EEVblog

Dave looks at the Digilent Open Scope MZ Review, an $89 open source oscilloscope, logic analyser, and function generator.
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[@DigilentInc]

Hi Dave, thanks for reviewing the OpenScope MZ, we always listen to your feedback. This review has made our office more emotionally engaged than we were over the Superbowl :-). Major points: 1. What type of USB port were you using? We see data corruption issues when users are using Full Speed vs High Speed. We have that highlighted all over our documentation. 2. We are re-evaluating our packaging and using the word "professional", it's setting the wrong expectation. We designed this, so people could have remote instrumentation (why the wi-fi). It's really a new-type of instrumentation and isn't fully comparable with the Analog Discovery, but understandable how using the same fly-wires and the branding/naming could lead our customers down that path. It was a mistake to say, "professional" on the packaging. We marked it as professional for embedded developers, but not for instrumentation. We need to be more specific. 3. Good UI feedback we will look to incorporate some of the explanation. We really struggled between making it a pain for experienced users and obvious where first time users should go. 4. We didn't know about your Open Sourced gear logo, but will evaluate it. 5. We will make it more obvious that Waveforms Live can run locally.

[@EEVblog]

I used a USB 3.0 port.

[@DigilentInc]

Do you know if you still get the corruption over wi-fi?

[@INCC74656I]

i commend you for making a product, giving to a dude on youtube to review, and then engaging and committing to further development based on feedback. few companies do that these days and it is always nice to see a company that cares.

[@williampiper1015]

@@INCC74656I can't agree more. It's very refreshing.

[@JSMCPN]

Good to see a company engaged with the community and responding to constructive criticism.

[@maxsnts]

Dave having a "typical user moment" reading only half the message lol

[@SidneyCritic]

It's written there that you will lose the cal if you don't save it, you just need to read all of it. Not a fan of this seat-of-the-pants fumbling around not knowing how the product works type vid. Maybe film all of it and voice over it when you know exactly how it works, because it disadvantage the product making assumptions that might not be true.

[@Tarbard]

It's a poor user interface, why even bother telling the user to save it, just save it.

[@SidneyCritic]

True - engineers aren't the best out of their specific field, i.e. communicating, etc -, it's just that complaining about it for 3min when when the answer was in the 2nd sentence isn't fair because it makes it look bad. Reviews should be less emotional and more "it can do this" and "it can't do that", and more importantly accurate. It's not a problem because I turn off what I don't like, so no biggie.

[@Sharklops]

If Dave doesn't immediately understand something or might have done something differently, it's a "FAIL... FAIL... FAIL.."

[@mikeselectricstuff]

Microchip bought Roving networks,hence Microchip branded wifi module

[@MrMobileWill]

I got one of these a few months ago and so far I like it for doing microcontroller testing on my bench. Especially with limited space for my oscilloscope. Turns out Digilent is 2 floors above me. ;)!

[@EEVblog]

Do you get the data sample corruption?

[@MrMobileWill]

When I got home I tested it again to make sure and it was clean as a whistle. I used the same settings you had at 50kHz on the waveform gen looped to OSC1. Bode plot looked fine too.

[@oliviaorr]

Dave, are you using a USB Full speed vs a USB High Speed? That is the ase we see the data corruption. We have a lot of warnings in the documentation.

[@akosbuzogany2752]

Cal data was probably stored in the RAM and would have been lost if you didn't save it to the eeprom.

[@kevincozens6837]

That is exactly it. It stated on the screen that the settings would be lost if you didn't save it to flash memory.

[@stuartremphrey228]

So why's save not automatic? Especially the first time. (when you're not overwriting any existing calibration).

[@dynamite155]

I have a DSO, a Tektronix analog scope, a fluke scope meter, and both the analog discovery 2, and I got the openscope MZ when it came out. And while I think you made good points in this video, the thing I find I use the openscope for which is hard/near impossible to do with the other ones I own is the size and the Wifi capability. If you are testing the voltages or logic values on a moving object like a RC car, or a tiny balancing robot, it is super convenient to strap it to the object and plug in the chords (which can be a little short I will give you), and then view the data on my tablet or on my computer, while the robot moves around the floor. Which would be a pain to follow around with traditional scopes and things. So in my mind its kind of meant for like in the field scope uses. I.E. not necessarily in a lab environment but like on a beach or something where you can't exactly bring a nice tradition scope and a computer easily. Or in an environment you need to attach the scope to and have it move with the object. Either way, I have loved your videos Mr. Jones, and having nothing but respect for you and your opinions. Just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in as an Electronic Hobbyist and a Mechanical Engineer.

