Digilent Analog Discovery Pro ADP3450 - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: basecase
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2021, 11:09:37 pm
content: Coming soon apparentlywith a (cheaper?) 2-channel model as well. From the look of thespecs, it is a souped-upAnalog Discovery 2with more analog channels, bandwidth, buffer, performance, etc... and no additional breakout boards needed to have the thing up and running. The scope takes a 19V 3.4A power supply, so I'm not certain what kind of computing power is being packed into the small enclosure along with the analog front end. Need to wait for the teardown videos I guess.I'm looking forward to see feedback for this thing once it's out.Edit: More detailedspecsincluding power consumption (max 45W). The thing has USB 2.0 host ports. Apparently you can plug in a wifi dongle with either Realtek RT3070 or Realtek RTL8188CTV chipset for wireless connectivity, so that's neat.

author: Fungus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2021, 11:54:36 pm
content: I don't understand this part:QuoteHow can oversampling have a faster sample rate?Any bets on what the price will be? I'm guessing $750+.(I see that theAD2is now $399, that's double what I paid for mine last year - ouch!)

author: Kosmic
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 02, 2021, 12:12:49 am
content: Quote from: Fungus on February 01, 2021, 11:54:36 pmThis is equivalent sampling rate of repetitive signal. Not real time.

author: wizard69
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 03, 2021, 11:47:14 pm
content: That is looking to be very interesting. I hope they can control the price, recent hikes don't rub me the right way.

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2021, 07:49:16 pm
content: $1295... not sure about that

author: _Wim_
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2021, 09:12:26 pm
content: It still seems to have only 2 gain settings:QuoteThis means for low signals a preamp is still required. I personally find this the biggest downside on the current discovery for what I typically do, but still find it a fantastic useful device!

author: Fungus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 07, 2021, 11:34:44 am
content: Quote from: Howardlong on February 05, 2021, 07:49:16 pmOuch! That's a lot of money, I was off by almost a factor of two!

author: Anthocyanina
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 25, 2021, 12:29:37 am
content: someone did an unboxing!

author: radiolistener
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 25, 2021, 12:36:46 am
content: Quote from: Anthocyanina on April 25, 2021, 12:29:37 amjust wanted to post this videoI accidentally found it when googling for a good FIR filter implementation in verilog. She has a tutorial with a simple FIR implementation on hackster.io:https://www.hackster.io/whitney-knitter/dsp-for-fpga-simple-fir-filter-in-verilog-91208dNice girl, I opened her other publications and found this video about Analog Discovery.Very good device, but the price... 1250 USD is too expensive for me. I'm working on oscilloscope with 14-bit @ 100 MHz ADC + FPGA + GMII, the components cost me about 150 USD. I'm using budget Cyclone IV EP4CE15 FPGA and Chinese ADC module.

author: Anthocyanina
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 25, 2021, 01:43:50 am
content: Quote from: radiolistener on April 25, 2021, 12:36:46 amOooh, that's great! I didn't know about her until today that this video got into my recommended, this instrument does seem very expensive, but it's so nice to see they have linux support and the linux software doesn't look bad at all! Her channel might actually be the thing that gets me learning about fpga! I don't have access to any fpga at the moment but have always wanted to learn about them, just feels so limiting to just be able to see the projects and not have a way to implement them!Quote from: radiolistener on April 25, 2021, 12:36:46 amAwesome! do you have any links to this project? i would love to see how it goes!

author: Anthocyanina
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 27, 2021, 09:48:58 am
content: There's now a teardown+review of this! it looks super nice, and the software looks very easy to use. What do you guys think about it for that price? it's 1295 USD at mouser

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 27, 2021, 12:56:24 pm
content: Quote from: Anthocyanina on September 27, 2021, 09:48:58 amTL;DR: IMHO, it's hugely over-priced for the specs.Tiny memory depth, only 32k samples.Only100125MSa/s real time scope sampling, and the equivalent time sampling of 0.5GSa/s is far from exciting.No intensity gradientOnly 125MSa/s LAPower supply limited to +/- 3.3v: event the AD2 goes to +/- 5V.As far as I can tell it's a 4 channel Analog Discovery 2 with a very marginal upgrade in specs.Had it been 1GSa/s for both scope & LA it might have worked.The winning formula for the AD1 and AD2 is the Swiss army knife "go anywhere" form factor and the same software that it shares with this device. And, at one time, the price: the AD1 used to be $99 for students.[The only functional difference between the AD1 and AD2 was that the AD2 had a variable +/- dual supply to +/-5V whereas the AD1 had a fixed +/-5V supply].

