Oscilloscope/AWG/Logic Analyzer: Analog Discovery 3 | Hacker News Reader

Logic Analyzer: Analog Discovery 3

digilent.com

46 pointscloudripper21 comments

Shame it seems unsupported by Sigrok? (The whole line, not just new one.) I understand Digilent having no interest in helping, but I'm surprised there wouldn't have been sufficient community interest in figuring it out, however much of a hack it required.

The sigrok community, such as it is, mostly consists of a lot of frustrated would-be contributors who can't get their drivers reviewed or bug reports addressed. Nobody is maintaining it anymore.

The project really needs somebody to step in and take it over.

I would rather see the Sigrok community to design their own sub-$50 hardware that doesn't suck.

I don't want 1GHz bandwidth or unlimited sample depth. Just something that works reasonably well up to 5-10 MHz.

I got the impression that they only have a USB2 uplink, which is unfortunate for a $380 device in 2023.

I think you're probably right thinking about it - why would they have the DC jack as well as USB-C if they'd done anything more than just swap the connector. It's pretty trivially backwards compatible, even with (USB2-level) PD.

I own AD2 and it is great little tool at the price (which was around $280-300 at the time IIRC), but this slowly creeped up to price of say Rigol 1054Z with far less acquire capability.

More breadth though, don't think you could really call a winner without saying 'for what'.

Yeah, definitely depends on use case. Few extra bits (that you lose on very simple frontend that doesn't have that many input levels to choose from) is nice for audio stuff, and all in one package makes some tasks much easier vs cobbling together same setup from separate hardware.

I could see a lot of use out of it in setting a test jigs, as you can both generate and receive signal while having some digital IO to control DUT/the testing jig.

If I was doing audio stuff only and had to choose I'd probably pick this over a scope then just make a jig with a bunch of sockets common to audio stuff.

But for more generic stuff, eh, scope gonna give you soo much more.

I used to use the 1st gen Discovery at a previous job and it had plenty of rough edges, and it was also less capable as an oscilloscope than the Saleae, but it also showed a lot of potential.

I haven't tried the 3rd gen but it does look very promising if you're building a hardware home lab on a tight budget and can't afford or don't want multiple dedicated devices cluttering your working area.

At the advertised MSRP of $380, as a do-it-all device, it's unbeatable.

Well, if you need to fit the lab in laptop case sure, also great as a learning tool for a classroom (which I think was original idea behind it?) but in most cases you'd be far better off with say Rigol 1054Z + whatever cheapest logic analyzer/generator you can get off aliexpress.

I have AD2 and it had some unique niches it is good at (14 bits makes it somewhat capable at doing some analysis on audio devices), but I by far prefer to use my cheap-ish scope for near-anything else. Just amount of memory alone is big advantage, higher input range (AD only have like...2 or 3 IIRC, rest is faked by wasting bits on ADC), proper probe sockets without needing adapter, ability to just press buttons and knobs to do what you need without getting back to the computer and going thru menus etc.

Then again, ability to script measurement is also pretty nifty. Can be done on many scopes but by far more effort than on AD

At the academic price of $250 I'm extremely tempted, but my personal value for it is decreased because I already own a "$775" 200MHz SDS1204X-E (hacked $400-500 SDS1104X-E) and a $1,500 LAP-C Pro (32064M) Logic Analyzer (250MHz-2GHz, 64-256MB/channel depending on how many channels you're actually capturing).

The main benefit to me would be the AWG feature, and maybe the software is more usable than the LAP-C software. Would this be a good option for me or is there another AWG I should consider for that price point to get much better performance/features? I ask here because there's probably quite a few hobbyists on HN with a basic scope and logic analyzer but lacking an AWG.

If you buy Sigilent AWD you will be able to steer it from your scope, just connect them via USB cable

For example I have SDS-1104X-E and SDG1025 and I can from the scope setup a frequency sweep on the generator then have scope make frequency response graph

Previous post on HN:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36141482

AWG = arbitrary waveform generator

How does this compare to the Red Pitaya line?

https://www.redpitaya.com

the last time I looked at their stuff it seemed to me they could use a bit of refresh.

I've been needing something to modulate an arbitrary waveform on a 1kHz sine wave carrier signal. Would this work for that purpose? Are there better alternatives?

The carrier frequency is low enough that any microcontroller board with a price no greater than ten dollars (e.g. any STM32 Nucleo board) can generate it digitally and output it through one of the included digital to analog converters.

Alternatively, you can generate the modulated signal with any desktop or laptop computer using the audio interface.

Why would I buy these over the $200-$300ish Rigol/Chinese ones? A lot of them are pretty decent, and compete with the 'big boys'

I have both an Analog Discovery 2 and a Rigol DS1054Z.

If I want to look at an easy to find waveform, I always use the AD2. Both because I can use it on battery power with a laptop and if I'm at my desk I get to use my large monitor. It's also great for doing data acquisition straight to the computer (e.g., to capture power usage over time).

I only use the Rigol when I need to do a lot of fiddling with knobs while debugging a circuit - it's hard to beat physical controls. I keep dreaming of a USB device with a handful of high quality knobs that integrates with Digilent's software. If Digilent sold something like that for a reasonable price, I'd sell my Rigol.

The Discovery devices can generate analog and digital signals. There's also an API.

As an embeddded dev that's bit more useful than a passive scope.

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