I just got a mini SA board from dunehven.com. My goal was to write a flex UI for a spectrum analyzer. Somr ething I’ve done at work but unable to demo or discuss. So I’ve been looking for a cheap spectrum analyzer to supply the rf data. I’ve been considering a wi-spy but am unable to bring myself to buying a $200 device for this project. Ebay never gave me joy on finding a cheaper model. I’ve bidded on 2 or 3 models bug gave up at 120 dollars.

Then I found the MiniSA for $50 at dunehaven. Just from the specs it looks like it is better than the Wi-spy. However it is a little bit bulkier because in addition to the $50 SA you must buy a open source .Arduino board (~40). I like this solution better because I wanted to get into the AVR microcontrollers anyway.

First impressions of the MINISA is that the software is pretty minimal compared to what I’ve seen Wi-spy does. Wi-spy gives you templates, Spectrum screen, waterfall graphs, statistical displays and all sorts of daemon software.

MiniSA’s windows only client is a minimal Spectrum screen.

The other problem is that minisa’s usb protocol is not documented. I have email out to the designer hoping he will give me some info. Until then I might try my hand at some USB snooping.