Analog Discovery - 7400 competition price

[matseng]

Today I received the Analog Discovery device sponsored by for the 7400 Logic Competition by Digilent Inc - thank you very much!

It's a dual channel oscilloscope, function generator, power supply and 16 channel logic analyzer combo and it definitely seems like a really nice little debugging tool.

I'll give it a whirl and come back with a report....

Analog Discovery by Digilent Inc.

[Grapsus]

Very cool !

Here is the Xula2 FPGA kit I got from Xess corp a few days ago. The documentation and the examples are superb. I can't wait to make a project with it.

[matseng]

Hires shot of the Analog Discovery board

[matseng]

Hires shot of the Analog Discovery board

[matseng]

There sure are a lot of decoupling caps around the Xilinx BGA chip.... ^_^ About 100 of them are connected to it, and then there's probably another 100 connected to the rest of the ic's.

The Xilinx is a Spartan-6 XC6SLX16
http://www.xilinx.com/support/documenta ... /ds160.pdf

[bearmos]

it's interesting to me that the ADI logo is so big. . .I wonder if they had something to do with the development? it looks like the front end is primarily ADI.

[matseng]

it's interesting to me that the ADI logo is so big. . .I wonder if they had something to do with the development? it looks like the front end is primarily ADI.

Their website says: "The Digilent Analog Discovery™ design kit, developed in conjunction with Analog Devices Inc." so your assumption seems reasonable :-)

[raynor512]

In the front end they use HAB = AD8067, AQA = AD8592, A2M = ?, H8A = AD8057, R2R = ?, D81 = ?, H7C = ?.

[Colfaxmingo]

Very cool !

Here is the Xula2 FPGA kit I got from Xess corp a few days ago. The documentation and the examples are superb. I can't wait to make a project with it.

I can't be the first one to notice the LEDs in this picture.... right? Please don't tell me I'm still 12 years old... right?

[Grapsus]

Very cool !

Here is the Xula2 FPGA kit I got from Xess corp a few days ago. The documentation and the examples are superb. I can't wait to make a project with it.

I can't be the first one to notice the LEDs in this picture.... right? Please don't tell me I'm still 12 years old... right?

I don't see what you are talking about :D

@Matseng sorry I posted the photo of my prize in your thread, I first thought it was for all 7400 prizes. Do you want me to move it ?

[matseng]

No worries, I really don't mind....

[SA_Penguin]

So, a FTDI 232H for USB... Can't see any RAM or an obvious JTAG interface. So I'm assuming it gets configured via USB on power-up. So, in theory, you could re-program it do do anything you wanted.

Some devotees of SDR Radio insist on a minimum 20MHz of RF, in order to capture frequency agile signals (WiFi etc). Dual ADCs, each rated at over 100MS/sec should do the trick: all they need is a front end downconverter and code for the Spartan-6 FPGA.

If Analog / Digilent marketed this device for that target audience, I think they'd sell a lot of product.

[matseng]

Just sent an email to suport@digilent asking if the (oscilloscope) inputs have clamping diodes so it could handle current-limited voltages higher than the specced +-20 volts.

It will be interesting to see how long time it will take to get a reply from a design engineer for this... I have high hopes since I've only seen good things about Digilent.

[attila]

The clamping diodes of the oscilloscope inputs are in the ADG612 after a 820K resistor.
The absolute maximum input voltage is ±50 V.

[matseng]

Thanks for the info.

The datasheet for ADG612 says the following:

Code: Select all

Peak Current, S or D  20 mA (pulsed at 1 ms, 10% duty cycle maximum)
Continuous Current, S or D  10 mA

Overvoltages at IN, S, or D are clamped by internal diodes. The current should be limited to the maximum ratings given.

With a 820 K series resistor you need to apply 8200 volts to get up to the 10 mA that the clamps in the chip can safely handle - but that would cause the resistor to drop 82 watts - that's maybe a bit over the rating of the resistor :-)

But at a more reasonable 500 volts input there would only be a 0.6 mA current into to clamping diodes and the resistor would only need to dissipate 300mW - still at least three times a normal 0402-sized smd can handle continously, but for short term it probably would be ok.

So if we disregard any potential problems with too small isolation distances between tracks the oscilloscope inputs would most likely handle mains (230 volts) just fine. I think. Maybe.....