eBay clone Saleae Logic 16

[g0mgx]

Hi Gang

I've just bought myself an eBay sourced Saleae Logic 16. I use Win 7 and it appears listed in Device Manager as "Saleae Logic16 USB Logic Analyzer", but when I try to use the device in PulseView it is listed in the device dropdown menu, but selecting it results in "No Device" remaining as the selection.

I've read the Wiki for what may (or may not) be the device I have, but it's very Linux based and rather scary:

https://sigrok.org/wiki/Mcupro_Logic16_clone

I've attached an image of the device plus a shot of my device manager entries.

Can anyone here explain to me how to get this to work or perhaps if this is even possible? I'd rather hoped it would just "plug and play", but clearly there's more to it than that 





Thanks for any pointers!

Mark
G0MGX

[1anX]

I never had much joy with Sigrok and Pulseview so I went here and downloaded Saleae software. Works really well!
https://www.saleae.com/downloads

[glarsson]

Saleae has made it very clear in their license agreement tha you are not supposed to use a clone with their proprietary software. Go get the Sigrok instead.

The Saleae license is not relevant as Pulseview is part of Sigrok.

[g0mgx]

I never had much joy with Sigrok and Pulseview so I went here and downloaded Saleae software. Works really well!
https://www.saleae.com/downloads

Does this have the same decode capability as the Sigrok PulseView software?

I'll check it out - but am concerned about licensing.

Mark

[cdev]

Have you installed the fx2la "firmware blob"?  You dont have to build it, you can install it in other ways. The easiest is via a package manager.

That is the way to get pulseview working.

If you are using Windows I am not at all familiar with how it works but I can help you get that working on Linux.

This should be an FAQ. Sigrok is open source and works well.




Saelae is one of a multitude of companies that make similar hardware based on the original FX2 dev board.

When FX2 chips came out the manufacturer (Altera) had a demo logic analyzer implemented in software for it - the board uploads its firmware when its started.

Several companies implemented hardware based on that design, using pretty colors, nice grabbers,  etc, to increase value.

Their hardware in some cases was quite nice but - the Saellae Logic 8 even -  cost well over a hundred dollars!

Way too expensive for me, so I bought a cheap LA and used it with Sigrok. Which has always worked well for me.

IMHO people should look for FX2-LP ones using keywords like "FX2LP Development Board" , "CY7C68013A" "EZ-USB" etc.

Not the brand names of companies who in reality are not the manufacturers..

the Sigrok software is quite a bit the equal of the closed source brands. Plus its free. There really is no area where its not a good choice.

If you want to use a commercial logic analyzer with your generic hardware you should look into the USBee software which you can buy and they will give you support. You can use it with a generic hardware. So then you have bought the tool so you can get both an affordable price and they seem to sell it based on an argument that they offer a more polished user experience.

They have a good reputation. Since I have not found myself really needing that yet Ive held off to see how it works for them. But I may buy the USBee software in the future.

[abraxa]

g0mgx, you can find a "debug build" on the sigrok download page: https://sigrok.org/wiki/Downloads

When you run this debug build, you will see the debug output in a console window (you may have to run it with parameter "-l 5" to enable the log output, not sure atm). That should help figuring out why the hardware won't initialize as it should.

There are a lot such clones out there and we don't support all of them yet, it unfortunately really depends.

Also, did you use Zadig to switch drivers? You may have to do that before running PulseView, it was installed with sigrok. (I'm not a Windows guy, so my memory is a little hazy regarding this detail.)

[g0mgx]

Have you installed the fx2la "firmware blob"? 

I believe so as I also have the HobbyComponents logic analyser and that works fine.

http://hobbycomponents.com/testing/243-hobby-components-usb-8ch-24mhz-8-channel-logic-analyser

I've already watched that video and that was the inspiration for purchasing this clone of the Logic 16 as my Hobby Components device just doesnt sample fast enough for my needs and I understand this clone includes some buffering/memory on board and can sample much faster speeds.

Mark

[g0mgx]

If you are using Windows I am not at all familiar with how it works but I can help you get that working on Linux.

That sounds like a fine plan - I am a Linux noob - but have just done a fresh Debian 9 install on a spare PC I have here so am all ears....

I will start by trying to install SIgrok but that doesnt seem to work with apt-get which says it's been superseded by Sigrok-cli - so I guess I have fallen at the first hurdle 

I am very grateful for the help so far!

Mark
G0MGX

[plazma]

I bought one looking like this and it woked as specified. Works with an older version of Saleae and Sigrok. There is some wiki page etc. for Sigrok which shows compatible models.
https://guideimg.alibaba.com/images/shop/80/10/09/7/upgraded-version-logic-16-100m-logic-analyzer-support-software-version-1-1-20-all-versions-compatible-aluminum-luxury-features_2475057.jpg

[abraxa]

If you are using Windows I am not at all familiar with how it works but I can help you get that working on Linux.

That sounds like a fine plan - I am a Linux noob - but have just done a fresh Debian 9 install on a spare PC I have here so am all ears....

