
USBee QX Overview
USB 3.0 Connectivity
Packet analyzer, logic analyzer, oscilloscope and signal generator all in one
100MHz to 600MHz Sampling
Over 896 million samples uncompressed
Up to 256 trillion samples with compression
24 digital channels/ 4 analog channels
Protocol Analyzer for SDIO, USB , I2C, SPI, Async, CAN, I2S, 1-wire, SM Bus, PS/2 and custom Busses
Small, compact and portable
Streaming to Disk Module (100G+ samples) , Spectrum Analyzer and Protocol Graphing Module
Resolve Bugs Faster and Easier
The USBee QX Platform delivers the highest level of integration and functionality in the test instrument market. With 4 analog channels and 24 digital I/Os, the USBee QX combines four functions into one; protocol analyzer, logic analyzer, mixed signal oscilloscope and signal generator. Unlike other mixed signal oscilloscopes which charge extra for each serial protocol, the USBee QX includes numerous serial protocols including I2C, SPI, Async, SDIO, 1-wire, I2S, CAN and support even custom protocols.

Mixed-Signal Multi-level Protocol Decoding
Unique to USBee products, protocols and packets are displayed in human readable packet format, having automatically been translated from HEX to your custom description. With an 896 million sample buffer size and Advanced Search properties, users can significantly reduce debug time by eliminating chunks of grunt work that would typically chew up man-days or man-weeks of effort, and yet improve bug detection capability. Its portability and low prices allow every engineer or firmware developer to have an USBee QX on their desk.
Windows and Mac Fully Supported
The USBee QX Suite platform works seamlessly on Windows XP through Windows 8.1 as well as Mac OS X under Parallels 9 including Coherence mode as seen below. Since the USBee QX does all triggering, sampling and compression your traces are guaranteed accurate and complete no matter what computer or USB speeds you have.
Logic Analyzer Features
24 digital input channels with variable thresholds
Inputs are +/- 60V tolerant
Sampling rates ranging from 100K to 600M sample per second
Internal Data buffer is enormous with 896 million samples uncompressed or 256 trillion samples compressed
Streaming Software Module streams samples to disk for up to 30,000 times the internal sample storage
Logic thresholds are variable and can range from -1V to +2V
Oscilloscope Features
4 analog channels with variable thresholds
10-bit ADC with 4 variable gain stages
Sampling rates ranging from 100K to 100M sample per second
Internal Data buffer is enormous with 896 million samples uncompressed or 256 trillion samples compressed
Streaming Software Module streams samples to disk for up to 30,000 times the internal sample storage
BNC connectors for standard oscilloscope probes
Packet Analyzer Features
Simultaneously decode multiple busses to extract the data transferred on the signals
I2C, SPI, Async, CAN, 1-Wire, USB, SDIO, and many other protocols supported
Packets can be filtered and searched based on field contents or lack of content
PacketPresenter takes the decoded byte streams and formats the packets by breaking out the fields you define
Packet data can be exported in a variety of formats including RTF, CSV, TXT, Excel, or Binary file
Custom Protocol Decoders and PacketPresenter definitions let you tailor it to your special bus
Signal Generator Features
1 analog and 8 digital output channels
Generate arbitrary analog and digital waveforms
Create any digital pattern at any frequency up to 100Msps
Use up to 62,000 samples per waveform
Input sample data using CSV files created by Matlab, Excel or Notepad
External/Internal clocking, looping and triggering of patterns
USBee Features That Accelerate Your Debugging
Four test instruments integrated into one
Packet analyzer, logic analyzer, oscilloscope and signal generator into a single test system
Eliminate wasted time trying to trigger multiple instruments together and correlating an important event to each other
USBee QX Streaming Module
Stream Samples to Disk for Super Long Traces
Do you have a rare, hard to capture bug that only happens when you're gone? Now you can run your test over the weekend and make sure you capture the error as it happens.
The USBee QX Streaming Module greatly enhances the capture duration of certain signals by streaming sample data directly to disk. This module has been requested by many customers who want to capture signals for extended durations and analyze their data that won’t fit in the internal 32M sample buffer.
The USBee QX Streaming Module compresses the sample stream and sends it to the PC to store on the hard disk. This lets the sample buffer to be up the the size of the hard disk (up to 1T bytes) instead of the onboard 32 M sample buffer.
USBee QX Suite Pro Module
The USBee QX Suite Pro software module adds the following features to the platform:
Spectrum Analyzer

