EEVblog

Dave reviews the Analog Discovery 14bit 100MS/s USB oscilloscope and multi-function instrument from Digilent.
www.digilentinc...
It has a 2-Channel Oscilloscope
2-Channel Waveform Generator
16-Channel Logic Analyzer
16-Channel Digital Pattern Generator
±5VDC Power Supplies
Spectrum Analyzer
Network Analyzer with Bode, Nichols and Nyquist plots.
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[@DigilentInc]

Hey Dave, this is Jesse, the video guru at Digilent. Thanks for checking out our Analog Discovery. Awesome video as always!

[@mdesm2005]

Dave was looking for a cursor, and through fumbling myself (I have one) I found that the little "X" at the bottom left can be clicked and dragged and you end up with a cursor (which ends up surrounded by text that has a mind of it own). Some times the GUI isn't too intuitive, and a bit to "cute" for its own good.

[@oliviaorr]

mdesm2005 The Digilent forums would love to get this feedback. The designer of the GUI is in process of designing our next release.

[@LasDesventurasdeVirus]

The device is very good but its main issue is that the Micro USB port is very fragile.

[@EvelienSnel]

Well, for educational purposes the 500 uV/div resolution is of course useful: it enables you to show students the limits of the capabilities of even a 14-bit ADC, just like Dave did in this excellent review.

[@BenjaminEsposti]

Dave, could you possibly do a video explaining why some chips (like the ADC in this scope) are SOO costly?

[@stabgod]

A few weeks before Christmas I ordered this using the student price button. As part of the payment process a screen comes up where you have to fill out an application form to verify eligibility. Fortunately my school was on the approved list. I gave them my real school and student info. It then asked about the class for which this item would be used. I wasn't taking any electronics courses in the Spring semester but had just finished a class where this item would have been fantastic - Advanced Microprocessors. I put down this class in the form pretending it was a class I was about to take. Then the form asked for the teacher's name and e-mail. I put down the teacher's name but not his e-mail - I wrote down "unknown - class hasn't started yet". Clicked the submit button and waited. I got one e-mail saying that my form was being reviewed and that's it. After about two weeks I hadn't heard anything so I wrote them a follow-up e-mail. Later that same day the box arrived with the daily mail! I never did receive any feedback from my e-mail. Not sure how busy their sales staff are but I get the feeling they go through A LOT of applications for this item.

[@nickstedman]

Dave, you were dissing one of your guests on the amp hour for using the term "user experience" as a silly catch phrase (from Electric Imp I think), but you go in depth here into the "usability" of the software oscilloscope. It seems you appreciate that designers spend time thinking about user experience, even if the term is overused.

[@nickstedman]

Great Review BTW.

[@PSW0]

Why would a Engineer use the term user experience

[@mike-barber]

Looks quite nice for the price. Maybe a good project would be to build a front-end buffer / amplifier to get another 10x gain for small signals, and some switchable attenuation settings for larger ones. Only has to do 10MHz, and plenty of op-amps available. Give it the usual 1meg input impedance and BNC connectors, and I think it could be quite useful :) I see they've got a BNC board as an option, but an amplified one would be cool.

[@0zfer]

I have used this for my EE class in college. We got them for $150 with a parts kit from diligent that we used to do labs. There are some major hardware issues with these units. First off the micro usb has NOTHING holding it on and since we always have to take our unit to lab and use it at home many peoples usb port inside the unit starts losing connection and eventually it completely falls off after repeated use. Secondly it frequently has the overcurrent issue that you showed us. My unit even got to the point where it said overcurrent randomly even when nothing was connected 100% of the time to the point where I had to get a new device and I frequently had to unplug the voltage from the unit and switch over to a bench power supply. No it doesn't come with a cd they require you to download the software but it does have a demo mode for anyone to try.

[@kalhana1]

***** Or at least a mini USB connector as many dev boards etc. come with mini cables and you end up having a good collection of mini cables.

[@0zfer]

***** completely agree, I have never had a USB B fall off ever. They have way more quality than micro or even mini.

[@Kennynva]

Henry Herz just use an short usb cable..and rubber band it around the device...and plug and unplug from that cable...

[@jimviau327]

33:59 , Hey Dave, thanks for this presentation, I am definitely getting one of those apparatus. Here is my comment on the "Usefulness" of this "ridiculous" uVolt range capability. I think it's great for the student who is getting a situation where he can really see the effect of resolution limitation. While it is true that in real life one as pretty much no use for such capability, as a student point of view I think it's a feature. It let you see the real impact of instrument limitation. Not so ridiculous if it will help you understand.

