Saleae Logic Probe on sale at microchip.com

[HenrikOlsson]

Depends on what you want to do.... VGA is, as far as I know, an analog interface so putting a logic analyzer on the actual VGA signals probably won't do much for you. If, on the other hand you want to monitor what goes on on "the other side" of the DAC then a fast logic analyzer would be the key. But then it's the number of bits in the interface bus to the DAC and not the number of pins in the VGA connector that stipulates the number of channels you need....

/Henrik.

[Normnet]

Depends on what you want to do.... VGA is, as far as I know, an analog interface so putting a logic analyzer on the actual VGA signals probably won't do much for you. If, on the other hand you want to monitor what goes on on "the other side" of the DAC then a fast logic analyzer would be the key. But then it's the number of bits in the interface bus to the DAC and not the number of pins in the VGA connector that stipulates the number of channels you need....

/Henrik.

For VGA timing is critical, vertical and horizontal sync as well as clocking out the D/A pixel data.
Also additional hardware support as the PIC just isn't fast enough to determine the pixels in a line.

Norm

[mister_e]

Finally received the clone, work as advised, no complaint, but yeah you may want to add the mini grabber probe kit to your shopping cart. As it is right now, it's just a bunch of wire with female connector on the end, something that plug perfectly on male headers (such as those on EasyPIC board)

Allow 2-4 weeks for their free delivery as well.

Not something I would highly recommend or do again, but surely cheap and workable solution.

[Demon]

Saleae Logic 8 now goes for $499 on Microchip Direct, but it can handle BOTH digital and analog inputs. :O
https://www.microchipdirect.com/dev-tools/TSAL0003

"One tool to rule them all!"

I finally filled up my old one while looking where my 2 PICs are spending their time.




After debugging my USART/IOC problems on the 16F18877, I can't imagine how long it would have taken without the Saleae Logic.

[HenrikOlsson]

I'm sure their new offerings are as good (likely better) than the old series but their prices have skyrocketed.
It was $149 for the original LOGIC8, now the new LOGIC8 is >$500. Sure it's faster and more betterer but nah, it doesn't tickle that buy nerve at all for me.

[richard]

you can probably get a rigol 2ch dso with 16 logic channels for the same or less

[Ioannis]

I'm sure their new offerings are as good (likely better) than the old series but their prices have skyrocketed.
It was $149 for the original LOGIC8, now the new LOGIC8 is >$500. Sure it's faster and more betterer but nah, it doesn't tickle that buy nerve at all for me.

Indeed. But if you see their clients, you understand that people like us is of less or no interest to them!

Richard you are right. And as a plus to the Logic Analyzer you have a scope too!

Ioannis

[HenrikOlsson]

I'd certainly buy a scope over/before any logic analyzer but IMHO once you have verified signal integrety with the scope, moving to a logic analyzer with a nice and quick UI like LOGIC is WAY more productive than trying to do the same thing on a MSO if you're trying to actually analyze a communication protocol etc.

A year or two ago I worked on reverse engineering the protocol used between the HP/Agilent 34970A DAQ and it's various plugin modules. Don't think I could've done it without the LOGIC even though I have a mixed signal oscilloscope.

Then again, the original LOGIC is quite limited when it comes to triggering and I would've loved to be able to dedicate on of its inputs as an external trigger input but nope. Don't know about the newer ones.