32-channel PC-based logic analyzers

E

ernie

Guest
Hi,

Can anyone recommend any good (and cheap) 32-channel analyzers? By
cheap I mean less than or approximately $1000. It would be nice if
the software supported complex triggering and the analyzer had
decently fast sampling rates. Sample depth is not really a critical
issue but more is obviously better.

Thank you!
 
It's starting to look like ChipScope is a pretty decent logic analyzer. You
could get a Xilinx eval board with headers on it and use it and ChipScope as
a logic analyzer. The depth will be limited by the number of blockRAMs on
the part.
-Kevin

"ernie" <ernielin@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:d7fe9825.0407191638.58b29e0c@posting.google.com...
Hi,

Can anyone recommend any good (and cheap) 32-channel analyzers? By
cheap I mean less than or approximately $1000. It would be nice if
the software supported complex triggering and the analyzer had
decently fast sampling rates. Sample depth is not really a critical
issue but more is obviously better.

Thank you!
Click to expand...
 
ernie wrote:
Hi,

Can anyone recommend any good (and cheap) 32-channel analyzers? By
cheap I mean less than or approximately $1000. It would be nice if
the software supported complex triggering and the analyzer had
decently fast sampling rates. Sample depth is not really a critical
issue but more is obviously better.

Thank you!
Click to expand...
HP/Aligent Logicwaves show up on Ebay occasionally. I don't know
anything about them but you might want to take a look.

Mike
 
"ernie" <ernielin@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:d7fe9825.0407191638.58b29e0c@posting.google.com...
Hi,

Can anyone recommend any good (and cheap) 32-channel analyzers? By
cheap I mean less than or approximately $1000. It would be nice if
the software supported complex triggering and the analyzer had
decently fast sampling rates. Sample depth is not really a critical
issue but more is obviously better.

Thank you!
Click to expand...
You might be better off buying a second hand logic analyzer (non PC based)
from eBay. Any PC based logic analyzer is going to be limited, especially
with 32 channels. A lot of logic analyzers have RS232 or Network connectors
so you can transfer the data to a PC.
 
"ernie" <ernielin@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:d7fe9825.0407191638.58b29e0c@posting.google.com...
Hi,

Can anyone recommend any good (and cheap) 32-channel analyzers? By
cheap I mean less than or approximately $1000. It would be nice if
the software supported complex triggering and the analyzer had
decently fast sampling rates. Sample depth is not really a critical
issue but more is obviously better.
Click to expand...
Ernie, what do you mean by 'decently' fast? 100Msps, 500Msps?


Nial.

------------------------------------------------
Nial Stewart Developments Ltd
FPGA and High Speed Digital Design
Cyclone Based 'Easy PCI' proto board
www.nialstewartdevelopments.co.uk
 
Ernie,

We use a couple of Rocky Mountain Logic Ant16 USB logic analyzers. Works
very well and fits in your pocket!

http://www.rockylogic.com/products/ant16.html

I've only used one at a time and have never had more than 12-13 channels
going at once, but suits our purposes on our under 100MHz fpga boards. Love
working on my board on my laptop with Byteblaster, serial port, and Ant16 a
blazin'.

Cheers,
Ken

"ernie" <ernielin@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:d7fe9825.0407191638.58b29e0c@posting.google.com...
Hi,

Can anyone recommend any good (and cheap) 32-channel analyzers? By
cheap I mean less than or approximately $1000. It would be nice if
the software supported complex triggering and the analyzer had
decently fast sampling rates. Sample depth is not really a critical
issue but more is obviously better.

Thank you!
Click to expand...
 
I'm using iSystem's logic analyzer:
http://www.isystem.com/Products/Logic%20Analyzer/iLA128_Page1.htm
It's not state of the art, but you can build pretty complex triggers. It
comes with decent SW, which is rare these days...

Igi

"ernie" <ernielin@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:d7fe9825.0407191638.58b29e0c@posting.google.com...
Hi,

Can anyone recommend any good (and cheap) 32-channel analyzers? By
cheap I mean less than or approximately $1000. It would be nice if
the software supported complex triggering and the analyzer had
decently fast sampling rates. Sample depth is not really a critical
issue but more is obviously better.

Thank you!
Click to expand...
 
We use a couple of Rocky Mountain Logic Ant16 USB logic analyzers. Works
very well and fits in your pocket!

http://www.rockylogic.com/products/ant16.html

I've only used one at a time and have never had more than 12-13 channels
going at once, but suits our purposes on our under 100MHz fpga boards. Love
working on my board on my laptop with Byteblaster, serial port, and Ant16 a
blazin'.
Click to expand...
Hi Ken,

I was actually thinking of purchasing one of the Ant16 analyzers too,
but I couldn't find any reviews so I was hesitant. So you don't find
having only 16 channels limits your work? I am trying to debug a
memory bus so I thought that 16 channels would be inadequate.

I was also wondering if you know anyone who's tried maybe using more
than one Ant16 analyzer at a time, ie. if you plug in 2 Ant16s would
the software recognize both at the same time?

Thanks!
Ernie
 
"Nial Stewart" <nial@nialstewartdevelopments.co.uk> wrote in message news:<40fe1ee5$0$7126$db0fefd9@news.zen.co.uk>...
"ernie" <ernielin@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:d7fe9825.0407191638.58b29e0c@posting.google.com...
Hi,

Can anyone recommend any good (and cheap) 32-channel analyzers? By
cheap I mean less than or approximately $1000. It would be nice if
the software supported complex triggering and the analyzer had
decently fast sampling rates. Sample depth is not really a critical
issue but more is obviously better.

Ernie, what do you mean by 'decently' fast? 100Msps, 500Msps?


