Pico Technology

Here is your monthly Test and Measurement update from Pico Technology.

1. Introducing the New PicoScope 6000 Series

The new PicoScope 6000 Series scopes are the highest-performance USB oscilloscopes you can buy. We believe that these key specifications can’t be beaten by any USB scope on the market today:

• 5 GS/s sampling rate, real time
• 1 GS buffer size (yes, one billion samples!) as standard
• 350 MHz bandwidth
• 4 channels

The high sampling rate and bandwidth allow detailed viewing of pulses with a time resolution as short as 200 ps. Thanks to the deep “always-on” memory, the scope can maintain its top sampling rate on timebases as long as 20 ms/div. This allows you to capture 200 ms of data, and then magnify the timebase by an astonishing 100,000,000 times to see every last detail in the signal. Like all our scopes, the PicoScope 6000 Series uses the PicoScope 6 software, which is already well-known to engineers for its uncluttered yet powerful user interface. The menus and toolbars give access to a wide range of powerful features including automatic measurements with statistics, analog and digital persistence display modes, math channels and reference waveforms.

In addition to their amazing performance, these scopes are packed with features that often cost extra on our competitors’ scopes: a built-in 350 MHz spectrum analyzer, a built-in arbitrary waveform and function generator, a buffer for up to 10,000 waveforms, CAN bus decoding, mask limit testing and a software development kit. The software runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista and the new Windows 7, and can be switched between English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Chinese.

We’ve saved the best news until last: the prices. There are four options: with full or reduced buffer memory, and with or without a set of four high-quality x10 probes. The probes are factory-compensated to give a system bandwidth of 350 MHz.

Read full details on the PicoScope 6000 Series or download the colour brochure (requires PDF viewer).

2.  Windows 7 Compatibility

All of our major software packages are fully compatible with Microsoft Windows 7, the latest version of Windows. When you select a program from our software download page, the website will tell you which versions of Windows the program has been tested on.

To summarise: PicoLog, PicoScope 5, PicoScope 6, the PicoScope 9000 software and EnviroMon are all tested on Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Visit our software download page now

3.  Open Day Reminder

Pico Open Day, St. Neots, Cambridgeshire, UK - 24 November 2009

This is a final reminder of the Open Day to be held at our headquarters later this month. The morning session is fully booked, but there are still a few places for the afternoon session. Admission is free of charge, and lunch will be provided.

• See the new PicoScope 6000 Series scope!
• Watch demonstrations of our PC Oscilloscope, Data Logger and EnviroMon products
• Try out our products for yourself
• Bring your questions for our technical experts

Please email kelly@picotech.com soon to reserve your place.

4.  PicoScope: The Video

Now there’s a new excuse for watching videos at work: the “PicoScope: New Features” series. These videos are an easy and efficient way to keep up to date with the latest developments in PicoScope, our oscilloscope software for PCs. Each video is carefully crafted to give you the basic information that you need to get started in the shortest possible time.

Watch the latest video: “PicoScope New Features: Serial Decoding”

…and in case you missed the first video in the series, covering a diverse collection of features such as auto-arrange axes and editable rulers, you can catch up with it here.

5.  Questions and Answers

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

Q. We are using PicoLog to monitor the power consumed by a system. We planned on putting a resistor in series with the circuit, measuring the voltage across the resistor, then doing some Ohm's law. But we are having problems measuring the voltage across the resistor using the scope. Whenever the ground of the probe is connected at one end of the resistor, the voltage at the other end suddenly drops. We think it is caused by the common ground of the scope and the PC. Any suggestions on how we can measure the current aside from purchasing current clamps? —xavier

A. You could use two channels, one measuring each end of the resistor. You could then use a math channel to calculate the difference, i.e. the voltage drop across the resistor. You could also scale the math channel to give you the current rather than the voltage drop.

Q. I have just unpacked my new 3224 scope and probes. Amongst the probe accessories are a couple of yellow plastic shrouds and two small yellow plastic half tube sections, rather like a 10 mm  length of drinking straw has been cut along its axis! Could anyone tell me what they are for? —Gerry

A. The yellow plastic shrouds go onto the probe tips and act as insulators. These insulators allow more precise placement on small pins where unintentional pin contact may occur. The two small half tube sections slip around the test leads. These serve as quick channel identifiers (for example the lead with the clips on is channel A and without is channel B).

6.  Events

For the latest information about upcoming exhibitions, please see our “Training and Exhibitions” page.

7.  Employment Opportunities

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

• Development Engineer - Analogue Hardware
• Development Engineer - Hardware

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.

8.  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:

To download the latest software please visit the software downloads page

See Software Releases - New Features for a list of recent changes and additions to the software.

9.  About this Newsletter

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

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10.  Contact Details

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