[@notamouse5630]

Look up RPIScope, that is 1 channel, >10MSPS and configurable, up to 12 bits, and you choose and implement the ADC. For around the same total cost if you build it yourself, and you learn Linux kernel module stuff in the process.

[@DanielLopez-up6os]

One things i would like you would do is read some of the text, and instructions before fumbling around and complaining about stuff, when it states the actual way of things, and what would solve some of your "issues" with it.

[@iagmusicandflying]

I think this product is kind of crap, too, but for those of you saying it's "online only" probably need to google "localhost".

[@EvileDik]

As an amature on a shoestring, my only takeaway is if you cant afford a $5000 'scope you have no right doing electronics. Must be nice being a millionaire you-tuber with manufacturer gifts thrown at you every time you open the mail.

[@321ooo123]

Typical Dave: "I can't figure out how to do this in this software, so it must be crap." Reading the doc or the manual is too much of a hassle, apparently. And it would be understandable if he used only user-friendly software... but I know he uses Altium, not exactly the definition of "user-friendly"!

[@jackm_]

i wonder if the whole point of the openscope was to make an open source scope, with schematics software and everything.. as a tool for people and students who are studying on how to make one. you can build one yourself if you want, can't you? on the MZ(EF), well reasonably powerful is not how i would put it: before the M7 there were no ARM comparable to it in processing power,memory, double precision FPU and peripherals like DMA. then M7 came out on the ST F7, now H7 gave it the middle finger by going to crazy high frequency but at what cost!

[@oliviaorr]

That was actually the initial vision of the product! Over it's development it became about being a "deployable instrument"... which took over that message. *sigh*

[@ceneblock]

I backed this when it was on Kickstarter. I've used it for a logic analyzer and didn't have a problem. However, this week I finally tried out O-Scope for an 8-bit computer. Found out 8MHz was too much. I'm disappointed. The color coded pinout is in the waveform software. However, a sticker would be really nice. To set the frequency, just type it and click away.

[@DigilentInc]

Thanks for the suggestion for the sticker. We have one that if you print, you could use, but a sticker makes more sense. Thank you for the idea!

[@jimmy21584]

Meh, you may as well get a bodgy DSO 138 off Aliexpress for $15 - which also has a screen. For me that is surprisingly good for audio work, or checking that I2C or GPIO pins are alive. When I have to do any heavy lifting I borrow my mate's Rigol scope. NOTHING beats having manual knob and button controls!

[@shana_dmr]

Probably someone at their marketing department figured that 'open source' is now what all the cool companies do for good PR. They really didn't want their IP to leak through open sourcing stuff so they used whole different architecture and used their interns to write software as an exercise ;)

[@bewing77]

The BNC adapter for the Analog Discovery works for this one as well, don't know if anyone said it already. Waveforms live works offline. Calibration is saved to builting flash or SD card and has to be reloaded from that on powerup yes. You can type in anything in the value fields and then tab to another box or click somewhere else to set them. Logic analysis missing is an issue, it does seem to be on it's way though. Can't say much about the Android app, the iOS one works pretty well. Is it a fantastic product? No, but it has it's uses if on a budget. A friend of mine who pretty much only works with audio range signals has it and is very satisfied. If it gets logic analysis I might be interested myself, depending on the usefulness of that, looking at the price point of other logic analysers that is. My issue however with some of Dave's reviews is that he doesn't really spend any time using the product outside of what he does during the video. For stuff he really know well like PCB-design, analog circuits etc that is fine since he can look at stuff and say something valuable about it, but when it comes to using the product that's not enough to give much of a review at all. At times it's really face-palm material when Dave fumbles about like a fool trying to do something, failing and giving the product crap for it even though it's a no-brainer if you check out the manual, or spend a couple of hours using the thing.

