maybe it´s still usable for people who just want to see spurious signals or harmonics for a small amount of money ?. Someone else was describing the differences much deeper and , honestly, my 25000$ 1980 Ailtech is probably not more reliable than this clone... i still can use it for what i need mostly. ( i own a genuine ultra )

You overwhelmed them with information they couldn’t easily understand, so it became a he said/she said. If you had just said “failed self-test” then it would have been fine. I think in particular, pointing out the mis-spelling would trigger “this guy is a whiner, a misspelling is no big deal.” Also, they don’t know what a “project owner” is. The vendor did a good job of adding to the “noise” by making irrelevant comments that they claimed refuted your comments, even though they had nothing to do with anything. Obviously this isn’t about the money. Everyone involved has spent more time than is warranted for a sub-$100 project. :)

I don’t think they’re clones. I think they are units that were rejected in quality control and were somehow obtained by a seller who tried to sell as authentic.

Thank you, it's clearly a fake.

I am now in the market for a TinySA or a TinySA Ultra. Banggood are offering the Ultra for about £ 100.00. Obviously I am not able to check the Serial Number or the Firmware Version until I have the device to hand. I have just subscribed to Erik's RU-vid channel "just in case".

I no have clue about this device,,does it hocking naibor wifi and clone other stuff? feel free t answer, I'm not able to buy or do any things

Mine from Zeenko was patched .

I'd guess that 90+% of the things that Ali sells are knockoffs of one thing or another. It's what they do. You've proven it's a knock off, and demonstrated that Ali doesn't care. That's useful. You've proven that you likely can't trust the data from the device, but you haven't proven that the device doesn't work. Those are two separate things. I basically view Ali as a company without any ethics. But, here in the US, we kind of expect companies to not have any ethics. If you contract with thieves to manufacturer your product, don't be surprised that the thieves will rip you off. That's how clones are often started. The original designer outsources the manufacturer to overseas production. They do that to lower the price point, but it comes at a cost.

So many clones.

Ok? So nowhere in the video are you actually USING the thing? It's a counterfeit, sure, but does it work?? Can it actually "analyze spectrums" as it's supposed to do?

It DID pass the "self test," initially. Why was its performance not then tested? Nowhere, in this video, is any testing done. A proper test would be, to feed it a square wave, and see if the frequencies and amplitudes, of the harmonics, are what they should be. Ideally, the result should be compared with that of a "real" spectrum analyzer, to make sure the waveform, itself, contains no unexpected distortion. Who cares what "firmware" version it has, whether it has a serial number, whether it was made by Hottentots in a thatch-roofed shop in the Kalahari, etc, etc. "The proof of the pudding is in the eating."

You are buying it at what is the internet equivalent of a flee market. What do you expect? A clever shopper can get some great deals but shopping there for precision equipment is silly.

Welcome to Chinese goods...