[@ASilentS]

You could use a fine-tip metallic or white sharpie to draw some lines from pin-out labels down the the pins.

[@andrewcassidy1790]

the software has a python API, so i wonder if i could use my arduino leonardo to add some proper knobs for the device. might be fun project.

[@glatocha]

The timebase, the offsets and ranges in the scope can be easily controlled by right/left clicking the axis and dragging!

[@JediBuddhist]

You're a good tutor Dave. Tanks from Ireland... To be sure.! Shamrock.!

[@TheVlad33]

This device has the same problem as many USB oscilloscopes: small buffer memory. 16k might be enough for logic, but not for analog data capture. There are few devices on market with an ability to tranfer data over USB while capturing, thus allowing to use computer memory to store captured data.

[@guillaume8437]

"... Analog Devices, they're heavily subsidizing the chips used in this thing." 😂 So true!!!

[@ElectroMac74]

hi dave please a video tutorial on how to get most of the micro-current with an oscilloscope(power measurement ,magnetic current-voltage phase delay.....). by the i got my ds1054z last week, love it! thanks for the advice.

[@Gonzo364]

I believe it's : 3db's= x2 & 10db's is x10, but it' been about 30yrs since I used it in the military

[@gazeddy]

yeh im working through my ham licences and its come up there. +3db = double +10db = 10 times. -3db is half and -10db is a tenth

[@rickvanderhoof884]

Wow. All I can say is he eats the digilent analog digilent 2 lunch showing all of it's benefits and faults. Very good review.

[@xXxbastek]

>60 db noise floor huge dynamic range (20*log(2^14bit)=84db) cheapest low frequency DSA...

[@jncodegen]

This review sums up my experience with the kit over a whole year of use. TBH, I don't think I would have been able to complete my diploma project in time if I had to test everything using separate pieces of kit. The Network Analyzer alone shaved weeks of the delivery date. Naturally, not as refined or as technically excellent as a real scope. however, it saves time as it allows you to narrow down on what you need to do to make your design viable. The one part of it I think is a bit dodgy is the Matlab integration. I never quite got the hang of it. However, I think it has awesome potential for control systems design as, at the moment, there are very few courses that teach control systems practically. So yeah, I love this little bugger and I hope they continue developing it further.

[@bryans7255]

If the software allowed you to map software buttons/knobs with a MIDI CC knob controller that would be great

[@camelCased]

It would be great to have also a bit cheaper version. I could do just fine with only 4 digital inputs and now I'm in doubt if I'm ready to pay more than 250 Euros for all those 16 channels. I'm a computer programmer guy, so a full-feature bench oscilloscope would be an overkill for some occasional projects. And also I don't have much free space on my desktop, thus USB solutions seemed good enough for me, but the price is still a bit too high. Who knows, how the new Saleae logic analyzers with analog inputs (like Saleae Logic 8 Black) compare to these ones? The price of Saleae is a bit lower and it would be OK with just 8 digital channels, if only I don't lose much of analog functionality and measurement quality.

[@Fuogor]

I understand your viewpoint on the matter, but I'm still disappointed by your pronunciation of a certain plot, for certain reasons. Nice review video, planning on nabbing one of these on the cheap for some audio signal tinkering.

[@valiza123]

It is a miniature electronics laboratory. Debugging I2c, SPI, UART is a breeze. If you need to take a laptop with you on the terrain, taking it with you will cost you very little space, even had it in the plane. Of course very bad usability without the bnc adaptor and probes.

[@kazutokirigaya4621]

Merry Christmas to you and your family from our family, even though your in Australia I'm all impressed of how you take electronics and reuse them or recycle them I have learned so much from just watching you on KZbin and just wanted to say thank you

[@JeremyHongelectronics]

Finally!!!!! I did the review on my website and sell it for non-students for $160

[@technics6215]

Hi Dave. Thank you for another great review. How about new Analog Discovery 2 review? I wonder if it is good as the old one. Or maybe ADALM1000? I just bought it (Analog Devices ADALM1000) and I'm very disappointed because of the software. If you were to review this there would be a lot of F* words. I can't believe that Analog Devices released such useless thing to the market, even if it costs 40USD.

[@TheH3nrydesign]

Kolejny świetny odcinek !

[@rivalo5]

Pretty nice thing. Seems better and cheaper than the shitty NI MyDAQ I had to buy.

[@rivalo5]

+Aars Haar True, but sometimes you have to make a choice between becoming a master of electronics or having tons of bitches.

[@ComplexPole]

True, bitches distract the master of electronics from his purpose in life: making dank electronics.