[@billigerfusel]

Wow, 2 MHz. Can't do shit with that now these days.

[@EEVblog]

Can still be a useful low end bandwidth for many apps, but yeah, pretty limiting.

[@mbaker335]

1 meg is plenty if you are working with audio.

[@PilotPlater]

didn't realize you wrote MHz not GHz.... yeah... maybe a lot of the projects I do could be ok, but RF? forget it.

[@rikimiki12]

seems useful for audio but for not much more money picoscope has a 25mhz model with awg

[@ACTlVISION]

I wonder if we can get a review of the updated standalone beagle logic when it becomes available (standalone.beaglelogic.net/en/latest/) More logic analyzer than oscilloscope but it's supposed to also be at the

[@jasona8396]

Too much complaining, especially when you seem to jump the gun on many of those complaints. Epic fail.

[@MajenkoTechnologies]

The data corruption is probably a failure in the design of the serial protocol.

[@RogerBarraud]

More like Dave's phone getting into the unshielded wiring...

[@uwezimmermann5427]

What is the deal with R65, R72 and R76 in the R-2R ladder being stated as 732 ohms in the schematics rather than 750 ohms as all the other R:s matching the 1500 ohm 2R:s? "R65=R72=R76=(R84-2.5%)" ???

[@zrobotics]

That horrendous soldering at 6:07. Considering those leads are supposed to be oscilloscope input leads as well, it's hardly a wonder this thing is only rated 2MHz. I realize it's technically connected, but considering quite a few of the traces are on top of the board they should get their wave machine setup better. Also, I can't help but suspect the reason it's purple is b/c of the OSHpark association with the color. I would expect better from digilent, this doesn't seem any more advanced than a hobby project.

[@twobob]

Feels like an OSH ;)

[@vincei4252]

I hate webapps and all its silly resource hungry frameworks - personal bias. I think the reason it's so quirky is due to all those webframeworks and javascript. Waveforms is a much better product and is not tied to the web. Ditch Lite and implement a plugin to drive this from Waveforms. Oh, and fix the hugely obvious glitches, Jeez.

[@AnthonyShuker]

FYI, it has nothing to do with javascript.

[@vincei4252]

ok

[@SebastianScholle]

Waveforms live is opensource and is therefore available to be fixed by the community. And it is updated all the time.

[@Tarbard]

It's hard to get a fluid response from js, it's single threaded in nodejs and the browser. You can use web workers but that is a PITA and tends not to solve much. Angular is good but has to be used judiciously or the performance tanks.

[@FinderTRE]

BTNR = Button reset BTNP = Button prog perhaps

[@EEVblog]

Yes, they are the programming buttons, reset and prog.

[@trickyrat483]

Yes, it actually says so on the silkscreen next to them. :)

[@3oo3tube2020]

I actually like my device, it fits my needs at this time. I can understand that some folks may require a more sophisticated device, but that also comes with a higher price point, and as I am in the early stages of learning not only how microcontroller devices work, but also how to use the test equipment that goes with them, it seemed simple enough for my needs. I like your channel, and will continue to watch, hope you have a great day.

[@pixelflow]

When I see these custom interface apps its like.. just user test it a 'little' to clean up the flow/interactions.

[@firedeveloper]

Digilent has a big deal with microchip, I guess it begun with "pic32 arduino compatible" boards From their site "Microchip is proud to align with Digilent to work with educators, researchers and students...."

[@EEVblog]

Ah, yes, forgot about those.

[@RealZomBiE8192]

Nice demo Dave. Digilent done it again, NFG. Even 30 bucks is too much for that P.O.S.

