TechTools DV3100 Vs. Intronix LogicPort ( Which to Buy )

[xtrmi]

I have been looking around for a new toy to buy and have decided on a logic analyzer. I have looked at all the USB analyzers and have settled on these two. Which one do you think you would buy or already have? Thanks for any input.

 

[xtrmi]

Nobody replied, but in case anyone was wondering I went with the ZeroPlus Logic Cube 16032. I did this because I didn't really know enough to put down a bunch of money that I could otherwise spend on parts or other tools. I will review it after finals. So far I spent many hours trying to figure out there documentation which sucks, but I did figure things out and that is when I decided to buy. I have since plugged it in and sampled a signal and the everything seems to be correct. I will do more extensive testing in my schools lab to determine the quality of the product.

 

[xtrmi]

My overall impression of the logic cube is very good. This largely has to do with the price being so low and the fact that it does the job. In addition I have came to like the software. My only complaint is the 10ns resolution. 10ns errors will come up in slow and fast signals. As far as analyzing signals goes if you keep Nyquist in mind you will get the correct results. If you want to do profiling with this device you will need to consider the resolution limitation carefully, but honestly this is just a 120 dollar analyzer. I would recommend this to any hobbyist or even undergrad engineer want to have some debug abilities at home. I have already used it in this capacity which saved me a trip to the school lab. So this is already paying for itself. I am stil drooling over a Tektronix. Before you buy one of these devices be sure to download the software and play with it a bunch before you buy. The zeroplus documentation totally blows so you will have to be clever and figure it out, but it is worth it because you will save some money.

 

[embedded flyer]

I have the Intronix LogicPort and the ZeroPlus and greatly prefer the LogicPort.

The ZeroPlus has typical Made In Taiwan software which is to say it's pretty rough, a bit buggy, and not always intuitive. It's also hugely bloated--it's a 55 MB download. And it doesn't run well on a slow PC or netbook. The only real plus is it's really cheap.

The LogicPort has great software, is easy to use, and both the software and hardware have been bullet proof. It even works flawlessly even on a very slow low-end Intel Atom powered netbook. The software is 1/10 the size of the Zeroplus software yet is far superior. The downside it is only has 2K sample depth, and while the compression works well, that can still be a problem when you need to capture longer periods at high resolution.

Tech Tools has been around a long time, they're a USA company, and while I wasn't too impressed with the value of their older DV1-100, the new DV3100 looks to be a great product. I've run the software in demo mode and it's very user friendly (and 1/5 the size of Zeroplus). With 512K per channel of sample memory and what's probably the among the best compression out there, it should be able to capture nearly anything as long as 10nS resolution is sufficient. Plus it has even more advanced trigger options.

I'm likely going to dump both the LogicPort and the Zeroplus and upgrade to the DV3100. I *might* keep the LogicPort around at it has 2ns (500Mhz) resolution and I'm not sure how well the DV3100 will work on a netbook. But the Zeroplus is going on eBay.