I will start by trying to install SIgrok but that doesnt seem to work with apt-get which says it's been superseded by Sigrok-cli - so I guess I have fallen at the first hurdle 

I am very grateful for the help so far!

Mark
G0MGX

If you want to run it on linux then there's a rather easy way. Let me write it down as a sequence of console commands:

Code: [Select]

wget https://sigrok.org/jenkins/job/sigrok-native-appimage/platform=native-x86_64-appimage/lastSuccessfulBuild/artifact/cross-compile/appimage/out/PulseView-NIGHTLY.glibc2.14-x86_64.AppImage
chmod u+x PulseView-NIGHTLY.glibc2.14-x86_64.AppImage
./PulseView-NIGHTLY.glibc2.14-x86_64.AppImageIt's essentially an all-in-one package that you can use without installing anything.

The only issue I can think of that you may face are the udev rules which you won't have installed. If you try the AppImage and it can't find your device, try running the AppImage with sudo. If that works, installing the udev rules is simple to do, but first things first.

[plazma]

I bought one looking like this and it woked as specified. Works with an older version of Saleae and Sigrok. There is some wiki page etc. for Sigrok which shows compatible models.
https://guideimg.alibaba.com/images/shop/80/10/09/7/upgraded-version-logic-16-100m-logic-analyzer-support-software-version-1-1-20-all-versions-compatible-aluminum-luxury-features_2475057.jpg

Also works fine with the latest version from Saleae.

[cdev]

Here is the Debian tracker page for pulseview

 https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/pulseview

The current version of debian, stable is "stretch"

But for some reason there is no pulseview in stretch. This is likely explained in the build logs, change logs, etc.

Its probably possible to build a deb that will work or use an older one, if you do that correctly so as not to invoke "dependency hell".

There are a number of alternatives in this situation. You say this is your very first Linux installation?

[1anX]

Also works fine with the latest version from Saleae.

X2
Latest version works perfectly!

[janoc]

It is most likely nothing to do with the license of the Saleae software but the fact that the device needs firmware uploaded. And the firmware is different if you use Sigrok/Pulseview and the official Saleae software. So if you have powered the device up using one and then started the other it will not be detected - you need to unplug it and reconnect it.

[phil from seattle]

Be wary of the Saleae Logic 16 clones. I haven't been able to get pulseview to work with my clone (exact same packaging but not so sure under the covers).  I went through the process of obtaining the firmware file and get the following message from pulseview:

sr: saleae-logic16: Invalid FPGA bitstream version: 0x41 != 0x10.
sr: saleae-logic16: Failed to init device.
sr: saleae-logic16: Device failed to renumerate.

The Saleae code runs fine with it.

[cdev]

Seems to me from looking at the Debian pulseview package logs that the testing versions of pulseview stuff should work. The way to use testing is not to turn it on all the time, just turn it on to load a single program and its dependencies, (or in the case of pulseview and sigrok, all the sigrok family of programs) update, upgrade, and then turn the testing repository off.

If you cant do that successfully, then use the jessie versions which were working great for me before I switched to the source version..

Either one should work fine but don't mix them.

[g0mgx]

If you want to run it on linux then there's a rather easy way. Let me write it down as a sequence of console commands:

Code: [Select]

wget https://sigrok.org/jenkins/job/sigrok-native-appimage/platform=native-x86_64-appimage/lastSuccessfulBuild/artifact/cross-compile/appimage/out/PulseView-NIGHTLY.glibc2.14-x86_64.AppImage
chmod u+x PulseView-NIGHTLY.glibc2.14-x86_64.AppImage
./PulseView-NIGHTLY.glibc2.14-x86_64.AppImageIt's essentially an all-in-one package that you can use without installing anything.

The only issue I can think of that you may face are the udev rules which you won't have installed. If you try the AppImage and it can't find your device, try running the AppImage with sudo. If that works, installing the udev rules is simple to do, but first things first.

So here's the results:

sudo ./PulseView-NIGHTLY.glibc2.14-x86_64.AppImage
sr: resource: Failed to open resource 'saleae-logic16-fx2.fw' (use loglevel 5/spew for details).
sr: saleae-logic16: Firmware upload failed.
sr: saleae-logic16: Failed to init device.
sr: saleae-logic16: Unable to open device.


Mark
G0MGX

[g0mgx]

You say this is your very first Linux installation?

Not entirely but I have no real experience of Linux at all.

Mark
G0MGX

[phil from seattle]

I believe that error means you don't have the firmware file - saleae-logic16-fx2.fw   Have you gone through the extraction process? Look here https://sigrok.org/wiki/Saleae_Logic16#Firmware

Also check permissions on the files if you do have them.  You should not need to use su/sudo. especially if you've done all the work under the same user id.

I spent a lot of time trying to get pulseview working with my chinese clone Saleae Logic 16. The internals do not appear the sames as the ones shown in sigrok page you linked to in your first post. The PCB is fairly different.

