Rigol MSO1074Z Logic analyzer streaming over ethernet? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: Trax
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 08:54:50 am
content: Hi!I'm considering buying a Rigol MSO1074Z (well thinking about it since a few months...) and i need to make sooner or later a decision.For me its a quite expensive toy so its not a easy decision.I'm especially unsure about the logic analyzer feature so a DS1054Z would be a viable alternative.fyi I'm going to install all hacks I can find so differences in bandwidth are not significant as long as there is a hack for that.I already have a hantek dual channel MSO with the 16 logic analyzer upgrade, so I mostly interested in the Rigol for the two additional analog channels. Now the hantek does not have any decoder options for the logic analyzer its just a display.I found myself using most of the time my cheep salea usb logic analyzer knock of, here I can just stream the data unlimited over usb on disk and decode whatever I want from a arbitrary long sample stream with some own software written for that.I know the Regol has some decoders, but I think this is not that much of a benefit as it can decode only a few standard things?So the main question would be can the LA stream be streamed over the ethernet port of the regol, and is it 100 MBit or 1 GBitIf that is possible that would be a winner!If I will be stuck only with whatever the build in decoders can visualize thats probably deal breaker and I will go for the DS1054Z.Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 06:13:16 pm
content: It should be possible to download the digital traces (like the analog ones) from the scope memory to the PC. But that certainly does not qualify as "streaming", since the transfer is much slower than the scope's capture rate.If you already have a Salae and are happy with its logic analyser and decoding functionality, the DS1054Z may well be all you need.

author: Trax
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2015, 06:59:47 am
content: How slow 100 mbit or 1gbit?

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2015, 04:17:49 pm
content: Quote from: Trax on May 15, 2015, 06:59:47 am100 Mbit/s, and they apparently do not make good use of that bandwidth. The general observation seems to be that USB transfer is faster than LAN.

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2015, 04:37:47 pm
content: I would doubt it could stream sufficiently fast in real time.There are some significant limitations of the I2C and other serial decoders, I mention them herehttp://youtu.be/HxpSYlnEDosbut mostly it's that it only decodes small sections at a time, and occasionally it gets it slightly wrong too. I did consider fiddling around with sigrok and post-processing that way but never got around to properly gluing anything together.However the real time I2C trigger does work flawlessly. Depending on what you're doing you may find this sufficient for your needs, but it is a different workflow to the post-processing you might have been doing with your PC based LA.The screen is quite small so getting all those digital channels reasonably readable you might find difficult.However it is a good all round unit for the money. I do have a Logicport and I can't remember the last time I got that out now I have an MSO, but as mentioned it's a different kind of workflow to messing about with a PC based instrument, and I prefer using the MSO personally. You will probably find on serial buses that you won't bother with the digital channels anyway.

author: Trax
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2015, 08:00:51 pm
content: hmm... as I said already I have a cheep MSO with 16 digital and 2 analog channels, without any decoding though.So if the MSO1074Z will not have any benefits here I really should go for the DS1054Z for these cases where I need 4 analog channels and use the old unit for the MSO stuff, or the salea LA.:/I would really like to have a good reason to buy the MSO1074Z but if there is non I will have to do the economically reasonable thing

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2015, 01:29:05 am
content: Quote from: Trax on May 15, 2015, 08:00:51 pmThe best reason is that it's all in one box. Throw in a sig gen option too and it's a super handy unit for field work, that is why I bought mine.Realistically with four analogue channels, you hardly ever need the LA these days. Parallel buses are so last century.