[@andrewnambudripad762]

Not a Digilent fan boi but the Analog Discovery was definitely worth it for 100 level EE classes (IIRC my father got them at 100 USD a unit for lecturing his undergrads). This thing, eh yeah 30-$50 is where I'd place it if I were being generous. 2mhz is powerful enough for doing power analysis. I could see it being useful for intermittent fault finding and/or tough to see locations (e.g ECU work on a car is notoriously annoying to get a scope visible) so streaming to your phone is kinda handy.... though, now you have those 50 buck meters with bluetooth so might as well use that. Yeah, haha, you're right, no real place for this at that price point. I'm giving them props for making an effort anyways. (If you look at the Tek RSA edu-market stuff, it's hella overpriced for what you're getting, don't think Agilent is doing any better)

[@zvpunry1971]

Video paused at 3:00, the sound you just made to describe the purple color did also describe my thoughts when I saw JP2... I had to rewind a few times to hear it again and again. It is such a good description for stupid things. =)

[@MrRecorder1]

Couldn't it be the case that Dave's loop-cable dangling over the WiFi chip is picking up a bunch of noise from the same chip? I mean, I do not know how strong the output signal of the WaveForm generator is, but these pulses look like WiFi signals to me...

[@holliday9497]

The amount of effort needed to get it working at a basic level is crazy.

[@MarcinKurczalski]

@24:10 with AWG, I believe it can be setup when it's off and after you start it (blue-lit power button indicator) changing settings get locked- seems fine to me for this piece of instrument

[@jcc4tube]

What's with JP2? Notice its pads are in a slight zig zag? I assume that is a jtag programming connector. Is it so they can plug a male header in there for programming and have it contact without soldering? Clever way to avoid having to solder in a connector for one time programming use.

[@EddieTheGrouch]

Spotty hardware coupled with dodgy online only software - Talk about embracing the worst of all worlds. This actually makes me feel better being stuck with a Hantek 1008. At least my spotty hardware with dodgy software will work (sorta) without Internet. Thank You.

[@7hemroc]

BS. Dave should have noticed that big, orange "fork me on github" thingie in the top right corner. Click on it and you instantly see it's completely open source and can be installed locally in like 1 minute (on amy decent linux box that is). The online version is only for folks too lazy or too dumb to do that.

[@aronhighgrove4100]

@@7hemroc Normal client software that needs a local server (for no good reason, besides the framework being really for the web and not for apps) is a pain.

[@SamFugarino]

Jeeze people, it's an education tool.

[@EEVblog]

Actually, it's a "professional tool", says so on the box.

[@MajenkoTechnologies]

Pic32 was chosen because digilent already have a WiFi stack for the WiFi module that they gave to chipKIT. The whole thing is just a Wi-FIRE with a few extra bells added.

[@nulano]

I will definitely consider this, but at that price it should definitely come with a case at the very least.

[@tcsmember]

The Labtool (EA-XPR-202) is also open source and about the same price but up to 60MS/s analog and 100 digital.

[@KillerXtreme]

I'd be curious if you hooked it up to your scope to see if that noise is just in the generator or not, find out where it's coming from.

[@Tarbard]

I hate web interfaces for non web based things. I think it's driven by the surplus of js/node programmers out there, when all you have is a js knowledge everything looks like it should be a web app. You still end up having to install some server agent anyway, annoying.

[@MatthewSuffidy]

I have an old fusion 878 card I modded that I could maybe turn into an oscilloscope, but it's input voltage would be in the audio level range. These chips had I guess extensions for digitizing hdtv data, and basically have a 900khz x 16 bit mono ADC in them. You can use Linux and you use the bt878 audio.

[@zerog2000]

I have an analog discovery 2 which i picked up on edu discount, and it was well worth the money. They keep updating the pc software, it works on mac and linux, and does a decent job for 99% of what I do on my tinkering bench. (I have an owon 100mhz scope, but it has been collecting dust in it's carry bag for over a year...)

[@zerog2000]

ahh pedantics.... yes, it's the bag collecting dust.

[@BM-jy6cb]

Might be ok as a launch pad for a personal scope development project as a learning tool, bit even for someone starting out it's not much use as an actual tool.

[@jort93z]

Professional and open source. many people would say those things don't work together. But i would like to see more professional open source equipment.

[@anlumo1]

How many professionals use the open source gcc to compile their professional software?

[@0xbenedikt]

Lots of, actually. Just look at all the Linux powered devices nowadays. Most vendors are using GCC to compile their code for it.

[@absalomdraconis]

LLVM will probably take over for everything modern eventually (gcc is infamously messy), but _still_ open-source.

[@iagmusicandflying]

I switched to LLVM 4 years ago, and I won't go back.

