Open Source Logic Analyzer

Hackaday alum [Ian Lesnet] has been working in cahoots with a dedicated team of developers to produce the OpenBench Logic Sniffer. This caseless logic analyzer can operate at 100MHz and sample 32 channels at once. Better yet, a digital oscilloscope add-on is in the works. The pre-order comes in at $45, that’s a lot of functionality for just a few greenbacks. We’ve embedded a demo video after the break that details installing and using this device under Ubuntu.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ1lHrEnVFU]

[Thanks Drone via Dangerous Prototypes]

88 thoughts on “Open Source Logic Analyzer

  1. Not sure what was impressive about that screencast, infact it made me cringe.

    Linux: overcomplicating shit since… well, forever.

    Also for some of the zealots above, writing something in java doesn’t guarantee it’s portable, it does, however, guarantee that it’s slow.

    I will have to check if there is a windows version or not (with a PROPER installer), as $45 may be cheap, and the product may be sweet, MY time isn’t cheap. And honestly I’d rather pay $200 for proper tools which I can get working in 1 hour instead of $45 to spend the rest of my life trouble shooting my equipment instead of working on what I WANT to work on.

  2. These analyzers that use only the FPGA’s internal memory are just too limited in their sample depth to be really useful (eg. Rocky Logic and Bugblat have ones that are very similar featurewise). Would it make the design too complex or too expensive to add even a few megabytes of external RAM?

  3. I just wanted to try and clear up any misunderstandings about the Linux screencast that is embedded above. It is a little bit out of context, the above video was one of several screencasts that were made with earlier hardware. The above video was not recorded to demonstrate the software, it was only meant to show that the software can run under Linux. So it is a little bit out of context here if it is taken as an overview of the software.

    If you want a better feel for the software then watch these Windows screencasts:

    Capturing UART Data:
    http://www.screencast.com/t/MWM5MDUyNGIt

    Overview and using RLE (this is an older video on older hardware but the software is the same):
    http://www.screencast.com/t/yWBdfwCYh6

  4. Well I don’t know what the problem was with the screencast. I just skipped to the interesting stuff, seeing the GUI. It is actualyl kind of refreshing to see an install of a problem with a video cast. I didn’t think the install process was convoluted at all. I have done worse. I also don’t think it is a reflection of linux in any way. It is a tool for a job.

    As for the “open source logic analyzer”. Ordered. I’ll take a gamble on $40. As someone mentioned, at that price you got to be able to do something with it.

    Re: Mounting…. buy a case, buy some self adhesive PCB mounting pillars, glue then on. Sorted.

    Once again, another quality device for an unfeasibly small price.

  5. “Re: Mounting…. buy a case, buy some self adhesive PCB mounting pillars, glue then on. Sorted.”

    heh maybe Ill just hot glue it in a tin, still seems like 4 holes isnt that much to be asking for, considering Im going to have to make my own box and probes as it is

    anyway I am about to send a polite email to them asking about what I brought up earlier, see what they say

  6. @Mikey

    Java, doesn’t guarantee portability, but with Java you ARE able to make portable software, which is this case. And, I also don’t see the reason why Java should be slower… I used CMU Sphinx to write some voice recognition software a couple of years ago and it was surprisingly fast! :)

  7. @Rizla++
    “And, I also don’t see the reason why Java should be slower…”

    It’s a virtual machine. A single “Java bytecode instruction” (if you can even call them that) equates to numerous machine code instructions. Don’t bring up the fact that there are hardware accelerated JREs, because no one has one (as they’re virtually pointless).

  8. Heh modern Java is as fast if not faster that native code thanks to the JIT compiler. But of course C programmer that rely on benchmarks from 1996 don’t know that.

  9. I’d love to see your stats on Java being faster than C/C++. Care to provide some examples? There are plenty of modern comparisons showing C/C++ being faster, not to mention all large data crunching apps being written in C. Surely people willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on computers wouldn’t hamper their efforts by using C over Java because of ‘old benchmarks’.

  10. Program performance is essentially a factor of the developer’s experience and usage of appropriate programming techniques (talking only about compiled languages here). So, the choice of a language is the choice of where you have the more experience and resources available. And C/C++ programmers vastly outnumber Java programmer. Hence the usual choice. In my opinion choosing one over the other purely for performance reasons is a mistake.

