Open Workbench Logic Sniffer

Anyone had experience or heard any feedback about these guys:

http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/open-workbench-logic-sniffer-p-612:f76a89f0cb91bc419542ce9fa43902dc.html

Raw specs look pretty good for a $50 logic analyser!

So does the whole SUMP Project... follow the links and read... This really looks the Bomb... I'm flat impressed there's a lot of bang for $50.00

Doc

Which "guys" are you talking about? SeeedStudio, Dangerous Prototypes, or the SUMP project?

The SUMP Project... the rest are thieves or opportunists... Although $50.00 doesn't sound extravagant to me... I just hope it is an accurate copy......

Doc

That bashing is entirely unwarranted.

Dangerous Prototypes designed that board and a variety of other cool open hardware tools.

SeeedStudio partners with DP on all of their projects and is strong contributor to open hardware projects.

So I'm confused who the theives are in this case.

I don't have experience with that - its FPGA based, but have played with 100MSPS logic analyser using the Parallax Propeller microcontroller similar to this Propeller Platform Logic Analzyer | Hackaday. The sweet thing about the Propeller is you can directly output VGA video from the same chip that's doing the sampling as its an 8-way multiprocessor design.

Actually, I was referring the OWLS devices themselves. Sorry for the ambiguity.

So: Anyone here have any direct experience with these guys... err, devices. :slight_smile:

BTW, Doc, I had followed the threads, and was also impressed by what I read about the SUMP project, and where it is currently up to.

Some more info here

The Papilio crowd is pretty good, bought some FPGA boards from them. All good.

I've ordered an OWLS, and am waiting for it to arrive. I've wanted my own scope/logic analyser for ages, but working (mainly) in software, could never quite justify the $$$. The OWLS price (if this thing works at all) makes it an easy decision -- $56 shipped ($50 for the unit + $6 for a set of probe clips) is almost a no-brainer.

I will report further when I've got it and had a play.

Those FPGA boards look interesting, too.

I've had this for a while now, but only just had a proper play with it recently. (I don't really often need a digital analyser, which is why I could never justify buying one before this one.) But I was having a problem I thought would be helped by looking at some timing traces, and so I got it all up and running to try it out.

In short, I am very pleased with it so far. The hardware really is capable of up to 200Mhz sampling, as advertised, although I was mostly playing with sampling rates between 20MHz - 100MHz. I was sampling on 6 channels (it's got 4 banks of 8 channels each, of which 2 banks are 5V tolerant, the rest are strictly 3v3.) If you need those to be 5V tolerant as well, you can buy a "wing" (like a shield) that provides the buffer for $15 or so. I've only got a single set of probes for one bank, so I'm limited to 8 channels at the moment anyway. But I can't see myself needing more than anytime soon.

But the thing that I'm really impressed with is the software (I'm using Logic Sniffer v0.94, 2010.). I'm not sure how it compares with similar offerings for proprietary products, but this is a pretty powerful interface (both simple and complex triggers of up to four levels, for example, built in protocol analysers), and fairly easy to come to grips with, even though the documentation for the latest version is a little thin on the ground. (I made do with reading documentation for earlier versions and sort of making educated guesses as what this or that new feature might do.) Maybe there is a nice up-to-date user manual somewhere, I just haven't found it. But my suspicion is that no-one has gotten around to writing one just because the interface really isn't that difficult to figure out anyway.

Anyway, in summary, for a casual user of a digital analyzer, this is a very good deal, I think.

I have this device for more then one year.
It's one of the best products which I have bought for the money.

Highly recommended.

Old thread, but thanks for bringing it up. I really want a logic analyzer and this really looks nice for the money. I'll try to determine who the copy-cat is before ordering though. Thanks again.