[g0mgx]

I believe that error means you don't have the firmware file - saleae-logic16-fx2.fw   Have you gone through the extraction process? Look here https://sigrok.org/wiki/Saleae_Logic16#Firmware

When I try and run the python script sigrok-fwextract-saleae-logic16 I get the following:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./sigrok-fwextract-saleae-logic16", line 23, in <module>
    import parseelf
ImportError: No module named 'parseelf'

Seems very complicated!

Thanks for the help so far.

Mark
G0MGX

[g0mgx]

Try sudo?

The results listed were with sudo ./PulseView-NIGHTLY.glibc2.14-x86_64.AppImage

Mark
G0MGX

[phil from seattle]

Yeah, I ran into that. Do you have parseelf.py in the same directory?  Do you have the saleae program Logic in the same directory? 
Note that  ./sigrok-fwextract-saleae-logic16 needs execute permission though parseelf.py doesn't. I just reran it and got the expected results.

Code: [Select]

pi@raspberrypi:~/Downloads/sigrok $ ls -l
total 24456
-rwxr-xr-x 1 pi pi 25008012 Jan 16 10:34 Logic
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi     6569 Jan 16 10:34 parseelf.py
-rwxr-xr-x 1 pi pi    14557 Jan 16 10:35 sigrok-fwextract-saleae-logic16
-rwxr-xr-x 1 pi pi     1597 Jan 16 10:35 sigrok-fwextract-saleae-logic16.1
pi@raspberrypi:~/Downloads/sigrok $ ./sigrok-fwextract-saleae-logic16 Logic
saved 5217 bytes to saleae-logic16-fx2.fw
saved 149516 bytes to saleae-logic16-fpga-18.bitstream
saved 149516 bytes to saleae-logic16-fpga-33.bitstream
saved 162602 bytes from 42 blobs to saleae-logicpro16-fx3.fw
saved 162602 bytes from 42 blobs to saleae-logicpro8-fx3.fw
saved 465028 bytes to saleae-logicpro16-fpga.bitstream
saved 341160 bytes to saleae-logicpro8-fpga.bitstream
pi@raspberrypi:~/Downloads/sigrok $ ls -l
total 25872
-rwxr-xr-x 1 pi pi 25008012 Jan 16 10:34 Logic
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi     6569 Jan 16 10:34 parseelf.py
drwxr-xr-x 2 pi pi     4096 Jan 16 10:35 __pycache__
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi   149516 Jan 16 10:37 saleae-logic16-fpga-18.bitstream
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi   149516 Jan 16 10:37 saleae-logic16-fpga-33.bitstream
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi     5217 Jan 16 10:37 saleae-logic16-fx2.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi   465028 Jan 16 10:37 saleae-logicpro16-fpga.bitstream
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi   162602 Jan 16 10:37 saleae-logicpro16-fx3.fw
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi   341160 Jan 16 10:37 saleae-logicpro8-fpga.bitstream
-rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi   162602 Jan 16 10:37 saleae-logicpro8-fx3.fw
-rwxr-xr-x 1 pi pi    14557 Jan 16 10:35 sigrok-fwextract-saleae-logic16
-rwxr-xr-x 1 pi pi     1597 Jan 16 10:35 sigrok-fwextract-saleae-logic16.1
cp the files into the proper firmware directory and pulseview should find them.
Note that the saleae-logic16-fx2.fw file is 3 bytes larger than the wiki article lists. Not sure that's significant. The other two files listed are the same size.  When I run pulseview I get the following errors on the console:

sr: saleae-logic16: Invalid FPGA bitstream version: 0x41 != 0x10.
sr: saleae-logic16: Failed to init device.
sr: saleae-logic16: Device failed to renumerate.

I wonder if hacking the extract script to change the bitstream version would help? Clearly the firmware runs on the fpga as the Saleae software works fine.

[cdev]

Don't run the proprietary software.

You should reboot, its quite possible that there is some conflict. Just keep it simple for yourself and stop trying to mix the two.

You should read the source for the software, its often the best place to find out things

Also look at your machine's logs..

[phil from seattle]

for what it's worth, I got the same version error on the windows version of pulseview.

I don't think buying a program that works is a bad idea, but I want to use pulseview as it is clearly superior.  Instead of buying software, I would buy HW that will definitely work with pulseview and call the logic16 clone a FAIL. The dreamsourcelab DSLogic16 looks pretty nice, goes up to 400 MHz and isn't super expensive. Going down market the various Saleae Logic8 clones are super cheap and seem to work.

[abraxa]

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./sigrok-fwextract-saleae-logic16", line 23, in <module>
    import parseelf
ImportError: No module named 'parseelf'

As phil from seattle already mentioned, the error is thrown because the script couldn't find parseelf.py in the same directory.

Seems very complicated!

Depends on how you see it... while it may not be very user-friendly indeed, I think it's good that there's an alternative at all and as the saying goes: you get what you pay for. If all these cheap Saleae16 clones don't come with an open firmware then hoops will have to be jumped through