Most digital oscilloscopes have been designed for viewing fast digital signals. The trend has been to use new technology solely to increase sampling rate and bandwidth. With the PicoScope 4262, however, we have focused on what’s important for measuring analog signals: increasing the resolution, improving dynamic range, and reducing noise and distortion.
The result is an oscilloscope / FFT analyzer that has a level of performance to put most audio analyzers to shame yet has a 5 MHz bandwidth making it equally suitable for vibration and ultrasound signals as well as a wide range of precision measurement tasks.
Many applications such as vibration analysis require long captures at high sampling rates, which requires a deep capture memory. The PicoScope 4262 has a 16 million sample buffer memory so can capture at 10 MS/s for timebases as long as 100 ms/div. If you require longer times, the USB streaming mode can sample directly into PC memory.
Advanced display
PicoScope software dedicates almost all of the display area to the waveform. This ensures that the maximum amount of data is seen at once. The viewing area is much bigger and of a higher resolution than with a traditional benchtop scope.
With a large display area available, you can also create a customizable split-screen display, and view multiple channels or different views of the same signal at the same time. As the example shows, the software can even show multiple oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer traces at once. Additionally, each waveform shown works with individual zoom, pan, and filter settings for ultimate flexibility.
The PicoScope software can be controlled by mouse, touchscreen or keyboard shortcuts.
FFT spectrum analyzer
The spectrum view plots amplitude vs frequency and is ideal for finding noise, crosstalk or distortion in signals. The spectrum analyzer in PicoScope is of the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) type which, unlike a traditional swept spectrum analyzer, can display the spectrum of a single, non-repeating waveform.
A full range of settings gives you control over the number of spectrum bands (FFT bins), window types, scaling (including log/log) and display modes (instantaneous, average, or peak-hold).
You can display multiple spectrum views alongside oscilloscope views of the same data. A comprehensive set of automatic frequency-domain measurements can be added to the display, including THD, THD N, SNR, SINAD and IMD. A mask limit test can be applied to a spectrum and you can even use the AWG and spectrum mode together to perform swept scalar network analysis.
Arbitrary waveform and function generator
The PicoScope 4262 has a built-in 20 kHz function generator (sine, square, triangle, DC voltage, ramp, sinc, Gaussian, half–sine, white noise and PRBS). The function generator offers an outstanding sine wave distortion performance of 102 dB SFDR.
As well as basic controls to set level, offset and frequency, more advanced controls allow you to sweep over a range of frequencies. Combined with the spectrum peak hold option this makes a powerful tool for testing amplifier and filter responses.
Trigger tools allow one or more cycles of a waveform to be output when various conditions are met such as the scope triggering or a mask limit test failing.
As well as the standard waveforms available from the function generator, custom waveforms can be created using the 16 bit / 192 kS/s arbitrary waveform generator (AWG). AWG waveforms can be created or edited using the built-in editor, imported from oscilloscope traces, or loaded from a spreadsheet.
High signal integrity
Most oscilloscopes are built down to a price. Ours are built up to a specification.
Careful front-end design and shielding reduces noise, crosstalk and harmonic distortion. Over 20 years of high resolution oscilloscope design experience leads to improved pulse response and bandwidth flatness.
We are proud of the dynamic performance of our products and publish these specifications in detail. The result is simple: when you probe a circuit, you can trust in the waveform you see on the screen.
Portability
The PicoScope 4262 oscilloscope is small, light and portable and requires no external power supply.
In the lab they take up the minimum of bench space while for the engineer on the move they slip neatly into a laptop bag.
PicoScope 4262 Features
Hardware Acceleration Engine (HAL2)
Some oscilloscopes struggle when you enable deep memory; the screen update rate slows and controls become unresponsive. PicoScope 4262 avoids this
limitation with use of a dedicated hardware acceleration engine inside the oscilloscope. Its parallel design effectively creates the waveform image to be displayed on the PC screen and allows the continuous capture and display to the screen of millions of samples every second. PicoScope oscilloscopes manage deep memory better than competing oscilloscopes, both PC-based and benchtop.
