Products > Test Equipment
Saleae Logic Pro 16 V's Rigol MSO5000 series
tautech:
--- Quote from: Fungus on August 15, 2023, 08:39:28 am ---The MSO5000 does 8 gigasamples/sec.
--- End quote ---
Only in analog mode.
--- Quote ---With 16 digital channels that's 16Gb of data per second.
--- End quote ---
Yeah but in MSO mode things work different.
Levels are not displayed and instead only signals that cross thresholds.
Memory depth in MSO mode is far more important for long captures and the 5000 has only half the mem depth of its closest competitor.
--- Quote ---Think about that.
--- End quote ---
Time is better spent studying datasheets.
ian.rees:
I've had a Saleae Logic Pro 16 since ~2016 (when I paid, IIRC, US$500 for it) and would buy another one at today's prices if this one got eaten by the cat or whatever - but only after shopping around for something functionally equivalent and less expensive. I also have a scope with protocol decoding that I used a small handful of times before buying the Saleae, but I have not touched protocol decoding on the scope since. For context, I work on firmware for VoIP phone systems, and routinely have a need to look at signals like QSPI flash interfaces, digital audio, LCDs, I2C, etc.
Subjectively, I find the PC interface to be much more natural for this sort of thing, compared to the buttons and knobs on an oscilloscope, but maybe a touchscreen scope like you've asked about would help level the field. Objectively, the ability to write custom decoders for the Saleae, and use ones that others have made, has been a godsend on a couple occasions (it has been a few years, but from memory, the API is a little awkward). The analog input on the Saleae is surprisingly handy, even if not as high performance as a scope. Portability is hard to beat.
The Saleae Logic software is what you're paying for, and it is vastly overpriced in my opinion. It's good, but there are annoying little issues and poor design choices here and there, it's had memory leaks, it's still crashy+laggy when pushed hard (busy captures with multiple decoders active), firmware on the LA seems to interact badly with my Linux machine's startup somehow... The software does get updated fairly often, but the changes are typically maintenance-type things, and it has not had many big functional improvements that I've noticed since their original launch (a kickstarter, IIRC? Just remember using one at a previous job before buying mine). Offhand the only "big changes" I can think of are v2 which is a bit more snappy, and the "live view" which is really just useful to tell if you've got a loose probe or forgot to switch on the power. I've opened issues in their issue tracker, and while the communications with them have always been positive in tone, they have completely lacked in substance.
Sigrok looked like a competitor at one point; I'm not sure if that's currently the case but have occasionally thought about taking it for a spin. There's just so much potential with this hardware combined with the power of a modern PC, but I feel like it's just not being realised. Plus, I'm a big fan of open source, and can't see why something like this LA couldn't exist at a hobbyist-compatible price point.
kripton2035:
I can add that with sigrok, you can connect to a lot of scopes, and the mso5000 is one of them (although it seems the digital channels are not available to read at this time ... see https://sigrok.org/wiki/Rigol_MSO5000_Series)
other scopes can be fully connected to sigrok on your computer using the lan.
Ross:
--- Quote from: kripton2035 on August 16, 2023, 07:07:41 am ---I can add that with sigrok, you can connect to a lot of scopes, and the mso5000 is one of them (although it seems the digital channels are not available to read at this time ... see https://sigrok.org/wiki/Rigol_MSO5000_Series)
other scopes can be fully connected to sigrok on your computer using the lan.
--- End quote ---
I have not run across sigrok, must check it out thanks.
kloetpatra:
I've used many different logic analyzers so far. Old ones (Janatek, Intronix, ...) , new ones (Saleae, DSLogic, ChronoVu) , different concepts, stand alone devices (HP 1631D), scopes with builtin analyzers (R+S, Tektronix, Rigol) and all the different softwares. If I can recommend one, it is the Saleae Logic 16 Pro. Of course the price is high and has increased over time. Beeing effective is what counts, and therefore you better pay some extra money once and save time in return over and over. Analyzing protcols can be a cumbersome task, not only if you need to capture and analyze rare und non deterministic events but also if it comes to decoding.
The hardware of Saleae is existent for a decent time now and the software is still continuously evolving. Of course there are some flaws here and there but no real deal breakers. The usage and software of all other analyzers I had used were all limited at some point.
I have written about 15 (low-level) analyzers for the saleae so far. I use it in prefer of everything else. 8 channels seem to be quite a lot and enough for most tasks, but there will definitely be situations where you need more (trust me). I even needed more than 16 channels without having a big parallel bus. It is always good to have some spare channels for watching supply lines, resets or whatever signals come along.
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