[@Mtaalas]

Specs are the main issue, even slowest stuff that i'd want t probe these days goes way faster than 2mhz and that's only going to go up as technology advances. It's more like a teaching tool or very limited beginner toy to be honest... but oh well... I don't have to buy it :P

[@TanjoGalbi]

As a hobbyist on an extreme budget this would suit my limited needs. A shame that my extreme budget does not even allow for $79 lol ;(

[@leberkassemmel]

Why do I think a Raspberry Pi and a Arduino together make a better scope than that?

[@hrshovon]

LPC4370 could have been a better solution with its 80MSPS ADC and builtin DAC(not so great frequency) I guess. For wifi, ESP8266 should be a no brainer.

[@teuton8363]

BTNP maybe a programmable button or the button to program something since it is written prog next to it and the other button is named BTNR (R = reset). 7:13

[@SuperAWaC]

interesting to see hardware companies going with the "early access" plan that video game companies have been doing :^)

[@JLSoftware]

1. What goes thru the USB connection? 2. What are all the bundle of wires for? 3. Where did the sine wave come from? 4. Maybe some explanation would have been beneficial.

[@zachburke8906]

JL Software the data goes through the usb cable, plus power. The wires are the test probes, required on oscilloscopes and logic analyzers. The device itself, it came from the waveform generator. These are very basic questions, and is not something is consider important in a review of a product, these questions(and answers) are better to be in tutorial videos on USB connections, oscilloscopes and logic analyzers, and waveform generators. After all, most of the people in the market for these devices should know these things.

[@JLSoftware]

This is a review. It should include a 1 or 2 sentence description of what the thing does. It's an oscilloscope? Really? Real oscilloscopes don't have a huge handful of wires - they have sockets to plug test leads into. And is the data that is going through the USB cable just coordinates of what to display on the screen, or is it the output of A/D converters on this board, which would require more software in the computer to produce the display that looks like an oscilloscope screen? That's a lot more helpful than rambling muttering while trying to figure out the controls on the screen.

[@craigtucker777]

Louis mentioned in one of his livestreams that he sent you quick861, can't wait to see that one :)

[@EEVblog]

Yep, just got it. Got a few other things to do first though.

[@craigtucker777]

no rush :)

[@brucewoods9377]

I think this product may stay on the shelf

[@Sixta16]

2MHz BW, no actual oscilloscope frontend. I did stop watching at that moment, as I thought at first that will be some decent stuff, when I have seen the shield there. It turns out, it is another WiFi connected garbage, based on PIC MZ. :(

[@EEVblog]

What's wrong with the PIC MZ?

[@movax20h]

Yeah, this is a bit useless device. Hardware is extremely limited, overpriced, cannot be extended, and firmware and software will probably is shit, and will die in a year or two. It would be probably better to have some form of Raspberry Pi hat to do similar thing, but without any serious limitations, and supperb modularity and software extensibility. I respect it is open source tho, with all mechanics, pcb, schematics, cases, and firmware.

[@absalomdraconis]

With what I've been playing around with lately, I'd probably use a A->D/CPLD/Ram triplet, with whatever cheapo micro to read out the data later. If you really want a preview you can have the CPLD throw out an additional data stream at a lower speed, since no big deal.

[@EEVblog]

Jared Maddox - The Analog Discovery used an FPGA.

[@absalomdraconis]

Also, a Pic32 MZ should be able to get more than 2 MSamples / sec. The actual proc speed can go to 252 MHz internally, the EBI bus can go to at least 50 MHz, and can at least go to 16 bits wide on the data bus, so even if you go 16 bit wide multiplexed bus, 32 bit data and address, best case that's 50/4=12.5 MHz bus speed (except that I'm pretty sure the EBI supports bursts, and I know some larger packages support that non-multiplexed, so the bus can max out faster). So yeah, this should be able to do better unless the Wifi is the restraining factor.

[@oidpolar6302]

This is when one good idea is getting commercial adjustment, web UI is the only you've got

[@yaghiyahbrenner8902]

so over these open source scope projects. we need more decent open power supply projects, dc electronic loads..

[@gjsmo]

Hey Dave - where's episode #1056?

