Sale Ended - Digilent Analog Discovery 2 - $159

[TomWinTejas]

I'm not selling mine, but Digilent is offering them brand new at 60% off as part of their Cyber Week sale.  Originally $399.00 and now $159.60.  I believe it's today, Friday 12/2, only.

https://digilent.com/shop/cyber-week-daily-deals

[David Aurora]

I'm not selling mine, but Digilent is offering them brand new at 60% off as part of their Cyber Week sale.  Originally $399.00 and now $159.60.  I believe it's today, Friday 12/2, only.

https://digilent.com/shop/cyber-week-daily-deals

It's an absolute steal at that price, I seriously considered buying a second one when I saw that. Without a doubt the handiest little electronics tool I've ever bought, I originally just got it for literally one task but have found myself reaching for it so often now

[Xtremexp]

you can get additional 10% discount by using coupon code "NEWSLETTER"

[Kean]

Wow, very tempting.  Pity the only shipping option to Australia is FedEx at USD50.
Trying to tell myself I don't need one, as I have an AD1 and no shortage of other test gear.

[bingo600]

Wow, very tempting.  Pity the only shipping option to Australia is FedEx at USD50.
Trying to tell myself I don't need one, as I have an AD1 and no shortage of other test gear.

I just paid $65 for FedEX to DK 
But i had to ..... 

Missed the Coupon code though

[james_s]

Hm never really was all that excited about those things but that's a deal, free shipping to the US too, decided to snag one.

[pope]

Wow, very tempting.  Pity the only shipping option to Australia is FedEx at USD50.
Trying to tell myself I don't need one, as I have an AD1 and no shortage of other test gear.

I just paid $65 for FedEX to DK 
But i had to ..... 

Missed the Coupon code though

What Coupon code? Supposedly, it doesn't need any coupon.

I'm into analog audio electronics and I already have an analog scope and a generator, a siglent scope & AWG, an interface + software.

Do I really need the AD2?

I think not but please prove me wrong 

[PA0PBZ]

What Coupon code? Supposedly, it doesn't need any coupon.

No, it doesn't NEED one, but:

[Kean]

I decided not to get one - but I convinced my brother to buy one for himself, and maybe one for my nephew. 

[_Wim_]

It appears the deal is finished...

What a deal, but as I already have an AD1, I did not jump onto this.

[james_s]

Frankly I think $399 is much too high a price and not worth it, the old price of $199 was about right and this sale was a nice discount off of that.

[Old Printer]

Have to agree with James, and I love my Analog Discovery, have an original & a 2, but for what you can get now from Rigol & Siglent not to mention lesser brands, it is a tough sell. If you are just starting out and don't have much gear besides a DMM or two it sure does fill a lot of needs. The software is excellent as well. If they could figure out how to sell it for this price normally I am sure they would sell a bunch, but my guess is that they were just cleaning out excess inventory. During Covid AD's and plenty of other stuff was unobtainable and maybe they over reacted to the market.

[james_s]

As I recall, it was $199 for a long time, then they suddenly doubled the price to $399. I understand the need to increase prices now and then but doubling overnight smacks of greed.

[Anthocyanina]

As I recall, it was $199 for a long time, then they suddenly doubled the price to $399. I understand the need to increase prices now and then but doubling overnight smacks of greed.

I think something happened between them and analog devices. A few months back i got my ad2, and on the bottom it doesn't say "ICs provided by Analog Devices" as you find in online pictures of it, but it instead says "Technology by Texas Instruments". Maybe analog devices was providing the Ics for free? as an educational incentive or something. If that was the case and something happened between them, now them having to pay (if they did get them for free before) would mean increased prices. This is all just guessing just based on what my AD2 says on the bottom

[guenthert]

As I recall, it was $199 for a long time, then they suddenly doubled the price to $399. I understand the need to increase prices now and then but doubling overnight smacks of greed.

I think something happened between them and analog devices. A few months back i got my ad2, and on the bottom it doesn't say "ICs provided by Analog Devices" as you find in online pictures of it, but it instead says "Technology by Texas Instruments". Maybe analog devices was providing the Ics for free? as an educational incentive or something. If that was the case and something happened between them, now them having to pay (if they did get them for free before) would mean increased prices. This is all just guessing just based on what my AD2 says on the bottom

I doubt Analog Devices emits hardware for free.  They sell their own evaluation boards at a stiff price.

Rather what happened was that Digilent was acquired by National Instruments and NI just doesn't do cheap.

[Anthocyanina]

As I recall, it was $199 for a long time, then they suddenly doubled the price to $399. I understand the need to increase prices now and then but doubling overnight smacks of greed.

I think something happened between them and analog devices. A few months back i got my ad2, and on the bottom it doesn't say "ICs provided by Analog Devices" as you find in online pictures of it, but it instead says "Technology by Texas Instruments". Maybe analog devices was providing the Ics for free? as an educational incentive or something. If that was the case and something happened between them, now them having to pay (if they did get them for free before) would mean increased prices. This is all just guessing just based on what my AD2 says on the bottom

I doubt Analog Devices emits hardware for free.  They sell their own evaluation boards at a stiff price.

Rather what happened was that Digilent was acquired by National Instruments and NI just doesn't do cheap.

That's why I call it a guess, but it's likely they wouldn't put "ICs provided by Analog Devices" if they were buying the chips, or buying them at full cost

[james_s]

I wonder how many they're actually selling at $399 though? IMO it just isn't compelling at that price point. 

[David Aurora]

I wonder how many they're actually selling at $399 though? IMO it just isn't compelling at that price point.

