What’s on my desk?

Over the years, my workspace has constantly evolved, sometimes resembling a high-tech lab bench more than a conventional desk. As of this week, my home office is firmly back in lab territory. While my at-home setup includes portable, essential tools ideal for a home office, my workspace at the job site boasts more robust, permanent test equipment. This page provides a snapshot of the tools that are critical for my embedded development endeavors, whether I’m working remotely or on-site. Product-specific device details will be covered on their respective pages, but for now, this overview serves as a quick inventory of my go-to equipment.

Host protocol adaptors

There are a variety of host protocol adaptors that provide an easy way for your development machine to drive GPIO and serial protocols such as SPI, I2C, CAN and UART. I’ve been collecting these for over twenty years. The older devices are still in use, but there are times when I need the newer equipment.

  • Binho
  • Total Phase
    • Cheetah
      • SPI host adaptor, 3 CS lines
        • There are times when you may want to drive a peripheral without writing MCU code. A simple script in Total Phase’s Control Center allows you to see what’s going on and offers a robust peek/poke interface as well.
    • Aardvark
      • SPI/I2C host adaptor, single CS line
      • Also great to filling a SPI flash on your target board, with Total Phase Flash Center.
  • Spark Fun
    • Bus Pirate
  • Grid Connect
    • CANUSB COM FD
    • CAN232 FD

Protocol analysers

A protocol analyser is essentially a “single purpose” logic analyser. It is optimised for use with one or two protocols. These dedicated analysers offer easy set up and use. They are typically small pods that connect to your development machine via USB . If you specialise in a particular protocol, this is definitely the way to go. While I have used mixed signal oscilloscopes (MSO) that provide analyser functionality, the licence fee for protocol analyser software often rivals the cost of these dedicated units — and that’s on top of the the scope’s price. It’s worth noting that these analysers usually operate in the digital domain, so a separate scope is still necessary for examining analog waveforms.

  • Total Phase
    • Beagle
      • SPI, I2C
      • The Saleae does great at decoding these two busses, but trace depth is not as deep.  The Beagle logs continuously to the PC, including timing and framing data.  It just doesn’t give you a waveform.
    • Kamodo Duo
      • CAN
  • Microchip
    • CAN BUS Analyser

Logic analysers, oscilloscopes and mixed signal oscilloscopes

  • Saleae
    • 16 Pro
    • pod logic analyser
    • I often debug a proprietary bus alongside SPI or I2C, so at least nine or ten channels will be used soon.  I admit it’s hard to use all 16 at the same time.  I have been known to leave it plugged in to everything and just load a different config to look at two or three channels at a time.
  • Rigol
    • DS1202 Z-e
    • Portable osciloscope

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