Buying advice DSLogic U3Pro16 vs Analog Discovery 3 vs ADALM2000

[mindentropy]

I have decided on buying a decent logic analyzer after working with Saleae LA and previously with oscilloscope protocol decoding. I am confused with what whether to go with DSLogic U3Pro16, Analog Discovery 3 or the ADALM2000. The latter 2 have decent pattern generator which I feel might be very useful if I am designing something. U3Pro16 looks very good. I would like to hear opinions on my shortlist.

[RAPo]

I have the  DSLogic U3Pro16, works as advertised.

Before we can give sensible advice, what are your requirements?

What is the intended use, how many channels, max speed, do you need buffer and streaming mode?

If you want a CCC (cheap Chinese clone) of theAD3/AD2k take a look at the vimu mso21.

[mindentropy]

Channels: I am looking at 16 channels. I thought of the 8 channel models but looking back I have used that many channels mainly for marking something using GPIOs.

Buffer or Streaming: I am looking at streaming mode with option of buffer mode to perform maybe operations before sending out.

Interface: Looking at USB3 for better bandwidth and reduce problems of streaming.
Speed: As high sampling rate as possible. DSLogic provides very good sampling rate of 1GHz. This might future proof my investment.

My main use case would be learning, debugging, reverse engineering of unknown protocols, finding exploits etc. I am looking at decent protection for I/Os and support for a good range of IO voltages. I am also stuck with whether I would need a pattern generator as it looks so useful for testing my design and drivers and it is found in ADI3 and ADALM2000. Unfortunately ADI3 and ADALM2000 have only USB2 and sampling is much lesser but I am not so sure whether it is good enough for my present and future use cases.

[RAPo]

Channels requirement --> Both AD3 and DSLogic have 16 channels
Streaming: both will do, DSlogic gives you a streaming speed of 16G/number of channels in use, I would choose the DSLogic
Interface requirement: both have USB-C.
Speed requirement: AD3 atmost 125MS/s, DSLogic 12:channels 250MHz, 16 Channels 125MHz per channel. I would choose the DSLogic.
Intended use: just tinkering, learning: go with the AD3, in production use I would choose the DSLogic.
Pattern generator: only AD3.

Overall choice: DSlogic.

Channels: I am looking at 16 channels. I thought of the 8 channel models but looking back I have used that many channels mainly for marking something using GPIOs.

Buffer or Streaming: I am looking at streaming mode with option of buffer mode to perform maybe operations before sending out.

Interface: Looking at USB3 for better bandwidth and reduce problems of streaming.
Speed: As high sampling rate as possible. DSLogic provides very good sampling rate of 1GHz. This might future proof my investment.

My main use case would be learning, debugging, reverse engineering of unknown protocols, finding exploits etc. I am looking at decent protection for I/Os and support for a good range of IO voltages. I am also stuck with whether I would need a pattern generator as it looks so useful for testing my design and drivers and it is found in ADI3 and ADALM2000. Unfortunately ADI3 and ADALM2000 have only USB2 and sampling is much lesser but I am not so sure whether it is good enough for my present and future use cases.

[TomKatt]

I have the DSlogic Plus and it has worked quite well.  Though the newer Pro models may technically sample up to 1GHz, even the 400GHz sample rate of my Plus model is overly optimistic - it's virtually impossible to have a test lead setup capable of those speeds.

So unless you need some special feature of the Pro model, save 50% and look into the (now) base model Plus.  They run the same software, which is actually fairly nice.

But the AD3 is certainly the most flexible of the bunch.

[tggzzz]

I have decided on buying a decent logic analyzer after working with Saleae LA and previously with oscilloscope protocol decoding. I am confused with what whether to go with DSLogic U3Pro16, Analog Discovery 3 or the ADALM2000. The latter 2 have decent pattern generator which I feel might be very useful if I am designing something. U3Pro16 looks very good. I would like to hear opinions on my shortlist.

A key feature of a decent logic analyser is that - unlike a scope - it doesn't capture boring stuff. That allows you to concentrate on what is interesting to you.

Techniques for ignoring boring stuff:

• state based, i.e. it only captures and stores inputs when another input changes (i.e. a clock) and another input is high or low (i.e. a chip enable)
• complex arm/trigger capabilities, not capturing anything until a sequence of previous things (e.g. bus states, signal levels, signal transients, etc) have occurred

As for protocol decoding, you may be better off with a dedicated protocol analyser, hopefully one with arm/trigger/capture facilities as mentioned above.

[egonotto]

Hello,

DSLogic U3Pro16 and Analog Discovery 3 are very different devices and hardly comparable. The memory for digital signals in the AD3 is a maximum of 32 kSamples. The maximum input voltage of the AD3 is 5 V.

There's also Digital Discovery.

Best regards
egonotto

[mindentropy]

@egonotto: I think I made a mistake of Analog Discovery 3. Thanks for pointing it out. How is your experience of Digital Discovery? I am frankly very confused now.

[2N3055]

@egonotto: I think I made a mistake of Analog Discovery 3. Thanks for pointing it out. How is your experience of Digital Discovery? I am frankly very confused now.

I have Digital Discovery. It is mixed emotions about that one.

You can generate signal patterns.
You can have basic trigger, logic combination trigger and even some protocol  triggering. You can even put it in a logic function mode where you define logic function from inputs to outputs, using FPGA for it (ROM mode).
It can decode some protocols. For few protocols it can receive AND send data, even simulate some sensors..

OTOH, you can only work with up to 3.3V logic. Graphic representation is very basic and monochrome. There is  table data view that is very rudimentary.

I used it many times for stuff no other tool can do.

For instance, I made a device that has multiple inputs and outputs, radio link etc...
With using DD I was able to create random pattern for inputs and could monitor outputs and see and decode serial protocol going to telemetry links.

I was able to detect problems in interaction between parts of system, and finally verify proper functioning.

But it is not very good for lots of decoding, not because it is not able to capture the data (that part works well) but because GUI is not really made for it.
For instance, there is no color coding, no obvious error markings, it simply is not user friendly visually.

I am glad I have it because of benefits I mentioned, but think that proper LA/protocol analyser (like DSLogic U3Pro16 ) would be much better choice for actual decoding.
Since I have many other options to decode (ZeroPlus LA, ScanaLogic, and Siglent, Keysight and Picoscope MSO scopes), I use that instead of DD pretty much most of the time.

Combine that with very limited input voltage (and mostly unprotected) inputs and DD is more of a special thing, more of an experimenter tool than LA/protocol analyser propper.