I used to think that until I bought mine after briefly owning a Picoscope (and looking at other similar things in the similar price range) and honestly I think the price is justified once you begin to use it. The software is really, REALLY good and that's what the product really is* rather than the box itself (it's OK, but the lack of proper BNC connections really lets it down).

Quick example:

I bought the Picoscope in May, only to find out it didn't work for shit on Mac despite being advertised as a cross platform solution. Version 6 sucked, and version 7 was in perpetual beta with only the most basic functions sort of working. I was assured that the stable release was coming in September, October at the latest. I could wait, or I could send it back. We're now in December and it's still not done so I'm glad I chose the latter option. 

On the other hand, a while back I was setting up the function generator on the AD2 and thought it was annoying that you could only set output level in peak amplitude. I sent them a quick note asking if there was any chance in future they could add an RMS option there. I think it was less than 24 hours later I got a response with a link to a beta update where you could now choose from 6 different output level units. They're THAT responsive.

The software has been rock solid for me, it's laid out really well and it's incredibly powerful. Of course I'd have loved if it was cheaper when I bought it (I hunted and the best deal I could get was nearly $600 thanks to Australia tax), but in practice $600 for a perpetual license bit of software* that kicks ass seems OK to me. I pay something like that per year for Fusion 360 and that sucks ass.



* Yes, I realise the software is actually free and will work with sound cards and stuff like that. I'm not literally saying the software costs that much, of course you get the box for that price, just that the software is WORTH that much as a lab tool.

[james_s]

You'd think for $400 they could at least integrate a pair of BNC connectors, that would bump up the hardware cost by what, a couple dollars? 

I'm curious to try out the one I bought at the discounted price, it looks like a cool toy, but I have a BitScope DSO I bought years ago and I was never really happy with that, it's far less convenient than using a standalone scope. To me PC based test equipment never really lived up to the hype and promises. 

[David Aurora]

Yeah, it's definitely incredibly weird that they didn't at least put the scope inputs on BNC (or offer an insulated breakout box instead of a bare PCB). I'd have to think that's cost them a tonne of sales over the years

[james_s]

Well this showed up already but then I realized I don't really know what to do with it. I already have a multiple standalone oscilloscopes, a logic analyzer, AWG, counter, PSU, multimeter etc on my workbench. What is the killer app for the AD2 that makes so many people rave about it? I'm trying to decide whether to keep it or flip it on ebay to buy some other toy. Is there something unique or fun I can do with this that I can't do with my standalone instruments?

[TomWinTejas]

Well this showed up already but then I realized I don't really know what to do with it. I already have a multiple standalone oscilloscopes, a logic analyzer, AWG, counter, PSU, multimeter etc on my workbench. What is the killer app for the AD2 that makes so many people rave about it? I'm trying to decide whether to keep it or flip it on ebay to buy some other toy. Is there something unique or fun I can do with this that I can't do with my standalone instruments?

I've got mine for portable use since I can use it with my laptop.  I also bought the impedance analyzer and transistor curve tracer addons because I thought they might be useful... they were on sale earlier in the week.  I don't see myself using it often, but I also didn't pay much for mine, I got it used before the prices were outrageous.. so I could definitely see someone flipping it on eBay.

[rsjsouza]

Well this showed up already but then I realized I don't really know what to do with it. I already have a multiple standalone oscilloscopes, a logic analyzer, AWG, counter, PSU, multimeter etc on my workbench. What is the killer app for the AD2 that makes so many people rave about it? I'm trying to decide whether to keep it or flip it on ebay to buy some other toy. Is there something unique or fun I can do with this that I can't do with my standalone instruments?

I put one on the cart and, before pulling the trigger, I realized the same thing as you: it would be lost in the middle of other equipment that I have, including very capable USB units such as the Kingst LA2016 logic analyzer and the Owon VDS1022i oscilloscope.
At that price it might also be a hard flip if many in the US took advantage of the promo.

[james_s]

I put one on the cart and, before pulling the trigger, I realized the same thing as you: it would be lost in the middle of other equipment that I have, including very capable USB units such as the Kingst LA2016 logic analyzer and the Owon VDS1022i oscilloscope.
At that price it might also be a hard flip if many in the US took advantage of the promo.

Yeah it was a limited time offer that seemed like a good deal and I kept hearing people raving about these things so I jumped on it, but now I realize it is pretty much just a much less capable version of gear I already have and the PC based TE is the stuff I use the least because it's cumbersome to juggle with everything else I'm using the PC for. I think I'll sleep on it for a bit and then decide what to do but I'm definitely leaning toward selling. I should be able to get back what i paid at least, there will be people that missed the sale.

[rsjsouza]

I put one on the cart and, before pulling the trigger, I realized the same thing as you: it would be lost in the middle of other equipment that I have, including very capable USB units such as the Kingst LA2016 logic analyzer and the Owon VDS1022i oscilloscope.
At that price it might also be a hard flip if many in the US took advantage of the promo.

Yeah it was a limited time offer that seemed like a good deal and I kept hearing people raving about these things so I jumped on it, but now I realize it is pretty much just a much less capable version of gear I already have and the PC based TE is the stuff I use the least because it's cumbersome to juggle with everything else I'm using the PC for. I think I'll sleep on it for a bit and then decide what to do but I'm definitely leaning toward selling. I should be able to get back what i paid at least, there will be people that missed the sale.

It indeed is a reasonable price for a road warrior that needs to carry a reasonable set of test gear - the AD2 wouldn't impose too much since a laptop would probably be already part of your set. For others, the use is more limited.

But overall I am pretty sure you will lose nothing with your purchase - at this price the interest is still high.