A PC-hosted hardware analyser is the most cost-effective way to view the actual data on the USB bus itself, without capture-file size being limited by the analyser unit.

The USB500 AG is hosted via a high speed USB connection, and backed up with a 64Mbyte FIFO to prevent any chance of data loss.

Details of Operation

The Packet-Master Analyser connects passively between a host and the USB device, and captures USB activity without influencing the link.

Graphical Representation

The Packet-Master application, GraphicUSB, has been carefully designed to provide an immediate intuitive representation of the USB packets. The representation at packet level includes each element of the packet, together with precise timings. Colour is used to differentiate bus speed and to highlight anomalies, and data direction is clearly indicated in every case.

Filtering

Convenient toolbar buttons allow rapid manipulation of the display. A single click enables Top Level only representation to provide a fast overview of the protocol, and similarly a single click reveals every single bus event. A set of standard filter buttons enables a rich selection of intermediate representations.

Custom filters allow devices or endpoints of no interest to be omitted from the display for clarity.

Triggering

An important feature of any analyser is the ability to trigger capture on a particular event, or sequence of events. The Packet-Master USB500 AG has a particularly comprehensive triggering capability, though at the same time extremely easy to operate.

Pre-Trigger Buffer

An essential capability is to be able to capture events occurring before the trigger point, as it allows investigation of events that lead up to a particular situation. The Packet-Master USB500 AG allows Pre-Trigger buffer sizes of between 2K bytes and 32 Mbytes.

Panel Controls

It is often convenient to control the capture of USB data from the physical location of the analyser, instead of the host PC. The Packet-Master analysers are provided with push button controls on the front panel.

Class Analysis

GraphicUSB can be equipped with a wide range of standard and vendor class analysis options.

As class analysis is an essential part of understanding or developing USB, the Packet-Master is currently supplied with a bonus pack of 5 selected analysis class options from the complete set.