[@DavidEisner]

For what it's worth, I was able to get the $99 price (here in the US) when I took a free MOOC, this beginners course in embedded systems: www.edx.org/course/embedded-systems-shape-world-utaustinx-ut-6-02x -- that's how I learned about the scope. I enjoyed the class, and it's being offered again in January. I can't promise they'll have the same deal, but I think you'll enjoy the class anyway (*if* you're a beginner).

[@movax20h]

Nice. There is no Linux Waveforms software, but there is full SDK with documentation and header files (not open source, precompiled for i386 and amd64). So with just a bit of work you can easily drive input or outputs from C, C++ or Python. Sweet! Also Electronics Explorer Board looks awesome. 4 channel osciloscope (but 10-bit 40MSPS), and 32 channel digitial input (100MSPS, and 16KS/pin) and 32 channel digital output and 2 arb analog gens. And programable dual power supply. Awesome! US Student edition for just 199$. And the same software and SDK. Doh, if only I was US student, I would grab it without thinking. For 299$ (659$ without academia discount) for 10bit scope, not that usable anymore (still very good in digital domain and for flexibility in software).

[@MichaelRuwurm]

In the digilents forum a employee said they are working on a cross-platform version (Linux, Mac, Windows) for Waveforms (will be v3). Is already in beta.

[@tejeshwvardhan1165]

can the noise be reduced in scope if you shield the whole scope container box and the cable?????

[@Tangobaldy]

Yay number 14 im a pro subscriber. These videos are like waiting for a new movie release. Exciting

[@DallasTaylor]

@15:00 sounds like you are saying "patent generator" ;)

[@1over137]

Have you thought of using a laser pen as a pointer?

[@1Andypro]

Dave: Thanks for the review video. Just an aside that you may want to re-export your outro clip in 50fps now that you're producing in 50fps. :)

[@EEVblog]

true. I'd like a jazzy new animated 3 second intro

[@Landrew0]

Dave, you could design and sell some awesome kits of this like.

[@rickvanderhoof884]

' The Swiss Army knife works fine as a pointer...

[@glatocha]

Well, that took, 2? 2.5 years? :):):) I love this little tool. BTW the black screen is a no go for me, so weird. Greetings

[@simeyD]

Yes it is BODE not BOD-Ey. Bloody hell, I can't believe people actually pronounce the word that way. In 30 years of being an EE I've never heard anyone say BOD-Ey plot!!. Unbelievable!!.

[@tejeshwvardhan1165]

i am student from india . recently bought the analog discovery version c. it cost me 279$.

[@kyoudaiken]

Hi Dave, nice review. But I don't quite agree with you in terms of the usability of USB scopes. In the digital world you always have the advantage that you can (if implemented) write plugins and add them into the software! So a function is missing? No problem, just check the OpenSource community OR write it on your own! I would like to buy an USB Scope with USB 3.1 and specs like a bench scope! I would even spend 4000 EUR for one! The software should be more advanced than on your reviewed kit, then and of course expandable with plug-ins. I certainly like it to work on equipment with knobs and buttons, but I really like it to have it on PC monitor with mouse and keyboard.

[@googletitsfost]

The problem I always find is that the buffer memory is insufficient, or takes forever to transfer to the PC for analysis, or you are fumbling around looking for an option which should be a hard key. It's much easier to use a standalone scope where the reaction is instant in most cases and you can get the exact sample data you want, and then ask the scope to transfer the sample memory to the PC via ethernet or USB for further analysis.

[@kyoudaiken]

The delay and the insufficient memory can be solved easily: Put 512MB fast memory in it and use USB 3.1.

[@googletitsfost]

***** I wouldn't say that was an easy modification though.

[@kyoudaiken]

It's just a question of money. And as I said, for me, money does not matter when I can get such a thing. :)

[@googletitsfost]

Right, so you can purchase such as USB device with gigs of memory and USB 3.1. Good for you. But for us mere mortals, standalone DSOs win on the price/usability front.

[@flubba86]

Im about to order one at the $159 int'l student price, but it looks like shipping to Australia is going to be $53 extra (via FexEx) or $98 extra (via UPS). Thats crazy. Does anyone know if I can get it for a similar price elsewhere with lower shipping costs?

[@flubba86]

Welp.. just ordered it and swallowed the shipping fee. On the upside it is gauranteed 2-3 day delivery worldwide, and its registere and tracked. I will get it before christmas :). Totally worth the price anyway.

[@rocketman221projects]

If the software was cross platform (preferably open source) I would buy one right now, since I could get it at the student price. But since they screwed up the software, it would only be an expensive paper weight.

