Friday Product Post: Diligent Digilent
Be more diligent with your analog and digital circuits outside the lab!
Happy Friday, everyone! Today we have a great couple of products available for you. We are happy to bring you a fantastic new USB oscilloscope, as well as the official release of the Google Science Kit! So without further ado, let's just jump on in and take a closer look!
That's a pretty handy instrument, if I do say so myself.
The Digilent Analog Discovery 2 is a USB oscilloscope and multi-function instrument that allows users to measure, visualize, generate, record and control mixed-signal circuits of all kinds. Developed in conjunction with Analog Devices, and supported by the Xilinx University Program, Analog Discovery 2 is small enough to fit in your pocket, but powerful enough to replace a stack of lab equipment, providing engineering students, hobbyists and electronics enthusiasts the freedom to work with analog and digital circuits in virtually any environment, in or out of the lab.
Now available to purchase, the SparkFun Inventor's Kit for Google's Science Journal App is an interactive selection of tools to inspire future scientists and makers. Inside each kit you will find a collection of parts from us here at SparkFun that support activities developed by Google and the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Beginning with a project to build your very own Wind Spinner, new projects will be released periodically that utilize the supplies in this kit and Google’s Science Journal App.
That's it for this week, folks. Be sure to check back in next Friday for even more new products. We'll see you then!
I have used the ANALOG DISCOVERY (Ver1) for some time as my bench scope, have been very happy with it. We have used it for a portion of our Circuits Analysis class at the college level with good results. With a reasonable laptop, a small box of parts, an ARDUINO, and some jumper wires a nice portable laboratory is easy to carry around for education, hacking, or just amusement. More versatile than my Fluke Scopeometer, my NI PCMCIA scope and DMM, and many more functions.
Since Digilent is a National Instruments Company, does anyone know if it is possible to automate this device using their LabVIEW language? If not, do they have any plans to make that happen?
Also, have their been any significant changes in the capabilities of this product from the version 1 Analog Discovery?
Thanks, Joe
Here is a set of VI's that are connected to the Waveforms API : http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/213660
The main differences : mainly Waveforms was updated to add Mac and Linux, higher bandwidth (from 10 MHz to 30 MHz), variable power supplies and a significantly improved mechanical design (venting for cooling, the connectors are mechanically supported).
LariSan, Thank you very much for the response. I guess I need to buy the new version. I already have the old version with all the accesories. Do you know if the old accesories will still work?
Thanks again, Joe
The accessories are the same (the connector is identical)!
The mini/affordable USB scope market was a bit confusing for me. I almost purchased the Analog Discovery 2 a few months ago but went with the LabNation SmartScope. IOS and Android software options tipped the choice for me. No doubt SparkFun did impressive research considering many factors. If you are willing to share thoughts on the selection process, it would be educational to hear how you approached the choice.