Buying MSO5074/PLA2216

[sairfan1]

I currently have Siglent 1104X-E with logic analyzer SLA1016, I'm happy with oscilloscope but its logic analyzer is horrible, i just wasted my money, its realy hard to setup, first you setup Protocol channels in setup section then again you setup same thing in Decoder and logic analyzer probes, still to set voltage threashold for each channel, there is nothing like quickly set for TTL levels etc. (I will make a separate post for that)

Now I'm going to buy Rigol MSO5074 with PLA2216 logic analyzer probs, I want to know if anyone have good or bad experience with this scope/logic analyzer? unfortunatly most of the reviews focus on oscilloscope capabilities or hardware but not logic analyzer. I want to know:

How easy is it to setup as logic analyzer, what about logic analyzer performance?
For serial data decode is there some easy hack available?
Anyone used it with PC software?

an-other option could be DHO924S I'm not familier with this one, how this scope is copairable to MSO5070

I have Pulseview software, it was showing wrong readings after hours of work I tested it with my current siglent that showed actually those values were correct as expected, but there are other issues with siglent as described above and also it gets freez while using logic analyzer specially when you increase time scale that means setup it again, I do not want a very cheap solution, I hardly get time for my hobby work and do not want to waste time in setting up things.'

[bidrohini1]

 DHO924S seems like a less common choice. It's better to check the amazon reviews before making a decision.

[mwb1100]

Check the DHO800/900 threads about the 900's logic analyzer.  It seems to have some limitations related to the sampling rate and maybe some other things.

If you're looking to decode serial data you generally don't need a LA option with an oscilloscope - they can serial decode from the analog inputs.

Another route I'd suggest looking into is a stand-alone LA if you don't need to look at analog & digital signals simultaneous with analog.  There are lots of options that are generally much less than the cost of an oscilloscope's LA option, much less adding the cost of the oscilloscope itself.  I've been happy with my DSLogic knockoff from ebay, but like I said - lost of option.  Depending on your needs (which you should elaborate), you might be able to get good results with a $10-20 clone of the original Saleae.

[sairfan1]

I am not sure if I understand it correctly, digital logic probs for 16 channel are costing $527
MSO5074 needs separate licenses for I2C/SPI, CAN/LIN and RS232/UART

Each lincese costs $395 (before tax) that means if you need all decoding options you have to pay $1,185 for software only
That means all togather if you want logic analyzer you have to spend $1712 in addition to scope price, is not that sound crazy

[abeyer]

I am not sure if I understand it correctly, digital logic probs for 16 channel are costing $527
MSO5074 needs separate licenses for I2C/SPI, CAN/LIN and RS232/UART

Each lincese costs $395 (before tax) that means if you need all decoding options you have to pay $1,185 for software only
That means all togather if you want logic analyzer you have to spend $1712 in addition to scope price, is not that sound crazy

I think that's exactly what mwb1100 was pointing out -- the price of adding LA features to a scope is considerably more than an inexpensive standalone LA. If you don't actually need the ability to correlate your LA signals with analog ones, that's not a cost effective route.

But also, there are frequeuntly sales/bundles that include lots of the software options free or cheap with a scope purchase, and there's the code generator to get them "free" yourself. There's also a thread or two here about a less expensive DIY probe design for the 5000.

[thm_w]

Surely on the siglent you can save the configuration and recall it at a later time no?
But if you don't like the siglent setup, unlikely you'd care for the rigol either. Low end scopes don't have good polished inbuilt LA's.

For the price of the logic probes alone you can get a DSLogic logic analyzer which is far more intuitive and friendly to use, or some other equivalent.

Be more specific about what you are doing:
- Probing one serial channel to verify software you wrote?
- Probing 16 bit parallel bus and comparing to analog?
- etc

[sairfan1]

DSLogic analyzer lets give it a try, I checked on ebay it has lots of varients from about $140/$220 up to $423 and $631
I want to know which model works better

[sairfan1]

I believe I found their official site and going to buy following

https://www.dreamsourcelab.com/shop/logic-analyzer/dslogic-u3pro16/

[mwb1100]

I am not sure if I understand it correctly, digital logic probs for 16 channel are costing $527
MSO5074 needs separate licenses for I2C/SPI, CAN/LIN and RS232/UART

Each lincese costs $395 (before tax) that means if you need all decoding options you have to pay $1,185 for software only
That means all togather if you want logic analyzer you have to spend $1712 in addition to scope price, is not that sound crazy

As far as the licenses go, there are threads on eevblog forum with instructions for hacking the firmware to provide all licenses (including bandwidth upgrade to 350MHz) for the MSO5000 series.  This doesn't do anything for the LA of course.

Link to a post with the basics: Hacking the Rigol MSO5000 series oscilloscopes