I remember seeing a video demo of this from the Philly PPC chapter from about 4-5 years ago where Eric (?) showed the new product.

Have never seen one live or on ebay since. Anyone ever actually seen this? Did it really get released?

Anyone know what I'm talking about? :-)

I've never touched one but I know it shipped because at least one person here has talked about owning one - I think it was Tony Duell. And he or someone else once sent me a link to a webpage with details - I can't remember if it was at HP/Agilent or a dealer. So I'm quite sure it was once available.

I went to agilent.com and entered "logic dart" into the search available on the home page. The first document in the search results, dated 5-5-2003, apparently announces the discontinuation of the Logic Dart. This link goes to the page that the first search results go to:

http://we.home.agilent.com/cgi-bin/bvpub/agilent/Product/cp_Product.jsp?OID=536880960&NAV_ID=-11264.536880960.00&LANGUAGE_CODE=eng&COUNTRY_CODE=ZZ

It says the product will be supported until 12-1-2004.

Indeed I do have a LogicDart, and several of my friends (who played with mine) bought one too. So it certainly shipped.
It is one of those typically HP products -- an excellent tool that was somewhat badly marketted. The most useful mode is 'Investigate' In that mode, you put probe 1 on a point in your circuit. The unit displays the average DC voltage at that point (great for checking power lines) and the freqeuncy (done by counting the number of crossings ofa threshold in one second or something). So far it doesn't sound like it does more than a good DMM, but if you now press the appropriate button, it records the logic waveform (high, low, undefined, with user-selectable thresholds) at that point.
So it's great for distiguishing between clock waveforms (close to 1:1 Mark:Space ration, and regular) from sync pulses (more extreme Mark:Space ratio, but still regular) from data lines (not regular). Much of my HP classic-series calculator investigations were done using this mode.
There's also a 3 channel logic analyser mode. 3 channels doesn't sound like much, and indeed I am sometimes gald of my larger benchtop logic analyser. But 3 channels will let you look at most handshake sequences, or clock and data lines, or...
One great feature is the fact that it records each signals as high, low, or undefinded. This is very useful for picking up illegal levels either due to shorts between signals or faulty chips. This saved me a lot of time when sorting out my 98x0 machines, which had a number of 74Hxx chips that didn't pull high properly.
The threshold settings will even (just about) let you look at the flip-flops in an HP9100...
I guess I can sum up by saying that it's the first instrument I go for when investigating an unknown digital circuit, or when testing one of my own designs. Sure I sometimes need the 'scope or the bigger logic analyser, but the LogicDart often gives enough clues on its own, or at least it tells me where to use the larger instruments.

The Logic Dart did look interesting, but at, what, $800? it was way too expensive for mere mortals to buy. To me, it fell into the category of "cool toys that maybe I could persuade the company to buy for me". (I couldn't.)

As for me personally, I struggle along with a logic probe and a borrowed 'scope. Maybe I'll go onto eBay one of these days and pick up a cheap logic analyser.

- Michael

Actually you can still get the Logic Dart from Agilent.

However you get the bare unit, no manuals or probes.

i.e. the product number is for the replacement units under waranty.

**vp

Are you suggesting I'm not a 'mere mortal'? I am just a hobbyist, who happens to take things a little more seriously than most :-).
Anyway, I bought the LogicDart myself. As did the friedns of mine who bought them -- I don't know of any that were bought by companies (I guess I jsut don't know the right people).
Sure it was expensive, but IMHO it's worth it. It does the job. It's saved me a lot of time over the years. But then you could say the same thing about may great HP products, right :-)

Hi Tony!

I'm glad you like your Logic Dart and feel that you got your money's worth.

For me, I already had a logic probe, DMM, and storage 'scope. So I already had most of the Logic Dart's capabilities, and to spend $800 didn't seem worth it to me. (And BTW, I never even tried to get my employer to buy me one either; I knew I couldn't make a convincing case for it.)

The fact that Agilent no longer sells the Logic Dart tells me that it probably wasn't a good match for the marketplace. I notice that the Fluke ScopeMeters are still going great guns, though. (Now, how can I tell my boss that I just can't live without one...?)

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

- Michael