[Techtoolslist] Logic Analyzer

[Clay Cowgill]

> > Has anyone ever had a chance to look at this little logic analyzer?

> >

> > http://www.saleae.com/logic/features/

> >


I looked at it a bit-- 8 channels just seems way too limited and the price
was kinda high.  If you needed a really deep log of a slower speed serial
bus or something it's interesting though.  

The USBee SX might be a better deal for less money (and has external trigger
and clock channel inputs too).

http://www.usbee.com/sx.html

I bought a TechTools DV1-100 many years ago because I almost always need
more channels than 8, but with just 18 it was kinda limited too.  I never
really got a warm fuzzy feeling about the hardware (I always seemed to have
to fuss with it and get *every* ground connected to get things reliable,
sometimes even then it seemed glitchy, etc.) and the software is pretty
primative by modern standards.

http://www.tech-tools.com/dv_main.htm

I too finally ended up with the Intronix LA1034.  I like that one.  The
'pod' wires aren't as nice as the DigiView, but the software is much better
and 34 channels is enough to do a lot of stuff.  (ie, watch a whole 8 bit
address/data bus and have a couple signals left for triggering events, or a
16 or 32 bit bus with a couple channels for chip select/write inputs, etc.)

None of them even close to the triggering options on the old Tek 1240
family-- I miss that capability (when you only had 512 words of sample
depth, you needed really good triggering!).  In fact, compared to a 'real'
logic analyzer I'd score every USB based LA I've used as "pathetic" when it
comes to triggering. :-P

If it wouldn't be such a huge PITA to setup (and the "hovercraft" level of
sound it makes) I'd use the Tek1240 to do triggering and connect one of the
USB ones up for the deep buffer. ;-)

The USBee and Saleae units would be handy for a little portable protocol
analyzer though.  Stick it in the bag and be able to snoop I2C, SPI, serial
busses where you don't need all the channels and the size is a plus.

-Clay