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USB Protocol Analyser (Hardware)

14 Jul 2010

iainmosely

United Kingdom

We are developing some new hardware which uses USB to transfer data to a PC. Can anybody recommend a hardware USB protocol analyser which we can use to help debug our designs? 

So far we have found products from LeCroy and Ellisys but these look quite expensive (>£2k). I've seen a product called a Beagle USB 12 or Beagle USB 480 - are these any good?

Thanks,

Iain

Replies

roel.edeleon

Philippines
1 year ago

Hi Lain,

I've sold one of this product with a printer r&d company. Please look over FTS4USB @ ww.fte.com. It's one of the economical USB Protocol analyzer you can find in the market.

Regards,

Roel

iainmosely

United Kingdom
1 year ago

Hi ESR & DS1,

Thanks to you both for your input. I've been having a more detailed look at the Lecroy protocol analysers and will probably choose one of these. The LeCroy guy did mention that some high end scopes can analyse both the physical layer and decode the USB data too but these are way to expensive for our project. I'll let you know how we get on with the LeCroy analyser once we've had chance to use it in practice for a while.

Kind Regards,

Iain

DS1

United Kingdom
1 year ago

Lian

I would take another look at the LeCroy if I were you, they have stuff priced the same as the Beagle (or less) but the user interfaqce is much better for understanding problems. They even have a USB3.0 product now for <$5000

Otherwise if you dont need USB2.0 speeds there are often CATC USB Chief on ebay for less $.

My experiance says stay away from the SW only solutions they cant see everything the HW based ones can, especially if your problem is releated to timing or VBus issues

Dont use a Logic analyser!!!! Logic Analysers have single ended inputs and USB is a differential signal, more importantly LA's cant filter NAK transactions that fill up your memory - keep logic analysers for the Parallel bus use the Protocol Analyser for the Serial Bus

DS1

ESR

United Kingdom
1 year ago

Hi Iain,

What about using a logic analyser to decode?  If you’re using USB1.1 then you could use one of these: http://uk.rs-online.com/web/search/searchBrowseAction.html?method=searchProducts&searchTerm=logic+analyser

Let me know if you'd like additional information

E

iainmosely

United Kingdom
1 year ago

Hi Michael,

 

Thanks for this. I've just been on the phone to LeCroy and will be getting a demo of the Mobile USB PC Card product. Hopefully the performance should be good enough for our needs.

Thanks very much for the input,

 

Kind Regards,

 

Iain

michaelkellett

United Kingdom
1 year ago

If you want something cheaper than the Lecroy PC card things (about £900 for the mid range one) you will need to accept the risk/limitations of the Beagle 12 (can't do high speed USB). The Lecroy is about the same price as the Beagle 480 and if I were buying one I think I would go for the LeCroy.

Michael Kellett

jonititan

United Kingdom
1 year ago

Hello,

 

On the cheaper end of the scale.

I've heard good things about bus pirate.

http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/bus-pirate-v3-assembled-p-609.html?cPat...

I'm unsure if that will meet your requirements however.

 

Joni

iainmosely

United Kingdom
1 year ago

Hi Joni,

Many thanks for the link - I'll have a look and see if it might do the job for us.

Thanks very much,

 

Iain

s1trevos

1 year ago

Hi Iain,

I can recommend one of our (Tektronix) products that you can use to view USB waveforms, trigger on specific packet addresses, data etc., and analyse the data contained in the waveforms.  It is an MSO or DPO4000 oscilloscope with the optional DPO4USB trigger/decode application module.  You can find it in the products section of our website: www.tektronix.com  If your are looking at High Speed USB 2.0 you'll need to choose the highest bandwidth 1GHz oscilloscope model.

In the interests of full and open disclosure I must tell you that the oscilloscope will cost a lot more than £2K.  (It'll be closer to the £12K mark.)  But it does a lot more than a basic protocol analyser too - it's a high performance oscilloscope that you can use for all your hardware debugging, not just USB transfers, so that might just help with the justification.

Hope that's some food for thought, and you find a good solution for you needs.

Trevor

 

iainmosely

United Kingdom
1 year ago

Hi Trevor,

 

Thanks for your reply. The scope with USB trigger/decode sounds like a nice product and I'm sure it would meet our needs and help with other hardware debug. Thanks also for being open on the cost - at the moment this is way above the budget we have available.

I'll certainly consider this as a possibility when we need to replace our present digital scope as the cost adder to provide USB too is then less of an issue.

 

Many thanks for your input,

 

Iain