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NanoVNA-X Menu & Workflow Reference

This guide documents the on-device menu tree implemented in the current NanoVNA-X firmware. The hierarchy is sourced from src/ui/ui.c; optional entries are noted with their guarding compile-time macros so you can match your build configuration.

Navigation basics

  • Every submenu automatically appends a ← BACK item that returns to the previous level.
  • Buttons with checkboxes toggle immediately; highlighted entries generally expose live status (for example, the colour of the active trace).
  • Numeric fields open the on-screen keypad. Engineering suffixes (k, M, G, etc.) and the selected digit separator are honoured.

Top-level menu bar

Entry Purpose
CAL Keysight/R&S-style calibration hub for standards, ranges, and slot management.
STIMULUS Sweep start/stop, CW mode, jog controls, and point-count presets.
DISPLAY Trace visibility, formats, scaling, and marker operations.
MEASURE DSP helpers (transform, smoothing), IF bandwidth, measurement assistants.
SYSTEM Touch utilities, configuration persistence, RTC, and hardware settings.
SD CARD Removable-media workflows: save/load, screenshots, firmware dumps, and card maintenance.
PAUSE/RESUME SWEEP Toggles the continuous sweep engine (PAUSE while running, RESUME once halted).

CAL menu

CAL WIZARD

  • CAL WIZARD opens the classic calibration assistant with ordered steps OPEN, SHORT, LOAD, ISOLN, THRU, followed by DONE (persist to flash) and DONE IN RAM (apply without saving). Completed standards show a check mark.
  • CAL RANGE reports the stored point count and frequency span for the active calibration. Invoking the entry re-applies those limits (and the recorded power) when the calibration was interpolated.
  • CAL POWER selects Si5351 drive strength. Choose AUTO for adaptive control or one of the explicit currents (2–8 mA).
  • ENHANCED RESPONSE enables or disables the enhanced-response algorithm.
  • LOAD STD (with __VNA_Z_RENORMALIZATION__) lets you edit the nominal load impedance used during calibration.

CAL MANAGE

  • CAL APPLY toggles correction without discarding coefficients.
  • CAL RESET clears the working calibration (enhanced-response state is preserved).

SAVE/RECALL

This companion submenu mirrors the slot operations for field workflows:

  • SAVE CAL / RECALL CAL provide immediate access to calibration storage without stepping through the CAL WIZARD flow.
  • CAL APPLY and CAL RESET duplicate the toggles so you can quickly switch correction on/off after recalling a slot.

STIMULUS menu

  • START, STOP, CENTER, SPAN — keypad-driven sweep boundaries.
  • CW FREQ — sets a fixed continuous-wave frequency (the sweep pauses until you resume it manually).
  • FREQ STEP — adjusts the coarse tuning step used by the jog controls.
  • JOG STEP — toggles between automatic increments and the value entered via keypad.
  • SET POINTS — direct keypad entry for arbitrary sweep point counts.
  • MORE PTS — opens additional point count presets submenu with preset buttons and SET POINTS option.

DISPLAY menu

Traces and formats

  • TRACES — toggles TRACE 0–TRACE 3. Selecting an enabled trace focuses it; disabled traces are turned on. When STORED_TRACES is enabled, additional entries allow storing and recalling frozen traces.
  • FORMAT S11 — lists all reflection formats for the active trace: LOGMAG, PHASE, DELAY, SMITH, SWR, RESISTANCE, REACTANCE, |Z|, with nested MORE pages for POLAR, LINEAR, REAL, IMAG, Q FACTOR, CONDUCTANCE, SUSCEPTANCE, |Y|, Z PHASE, SERIES/SHUNT/ PARALLEL component views.
  • FORMAT S21 — equivalent menu for transmission formats. The MORE branch exposes shunt/series impedance and Q-factor views.
  • CHANNEL — swaps the focused trace between reflection (CH0) and transmission (CH1).

Scaling

  • SCALE — provides AUTO SCALE, manual TOP, BOTTOM, SCALE/DIV, REFERENCE POSITION, E-DELAY, S21 OFFSET, and (with __USE_GRID_VALUES__) toggles for grid overlays.

Markers

Markers now live directly under DISPLAY:

  • MARKERS -> opens the marker control surface.
    • SELECT MARKER lists every slot allowed by MARKERS_MAX. Active markers show CHECK icons; the currently driven marker shows AUTO in its icon. Buttons ALL OFF and DELTA appear below the list.
    • SEARCH -> opens the search submenu:
      • SEARCH displays the current search mode (MAXIMUM/MINIMUM).
      • TRACKING toggles marker tracking.
      • SEARCH ← LEFT and SEARCH -> RIGHT jump to the next extremum in each direction.
    • OPERATIONS -> opens the operations submenu:
      • MOVE START/STOP/CENTER/SPAN transfer the highlighted marker (or marker pair) into the corresponding sweep parameter.
      • MARKER E-DELAY applies the measured delay to the active trace.
    • DELTA enables delta mode.

