Looking for feedback on logic analyzers - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Bill
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2025, 11:33:44 am
content: Hi everyone,I'm currently looking for a reliable logic analyzer for embedded electronics and protocol debugging.I'd love to hear your opinions on the tools you've used, especially if you've had the chance to compare several models.What key features do you find most important (channel count, sample rate, software quality, Linux/Windows support, etc.)?Any recommendations with a good price-to-performance ratio?Thanks in advance for your insights — your advice will really help me choose the right tool!

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2025, 11:47:03 am
content: Can you be a bit more specific about your needs? (E.g. a protocol analyzer for UART, I2C, etc is easy; one for PCI Express or USB 3 is a whole different league.) What broad price bracket are we looking at? What protocols?

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2025, 12:08:15 pm
content: The ability toavoid capturingirrelevant stuff, thus allowing you to concentrate on the small amount ofimportantinformation.That means any/all of these in combination:state based, so you can ignore everything not related to a clocklevel based filters, so you can ignore everything not related to one chip on the bus and/or an address rangewide capture, i.e. full bus width plus more for filtersideally FSM based arm, trigger, capture filters, so you can trigger onsequencesof eventsrelevant protocol and message filters, to show you the information not the raw bitsThat should be done at the relevant level, i.e. bits for logic analysers, messages for protocol analysers.

author: Bill
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2025, 01:11:11 pm
content: Quote from: tooki on May 14, 2025, 11:47:03 amThanks for your reply!I’m mainly looking for a logic analyzer that can handle a wide range of protocols, ideally including Profinet, Modbus RTU/TCP, TCP/IP, IO-Link, and CAN.I know some of these may require additional decoders or even specialized tools, but I’d like to get something as versatile and expandable as possible.

author: RAPo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2025, 01:31:06 pm
content: For me (coming from the age of big clunky analysers), portability, build quality of probes and cross-platform software led me to theDSLogicseries.A real setup in price and the ability to integrate it with your own code in the debugging process of embedded systems led me toActive-Pro debuggerThat device is small enough to fit in the Dslogic analyser's case. This covers 99% of my uses (but I still have the clonky devices).Quote from: Bill on May 14, 2025, 11:33:44 am

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2025, 05:14:55 pm
content: Quote from: Bill on May 14, 2025, 01:11:11 pmI don’t think you understood the task…OK, so you list industrial and similar buses. That’s a start. But since you then go on to say “as versatile and expandable as possible” we are back at square one since we really have no idea what you do and do not want to do.Did you not understand the question “what broad price bracket are we looking at?”?$50? $500? $5000 $50000? (And no, that’s not a joke: that is what really high-end analyzers cost, easily.)

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2025, 09:47:44 pm
content: If the goal is to mainly look at interface busses, then a logic analyser is the wrong tool to use. What is needed is a protocol analyser.For TCP/IP and general ethernet based network protocols, I'd use a computer, a switch with a span port and Wireshark to capture & look at the data. It just doesn't get any better.For other bus protocols either use a dedicated protocol analyser or an oscilloscope with protocol decoding. Picoscope supports a very wide variety of protocols at relatively low cost (although the Picoscopes can't trigger on a protocol).

