Pico Technology

Here is your monthly Test and Measurement update.

1.  We Have Moved

We have completed our move to James House in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, UK. The new building is just a short distance from our old premises but several times the size, giving us space for our business to grow. This means that we will be taking on more staff in 2008. See our Employment Opportunities section below for a list of the positions currently available, and then check our careers website at http://pico.jobs regularly for updates.

Our new address is at the end of this newsletter.

2.  New Range of Low-Cost PC Oscilloscopes!

With the new PicoScope 2203, 2204 and 2205 PC Oscilloscopes, everyone can now afford to use Pico’s high-performance measurement technology in their laboratory, factory or workshop.

Here are the main specifications:

• 5 MHz, 10 MHz or 25 MHz analog bandwidth
• 40 MS/s, 100 MS/s or 200 MS/s real-time sampling rate
• 8 k to 16 k record length
• USB 2.0 interface for data and power
• Arbitrary waveform generator with 4 k words

The new PicoScope 2000 Series PC Oscilloscopes are extremely versatile, with an oscilloscope, spectrum analyser and arbitrary waveform generator included in every model. The compact, portable scopes fit easily in a laptop bag, and their robust cases have three BNC connectors – Channel A, Channel B and Signal Out – and a USB connector.

The new PicoScope 2000 Series scopes obtain their power from the USB 2.0 interface, so there's no need for batteries or an external power supply. The USB port also delivers high-speed data to your PC to give you a responsive, high-resolution display.

The scopes are bundled with full-featured copies of our PicoScope and PicoLog software for Windows. These programs are powerful but easy to use, and let you export data in a variety of graphical, text and binary formats. Also included are drivers and example programs.

The new PicoScope 2000 series scopes are available from our local distributors, or direct from Pico Technology.

More information on the PicoScope 2203, 2204 and 2205

3.  PicoScope 5204 Wins Best In Test Award

The PicoScope 5204 PC Oscilloscope has won Test & Measurement World magazine’s “Best In Test 2008” award for the best PC-based instrument to be released in the last year. This, our top-of-the-range scope, provides two channels plus an external trigger and an arbitrary waveform generator, a probe-tip bandwidth of 250 MHz, 8-bit resolution, and a real-time sampling rate of 1 Gsample/s (single channel). For repetitive signals, its equivalent-time-sampling mode increases the sampling rate to 20 Gsamples/s. The PicoScope 5204 also has a huge record length of 128 Msamples.

We’re delighted with this award, but we are not letting it rest there. We believe that the PicoScope 5204 deserves to win the Test Product of the Year award for 2008. What do you think? Why not visit the Test & Measurement award Online Ballot and cast your vote?

May the best product win!

Check out the award-winning qualities of the PicoScope 5204

4.  Questions and Answers

Here is a selection of the questions that have cropped up recently on our support forum.

Q. My PicoScope 3206 won’t start up reliably on my laptop. I am using PicoScope 5.16.2. What could be wrong?

A. Some customers might not be aware that, even after the release of PicoScope 6, we are still supporting PicoScope 5 with regular updates. The latest version is 5.18.0, which you can download free of charge. [This customer’s problem went away when he installed the latest release. He was also kind enough to describe the PicoScope 3206 as “phenomenal”!]

Q. Can PicoScope and PicoLog export data to Microsoft Excel?

A. Yes, they can. In PicoScope 5, click File, then Save as; set the file type to .TXT and click Save. You can import the TXT (tab-separated values) file directly into Excel. In PicoScope 6 and PicoLog the procedure is the same, but you have an extra option of saving the data in CSV (comma-separated values) format.

5.  New EnviroMon Sensor Map

EnviroMon Sensor Map (ESM)

Our New Zealand distributor, Metermaster, has produced an enhanced version of our well-established EnviroMon environmental monitoring system.

The new software works with our existing EnviroMon hardware and configuration files but offers a huge list of benefits, not least of which is the sensor map that displays measured values on a floor plan of your client’s plant. Another very useful feature is the ability to send detailed SMS alarm messages to selected recipients based on which alarms are active.

Other ESM features

• SMS and email alarm messages sent via the internet
• Statistical functions on graph view
• Enhanced graphing tools allowing easy zooming, date and time range and channel selection
• Detailed event log file
• A password log-in screen to allow managers to verify that staff are performing their temperature checks
• Tabbed screens to display multiple sites within the one ESM application
• Use of green, yellow and red alarm colours for consistency with EnviroMon
• Optional cabling information in a switchable overlay screen, making hardware maintenance easy

UK customers should contact sales@picotech.com for more information. Customers in the rest of the world should contact Metermaster.

More information on EnviroMon

6.  Updated PicoScope 5000 SDK

A new version of the PicoScope 5000 Software Developer's Kit, R6.0.13, is now on the web. This version has a new .NET example. The list of code examples in the PicoScope 5000 SDK is now as follows:

• National Instruments LabVIEW
• Borland Delphi
• Borland C
• Microsoft Visual C
• Microsoft C# using .NET

Download the latest PicoScope 5000 SDK

7.  Forthcoming Exhibitions and Training Dates

Full details of upcoming exhibitions and training dates can be found on the exhibitions page.

8.  Employment Opportunities

Due to our continuing growth, we have vacancies for the following positions:

• Development Engineer - Analogue Hardware
• Development Engineer - Hardware
• Development Engineer - Windows Desktop Application Software
• Development Engineer - Windows Device Driver Software
• New Product Introduction Engineer

Find more details of these positions and complete an online application form

We look forward to hearing from you if you want to be part of a growing company at the leading edge of test equipment design.

9.  Latest Software Releases

As soon as we release new software, it is made available for FREE download from our website. To check which version you are using, start the software (PicoScope, PicoLog or EnviroMon) and select HELP | ABOUT.

The current releases are:

• PicoScope 5: R5.18.0
• PicoScope 6: R6.0.12
• PicoLog: R5.18.0
• EnviroMon: R5.16.2

To download the latest software please visit the software downloads page

(Note: the above web page also contains a link to our 'what’s new' page which describes recent changes and additions to the software.)

10.  About this Newsletter

Back issues of this newsletter are available online at http://www.picotech.com/maillist.html

As this is an opt-in email list, we add names only on request. Pico Technology will not pass your name to any third party.

To subscribe or unsubscribe from this newsletter please follow the links in your email, or visit http://www.picotech.com/maillist.html

Recommend this newsletter to a friend

To make sure that your Pico newsletter reaches your inbox every month, please add listmaster@picotech.com to your email Address Book or Safe List.

11.  Contact Details