PicoScope 7 Software
Available on Windows, Mac and Linux
The new PicoScope 2200A Series two-channel oscilloscopes are the smallest PicoScopes yet! They offer bandwidths up to 200 MHz and feature an arbitrary waveform generator, yet occupy about the area of a passport and measure only 19 mm (¾") thick. Connected to and powered by a USB port, they are the perfect scopes for engineers on the move to keep in their laptop bag, while offering all the features and performance of traditional benchtop oscilloscopes.
The specifications include:
Despite their small size, these scopes include a comprehensive list of features as standard including:
A free SDK with example code is available for developing your own applications in languages such as C, Microsoft Visual Basic® and National Instruments LabVIEW®.
The new PicoScope 2200A Series oscilloscopes are available now from Pico distributors worldwide and from www.picotech.com. Prices include all hardware and software features mentioned above and a five-year warranty.
Model | Bandwidth | Max. sampling | Buffer memory | £ | $* | €* |
PicoScope 2204A | 10 MHz | 100 MS/s | 8 kS | 159 | 262 | 192 |
PicoScope 2205A | 25 MHz | 200 MS/s | 16 kS | 249 | 411 | 301 |
PicoScope 2206A | 50 MHz | 500 MS/s | 32 kS | 349 | 576 | 422 |
PicoScope 2207A | 100 MHz | 1 GS/s | 40 kS | 449 | 741 | 543 |
PicoScope 2208A | 200 MHz | 1 GS/s | 48 kS | 599 | 988 | 725 |
Find out more about the PicoScope 2200A Series and download the data sheet.
Our selected video this month is PicoScope 6: Using Resolution Enhancement
Resolution Enhancement is a valuable feature of the PicoScope software that uses software filtering to provide up to four additional bits of resolution. This means that with 8 bit scopes like the new PicoScope 2200A Series you can measure with up to 12 bit resolution. You can select the degree of filtering, in steps of 0.5 bit effective resolution gain, to achieve the right balance between frequency response and resolution.
Visit the picoscope channel on YouTube for a list of over 70 videos on various aspects of oscilloscope usage.
All PicoScopes feature digital triggering, which Pico Technology pioneered in 1991. What is digital triggering and why do you need it?
Most traditional oscilloscopes use analog triggering. A dedicated comparator circuit monitors the input signal and causes the scope to capture a waveform when the signal crosses a preset threshold. These circuits are prone to frequency-dependent timing and threshold errors that cannot always be calibrated out. The result is increased timing uncertainty, also called jitter.
Pico Technology's digital triggering uses digitized data from one of the main input channels. This means that the trigger is locked to the sampling clock, so there is no additional source of jitter. PicoScopes then use interpolation to further reduce the jitter to a tiny fraction of a sampling period. The result is a highly stable trigger without the need for a separate trigger input and its expensive additional circuitry.
Other advantages of digital triggering:
More details of PicoScope's advanced triggering
We hope that you are delighted with your Pico product. Why not tell the world how good it is, and at the same time help us reach a charity donation target of $1000?
It's easy to publish a review: go to the online form, choose a star rating and type in your comments. For the rest of this year, Pico will donate $1 towards the target to Cancer Research UK, a registered charity, for every completed review. In addition, one lucky reviewer will be selected at random for a prize of $500 (or £300 or €350) in Amazon vouchers. The winner will be announced in the first Pico newsletter of 2014.
The donation scheme and prize draw end on 31 December 2013, so don't miss your chance. Review your product now!
Here are some of the latest tips delivered by our technical support experts. Keep watching our forum for more great ideas.
Unipolar scope inputs
Q. Using my PicoScope's bipolar inputs to measure a unipolar signal means that I waste half my input range and therefore one bit of resolution. Can I reconfigure the inputs to be unipolar?
A. Yes, you can if you have a PicoScope with analog input offset adjustment, such as one of the new PicoScope 2206A, 2207A or 2208A scopes:
For a list of scopes with the DC Offset feature, see the PicoScope 6 User's Guide.
File conversion to MATLAB
Q. How can I change the format of a PicoScope .psdata file to .mat in order to open it with MATLAB?
A. You can export PicoScope data to MathWorks MATLAB® by loading the .psdata file back into PicoScope 6, then selecting File > Save As... and changing the Save as type to MATLAB 4 files (*.mat). Note that MATLAB cannot load a version 4 .mat file with more than 100 million samples per channel.
The new PicoScope 2200A Series two-channel oscilloscopes are the smallest PicoScopes yet! They offer bandwidths up to 200 MHz and feature an arbitrary waveform generator, yet occupy about the area of a passport and measure only 19 mm (¾") thick. Connected to and powered by a USB port, they are the perfect scopes for engineers on the move to keep in their laptop bag, while offering all the features and performance of traditional benchtop oscilloscopes.
