because there is nothing good with ols, the hardware is "stolen" (yes, in my opinion if someone is selling OH/OS things with "own" name and zero innovation then this is stealing), the software partialy working - partialy not (yet, soon, maybe).
There is no innovation in simply copying other ppl work, giving funcy new name and making some stupid marketing
"open hardware/source" statements - buy here - we having so many cool things ...
I don't quite follow the "stolen" hardware logic there. AFAIK, and I could very well be wrong, they (dangerous prototypes) designed the pcb and then put the already existing SUMP firmware from That Other Guy on it. And while I would not call it innovation (I'd call it an incremental improvement) they did slap on the cheapo PIC to 1) connect it to the PC and more to the point 2) store the firmware image in PIC flash and as you no longer need a xilinx config prom.
The OLS software is a piece of crap, sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. The Saleae software, while pretty basic, is more polished. Moreover, you had to search the Dangerous Prototypes forum for updates, whereas Saleae updates are easily available on their website.
Now while the OLS software certainly has plenty of work to be done on it, AND while I am not a big fan of java for gui's (sluggish crap on average
), I wouldn't go so far as call the OLS software a piece of crap. I am assuming you refer to
http://www.lxtreme.nl/ols/ this one?
A couple of things the OLS software could fix (regarding your "sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't") is the java style RXTX lib. Now THAT is horrendous crap. IMO java sucks for both hardware integration and gui's. And the hardware integration does suck in this case and has issues. The gui side is doable here IMO. Not great, but doable. (which is why I use it
) And it exists, is free, and I can use it.
And mostly ... the hardware doing the LA work in the back is definitely not a piece of crap IMO.
Incidentally, I don't own an open bench sniffer thingy, so no fanboism there I hope. One reason for not having bought one (to free up the nexys2) is it's still $50. That, and NO DIFFERENTIAL?!? O_O
Now to be fair, differential as a run time option is tricky. Right now I just have a modded sump with 24 single ended + 8 differential inputs. I would like to be able to switch between single ended and differential from user interface, but that is a bit tricky on the fpga side. At least, I have not figured out how to do that in an
easy way. Yeah yeah, partial reconfiguration. Well, sod that.
I said easy.
Anyways, lets not have this become a product X vs product Y thread. Both have strengths and weaknesses. You just pick whatever product is the best match for your needs. There's something to be said for a polished user interface. And there's also something to be said for decent triggering. And ... you can always buy a used proper LA on ebay if your budget allows.
My budget doesn't allow for that, so I choose the tinkering option.