Oscilloscopes

Spectrum analyser options in PicoScope 5

The spectrum analyser built into the PicoScope software has a number of powerful options that can be accessed by selecting ‘options’ from the ‘settings’ menu.

These include:

  • No of spectrum bands — this defines how many "bins" the frequency range will be divided into. It can be set between 256 and 16384 (product dependant). Lower numbers give a faster update time, higher numbers give more resolution.
  • Window Type — this gives seven options on how the edges of the block of sampled data are filtered to reduce distortion. For most users the default window (blackman) is adequate, the PicoScope help file gives more details on which window should be used for which application.
  • Display Mode — this offers three options. "Normal" displays the spectrum for the current cycle. "Average" gives a moving average of successive cycles which is useful for removing random noise. "Peak" displays the maximum of all cycles (useful for bandwidth testing of filters and amplifiers).
  • X & Y Scales — these give options for the vertical scale to be in dB or Volts and the horizontal frequency scale either to be in linear or logarithmic form.

Article: KB-169
12 Oct 2007

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