[@oliviaorr]

We have a beta test for Waveforms3 that is cross platform. forum.digilentinc.com/index.php?/topic/98-waveforms3-beta/

[@Tutoelectro1]

Lara Swanland Awesome, thanks for the info I might buy one now.

[@WizardVespian]

Dave, You're a little off on your logarithmic math (19 minutes in). +/-10 dB is an increase/decrease by a factor of 10. 20 dB is a factor of 100. Remember that dB is the logarithmic ratio of 10LOG(x) where x is the ratio of your output power to your input power. So 10LOG(10) is 10 dB. 10LOG(100) is 20 dB. Cheers. Edit: I am wrong here. As was pointed out below voltage gain is calculated differently than power. The reason for this is outlined here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gain#Voltage_gain I learned something new today. :)

[@hugocoolens]

No Paul, you are wrong Dave is correct as we are speaking of a ratio of voltages, not powers in this case

[@WizardVespian]

Edit: I got it. P is v^2/R so to calculate the voltages you would have to square the ratio. Or, you can simply modify the equation to be 20LOG(x) where x is the ratio of output to input voltages. (This only applies if the input and output impedances are equal, if they are not you cannot ignore the resistance values) Hugo Coolens Alright, but can you take me through the math? I don't understand how a ratio of voltages is going to be treated any different than a ratio of power as far as dB is concerned.

[@xXxbastek]

40:41 comes from your PC usb. analog discovery is sucking 0.5 Amp

[@ylloree]

can you compare this with the National Instrument's myDAQ?

[@harrkev]

I do thoroughly disagree about his comment towards the end about a cheap USB scope with 8 bits. Those can be VERY useful. The down side of a "real" scope is the size factor. Even the modern "thin" ones that are 6 inches or less deep can still take up a lot of space. Not everybody has their own giant lab space the way that Dave does. I already have a mixed-signal bit-name scope. I still lust after these little USB-powered ones just because of the space savings. You can also do development work at your local coffee shop. A USB scope and analyzer, along with an arduino and breadboard, will easily fit in a backpack. Try dragging a Keysight scope out in your local Starbucks and let me know the reactions that you get. I do agree that you need a "real" scope for those times when the USB ones won't cut the mustard. However, for 90% of the time, something like this Digilent, or a Saleae, would be just fine, and the convenience of the USB ones can't be underestimated.

[@Jeff-xt8xf]

I see a ADC and FPGA in there, but where's the RAM? Come to think of it, I don't see any flash either?

[@cube1us]

Jeff Almost certainly hiding in the FPGA - a 16 K sample "buffer" according to the specs.

[@msjaxp]

I was waiting for this video :)

[@4833504F]

those who haven't seen it yet should watch "How NOT To Blow Up Your Oscilloscope" (kzbin.info/www/bejne/rpKofaR3pJmeobM) as well. would be an interesting project to make a homebrew usb hid device with the knobs and buttons necessary to make that software usable more like a normal oscilloscope, maybe even rework the gui a little bit to make it fit on smaller screens. the hardware design is open, how about the software and protocols?

[@pefu512]

I like this idea! Thumbs up from me.

[@Neslekkim]

what tool are you using recording the screen?

[@kristhetrader5029]

Great... but no CAN Bus :-(

[@Wintersky136]

Didn't you say that these types of LAs are lame...!?

[@EEVblog]

no. every type has its pros and cons

[@volcomstoned876]

+EEVblog actually you did say that in a previous video. So. This makes you repent?

[@aoeuidhtnsnthdiueoa]

Few years later and mine is still doing great! WaveForms version 3 is about a million times better than the original software here. Only gotcha is the USB port on all of them is cold soldered, make sure you reflow that and it'll last 4 years

[@msaad42]

haha 18:38 love it

[@1RebelDog1]

I dont know what this is, what it's used for or what any of the lingo means. All i know is, i like to smoke pot and watch your videos.... Cheers from the UK :)

[@DavidTelesPortugal]

Only usa students dammmm, the only tool that i use in class in a basys 2 with a spartan 3e

[@sheldonholy]

I hear Digilent is changing their name to Keyhole ;)

[@thenaimis]

Shut up and take my money!

[@fr0nage]

Thumbs up for pronouncing "Bode" the proper 'stralian way ;)

[@EEVblog]

there is a lot of pressure on me to pronounce it differently. scew'em!

[@ratdude747]

EEVblog here in the us we've always been taught to call it a "bowdie" plot... Either way one says it we all know what it is, hopefully... (at least we aren't calling pole 0 plots pole-o plots :D)

[@gylkag]

Well, it's just to show how uneducated you are (i'm not serious, of course). You can look at Wiki or any other source to see how that dutch name pronounces. It's just wrong. Same as pronouncing "Bill Gates" as "Bill Gahtez", just wrong.