[@JLSoftware]

Totally confusing. I see a circuit board with an edge connector and a bag with a bunch of wires. No mention of how this thing works, where the wires go, or how it can be an "oscilloscope." Yet we have the usual "that's all she wrote", whatever that means.

[@NoName-bt3oy]

Here you go: store.digilentinc.com/openscope-mz-open-source-all-in-one-instrumentation/

[@liliansirbu840]

I am wandering if it is possible to use it as a sound card for PC

[@thecombatengineer7069]

The Amazon link isn't working, mate.

[@FireballXL55]

The lack of control via WiFi maybe because you still had control of it on another browser tab.

[@uwezimmermann5427]

So the software is running in the web browser? Which web browser will have access to the USB/COM ports in the future? Do I want my web browser to have access to some hardware on my computer?

[@kilrahvp]

Uwe Zimmermann no, the "agent" is the server.

[@chillzwinter]

7:11 Guessing BTNP = Button Programming, and BTNR = Button Reset - seems pretty obvious to me.

[@DouglasKryder]

i doubt that digilent is marketing this to professional users of test electronics. probably more like the children of those pro users who are tired of their kids asking to use their equipment. so, you need to aim your review to the intended user group, kids. and do not review it as though it was a professional piece of equipment, review it as a nice toy. as nice toys go these days 90 bucks is not a bad price. you need to understand what this thing is and a proper target audience. i.e. toy/kids

[@EEVblog]

They market it as a "professional" solution, it's written on the box.

[@DouglasKryder]

yes, it is a "professional" solution to bringing an inexpensive openscope to the educational market, which is really the only market they have served since beginning around 2000 and more so since 2013 when NI bought them. the market they serve is education and to do that successfully they need to market inexpensive products that schools can buy in mass quantities and students [mostly kids] can get their parents to buy for them. digilent has never been about serving the professional market with pro class products.

[@levbobrov1398]

Perfect Purple PCB

[@Rolly369]

25 Msample 2Mhz and 20V for 90bucks... and not stand alone working... garbage... NEXT ONE PLS!

[@bluephreakr]

See, this is the great thing about it being open-source. Somebody will release stand-alone software for this eventually, I guarantee it, but it needs a strong community behind it and everyone kicking it to the curb because of out-of-the-box issues doesn't make for good community. Software as it exists now wasn't built in a day, y'know?

[@murrij]

bluephreakr was my understanding that there's standalone software too.

[@stuartremphrey228]

Digilent replied at the top -- the device also hosts it's own copy of the software. So apparently you can just point your browser at that instead.

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

Lets hope that PIC can handle 32768 bin FFT for spectrum display, I don't think that there is enough memory for the board to use needs to be redone to use a 64GB DDR4 memory module, I think if you have a WIFI enabled personal computer like the ACER TC-220 computer that might actually work provided that there is a windows version of that package you are using.

[@flymypg]

Dave so many gear videos that it's hard to get an overview of everything he's done, and use it to help our our own decisions, especially when looking at something he hasn't reviewed. It may be time for Dave to add a comprehensive review score/grade system. It would collects his impressions, then generate an overall score (that can be weighted as desired), and that can then be divided by the retail price to get a "Bang for the Buck" value rating. Have simple categories for specifications, features, ease of use, and perhaps "Other" for unique or rare things. Put the basic form/spreadsheet up as a shared Google Doc, and viewers can fill one out for each prior equipment video. with Dave doing, at most, a once-over to see if the community efforts match his impressions. On future videos, Dave could fill in just his impressions, and the community can do the rest. Thoughts?

[@EEVblog]

Someone on the EEVblog forum has done with with multimeters, it's an impressive spreadsheet.

[@AhmedSLilah]

could you please make a video about home ground and earth connections and how the mains electricity should be distributed around the house because i had an accident because of this

[@mikewillis1592]

So frustrating - fancy having to read the manual before using some complex software.It's good people are doing this and developing open source code and hardware. Bit clunky but it is only a toy to learn from. It would be easy for someone to improve on it and it's interfacing.

[@DavidMarvin]

It's not a bug, it's a feature.

[@Dave_Rice]

Thanks for the warning about how bad this device is. Great consumer advice from Dave yet again!