    If you really want a benchmark showing Java come on top of C++, here’s one :
    http://scribblethink.org/Computer/javaCbenchmark.html

  11. There really needs to be an alternate release of this board that has at least a 1Mbyte SRAM chip to make good sample depth possible. There just isn’t much RAM available on the FPGA. I’d be happy to pay the premium for this.

  12. No, you read that passage wrong. read it again.
    Anyway, this is not the place for a lengthy debate on the relative performance of programming language. One certain thing is that performance is not an issue for a software like SUMP that is essentially a GUI.

  13. @janin
    Indeed you are correct. I just refuse to install a JRE on any of my machines; I’ll save Java for enterprise work.

    @Tony
    The project pages and discussions notion toward a future revision that will include DRAM, lots of it. Plus, with proper software and firmware, it ought to be possible to dump the SRAM on the fly, using it as a FIFO buffer of sorts, enabling unlimited sampling.

  14. you people complain a lot.

    I hate java. Having said that, it doesn’t matter what language the client is written in AS LONG AS IT WORKS.

    I’ve already pre-ordered mine, partly because it works with linux, and because the specs are pretty sweet for 50 bucks.

    I wouldn’t have even considered it if that little video wasn’t included in the post.

  15. Its a shame that most of you don’t realize that this is also viable Xilinx Spartan 3 dev board with several pins routed to headers… From what I can tell that gives you atleast 48 GPIOs with usb/jtag interface to the host pc. I’m currently working with 8051F34x usb micros, propeller chip, and pic micros. This looks like a great addition to my toolkit and a good starting point for fpga dev.

  16. @rizla++, read the whole document. They said they could put the improvements from the java client into the C version, and it’d likely match the speed. They also changed the algorithms used.

    What they’re saying is choosen very carefully, in that the work/cost/performance ratio of java to C is the benchmark, not the speed of C, but rather the lesser peforming algorithms and code of flite.

    @GrizzlyAdam’s i think jacks butterfly is probably a better bet for a fpga dev board.

  17. @GrizzlyAdams: Yes I’m slightly bothered I didn’t realize this earlier as I already ordered a Spartan-3 board earlier this week for double the price. The feature set is quite different however so…

    Personally I think this is a great project and happy to see it supports Linux without a major fuss. It will make a good addition to my bus pirate.

  18. Nice tool, but the Java front end is a no-no for me.
    Anyway as this isn’t a place for programming languages flame wars, here’s the short answer for those willing to write graphical interfaces for hardware but still afraid of C++: please consider Lazarus.

    Lazarus is the open source multi platform clone of the glorious Delphi, the best interface builder ever created coupled with one of the most powerful object libraries and a blazingly fast compiler.
    Now the Lazarus clone produces 100% native code
    (no VM’s, JIT and other bull) on a plethora of systems/OS’s going from your Windows desktop to the Nokia N900 phone, OSX included.

    http://lazarus.freepascal.org/

    The right way of going multiplartform is to have multiplatform (cross) compilers, not using a virtual machine that eats cpu cycles for no reason.
    Lazarus (as other well thought develpment systems) does just that.

  19. Maybe I’m just too impatient or too much of a mere mortal who can’t figure out the intricacies of the install process, but I can’t get this thing running..

    Where the heck is the transcript that goes along with the Youtube video? I just want to get this set up in a reasonable amount of time so I can get to analyzing my logic. I got a thesis to write and not a whole lot of time to futz with Lunix…..

  20. Does anyone have a “how to” for the latest and greatest stuff? I am having issues getting this setup on my ubuntu box, and my netbook doesn’t have a big enough screen to be able to see the capture button in windows…arghhh

  21. Man, sucks to be under 18. What if you’re parents aren’t home to give you assistance with the wooden stake attachement and a dracula shows up during gameplay? That’s tough.

  22. When I initially left a comment I appear to have clicked the -Notify
    me when new comments are added- checkbox and from now on every
    time a comment is added I get 4 emails with the exact same comment.

    Perhaps there is a way you are able to remove me from
    that service? Many thanks!

Leave a Reply to janinCancel reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.