Pico Technical Support and Discussion Forum

arielmedina61

I want to know if I can trigg the Ps 3205 in Ext Mode with a sinusoidal wave (3V), from mains using a insolater transformer. This is to see pulses that appears every 50 hz (20mseg).
If I trigg the scope with ChA or ChB in auto- rising, with low signal (100mV) the trigger is too poor. Sometimes trigg with rising and other with falling. Thus the wave on the screen is unestable.

What happen if the user enable the signal generator (F7) while ext trigger is enable at the same time?

Regards,
Ariel.

Sarah · Guest

Hi Ariel

Thank you for your post.

It is not impossible to trigger as you describe however you need to be very careful when using mains voltage. You need to isolate the signal, attenuate it and be sure to use differential probes as the scope cannot accept a differential signal.

It is not possible to activate the signal generator and external trigger at the same time. You can only use one or the other.

Best Regards

arielmedina61 · Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2006 7:20 pm Post subject:

Thak you Sarah.

Best Regards

Ariel

ariaaudio · Super User Joined: 23 Mar 2007 Posts: 33

This is helpful. I often use Line sync on olde tyme oscilloscopes, something that is missing from the Picoscopes due, I expect, to the total lack of Mains AC in the scope to synch from. A cheap and easy solution would be to feed mains into the EXT input. With proper conditioning, of course. If the EXT has some protection built into it, then maybe all a fellow would need to do is use a stepdown transformer to isolate and reduce the mains voltage, and use a large enough series resistor between the transformer secondary and the EXT input do bring transients and nasties into manageable range.

Does Picotech have any off-the-cuff guidelines for something like this?

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