Nial.

------------------------------------------------
Nial Stewart Developments Ltd
FPGA and High Speed Digital Design
Cyclone Based 'Easy PCI' proto board
www.nialstewartdevelopments.co.uk
Click to expand...
Hi Nial,

Well, I'm thinking at least 100 Msps...I'm not trying to capture any
really high-speed signals.

Thanks!
Ernie
 
Dave wrote:
I have used the Ant8 logic analyzer and for the money it is good
value. Obvisouly having only 8 channels limits what you can do. The
sample depth of the Ant8 is quite small and so it is only suitable
for slow signals.
Click to expand...
It depends, but modest folk though we are, we sometimes brag about
getting 500MHz from a Spartan-2 ;-) Of course, Peter A has done way
better than that for a frequency counter. As I recall, he got most
of the way to 1GHz in a Xilinx 4K part several years ago.

I haven't checked this, but I think the Ant16 has
only half the sample depth of the Ant8.
Click to expand...
Ant8: 3K deep, Ant16: 2K deep.
 
"ernie" <ernielin@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:d7fe9825.0407221009.53f06e40@posting.google.com...
We use a couple of Rocky Mountain Logic Ant16 USB logic analyzers.
Works
very well and fits in your pocket!

http://www.rockylogic.com/products/ant16.html

I've only used one at a time and have never had more than 12-13 channels
going at once, but suits our purposes on our under 100MHz fpga boards.
Love
working on my board on my laptop with Byteblaster, serial port, and
Ant16 a
blazin'.


Hi Ken,

I was actually thinking of purchasing one of the Ant16 analyzers too,
but I couldn't find any reviews so I was hesitant. So you don't find
having only 16 channels limits your work? I am trying to debug a
memory bus so I thought that 16 channels would be inadequate.

I was also wondering if you know anyone who's tried maybe using more
than one Ant16 analyzer at a time, ie. if you plug in 2 Ant16s would
the software recognize both at the same time?

Thanks!
Ernie
Click to expand...
Hello,

I have used the Ant8 logic analyzer and for the money it is good value.
Obvisouly having only 8 channels limits what you can do. The sample depth
of the Ant8 is quite small and so it is only suitable for slow signals. I
haven't checked this, but I think the Ant16 has only half the sample depth
of the Ant8. The software doesn't allow multiple Ant8/16 devices, so it
wouldn't be much use for 32bit applications. As it's USB based the data
does not arrive continuously, so trying to combine devices would most likely
fail. To conclude, the Ant8/16 logic analyzers are very good value for
money, but they are limited (in my opinion).
 
Hi Ernie,

I don't know. I guess I'm lazy and I don't usually hookup all the address
or data lines. The lower 2-5 is usually plenty for me. (I usually just want
to know if the address and data are stable before WEn or something, or how
long my interupt latency is, etc.)

Besides, have you priced a stand alone unit? Even on ebay they're very
expensive.

My needs are probably modest, but the 2ns resolution has been enough for my
detailed timing and backing off to 10 or 20 seems to do fine for seeing the
big picture. I think the max sampling is 500MHz.

I don't remember what I paid for it but my hardware consultant practically
kidnapped my first one (even though he has a big HP LA) so I got another one
for me.

I do wish they had one that was a little better for a little more money
(mainly could use a deeper buffer) but I don't see anything better that is
worth it for me. I'm sure they are for others.

I have the new pico DSO on the way that is only 2 channel but has 1MB of
buffer with 10 GSps.

Ken

"ernie" <ernielin@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:d7fe9825.0407221009.53f06e40@posting.google.com...
We use a couple of Rocky Mountain Logic Ant16 USB logic analyzers.
Works
very well and fits in your pocket!

http://www.rockylogic.com/products/ant16.html

I've only used one at a time and have never had more than 12-13 channels
going at once, but suits our purposes on our under 100MHz fpga boards.
Love
working on my board on my laptop with Byteblaster, serial port, and
Ant16 a
blazin'.


Hi Ken,

I was actually thinking of purchasing one of the Ant16 analyzers too,
but I couldn't find any reviews so I was hesitant. So you don't find
having only 16 channels limits your work? I am trying to debug a
memory bus so I thought that 16 channels would be inadequate.

I was also wondering if you know anyone who's tried maybe using more
than one Ant16 analyzer at a time, ie. if you plug in 2 Ant16s would
the software recognize both at the same time?

Thanks!
Ernie
Click to expand...
 
ernielin@gmail.com (ernie) wrote in message news:<d7fe9825.0407221009.53f06e40@posting.google.com>...
We use a couple of Rocky Mountain Logic Ant16 USB logic analyzers. Works
very well and fits in your pocket!

http://www.rockylogic.com/products/ant16.html

I've only used one at a time and have never had more than 12-13 channels
going at once, but suits our purposes on our under 100MHz fpga boards. Love
working on my board on my laptop with Byteblaster, serial port, and Ant16 a
blazin'.


Hi Ken,

I was actually thinking of purchasing one of the Ant16 analyzers too,
but I couldn't find any reviews so I was hesitant. So you don't find
having only 16 channels limits your work? I am trying to debug a
memory bus so I thought that 16 channels would be inadequate.

I was also wondering if you know anyone who's tried maybe using more
than one Ant16 analyzer at a time, ie. if you plug in 2 Ant16s would
the software recognize both at the same time?
Click to expand...
I haven't tried the Ant16 yet, but I would be surprised if you
could span more than 16 signals for a trigger when using more than
one. This would require some sort of hardware support and I see
nothing but USB coming out the back.

Thanks!
Ernie
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Welcome to EDABoard.com

Sponsor

Back
Top