[@MajenkoTechnologies]

No pic32s have dacs. You want the dsPIC33fj128gp802 for that.

[@conorc4594]

I couldn't stop laughing at the genuine "disappointment" that he experienced in the GUI review "aaaaw yeeeaaaaa......." "aaaaw...." !!! it's gr8

[@henricoderre]

BTNP and BTNR - BTN = button?

[@NolanManteufel]

Dave, love your channel. I bought the OpenScope MZ after watching this review and seeing the incredible ease of getting it setup and running. I haven't had the same luck. My board initially connected, tried to update firmware...failed to update, and now won't connect. Very frustrated. I've been struggling with it for three hours and haven't even gotten to the "Calibration" step. Do you think this is something they broke with an update? Or were you just lucky? Can you make a follow up video exploring this? Thanks!

[@NolanManteufel]

Finally figured it out. Initially, i (1) installed Agilent Agent, (2) launched WFL, (3) plugged in OS MZ, (4) Add Device > Agent > local host +, (5) selected appropriate COM (yes, my OS MZ board was appearing the device manager), (6) my OS MZ board connected and notified me that the firmware needed to be updated (7) selected "Latest Firmware" and clicked "Update Firmware"... (8) after attempting to update the firmware, WFL notified me that the update FAILED. The next five hours were torture. My OS MZ board would "Fail to communicate" when trying to connect (step 6). The solution: (1) Unplug OS MZ, (2) Exit Agilent Agent, (3) Close WFL, (4) Start Agilent Agent, (5) Launch WFL, (6) Plug in OS MZ, (7) Press and hold BTNP and momentarily press BTNR (LD1 now blinking), (8) Add Device > Agent > Local host +, (6) even thought the "Fail to communicate" message appears, with the appropriate COM port selected, click "Update Firmware". For some reason it proceeded (7) selected "Latest Firmware" and clicked "Update Firmware" ... and it worked. This time it installed the firmware successfully and i was able to continue to calibration, and beyond. OMG...finally! It's working and looks awesome.

[@bdspvl]

Hey Nolan, did the same thjing when I first got it and now it is a brick. After a lot of trial and error, found out you need to hold down right button and then left button, to get something... red led flashing... and that is where i’m at.

[@alterratz665]

Even a cheap $5 Saleae clone with pulseview beats this Scope

[@budude2]

2MHz... lol... it's not a test instrument - - it's a toy... guess if you're only using audio it would suffice but...

[@tubical71]

Audio doesn´t need a logic analyzer....i got myself a DSO138 kit by jyetech....two hours happy experienced component guessing and soldering and worked first go, excellent for audio, i used it on daily bases as it´s routed to my recording/mixing desk mono aux output.

[@budude2]

It's scope too btw... that's what I was referring to.

[@SilverGreen93]

I can't believe that the whole software is a webapp that requires an internet connection to work... This is utterly crap.

[@oliviaorr]

There is an offline mode.

[@Liamtronix]

Seems like a device with great potential, but that rubbish software is a bit of a show stopper.

[@tubical71]

just like the red pitaya.....

[@Fiercesoulking]

Its like crossbreeding a mouse with an elephant using Javascript to control hardware directly OMG

[@7hemroc]

@@Fiercesoulking You dunno what you're talking about. NodeJS is the way to go for simple, easy cross-platform GUIs these days. Yes, it's browser based and wastes a lot of resources, but everyone who is able to watch stuff on youtube can instantly run their software online. Or locally after 1 minute install. It is much less demanding than YT. That was the right choice. Only that crappy pic32 was not.

[@programorprogrammed]

Just what i wanted, my scope interface to be as crappy as a web app... Saying that, maybe they're just trying to encourage you to write your own firmware and software to interface with the hardware. No fun if they do all the work.

[@AnthonyShuker]

you can clone the github repo to run the app locally, so you're not actually tied to the internet. still wouldn't get this product however

[@stuartremphrey228]

The app can also be hosted on the device.

[@tofinh]

Did he say that you could load Waveforms from the Openscope itself?

[@brumbymg]

A little too unrefined for my liking. They may have been trying for "inexpensive" but I just see "cheap". A more intuitive UI would have been a better idea - or are they leaving that up the participants in the "Open" community?

