Hello, Analog Discovery Pro ADP5250!

Introducing the New Analog Discovery Pro ADP5250

Working in the office means access to lots of fun toys for an engineer.  With everyone in one place, the company can splurge on oscilloscopes that can cost tens of thousands of dollars.  Engineers have access to expensive data acquisition systems, function generators – the works.  But what about when we’re working from home?  Companies are increasingly warming up to engineers taking their work outside the lab, but all of that expensive equipment can’t necessarily follow them.  If I’m working on debugging some serial communications code on a Raspberry Pi do I really need an oscilloscope running at 6 Ghz and capturing 20 GSa/s?  No.  But it helps a lot to have a strong and capable tool.  When I first started out in the arcade game industry  30 years ago (yeah, I know, I’m old)  I would have killed for a tool like the ADP5250   It has everything that I love about the Analog Discovery Pro 2 with its multiple Digital I/O and logic inputs and adds in the mixed signal oscilloscope functionality of the Analog Discovery Pro 3250 / 3450.  Plus it has BNC probes, an integrated triple power supply, a digital multimeter, and a function generator.  Let’s take a quick look at what comes in the box and get started!

 

Analog Discovery Pro 5250

Inside the Box

Your brand new ADP5250 comes with a 40 pin (34 signal) connector for all of your Mixed Signal Oscilloscope Connections, a 14 pin (8 channel) Digital I/O connector, a 6 pin Power Supply connector, a USB A to B cable, BNC scope probes, a North American Power Supply cable, and two International Power Adapters.

 

Inside the Box

Getting Started with the Analog Discovery Pro ADP5250

Digilent has created a couple of different resources for you as you get started with your new Analog Discovery Pro ADP5250. With Digilent products, it’s always best to start in the Reference Center. The main landing page serves as your reference for everything you need to know as well as helpful links on how to get the most out of your new purchase. As we develop new examples and test circuits to demonstrate the functionality of the ADP5250, you’ll find those links here as well. Make sure you work through the Getting Started Guide and check out the demos for Power Measurement  and Decoding a Manchester Encoded Signal.

 

 

Power Measurement

Conclusion

The Analog Discovery Pro ADP5250 is a powerful tool for an engineer working at home or a hobbyist.  But you have to decide what you need.  The ADP5250 has a lot inside it, but by having a little bit of everything but that has a drawback – only two oscilloscope channels.  In all likelihood, I can’t envision a time when I need four oscilloscope channels.  Being able to read SPI, I2C, or serial data via the Logic Analyzer has it covered – AND I get two oscilloscope channels thrown in.  But if you need more than two oscilloscope channels, then you’ve got to go with the Analog Discovery Pro 3250 / 3450.

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2 Comments on “Hello, Analog Discovery Pro ADP5250!”

  1. I’ve been investigating for my personal hobby use NI’s equipment including NI Virtual Bench 8012.
    The “new” ADP5250 is the same piece of equipment, and same price as the VB 8012.
    The only difference it comes package with Waveforms software vs LabView.

    The ADP3250/3450 is new and interesting, particularly the Linux Mode.

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