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I will soon be getting Rev 1 of my design up and running with a XC167 uP. I'm looking for opinions from people with experience getting uP boards up and running in regards to Logic analyzers and scopes. I need to buy a new scope anyway and am looking at the Agilent MSO 4ch + 16logic scope. It has I^2C and SPI triggering which I like, but would I be better off buying a real Logic analyzer? Is it even necessary? My interest is just to help speed up getting this up and running. I'm assuming I will run into problems talking to deferent devices along the way. I know its hard to believe, but I actually have made mistakes before.........LOL....... Just looking for people opinions. Thanks, Mike Also, Anyone know of any good computer based logic analyzers with good and user friendly software?
my preferred hardware tool is the emulator. You can see so much on just observing the ports. Checking of a possible external memory is correctly connected is a breeze, if a couple of pins are reversed, it's obvious ..... I do not have a logic analyzer and am very happily chugging along with a 2 channel stoarce scope (tektronix). Yes, indeed, once a year I would gain some benefit from a logical analyzer, but that is not worth the investment. Somehow, your post can be read "should I not buy a scope, but buy a logic analyzer instead" if that is the case, my reply will be a resounding NO. The little glitches (such as a 1.3 volt little blip) that are the real killers never show up on a logical analyzer. Erik
Mike; Basically I agree with Erik. The emulator is the best tool if you plan to stick with given device types. Most eval boards give you many of the functions that you will find on an emulator. The good old scope is great for that nasty repeatable glitch. But, what of the small glitch that occurs infrequently? Some times you need several seconds of data to search for the glitch. Jack Ganssle at Embedded System Design Mag had several good eval articles about June/July 2005. The articles cover both the 'Pocket' scopes and the 'Pocket' Logic Analyzers. I have the EZ-USB that I think is a fantastic tool for serial debug. SPI/I2C or USB is easily captured for play back , storge, compare, etc. The unit also acts as an eight channel digital storage scope. The units use your desktop PC as the display and storage at Full USB or High speed USB if your computer supports High Speed. You can save several seconds of data and display in multiple formats. It will display messages in Hex or bit stream. You can 'play back' a data block as if the unit is a signal generator. You can go to most vendors for a downloadable demo. If I have loads of money, I buy a good emulator and scope. Otherwise, I buy a good scope and a pocket analyzer and use the functions of a good eval board as my emulator.
Mike; I gave you some bad info last night. That's what I get for logging into the forum after my bed time. The EZ-USB is my Cypress Eval Board. The pocket logic analyzer is the USBee ZX at http://www.usbee.com. Sorry about that. Bradford
Thanks guys..........I was thinking a Logic analyzer would probably be a waste of money considering how little I would use it. I will check out that pocket analyzer for sure! Thanks for your opinions guys! Mike
You might want to check out http://www.tech-tools.com. It is a 18-Channel USB/PC based 100MHz logic analyzer for $500