a better version of the cheapo 24mhz logic analyzer ? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: osmax_br
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2025, 09:11:16 pm
content: I was searching on AliExpress for logic analyzers , and I found a pattern there , you can only find either 3$ 24Mhz 8ch cheapo logic analyzer or something 20 times more expensive like la1010 or dslogic u2basic for +60$ or even 100$ for the plus version (overkill for me)Then I found this logic analyzer from Sipeed which claims to have 80 MHz , 8ch , 320 Mb/s transfer speedIt also claims to have a mode for UART\Cklink\DaplinkFor 11$ (if you add accessories like chip clips and cables it is 15$)I didn't test it out but a have a few observations :- it doesn't use the original pulse view , they use a modified version of it , I have no idea why they didn't just add support for their analyzer instead of forcing user to install a modified version , seems creepy- didn't find any reviews about it- it says in the documentation that the transfer rate in Linux is 320 Mb/s however in windows it is only 160Mb/s (does that mean that when you use windows it is just like the 24Mhz one ? )- I found this in the documentationQuoteIt seems also that they didn't bother to update it since its release- maximum voltage is 3.6 volts compared to the 5 volts of the cheapo one-I found only one critical review on AliExpress (other reviews are 5 stars as usual in aliexpress)QuoteCouldn't communicate with the author to have further informationDid anyone here buy this analyzer ?Do you think that it is just the same specs as the 5$ cheapo one but with fancy colors and creepy Chinese modified software ?I was about to buy the cheapo one actually , but when I found this one I think I 'm going to buy this (I feel like I need something better than the 3$ one however the la1010 or dslogic are overkill for my needs)Here is the link to it :https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006022974163.htmlHere is the link to the wiki :https://wiki.sipeed.com/hardware/en/logic_analyzer/combo8/faq.html

author: PlainName
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2025, 10:15:16 pm
content: Quote160Mb/s is roughly 20MB/s so, yes, that's just like the 24Mhz ones IMO.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2025, 10:27:50 pm
content: It is cheap enough, I ordered one to see what's inside. I don't see how it can be a single chip solution. The same FX2LP + a small FPGA could do all of that easily. Alternatively FPGA + ULPI PHY would work too. Going that route, I would guess Gowin FPGA. They are cheap and they provide USB HS controller IP for free.Given the numbers, it is a USB HS device and there is no reason why Windows would not be able to do 40 MB/s. They just have some less than optimal stuff in their software.Edit: Their firmware update suggests it uses BL616/618, which makes sense for an MCU, but I'm not sure how they do the logic analyzer part.The only thing that can realistically do this capture is the camera module, but I don't see anything that would pack 4-bit data into bytes.GPIO+DMA is also an option, but then again they would need to do the 4-to-8-bit merge in the firmware. Not impossible, but seems tight.

author: osmax_br
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2025, 10:34:09 pm
content: and also , as far as I know cklink and daplink are for arm cpus onlyI cant use it as a replacement for esp-prog jtag debuggerthe uart function might be useful as a programmer maybe

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2025, 10:38:29 pm
content: DAPLink implements standard CMSIS-DAP protocol. It provides commands to do both JTAG and SWD transfers, but the supported devices depend on the tools. OpenOCD will likely not care what adapter is used, but I don't know the state of ESP32 support in OpenOCD.

author: osmax_br
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2025, 10:50:59 pm
content: Quote from: ataradov on March 06, 2025, 10:38:29 pmesp IDF does use openocd for debuggingI have 0 information about jtag debuggingit seems like you can use rpi as a debugger , the ai says that it slow compared to esp prog , I have no idea whether this is right

author: Whales
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2025, 02:47:46 am
content: Sidenote: buy one of the cheapo ones anyway, it's worth having as a backup.The "24MHz" or "24MSPS" cheapos are almost all based around the cypress fx2 chip. If you install pulseview (sigrok) then it will automatically upload good firmware onto it whenever you use it, so you don't have to stick with whatever variant the manufacturer put on it.https://sigrok.org/wiki/Fx2lafwThese work great for me, I've used them to debug a few projects. The only problem I've had recently was one not wanting to go above 8 megasamples/sec per channel, but I might have had a cheap USB hub in the mix too.

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2025, 10:18:09 am
content: there are a projecthttps://sysprogs.com/analyzer2go/?page=boardseven done with some nucleo boards, you do have to pay around 39$ usd ... but seems good, and even the Cypress SuperSpeed Explorer Kit, but they all lack input protections and or 5v inputs in some modelssame on the fx2 fx2lp, is the possibility to blow the inputs, some designed input protections interface, i had one working very wellcheap fx2lp was 8-10$ usd at the time

author: Fire Doger
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2025, 01:13:43 pm
content: There is also this projecthttps://github.com/gusmanb/logicanalyzer

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 14, 2025, 04:17:11 pm
content: Here is what inside that thing. It is literally just this boardhttps://wiki.sipeed.com/hardware/en/maixzero/m0s/m0s.html(the Dock) in a plastic package.So they must either directly capture GPIO using DMA or use camera interface somehow.Edit: And it can't be camera, since pins don't make sense. So, it is just a GPIO capture with DMA.

author: osmax_br
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2025, 11:37:02 am
content: Quote from: ataradov on March 14, 2025, 04:17:11 pmIt arrived so fast lolI ordered a one , but I have to wait 2 months until it arrivesDid you test its performance?I remember seeing this mcu board on their site for 3$ , I think that they are charging a lot for the analyzer

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 15, 2025, 03:12:45 pm
content: Nah, I did not test it. It seems to want to use their own version of PulseView and they have not contributed it to the upstream. At least I don't see it in the nightly build. And I really don't feel like running random binaries I downloaded from Chinese file sharing site.