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Logic analyser

Drive a Saleae logic analyser from a session: capture signals live, then characterise them properly.

This comes from the Logic Analyser plugin. Install it from the Marketplace, or from a session:

hydron plugin add logic-analyser

See Plugins.

Requirements

The plugin drives Saleae Logic 2 over MCP, so it needs Logic 2 running locally with a real device reachable, such as a Logic Pro 8. It connects to the Logic 2 MCP server on 127.0.0.1:10530.

This is for live captures. It does not analyse a CSV you exported earlier.

Connect

Connect the logic analyser and list the available devices.

Capture

Sample rate is the first decision, and it is a budget rather than a preference: Nyquist against the fastest edge you care about, bounded by the device's bandwidth across the channels you enable.

Capture channels 0 to 3 for 2 seconds at a rate high enough to resolve
a 1 MHz SPI clock cleanly.

If a capture fails on bandwidth, the plugin knows how to back off and retry rather than just reporting the error.

Characterise, not just measure

A single duty-cycle number is not analysis. The plugin computes a full per-channel metric set: frequency, period, duty cycle, pulse-width extremes, and edge and glitch detection, plus inter-channel timing relationships.

Analyse these channels. I want per-channel frequency, duty cycle, pulse
width extremes, and any glitches, plus the timing relationship between
the clock and the data lines.

It also classifies what it is looking at, distinguishing a clock from a parallel bus or a counter rather than treating every channel the same.

Decode a bus

Decode what is on channels 2 through 9. Tell me whether it is a serial
protocol or a parallel word, then decode it.

Covers serial protocol decode through the device analyser workflow, and parallel-word and counter-sequence decode.

Analog capture

Saleae devices with analog channels are supported, and the logic threshold is derived from the captured signal rather than hardcoded.

Capture the analog channel and derive the logic threshold from the
signal rather than assuming 1.65 V.

Multi-resolution convergence

Capturing the same signal at several sample rates tells you whether you are actually resolving it or aliasing.

Capture this signal at three sample rates and tell me whether the
results converge, based on edge counts.

The convergence verdict is edge-count based, so it will not claim "no loss" from a shallow comparison that happens to agree.

Troubleshoot

  • No devices found. Logic 2 must be running locally with the device connected before the plugin can reach it.
  • start_capture fails. Usually a bandwidth budget problem. Reduce the sample rate or the number of enabled channels.
  • A tool call fails with a schema error. The MCP tool arguments have known gotchas. Re-check against a live tool listing.
  • The analysis feels shallow. Ask for the full per-channel metric set explicitly rather than a single metric.

Next

  • GDB debugging for target-side state to pair with the capture.
  • Plugins for installing and scoping plugins.