[@EEVblog]

Yes, unrefined, I'm sure it will get better though. They already had excellent software in the Analog Discovery Waveforms, to (presumably) re-write all that seems a bit strange.

[@erikpecchi7462]

Is it just me or is JP2 pins staggered or is it just the view of camera,but they look like there not in straight line ,time 3:00 onward

[@peterd.5748]

They are staggered as a way to temporarily retain an inline pin header for (re)programming the microcontroller if it gets so corrupted that it becomes necessary. Also works for temporary use for firmware development/debugging.

[@Manradical14]

did you try different usb cables?

[@thenaimis]

cloud-only javascript interfaces to hardware are evil and need to stop.

[@chaos.corner]

What is AVC in this context? Never mind. It's ADC. I know what that is :)

[@drruncmd]

Funny, i looked at my computer thinking i'd plugged something in when you did lol! Great review as usual Dave! Although would love more repair stuff. As its always good to get stuck down a rabbit hole from time to time.

[@marcoa.guidotorres8540]

$22 for a MRF24WG0MA in 5k+ pricing? OMG, an ESP32 wifi-BT-BLE is way better and way cheaper, not to mention the MCU for $9+ in 5k+ pricing. FACEPALM!!!

[@chasingcapsaicin]

I would think the RTR discrete would be for customization

[@rocketman221projects]

It could have some limited usefulness if you write your own software, but it's still too expensive for what it does.

[@peshozmiata]

Is 2Mhz bandwidth good for anything these days?

[@zachburke8906]

Something that uses 1MHz :)

[@SpaceParanoidX]

Maybe you should read the manual and get acquainted with a device before you review it. This is not a very good review.

[@RWoody1995]

The idea is that a good user interface IS the manual.

[@murrij]

Dick Fageroni I wouldn't say dumb. It did seemed biased.

[@RWoody1995]

knowing how a particular user interface works has nothing to do with skill or knowledge...

[@WacKEDmaN]

i was thinking this might be my first scope..but it looks a bit how ya going!

[@bluephreakr]

So _hold on,_ you support open source but don't even bother with Linux? That makes as much sense as Digilent using MIcrochip instead of Xilink for their central processing.

[@levbobrov1398]

BTNP = Button Program, BTNR = Button Reset

[@matth3wc]

Why doesn't anyone make a good mid price logic analyzers? My $10 saleae 24mhz 8 channel clone does a better job than openscope mz. Either logic analyzers cost 10 dollars or 500, there's really no in-between.

[@EEVblog]

No, your $10 Saleae logic analyser is a fake and is costing the company money. The company that has to maintain that excellent software you like did not get a cent of your $10. Good software takes a lot of time and money to develop and maintain.

[@matth3wc]

EEVblog oh sorry I forgot to put clone when I fixed a typo. I'm aware that it's a copy and saleae doesn't get a cent. I'd buy a saleae but right now they only offer $400 and up. At one point they had the logic 4 which was in my price range but sadly it has been discontinued.

[@AttilaAsztalos]

Just go for the Openbench Logic Sniffer - $50, 200MSPS. You can thank me later.

[@matth3wc]

Attila Asztalos that's the one I wanted, it's perfect. Except the software Java script is outdated for it and seems to only work on Windows XP. Some can get it to work on Windows 10. Sigrok open source software says it has limited support for it. Do you own one?

[@AttilaAsztalos]

I do, and I'm a satisfied customer; it works fine on Windows 7 for me, I don't have anything newer. The software is Java indeed (not javascript - that's for browsers), but it does everything it's supposed to, including some of the usual protocol decoders. I'm aware of Sigrok but I haven't tried it yet - never needed to so far; I understand it's pretty much completely supported except the serial data trigger mode (no biggie) and some issues in RLE data compression mode (kinda biggie, hence my lack of particular interest). If you have a specific question, feel free to ask though.

[@trickyrat483]

A solution looking for a problem. I'm still struggling to determine that problem.

[@tiagolima8574]

Hello. Good morning , I would like to establish a conversation with you in order to clarify some doubts regarding the bitscope. For example, can I read any signal with it, and have the voltage value available to handle using Raspberry pi3 with python?