Careful not to sneeze while using this diminutive logic analyzer — you could send it flying across the bench.
Undertaken more for the challenge than as a practical bench tool, [Uwe Hermann]’s tiny logic analyzer is an object lesson on getting a usable circuit as small as possible. Sure, some sacrifices had to be made; it’s only an eight-channel instrument without any kind of input protection at all, and lacks niceties like an EEPROM. But that allows it to fit on a mere 11 x 11-mm fleck of PCB. That’s a pretty impressive feat of miniaturization, given that the Cypress microcontroller running the show is in QFN package that takes up 64-mm² all by itself. A micro-USB connector takes up much of the back side of the board and allows the analyzer to talk to sigrok, an open-source signal analysis suite.
Everything about the project is totally open, including the PCB files, so you can build your own if you feel up to the challenge. We’d strongly suggest you check out this primer on logic analyzers first, though, especially since it focuses on the capabilities of the sigrok suite.
A feat of miniaturization, yes. Pushing the limits of miniaturization, no.
Check the NSA catalog for that. :-D
I would call it the fail of the week. The only thing that is impressive is the intentional ignorance of well known design practices and guidelines.
such as?….. (an answer that would possibly teach us mere mortals something?)
zilch input protection?
Please read the original blog post. I don’t think he could do it better on a 2 layer board this small.
I don’t know how they could have made it any clearer that this was intentional:
https://sigrok.org/wiki/Fx2grok#Random_notes
Given the size, input protection could easily be integrated in a modular fashion into the cabling. After all, it’s just a logical extension (har har) of the way analog ‘scope probes require matching considerations, and/or have in-line filtering components added, etc.
Incorporate self diagnosis into a device, for cheap.