The specifications include:
Despite their small size, these scopes include a comprehensive list of features as standard including:
A free SDK with example code is available for developing your own applications in languages such as C, Microsoft Visual Basic® and National Instruments LabVIEW®.
The new PicoScope 2200A Series oscilloscopes are available now from Pico distributors worldwide and from www.picotech.com. Prices include all hardware and software features mentioned above and a five-year warranty.
Model | Bandwidth | Max. sampling | Buffer memory | £ | $* | €* |
PicoScope 2204A | 10 MHz | 100 MS/s | 8 kS | 159 | 262 | 192 |
PicoScope 2205A | 25 MHz | 200 MS/s | 16 kS | 249 | 411 | 301 |
PicoScope 2206A | 50 MHz | 500 MS/s | 32 kS | 349 | 576 | 422 |
PicoScope 2207A | 100 MHz | 1 GS/s | 40 kS | 449 | 741 | 543 |
PicoScope 2208A | 200 MHz | 1 GS/s | 48 kS | 599 | 988 | 725 |
Find out more about the PicoScope 2200A Series and download the data sheet.
Our selected video this month is PicoScope 6: Using Resolution Enhancement
Resolution Enhancement is a valuable feature of the PicoScope software that uses software filtering to provide up to four additional bits of resolution. This means that with 8 bit scopes like the new PicoScope 2200A Series you can measure with up to 12 bit resolution. You can select the degree of filtering, in steps of 0.5 bit effective resolution gain, to achieve the right balance between frequency response and resolution.
Visit the picoscope channel on YouTube for a list of over 70 videos on various aspects of oscilloscope usage.
All PicoScopes feature digital triggering, which Pico Technology pioneered in 1991. What is digital triggering and why do you need it?
Most traditional oscilloscopes use analog triggering. A dedicated comparator circuit monitors the input signal and causes the scope to capture a waveform when the signal crosses a preset threshold. These circuits are prone to frequency-dependent timing and threshold errors that cannot always be calibrated out. The result is increased timing uncertainty, also called jitter.
Pico Technology's digital triggering uses digitized data from one of the main input channels. This means that the trigger is locked to the sampling clock, so there is no additional source of jitter. PicoScopes then use interpolation to further reduce the jitter to a tiny fraction of a sampling period. The result is a highly stable trigger without the need for a separate trigger input and its expensive additional circuitry.
Other advantages of digital triggering:
More details of PicoScope's advanced triggering
We hope that you are delighted with your Pico product. Why not tell the world how good it is, and at the same time help us reach a charity donation target of $1000?
It's easy to publish a review: go to the online form, choose a star rating and type in your comments. For the rest of this year, Pico will donate $1 towards the target to Cancer Research UK, a registered charity, for every completed review. In addition, one lucky reviewer will be selected at random for a prize of $500 (or £300 or €350) in Amazon vouchers. The winner will be announced in the first Pico newsletter of 2014.
The donation scheme and prize draw end on 31 December 2013, so don't miss your chance. Review your product now!
Here are some of the latest tips delivered by our technical support experts. Keep watching our forum for more great ideas.
Unipolar scope inputs
Q. Using my PicoScope's bipolar inputs to measure a unipolar signal means that I waste half my input range and therefore one bit of resolution. Can I reconfigure the inputs to be unipolar?
A. Yes, you can if you have a PicoScope with analog input offset adjustment, such as one of the new PicoScope 2206A, 2207A or 2208A scopes:
For a list of scopes with the DC Offset feature, see the PicoScope 6 User's Guide.
File conversion to MATLAB
Q. How can I change the format of a PicoScope .psdata file to .mat in order to open it with MATLAB?
A. You can export PicoScope data to MathWorks MATLAB® by loading the .psdata file back into PicoScope 6, then selecting File > Save As... and changing the Save as type to MATLAB 4 files (*.mat). Note that MATLAB cannot load a version 4 .mat file with more than 100 million samples per channel.
Please visit Pico Exhibitions for the latest list of exhibitions and trade shows that Pico and its representatives will be attending.
Thanks to our continuing success and growth Pico are always seeking talented people to join our company.
Please visit https://jobs.picotech.com/ to see our current vacancies. We look forward to hearing from you!
Our latest software releases are available as free downloads. To check which release you are using, start the software and select Help > About.
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Pico Technology, James House, Colmworth Business Park, St. Neots,
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Tel.: 01480 396395 (+44 1480 396395)
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Tel:+1 800 591 2796 (Toll Free)
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Shanghai 200070, PR China
Tel: +86 21 2226-5152
Email: sales@picotech.com