See the frequency spectrum of the analog channels at any point in the deep trace buffer.
Protocol Field Graphing

Get a visual display of any of the protocol fields in-line with your traces. This allows you to see the values of acceleration, temperature, audio or any other digital data contained in your bus protocols.
Huge Internal Sample Buffer for Uncompromised Traces
Internal buffer stores 896 million samples uncompressed or 256 trillion samples with compression
Capture all occurrences of symptoms instead of a single instance. Find obscure bugs that occur rarely over days or weeks timeframe
Streaming Software Module stores samples to disk for up to 30,000 times the internal sample storage
Protocols in Human Readable Format
Instead of displaying packets as HEX values, the HEX values are automatically converted so that you don’t need a datasheet to interpret the function of the packet.
Faster root cause identification because users can easily follow the sequence of events at the application level, instead of at the byte level
Single trace synchronized view
Packets, waveforms and physical layer voltage in a single window
Allows quick determination whether root cause is software, firmware or hardware
Most Advanced Search in the Market
Search criteria of 32 different sequential events within a qualified time window using attributes such as protocol sequences, analog signal edges, analog signal state and ranges, digital signal state and ranges, digital signal edge and matching field values
Significantly faster debug by searching through 32 million sample points with the most complex search criteria to find the most obscure condition that results in bug or issue
Customizable from the wire to the protocol
Create your own protocol decoders or custom applications that utilize lower level packet data
Supports serial or parallel proprietary protocols not available in standard protocol analyzers, logic analyzers, and mixed signal oscilloscopes (MSO)

