DSLogic Pro? (and do I really need it?)

[roblkc3]

Hi,

I would like to buy a logic analyzer for educational purposes (I own a DS1074, but from the forum I've figured out it won't be enough, will it?). My goal is really just learning, like sniffing some I2C, RS-232, ... to understand how things work and hack some easy stuff, and in the near future buy an icestick FPGA and play a bit with that. Therefore the first question is: do I really need a LA or will the scope be fine?

Second question (independent from the first one, as I might want to buy a LA in the future "just to learn how to use it", since I have a computer engineering background and I am self teaching all the EE stuff -- though I have a little theoretical background in electronics): is the DSLogic Pro a good choice, given that my budget is pretty tight? I have seen a bit of movement on the company's github in these days, and they seem to be back...
It is not that easy to find this LA for sale, but it's kind of 1/4 the price of a basic Saleae (I would buy it if I could afford it, but sorry, waaaaay to expensive for me, and I'm not that tempted by the traditional chinese clones...). I've seen other LAs in this price range, like the Open Workbench Logic Sniffer, but also many negative comments about it on the net.
My fear stems from the fact that I see it mentioned almost nowhere on the net, and this looks very suspicious to me..

Any other LA that might be a nice choice?
Also, is there any "buying guide" for scopes (it seems like that Dave put no video on that, whereas there are tons of multimeter comparisons for example!)?

Thanks a lot in advance for your help!!
Rob

[pascal_sweden]

Are you really sure about the DSLogic Pro?

http://www.dreamsourcelab.com/order.html

I don't recall in which thread, but some time ago there was a user that posted a bad review about this unit from DreamSourceLab At least the software was no good. Don't know about the hardware. Is it supported by Sigrok?

[loxodes]

I have a DSLogic Pro, but I haven't used it enough yet to write up a proper review. I bought it because I wanted something that worked on Linux and I needed more than the four channels on my DS1054Z.

The software wasn't that bad, it was at least an improvement over the Open Workbench Logic Sniffer. Sigrok supposedly added support for the DSLogic a few months ago, but I haven't gotten around to testing it.

My unit came with a broken wire on one of the the channel. I emailed support and they sent a new wire bundle, so DSLogic at least occasionally checks support emails.

[0xdeadbeef]

Well, I have a DSLogic Pro and IMHO the HW is great but the SW not so much. I think it's supported by Sigrok but that's part of the problem as their SW is actually based on Sigrok and most its flaws come from that. I mean, I don't want to be unfair: it's not terrible but with a really good SW the DSLogic could be unbeatable, yet with the current SW it's just OK.
To be fair, they just released a new SW and they claim to have fixed my main point of criticism, namely the decoder speed. However, I haven't tested the speed in the new version yet since my HW is at work and I don't want to install the new SW there.
Reason is that they screwed up the GUI badly in the new release. It wasn't all that great before, but now everything got worse. Most concerning is that there is a fixed hipster gray background color now which makes it impossible to make proper screenshots for documentation. And they're proud of it and don't seem to see any reason to make the color scheme configurable.
Trigger setup in the GUI is still as basic as it was (Logic Sniffer style) and I kinda doubt they'll ever improve this.
Still, if you need 16ch, there is not much that beats it for the price. The memory depth is great and I like the shielded cables.
If I could have the DS HW with the Ikalogic SW, I'd he very happy. Well, actually I'd be already pretty happy if the new Ikalogic SW was working reliably with the Ikalogic HW. But that's not the case and there is no progress at all for many months now.
Actually, there was more progress with the DSView SW in the last six month. At least they released a SW which is supposed to resolve one main issue. If they'd just resisted the impulse to mess up everything else...
It's rather frustrating that obviously nobody plans the resources to develop a proper SW and instead they ruin their companies by investing into HW gimmicks that nobody ever wanted.

[roblkc3]

Thanks for all the answers!
As I've said it's everything just for educational purposes (I am transitioning from a pure software job to something more hardware oriented, and I've figured out that playing a bit at home with all the different gadgets would ease this transition --- hardware stuff is soooo nice! ). For this reason I have no strict requirement on, for instance, the number of channels -- I guess 8 would be more than enough!

Is it supported by Sigrok?

In a recent reply to an old topic of yours(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/dslogic-logic-analyzer-from-dreamsourcelab-(16-ch-256-mbits-400-mhz)/msg715773/#msg715773), and from the Sigrok website, it seems that Pulseview is now supported. From the videos I've checked on the net, the Saleae software seems way superior, but if I am doing the comparison correctly (ignoring the number of channels, of course) the competing Logic 8 Pro is 4 times more expensive for similar characteristics (at least on the paper...).
Also, Saleae's software is closed source, which troubles me -- and this also limits the hackability of the system somehow...

Getting back to the topic mentioned above, you say that the ZeroPlus is hackable, but I couldn't find any info... Do you have a link to point me to, please? Also, are the ebay versions (from china) original or are they well-made copies? (I've found some for as few as ~80USD, shipping included, versus the 99USD from the site (shipping???))
Thanks!!

[roblkc3]

(shipping???)

I can answer that myself: from their forum, it's free. Which is good.
I kind of fell in love with this toy, and as all the people in love I tend to neglect the obvious defects... For instance, is there a good way to evaluate if the probes are good or not?

[dav]

Getting back to the topic mentioned above, you say that the ZeroPlus is hackable, but I couldn't find any info... Do you have a link to point me to, please?

http://openschemes.com/2010/03/27/zeroplus-logic-cube-the-modification/

Also, are the ebay versions (from china) original or are they well-made copies? (I've found some for as few as ~80USD, shipping included, versus the 99USD from the site (shipping???))

80USD shipped??
Where?

[roblkc3]

80USD shipped??
Where?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-Logic-Analyzer-16Ch-100MHz-4Ch-400MHz-Base-on-Xilinx-Spartan-6-FPGA-SDRAM-/182242758729?hash=item2a6e83d049:g:O4gAAOSw6n5XsCUf
Btw thanks for the link!

[roblkc3]

I knew I couldn't resist the temptation 
Ordered from the official site (maybe the ebay vendor is ok, but who knows....)
Of course, last week it was for 68USD on hackaday (now sold out) 
I'll have the chance of doing a review then!