The PicoScope 4262 is fitted with second-generation hardware acceleration (HAL2). This speeds up areas of oscilloscope operation such allowing thousands of waveform updates per second and the segmented memory/rapid trigger modes. The hardware acceleration engine ensures that any concerns about the USB connection or PC processor performance being a bottleneck are eliminated.
Advanced digital triggering
The majority of digital oscilloscopes still use an analog trigger architecture based on comparators. This causes time and amplitude errors that cannot always be calibrated out and often limits the trigger sensitivity at high bandwidths.
In 1991 Pico pioneered the use of fully digital triggering using the actual digitized data. This technique reduces trigger errors and allows our oscilloscopes to trigger on the smallest signals, even at the full bandwidth. Trigger levels and hysteresis can be set with high precision and resolution.
The sub-10 µs rearm delay provided by digital triggering, together with segmented memory, allows up to 10,000 waveforms to be captured in a 20 ms burst.
The PicoScope 4262 offers an industry-leading set of advanced triggers including pulse width, runt pulse, windowed, logic and dropout.
Digital persistence modes
Advanced display modes allow you to collect thousands of waveforms per second. New or more frequent data can be displayed in a brighter color or shade. This makes it easy to see glitches and dropouts and to estimate their relative frequency. Choose between analog persistence, digital color, fast or custom display modes.
Mask limit testing
Mask limit testing allows you to compare live signals against known good signals, and is designed for production and debugging environments. Simply capture a known good signal, draw a mask around it, and then attach the system under test. PicoScope will check for mask violations and perform pass/fail testing, capture intermittent glitches, and can show a failure count and other statistics in the Measurements window.
Waveform buffer and navigator
Ever spotted a glitch on a waveform, but by the time you’ve stopped the scope it has gone? With PicoScope you no longer need to worry about missing glitches or other transient events. PicoScope can store the last ten thousand oscilloscope or spectrum waveforms in its circular waveform buffer.
The buffer navigator provides an efficient way of navigating and searching through waveforms, effectively letting you turn back time. Tools such as mask limit testing can also be used to scan through each waveform in the buffer looking for mask violations.
Serial bus decoding and protocol analysis
PicoScope can decode 1-Wire, ARINC 429, CAN & CAN-FD, DCC, DMX512, Ethernet 10Base-T, FlexRay, I²C, I²S, LIN, MODBUS, PS/2, SENT, SPI, UART (RS-232 / RS-422 / RS-485), and USB 1.1 protocol data as standard, with more protocols in development and available in the future with free-of-charge software upgrades.
Graph format shows the decoded data (in hex, binary, decimal or ASCII) in a data bus timing format, beneath the waveform on a common time axis, with error frames marked in red. These frames can be zoomed to investigate noise or signal integrity issues.
Table format shows a list of the decoded frames, including the data and all flags and identifiers. You can set up filtering conditions to display only the frames you are interested in or search for frames with specified properties. The statistics option reveals more detail about the physical layer such as frame times and voltage levels. PicoScope can also import a spreadsheet to decode the data into user-defined text strings.
High-end features as standard
Buying a PicoScope is not like making a purchase from other oscilloscope companies, where optional extras considerably increase the price. With our scopes, high-end features such as serial decoding, mask limit testing, advanced math channels, segmented memory, and a signal generator are all included in the price.
To protect your investment, both the PC software and firmware inside the scope can be updated. Pico Technology have a long history of providing new features for free through software downloads. We deliver on our promises of future enhancements year after year, unlike many other companies in the field. Users of our products reward us by becoming lifelong customers and frequently recommending us to their colleagues.
PicoScope 4262 High resolution oscilloscope software
Math channels and filters
On many oscilloscopes waveform math just means simple calculations such as A B. With a PicoScope it means much, much more.
With PicoScope 6 you can select simple functions such as addition and inversion, or open the equation editor to create complex functions involving filters (lowpass, highpass, bandpass and bandstop filters), trigonometry, exponentials, logarithms, statistics, integrals and derivatives.
Waveform math also allows you to plot live signals alongside historic peak, averaged or filtered waveforms.
You can also use math channels to reveal new details in complex signals. An example would be to graph the changing duty cycle or frequency of your signal over time.