author: pascal_sweden
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 27, 2021, 01:10:14 pm
content: It does not support TTL 5V levels. Waste of money.

author: capt bullshot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 27, 2021, 01:21:06 pm
content: The PC software is quite interesting, can do a lot of things a desktop scope can't. Some time ago a had an Analog Discovery loaned to have some fun with it, yes the software is quite versatile. Hardware wise, the AD1/AD2 is rather meh and overpriced. At least it's got now real BNC input/output connectors and something that's closer to a real scope frontend than the old AD1 / AD2.It's using a Xilinx Zynq, similar to the Red Pitaya - it's running Linux and appears to be open - nice, and way better frontend and software than the Red Pitaya.For maybe 500 ... 600 EUR / Dollars, it'd be an intersting option. About 1400 EUR (here, including VAT) is way too much.

author: 2N3055
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 27, 2021, 02:41:02 pm
content: Quote from: Howardlong on September 27, 2021, 12:56:24 pmFor that kind of money it should have had TWO 1GS/s A/D converters, and even 1 MSPS memory would be a huge upgrade...It still doesn't have proper front end and only 2 ranges (200mV/div and 5V/div). So full 14 bits dynamic range is available only sometimes, and mostly used to emulate all other vertical V/div settings.Or even better, keep the specs and price it less than 400-500 USD. For a swiss army knife type of instrument that can do so much stuff it would be OK.Original AD1/2 should cost no more than 100-150 USD.

author: Bassman59
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 27, 2021, 03:05:01 pm
content: Quote from: Anthocyanina on April 25, 2021, 12:29:37 amThe idea of "unboxing" videos needs to die in a fire, now.

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 27, 2021, 03:12:53 pm
content: I just followed along running the same tests that Shahriar did on an Analog Discovery 2 (I happen to have the same Agilent N2918A eval/demo board).There's nothing in these demos that you can't do on an AD2! There are some minor differences regarding the sample rate and memory depth (125MHz vs 100MHz, & AD2 has half the memory depth), and the SFDR isn't quite as good, but otherwise everything ran perfectly well.There's one benefit with the AD2: you can power the demo board from it as the AD2's power supplies go to +/-5V.The only things I can't figure out are with the software:1. How do you get taller Logic channels?2. How do you get the decoded I2C values to show up as a "bar chart"?3. How do you rotate the 3D Spectrogram?

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 27, 2021, 03:31:02 pm
content: Quote from: Bassman59 on September 27, 2021, 03:05:01 pmROFL! That vidjeio was a bit style over substance.

author: guenthert
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 27, 2021, 04:35:53 pm
content: Quote from: pascal_sweden on September 27, 2021, 01:10:14 pmDoes it not? The Analog Discovery II's digital i/o are 5V tolerant. Not fancy like the configurable logic threshold of yesteryear's HP logic analyzers, but good enough for many purposes (other than repairing old equipment and tinkering with 8-bit Arduino's, why would one need that today?).

author: guenthert
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 27, 2021, 04:46:05 pm
content: Quote from: 2N3055 on September 27, 2021, 02:41:02 pmI got mine for $199, iirc, but Digilent was then still independent. That seemed like a fair price (the hardware might be had for less, but with those USB based oscilloscopes, the value is in the software and the WaveForms application isn't bad. Just wished that triggering would be more robust, but that seems to be a hardware limitation).I just see, that Digilent has now a special, buy a FPGA board, get $200 off on a AD2. So perhaps the $400 price point isn't quite working out for them?

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 27, 2021, 04:54:25 pm
content: Quote from: guenthert on September 27, 2021, 04:35:53 pmThe LA has 5v tolerant inputs, but the inbuilt power supply can only provide +/- 3.3v.

author: 2N3055
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 27, 2021, 05:21:44 pm
content: Quote from: guenthert on September 27, 2021, 04:46:05 pmThey might discontinue AD2 too...Since now they have "real product" with much better profit margins..