MEASURE menu

This menu consolidates DSP helpers and measurement assistants.

  • TRANSFORM — toggles time-domain transform, select filter (LOW PASS IMPULSE, LOW PASS STEP, BANDPASS), choose window shape, and edit the velocity factor.
  • DATA SMOOTH (with __USE_SMOOTH__) — choose between OFF and the compiled averaging depths. A status button shows the geometry (Arith/Geom) toggle.
  • MEASURE (with __VNA_MEASURE_MODULE__) — context-aware measurement modes. The entry opens the specialised submenu tied to the current mode (L/C match, cable length, resonance, S21 fixtures, filter). Each specialised view exposes the parameters described in the firmware (velocity factor, load R, cable length, etc.).
  • IF BANDWIDTH — lists the synthesiser bandwidth presets compiled for the target board.
  • PORT-Z (with __VNA_Z_RENORMALIZATION__) — edits the reference impedance for S11 processing.

SYSTEM menu

System utilities

  • TOUCH CAL / TOUCH TEST — touch calibration and verification utilities.
  • BRIGHTNESS (with __LCD_BRIGHTNESS__) — adjusts LCD backlight duty cycle.
  • SAVE CONFIG — forces configuration plus any pending autosave data to flash.
  • VERSION — displays firmware build metadata.
  • DATE/TIME (with __USE_RTC__) — provides SET DATE, SET TIME, RTC CAL, and RTC 512 Hz / LED2 output control.

Device (expert settings)

  • DEVICE -> opens advanced hardware controls:
    • THRESHOLD, TCXO, VBAT OFFSET — keypad-entry system constants.
    • IF OFFSET (with USE_VARIABLE_OFFSET_MENU) — choose from compiled IF offsets.
    • REMEMBER STATE (with __USE_BACKUP__) — enables the autosave daemon that snapshots sweep/UI state shortly after edits.
    • FLIP DISPLAY (with __FLIP_DISPLAY__) — mirror the LCD.
    • DFU (with __DFU_SOFTWARE_MODE__) — soft boots into the DFU ROM (path: System -> Device -> DFU).
    • MORE -> exposes manufacturing tools:
      • MODE — select the Si5351-compatible synthesiser variant.
      • SEPARATOR (with __DIGIT_SEPARATOR__) — choose decimal/comma formatting.
      • USB DEVICE UID (with __USB_UID__) — toggle use of the MCU unique ID for USB enumeration.
      • CLEAR CONFIG -> contains CLEAR ALL AND RESET, which wipes flash-stored configuration.
  • CONNECTION (with __USE_SERIAL_CONSOLE__) — switch the shell transport between USB CDC and the UART bridge; select the UART bit rate.

SD CARD menu

  • LOAD (with __SD_FILE_BROWSER__) — opens the browser filtered by extension (SCREENSHOT, S1P, S2P, CAL) so you can load screenshots, Touchstone files, or calibration sets directly on the instrument.
  • SAVE S1P / SAVE S2P — capture the current sweep into S1P or S2P using calibrated data.
  • SCREENSHOT — dumps the LCD as BMP or (when IMAGE FORMAT is set to TIF) as a compact PackBits-compressed TIFF.
  • SAVE CALIBRATION — copies the active calibration to the SD card for archival or transfer.
  • IMAGE FORMAT (with __SD_CARD_DUMP_TIFF__) — toggles the screenshot container between BMP and TIF.
  • FORMAT SD (with FF_USE_MKFS) — unmounts the card, runs FatFs f_mkfs with FM_FAT, remounts, and reports success/failure. Use this when a card was re-partitioned externally or you need a clean Keysight-style single-volume layout.

Sweep control button

The final button reflects the sweep status: PAUSE SWEEP while sweeping, RESUME SWEEP when halted. Press it to toggle the background sweep and update the label/icon.

USB console prompt behaviour

Automation clients rely on the USB shell prompt. Each session starts with \r\nch> \r\nNanoVNA Shell\r\nch> so host software can synchronise on the prompt before parsing the banner.

This document mirrors the defaults in include/nanovna.h and include/runtime/runtime_features.h. Disable a feature flag at build time and the related menu entries disappear automatically.