Custom probes in PicoScope oscilloscope software
The custom probes feature allows you to correct for gain, attenuation, offsets and nonlinearities in probes, sensors or transducers that you connect to the oscilloscope. This could be used to scale the output of a current probe so that it correctly displays amperes. A more advanced use would be to scale the output of a nonlinear temperature sensor using the table lookup function.
Definitions for standard Pico-supplied oscilloscope probes and current clamps are included. User-created probes may be saved for later use.
Alarms
PicoScope can be programmed to execute actions when certain events occur.
The events that can trigger an alarm include mask limit fails, trigger events and buffers full.
The actions that PicoScope can execute include saving a file, playing a sound, executing a program or triggering the signal generator / AWG.
Alarms, coupled with mask limit testing, help create a powerful and time saving waveform monitoring tool. Capture a known good signal, auto generate a mask around it and then use the alarms to automatically save any waveform (complete with a time/date stamp) that does not meet specification.
High-speed data acquisition and digitizing
The software development kit (SDK) allows you to write your own software and includes drivers for Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux (including beta versions for Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone).
Example code shows how to interface to third-party software packages such as Microsoft Excel, National Instruments LabVIEW and MathWorks MATLAB.
The drivers support USB data streaming, a mode that captures gap-free continuous data over USB direct to the PC’s RAM or hard disk at rates of up to 10 MS/s. Capture size is limited only by available PC storage. Sampling rates in streaming mode are subject to PC specifications and application loading.
Powerful tools provide endless options
Your PicoScope is provided with many powerful tools to help you acquire and analyze waveforms. While these tools can be used on their own, the real power of PicoScope lies in the way they have been designed to work together.
As an example, the rapid trigger mode allows you to collect 10 000 waveforms in a few milliseconds with minimal dead time between them. Manually searching through these waveforms would be time-consuming, so just pick a waveform you are happy with and let the mask tools scan through for you. When done, the measurements will tell you how many have failed and the buffer navigator allows you to hide the good waveforms and just display the problem ones. This video shows you how.
Perhaps instead you want to plot changing duty cycle as a graph? How about outputting a waveform from the AWG and also automatically saving the waveform to disk when a trigger condition is met? With the power of PicoScope the possibilities are almost endless.
Our ergonomically designed passive oscilloscope probes are suitable for use with all major brands of oscilloscopes as well as the PicoScope range of USB Oscilloscopes. Passive probes don't require a power supply or batteries so are lightweight and easily portable.
Our ergonomically designed passive oscilloscope probes are suitable for use with all major brands of oscilloscopes as well as the PicoScope range of USB Oscilloscopes. Passive probes don't require a power supply or batteries so are lightweight and easily portable.
From gator/croc clips to acupuncture probes, here you will find a variety of popular accessories for use with test and measurement equipment.
Our test clips are suitable for general-purpose test and measurement as well as for automotive diagnostics applications. The test clips are designed for use with our range of test leads.
Product
Price
Sprung hook probe 1000 V CAT III, red
TA090
Sprung hook probe 1000 V CAT III, black
TA089
Small crocodile clip, red
TA004
Small crocodile clip, black
TA003
Multimeter probe, 1000 V CAT II, red
TA002
Multimeter probe, 1000 V CAT II, black
TA001
Large dolphin clip, 1000 V CAT III, red
TA006
Large dolphin clip, 1000 V CAT III, black
TA005
Miscellaneous
Product
Price
USB 2.0 cable, 1.8 m
MI106
Calibration services
Product
Price
Calibration certificate for PicoScope oscilloscopes: 2000, 3000, 4000 (excl. 4824 and 4444)
CC017
Recommended
PicoScope 4262 Specifications
Order your PicoScope 4262 Today!
USA Office
Tel:1.877.902.2979-1.425.223.4311
Fax:1.877.329.4324
Address: 1480 Gulf Road, Suite 837,
PO Box 1364
Point Roberts, WA 98281
Western Canada - Vancouver BC
Tel:1.800.663.6001 or 1.604.925.6150
Fax:1.604.925.6170
Address: 2454 Haywood Ave
West Vancouver, BC V7V 1Y1
Eastern Canada - Markham, Ontario
Tel:1.800.465.0164 or
1.905.513.7027
Fax:1.877.329.4324
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