I spent around $500 for a used Logic Pro 16 and it’s easily my most valuable purchase. Even for analog voodoo it’s good enough most of the time as I’m debugging logic level signals. I have a very capable Tek scope with all the bells and whistles unlocked but only plug it in if I’m working at higher voltages than the saleae can handle.
Someone just setting up an elab is WAY better off buying one of the ubiquitous Chinesium 24MHz 8-channel USB logic analyzers. In addition, a newbie is way more likely to "just try it out" if the thing they can destroy is only $10.
I have lots of really nice equipment, but even I will pull the cheapass logic analyzers out when I'm doing something that has the possibility of destroying my more expensive stuff.
Depends on what just setting up means. Someone tinkering with their first ESP32? Sure have at it with Chinesium. If you're getting more serious I'd say my $500 Saleae is a more valuable purchase than a $350 rigol scope recommended in the article.
24MHz 8-ch is a bit insufficient for debugging most of real stuff which is when the real fun is.
Also IMO logical analyser and scope are two things where you want to spend money when you are starting with electronics. This is how you are going to learn stuff and how you are going to debug anything you do. You need good scope and analyser EXACTLY because you are a newb.
I am personally using DSLogic U3Pro16 which was $300 when I bought it and I can highly recommend it.
> 24MHz 8-ch is a bit insufficient for debugging most of real stuff which is when the real fun is.
And by that point you'll not be a newbie anymore and know you've outgrown your chinesium. But for most tasks, it is plenty enough. It's amazing how much you can do with so little.
> You need good scope and analyser EXACTLY because you are a newb.
I highly disagree. You need decent enough ones, not good ones. Want to decode that uart? Wanna know why that adafruit I²C sensor is not responding? Why this SPI thing sends garbled data? The logic analyzer will be the biggest help when working with digital electronics, which is what most people get started with.
You need good scope and analyser EXACTLY because you are a newb.
I have my doubts about this. I believe that many beginners will experience the "I'm scared to use this" effect if they buy something too "nice" (read: expensive). Hell, to this day, I still use my Rigol DS-1102e first for most things, in favor of breaking out the "nice" oscilloscope, because I have that faint murmuring of "if you're going to fry a scope, fry the cheap one" in the back of my head.
The cheapies are great. I will say that, of the modern USB based analyzers, DSLogic is the only affordable one with a compensation network in the probes similar to what benchtop analyzers used to have, shielded leads, and configurable comparator voltage. It isn't worth paying $500+ for something where they just wing it on the probe interface.