[@hugocoolens]

Olexii Vynnychenko Speaking Dutch myself, I can confirm the word "bode" in Dutch is pronounced the way Dave does it

[@gylkag]

Hugo Coolens I don't speak Dutch, but I found in multiple sources that it should be pronounced as "boh-dee" or as "boh-de" or as "boh-dah" or anything but english reading "bode" (without reading "e"). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bode_plot#cite_note-Van_Valkenburg-1 Asked Google translate to read "Bode" for me and it pronounces dutch as "boh-de" . translate.google.com/#nl/en/Bode It's just wrong to pronounce foreign names as if they're english-american-australian. Now that I commented 2nd time on that matter feeling myself grammar nazi, but I'm not :)

[@GospodinJean]

I visited it's site and it is listed as "retired" will anybody recommend me an equivallent USB osciloscope. the cheapest the better for me. I'm on a tight budget.

[@MushookieMan]

AnalogDiscovery2 is essentially the same thing. I bought it at a student price of about 83 USD.

[@andresdominguez9333]

How this device compares with the embedded artists' labtool?

[@90SecondsofAviation]

This video is about electronics ?

[@ronme68]

Is your comment about this video?

[@90SecondsofAviation]

ronme68 Is this real ?

[@twocvbloke]

use the force Is this a banana?

[@itslife56]

my dad calls me a pussy

[@itslife56]

dad? :c

[@malgailany]

Hello, I was hoping to see how does Analog Discovery compare to other logic analyzers like the Saleae logic-16. I'm expecting to receive my uCurrent soon, and I want to redo the Bode plot as you did. But the setup wasn't clear enough to re produce the plot again. Is there any simple instruction to do it? Thank you for the nice review.

[@EEVblog]

you wouldn't buy this just for the logic analyser

[@malgailany]

I already have one Analog Discovery (got it for $99 plus $9 shipped )!

[@malgailany]

mohammed yasser Algailani Did you mean the uCurrent? I won one of your charity ones on ebay auction.

[@ceecrb1]

In Scotland where I studied... It was also a bode (like boat/boad) plot... Its like all the people that say gif (G_if) is pronounced (jif).. yeah maybe thats how the guy wants it said, but its not grammatically correct.. (did I just open a can of worms?)

[@mike-barber]

Where I studied in South Africa we also just called it bode "boad," although our lecturer did note the correct pronunciation. And then proceeded with "boad." So now I'm stuck with "boad" too.

[@gacherumburu9958]

👍👍👍👍

[@dumeinar]

For a beeing a guy who at every possibility so far has scorned USB-scopes and allways claimed buying a used analoge scope is the better way, this praise to a fairly low spec device makes me wonder how big of a sponsor deal you have with Digilent and how trustworthy your other product reviews actually are.

[@googletitsfost]

Well, since it's a video, you can mute the audio and just watch him use it then make up your own mind.

[@vasileceteras]

You call a 14bit device "low spec" ?

[@Jeff-xt8xf]

It's not the number of bits that matters, it's what you do with them that counts.

[@dumeinar]

An oscilloscope running at 100MSPS is fairly low spec. That would by simple estimation give an analogue bandwidth of less than 10Mhz. Digilent claims 5 Mhz which is moderate and probably true. By those numbers it is probably at the bottom end of what is usable for hobbyists. Still, I'm not claiming it is bad device. What Im questioning is why Dave all of a sudden is positive to USB-scopes which has been something he has trashtalked time and time again. This unit is not very different from several others on the market Picoscope and Bitscope beeing two of the larger manufacturers.

[@Jeff-xt8xf]

Still, $99 for an entry level scope with full schematics and decent software isn't bad. You can get much worse for your money. At $279 however, I'd start thinking about something better, ebay special or maybe even a low-end rigol.

[@Boerje69]

300 killaherz?

[@tomhanksinbig]

hello

[@jcims]

What is it about your channel that attracts all the frames per second wankers? Seriously, I'm subscribed to 169 youtube channels and for some reason they all flock here. Never a positive comment about lighting, focus, consistently good audio or all the extra effort you go through to get a nicely magnified shots of smaller subject material. I wish we could vote them off the island, lol. (Great video btw, timely for me as I'm starting to shop for a starter scope)

[@dhpbear2]

"Wanalog Discovery" :)

[@samkimball6146]

You have to be in a class that requires this product to qualify for any discount. Thumbs down