Products > Test Equipment

Do I need more test equipment?

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TomKatt:

--- Quote from: chrisb741 on September 20, 2023, 02:16:10 pm ---What is a good logic analyser? Surely the $10 can't be that good

--- End quote ---
Don't knock the cheap clones - for many tasks they can do what you need and the open source Sigrock software has a lot of decoding options.   The main limitation with the cheap clones is their lower bandwidth and lack of onboard memory (they also lack input protection and I think have fewer triggering options).  If you go the cheap route I would check out the Sigrok wiki for supported hardware to make sure the clone you are looking at is fully supported.  https://sigrok.org/wiki/Supported_hardware#Logic_analyzers

When I bought my LA a few years ago I shopped around and the DS Logic Plus seemed like the best overall value, offering 400Mhz max sample rate and 16G sample depth with the option to stream real time data over usb for $150 (closer to $100 on eBay).  DS Logic has their own proprietary fork of Sigrok named DS View that I've found very easy to use and has many decoding options.  400Mhz sample rate is good for 100Mhz data signals.

Other popular alternatives are the Saleae Logic 8 and Digilent's Digital Discovery, but both are also more expensive.

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

Edit - just a caution that if you search the web you will find a lower cost model from DS Logic sold overseas (non "Plus") - but that is an older, less capable version that was discontinued a while back.  Not sure if these asian sellers have old stock or if they are knockoffs (more likely).  Avoid the 'non-Plus' version.

dmulligan:
You have made bigger gambles at restaurants or bars than one of these logic analyzers will cost you.  For $7-10 you will be surprised at how capable it is while working with an Arduino and other microcontrollers.  The bandwidth is high enough for many of those applications and you can still fall back to your oscilloscope for your high bandwidth needs.

TLDR; For $10 try it, you might like it.

tggzzz:

--- Quote from: chrisb741 on September 20, 2023, 12:30:12 pm ---LA wont record analog signals

--- End quote ---

Oscilloscope won't record digital signals, it only records analogue waveforms. Whatever receives such analogue waveforms may interpret them as digital signals.

A primary use case of an oscilloscope is to observe the analogue waveforms to ensure that they should be correctly interpreted by the receiver - typically voltage levels, transition times, setup and hold times.

After a scope has shown correct "signal integrity" (a sub-discipline in its own right), then it is often better to switch to the digital domain, and use digital tools such as logic analysers, protocol analysers, and printf() statements.

TomKatt:

--- Quote from: dmulligan on September 20, 2023, 04:21:18 pm ---You have made bigger gambles at restaurants or bars than one of these logic analyzers will cost you.  For $7-10 you will be surprised at how capable it is while working with an Arduino and other microcontrollers.  The bandwidth is high enough for many of those applications and you can still fall back to your oscilloscope for your high bandwidth needs.

TLDR; For $10 try it, you might like it.

--- End quote ---
What I should have said - more succinctly - is that one of those $10 clones potentially offers better serial decoding abilities than the decoding feature built into entry level scopes like the DS1054Z and the SDS1104X etc.

Edit - Amazon has a Sigrok compatible clone with micro-hooks for $14
https://www.amazon.com/KeeYees-Analyzer-Device-Channel-Arduino/dp/B07K6HXDH1

When I first got my LA I hooked it up to a usb serial port and used Putty to loop a few text files and captured the serial data with the LA.  It was an easy way to play around and learn the LA software, especially for things like pattern matching.  Then I programmed an AVR to do the same idea over SPI etc.  It's helpful when you have known good data to play with, so when the time comes to debug something you know how to set the software up.

JOFlaherty:
This is more of a tool than a piece of test equipment, but a multi-row breadboard with an addition: fixed terminals to attach test equipment leads and power supply wires securely. The last 6 inches of the connection can be made by Dupont jumper wires. Then there's less chance of things being pulled out during testing.

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