PacketPresenter Packet Analyzer
Supercharging the USBee, the PacketPresenter™ displays the bus traffic that is being transmitted between ICs or system components in a graphical, easy to understand packet format that can be customized to your specific design.
With standard logic analyzers, engineers have been accustomed to counting bits, manually decoding protocols, and parsing embedded bus traffic into useable fields. The PacketPresenter does this for you automatically. With the PacketPresenter, counting bits on a logic analyzer is a thing of the past.
The PacketPresenter translates standard logic analyzer traces into graphical communication packets that are easy to read and understand. The PacketPresenter saves you time by automatically extracting the protocol information of interest from raw bus traffic and presenting it in a clear and simple format. You no longer need to count bits or decode waveform traces to find out what your system is saying.
Many existing Protocol Decoders understand only a single protocol. The PacketPresenter, on the other hand, is customizable to fit your custom and unique embedded bus protocol using a simple and intuitive configurable PacketPresenter Definition file. And unique to the USBee, the PacketPresenter gives you a detailed look into how the packet communications on your embedded bus relates to the actual voltage-versus-time waveforms of the bus signals.
Debugging is performed by viewing and analyzing the PacketPresenter output and relating it back to the logic analyzer waveforms and decoded bus traffic for the various types of busses. For example, you can see the PacketPresenter display of HDLC communication packets, and correlate that back to the raw byte stream that was decoded from the ASYNC bus, as well as the voltage versus time waveforms of the bus Tx and Rx lines.
The waveforms show the activity on the signal lines and the Bus Decoders show the data contained on that bus:
Finally, the PacketPresenter parses that data into fields:
The PacketPresenter feature runs alongside the existing bus decoders. It takes the output of raw binary data from the bus decoder and parses the stream according to a PacketPresenter Definition File for the intent of displaying the communications in easily understood graphical displays.
Protocols are defined using a text file, called a PacketPresenter Definition File, which specifies the fields within the protocol and how to display that information on the screen. It is generic enough that you can create your own protocol decoders for your own custom bus types.
Each PacketPresenter Definition File correspond to one single bus type, and the incoming bytes from that bus are inputs for the decoding process. This steam of data is called an incoming Data Stream and it is handled by a Protocol Processor. Each Protocol Processor takes a single incoming Data Stream that is broken into Packets, parsed into Fields and either displayed as a field on the screen, ignored, and/or sent to a new Protocol for further processing (as in an N layer protocol).
Each Protocol Processor defines how to break the stream into Packets, and how to break the Packets into Fields. These Fields can then be displayed or sent to another Data Stream for further processing.
USBee QX Specifications
Feature | Specification | |
Technology |
Wired Interconnect | USB 3.0 (Backwards compatible to USB 2.0) |
Data Capture | Onboard Storage for maximum sample rates | |
Maximum Data Bandwidth | USB 3.0 - 200MB/s | |
Mixed Signal Oscilloscope (MSO) Logic Analyzer Oscilloscope |
Digital Channels | 24 (16 Input, 8 Input/Output) |
Max Sample Rate Digital | 600 Msps | |
Fastest Digital Signal Measurable | 300 MHz | |
Analog Channels | 4 | |
Max Sample Rate Analog | 100 Msps | |
Analog Bandwidth (-3dB) | 50 MHz | |
Max Sample Rate (All channels sampling) | 100 Msps | |
Other Sample Rates | 200M - 16D 300M - 10D 600M - 4D plus 100M on other channels | |
Sample Buffer Depth | 896 million total samples 32 millions samples per channel | |
Sample Compression | Proprietary algorithm consumes idle time | |
Capture Time Example (1MHz I2C register read every 10 msec) | 3,106 seconds | |
Full Scale Analog Input Ranges | -60V to +60V with 10x probe -6V to +6V, +/-6V Offset -3V to +3V, +/-3V Offset -1.5V to +1.5V, +/-1.5V Offset -0.75V to +0.75V, +/-0.75V Offset | |
ADC | Quad 10-bit 100Msps | |
Digital Input Range | +/- 60V (16 In), +/- 6V (8 I/O) | |
Logic Threshold | Variable -1V to +2V in 0.1V steps | |
Serial Packet Analyzer |
Protocol Analyzers Included | SDIO, USB, I2C, SPI, Async, CAN, I2S, 1-Wire, SM Bus, PS/2, Sync Serial, Parallel, Custom Decoder API |
Analog Signal Generator |
Analog Output Waveform | Sine, Triangle, Ramp, Square, DC |
Analog Output Frequency | 1 to 227 kHz | |
Variable Min and Max Voltage Range | 0V to 3V in 0.1V steps | |
Digital Signal Generator |
Arbitrary Digital Pattern Channels | 8 |
Output Sample Frequency | 0 to 100Msps | |
Number of Output Samples | Up to 62,000 | |
Digital Output Voltage | 0V - Low, +2.5V - High | |
PWM Controller Channels | 8 | |
Other Digital Pattern Features | Trigger Out, Remote Controller, Loop, Trigger In, External/Internal Clocking | |
Independent
|
Data Logger Features | Save all channels to file every 200msec |
Digital Voltmeter | 4 channels | |
Frequency Counter | 4 channels | |
Pulse Counter | 4 channels |
The USBee QX Package

The USBee QX comes with the following items:
USBee QX Test Pod
4 100MHz oscilloscope probes with x1 and x10 selection
Three 8 lead 9-inch logic analyzer/signal generator cable sets
2 lead 9-inch ground cable set
24 high performance micro grabber test clips
6 foot USB 3.0 cable
USBee QX Suite Software (downloaded)
USBee QX Suite Manuals (downloaded)
PC System Requirements
The USBee QX requires the following minimum PC features:
Pentium or higher processor
Windows® 10, 8, 7, Vista, or XP operating system (32 or 64-bit)
Mac OS X (using Parallels)
One USB 3.0 Super Speed Port or USB2.0 High Speed enabled port. It will not run on USB 1.1 Full Speed ports.
1GBytes of RAM
125MBytes of Hard disk space
Internet Access (for software updates and technical support)