Information on this page relates to Version 5 of the PicoScope Software. Version 6 is the current version. ***********************************************************
Real time digital storage oscilloscope . Grid gives actual voltages and times - no more counting divisions. Rulers for accurate measurements of time and amplitude. Chart recorder mode al low speeds. Both axes have multiplier zoom in on a particular event. Pre and post trigger delays selectable in 1% steps.
PicoScope provides all the functionality of a ‘conventional’ benchtop scope, together with additional functions made possible by the PC connection. Regular scope users will feel immediately at home, all the basic functions such as timebases, voltages ranges and trigger options are easy to access using the button bars. Less frequently used options are accessible through drop down menus. This balance allows maximum use of the screen area for the display of the traces.
A common use for digital storage scopes is in finding intermittent faults in both analog and digital systems. The ability to capture ‘one off’ events depends on the power and versatility of the scope trigger. For example, PicoScope has two special trigger modes to help capture these signals. The first is a display overwrite mode: any differences from the normal waveform will be clearly highlighted even if they only occur once. The second is ‘write to disk’ on trigger: in this mode the scope can be left running for long periods of time (for example to find a fault in an alarm system). Each time the trigger event occurs, the waveform will be saved to disk complete with a time/date stamp.
FFT spectrum analyser allows one off events to be captured. 7 Window types. Signal Averaging. Same trigger options as oscilloscope. Rulers for amplitude and frequency measurement. Lin/log scaling for both axes.
A spectrum anaylser is one of those tools that once you start using it you don’t know how you coped before. For example, if the scope shows noise on a power line, but you do not know what is causing it, just open up a spectrum. This will show all the frequency components of the noise, showing whether the noise is coming from mains interference, switching power supply or maybe the clock of a microprocessor. Audio engineers will especially welcome the ADC 100’s spectrum analyser which covers the entire audio spectrum at 12 bit precision - ideal for testing cross talk and frequency response in amplifiers.
Autoranging. True RMS voltmeter. dB measurement capability. Frequency Meter. Simultaneous display of multiple parameters.
As with the scope and spectrum, it is possible to have several multimeters on screen: this allows, for example, the frequency, AC voltage and DC offset of a signal all to be measured at the same time. Using the ‘composite view’ option this data can be combined in a single window together with the signal’s scope and spectrum traces.