author: yna
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 02, 2025, 08:58:24 am
content: I do not have a good expérience with the Active-Pro debugger .While it has potential, I filed close to 50 issues, a few just needed an explication, a few more were suggestions, but the majority actual bugs.At the start, there was good & fast feedback and even two software updates, but as the number of issues grew, this reactivity went close to 0.The major problems are related to misrepresentation of data which is important when you're debugging. That concerns the GUI contents, but also the export - the same data is not always exported the same (even if in the GUI it is the same).Once you get to know these errors, it's possible to work with the tool, but there were a few cases where I forgot and I was chasing a false positive.The protocol decoder does not work well for serial protocols (AT messages), and one has to stop the capture to have somewhat better message splitting.One of its important features is measuring the current (using a resistor). I could not get a proper calibration: the zero offset is not at 0 at all. So I had to drop the use of that feature all-together and use one of my other tools.I've continued to use it on a project because it's what I started with and the responsiveness was there.It's been more than six months now since the last update and there are still important bugs to fix, but nothing is really happening.I also have a Digilent Analog Discovery 2 (there now is a Analog Discovery 3). That's more versatile, but it's slow when you are decoding packets of long traces.However, that's what I used to measure the dynamics of the current in the project I referred to above. At least the zero offset is correct and I do not need to calibrate that.I found the Anolog Discovery 2 to be reliable and consistent. I've used its power supply features in the past to test the response of a project with lower voltages or with repeated power-off/on sequences. I used a custom packet decoder with it, oscilloscope features, etc.Other than that the equivalent of a simple Salae Logic Analyzer does the job, and I even use small Arduino platforms to spy on protocols and decode them in real time, or use them to generate the test patterns.That's also a great approach when I need to communicate with other developers as I can just send them a functional platform for demonstration and tests.Nowadays, I even resort to ESPHome or equivalents to build a debugger faster - the GUI would be Home Assistant's interface. In one case I have set up automations to test a device and get all it's operating values.

author: BennoG
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2025, 06:08:19 pm
content: In my experience you most of the time when you have problems want also to see the analog part of the digital data.preferably on the same screen.I have a picosocpe 3403D MSO that I use 99% of the time then you have 16 digital inputs and 4 analoge channels that sample at the same time.I also have a saleae logic pro that basically does the same as the picoscope but I find the userinterface not to my liking so until there is a SDK for this unit it is collecting dust.b.t.w. I bought all these of ebay or Marktplaats (dutch) for about 1/3 of the new value. (you need to be patient for this)P.S. if they need me to look at something then it is most of the time a last reseort solution to call me.

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 13, 2025, 10:55:51 am
content: For a beginner, I would recommend Sigrok / Pulseview, combined with the EUR 10 hardware (Saleaeaea Clone). It's limited to a quite modest sampling rate, but it has an excellent performance to price ratio, and the Pulseview software has a lot of decoders for different protocols (Over 100 of them). Later I bought a Kingst LA2016 ( 16 channels 200Msps) and it also works with Sigrok/Pulseview.NCTnico mentioned wireshark. But there are big caveats over there. When working with Ethernet (Or USB, etc), your router / switch / PC software simply dumps malformed packets. If a packet has for example a bad checksum, it probably would not even reach your sniffing software. For debugging Ethernet, you may be able to force a 10Mbps connection, but I had a glance at Pulseview, and did not see any Ethernet related protocols listed.And of course, you may have to add signal conditioning. Inputs of a logic analyzer ware not directly compatible with the transformer coupled signals on an ethernet cable, or with differential signals such as RS485 (modbus RTU etc), LVDS, CAN and such. Before connecting a logic analyzer you first have to verify that the logic signals on your bus are OK. Look at them with an oscilloscope first. If for example the pullup resistors on an I2C bus are not strong enough for the bus capacitance, then all data will be damaged, and using a logic analyzer is pretty much useless, while on an oscilloscope you will see the slow rise times immediately.

author: bostonman
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 15, 2025, 01:17:07 pm
content: I'm also uncertain what you mean by versatile and expandable, but I own and have used the Kingst Logic Analyzer - Model LA2016.Not sure if it suits your needs, but I like it.The only annoyance I experienced was a few months ago when I got signals on unconnected pins. I don't remember seeing such issues when I first got it and maybe it was near RF noise that caused it to trigger.

author: Selectech
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 15, 2025, 02:05:58 pm
content: I've used the LA2016s for many years as the main workhorse on my several test benches.Recent additions of a couple of Active-Pro units have been quite useful in multi-MCU debug & test scenarios. I mostly use the Active-Pro single wire uart msg format @ 6 mbit/s for getting diagnsotic msgs from mytest setups. The differential current measurement has been helpful with some tests.I have a 32 ch Hantek 4032L unit that I use for one test setup where I need 32 channels displaying a number several smaller bus widths.Also have a DSLogicPlus that I haven't used a lot yet.Most of my work is with signals that are in the 1 to 100 Mhz range, so these lower cost analyzers have worked well for many years. I tend to have multiple benches set up with a suite of test equipment for longer term testing so tend not to move units around very much.