The $10 Logic Analyser

I've always used Saleae logic analysers since I strated workinf on embedded systems and I have never considered alternatives.

I decided to evaluate a $10 solution with FX2LP CY7C68013A Mini Board as hardware and Sigrok PulseView as software.

Hardware

The hardware is a $10 board called FX2LP CY7C68013A Mini Board based on the Cypress CY7C68013A.

The Cypress CY7C68013A is a high-speed USB peripheral controller.

Software

The software is Sigrok PulseView, an open-source project that supports a very long list of measuring equipments.

The driver for the FX2LP CY7C68013A Mini Board is fx2lafw.

PulseView then lists 16 channels:

Chanels D0 to D7 from port B on the board PB0..PB7; and
Chanels D8 to D15 from port D on the board PD0..PD7.

Different parameters can be set:

active channels;
number of samples;
speed; and
trigger.

PulseView offers a very long list of decoders for protocols. I tested the SPI protocol.

The decoder can display the data of the SPI in hexadecimal on a separate pane.

Basic measurements can be performed, like time and frequency, here SPI at 8 MHz.

However, the major limitation is the speed: with a 24 MHz crystal on the FX2LP CY7C68013A Mini Board, the maximum speed I could reach was 8 MHz, with frequent crashes starting at 12 MHz.

This is not fast enough for tracing a SPI bus running at 16 MHz.

Conclusion

Albeit its limitations, this affordable harware and software solution allows to explore logic analysers, use them on basic circuits and decode popular protocols like I²C and SPI.

For serious work, there is no secret: a professional logic analyser like the Saleae is a must.