PicoScope 6000E Series software
Ultra-high-definition display
PicoScope PC-based instruments use the host computer’s display, which is typically larger and of higher resolution than the dedicated displays installed in traditional benchtop oscilloscopes. This allows room for simultaneous display of time- and frequency-domain waveforms, decoded serial bus tables, measurement results with statistics and more.
PicoScope software scales automatically to take full advantage of the improved resolution of larger display sizes, including 4K ultra-high definition models. At 3840 x 2160 resolution—over eight million pixels—PicoScope allows engineers to get more done in less time through split-screen views of multiple channels (or different views of the same channel) from the device under test. As the example shows, the software can even show multiple oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer traces at once.
Large, high-resolution displays really come into their own when viewing high-resolution signals with the PicoScope 6000E 12-bit FlexRes models. With a 4K monitor, PicoScope can display more than ten times the information of some of our competitors’ scopes, solving the problem of how to match a big display and features with a small-footprint portable oscilloscope.
PicoScope also supports dual monitors: instrument control and waveforms displayed on the first, and large data sets from serial protocol decoders or DeepMeasure results on the second. The software can be controlled by mouse, touchscreen or keyboard shortcuts.
THE oscilloscope for measurements and math
Measurements: Introduction
PicoScope 7 provides dozens of automated measurements both for the oscilloscope and spectrum, not just standard ones like frequency but more complex ones such as overshoot, edge count, phase, power factor, THD and SINAD. Statistics can be displayed to show the Average, Mean, Maximum, Minimum, Standard Deviation and a count of the number of waveforms. Measurements are highly configurable allowing you to measure across the whole waveform, between rulers or just a single cycle.
Measurements: pass/failure limits
PicoScope software offers pass/failure limits for any measurement. This gives a visual indication within the measurement window whenever the measurement result goes above or below a specified value. Pass/failure limits can be combined with actions to immediately alert the user or execute other actions when a measurement threshold has been exceeded, either above or below set limits. By filtering the waveform buffer to show only those waveforms failing a measurement limit, you can quickly identify points of interest out of the thousands of waveforms captured in the deep memory of your PicoScope.
Measurements: logging (trending)
PicoScope allows the results of measurements to be recorded in a file for later analysis. The resulting log can be used to characterize the performance of a circuit over medium or long-duration tests – such as when evaluating drift due to thermal and other effects, or can be used to check functionality against an externally controlled variable such as supply voltage.
DeepMeasureTM - One waveform, millions of measurements
The measurement of waveform pulses and cycles is key to verifying the performance of electrical and electronic devices.
DeepMeasure delivers automatic measurements of important waveform parameters, such as pulse width, rise time and voltage, for every individual cycle in the captured waveforms. Up to a million cycles can be displayed with each triggered acquisition or combined across multiple acquisitions. Results can be easily sorted, analyzed and correlated with the waveform display, or exported as a .CSV file or spreadsheet for further analysis.
For example, use DeepMeasure with PicoScope’s rapid trigger mode to capture 40 000 pulses and quickly find those with the largest or smallest amplitude, or use your scope’s deep memory to record a million cycles of one waveform and export the rise time of every single edge for statistical analysis.
More information on DeepMeasure >>
Math channel and filters
Math channels add additional traces to your waveform. You can select simple functions such as addition and inversion with a click, or you can use the equation editor to take things to the next level and create functions involving math, trigonometry, exponentials, logarithms, statistics, integrals and derivatives.
Math channels also provide multiple filter options (lowpass, highpass, bandpass and bandstop) to allow for example both the raw view of a signal and one with a lowpass filter added to be viewed at the same time.
Many measurement functions are available as math channels which combined with deep memory captures reveal new details about your signal - you can plot changing frequency, duty cycle or phase as extra channels alongside the originals.
Display up to eight real or calculated channels in each scope view. If you run out of space, just open another scope view and add more. More information on Math channels
Power measurements and math
PicoScope software offers a suite of power measurements (with more in development) and associated power math channels which include:
• True power
• Reactive power
• Apparent power
• Power factor
With PicoScope you can graph your power measurements using math channels or display continuous values or statistics on screen using the measurements option. More information on Power measurements
Mask limit testing
Mask limit testing allows you to compare live signals against known good signals, and is designed for production and debugging environments. Simply capture a known good signal, draw (or have PicoScope auto-generate) a mask and then measure the system under test. PicoScope will check for mask violations and perform pass/fail testing, capture intermittent glitches, and can show a failure count and other statistics in the Measurements window.
More information on Mask limit testing >>
The spectrum view plots amplitude against frequency and is ideal for finding noise, crosstalk or distortion in signals. The spectrum analyzer in PicoScope is of the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) type that, unlike a traditional swept spectrum analyzer, can display the spectrum of a single, non-repeating waveform. With up to a million points, PicoScope’s FFT has excellent frequency resolution and a low noise floor.
With a click of a button, you can display a spectrum plot of the active channels using up to the full bandwidth of the instrument. A full range of settings gives you control over the number of spectrum bands (FFT bins), window types, scaling (including log/log) and display modes (instantaneous, average, or peak-hold).
You can display multiple spectrum views alongside oscilloscope views of the same data. A comprehensive set of automatic frequency-domain measurements can be added to the display, including THD, THD+N, SNR, SINAD and IMD. A mask limit test can be applied to a spectrum and you can even use the AWG and spectrum mode together to perform swept scalar network analysis.
More information on Spectrum analyzer >>
Persistence mode
PicoScope’s persistence mode options allow you to see old and new data superimposed, making it easy to spot glitches and dropouts and estimate their relative frequency – useful for displaying and interpreting complex analog signals such as video waveforms and amplitude modulated signals. Color-coding and intensity-grading show which areas are stable and which are intermittent. Choose between Fast, Time or Frequency Persistence types and customizations within each.
An important specification to understand when evaluating oscilloscope performance, especially in persistence mode, is the waveform update rate, which is expressed as waveforms per second. While the sampling rate indicates how frequently the oscilloscope samples the input signal within one waveform or cycle, the waveform update rate refers to how quickly an oscilloscope acquires waveforms.
Oscilloscopes with high waveform update rates provide better visual insight into signal behavior and dramatically increase the probability that the oscilloscope will quickly capture transient anomalies such as jitter, runt pulses and glitches – that you may not even know exist.
The PicoScope 3000E Series’ HAL4 hardware acceleration can achieve update rates of 300 000 waveforms per second in fast persistence mode.
Actions and alarms
PicoScope can be programmed to execute actions when certain events occur. Events that can trigger an action include measurement and mask limit failures, trigger events and buffers full. The actions that PicoScope can execute include:
• Stop the capture
• Save waveform to disk in your choice of format including .csv, .png and .matlab
• Play a sound
• Trigger signal generator or AWG
• Run an external application or script
• Export serial-decoded data to a file on disk
Actions, coupled with mask limit testing, help create a powerful and time-saving waveform monitoring tool. Capture a known good signal, auto-generate a mask around it and then use the actions to automatically save any waveform (complete with a time/date stamp) that does not meet specifications.
Custom probes in PicoScope oscilloscope software
The custom probes feature allows you to correct for gain, attenuation, offsets and nonlinearities in probes, sensors or transducers that you connect to the oscilloscope. This could be used to scale the output of a current probe so that it correctly displays amperes. A more advanced use would be to scale the output of a nonlinear temperature sensor using the table lookup function.
Definitions for standard Pico-supplied oscilloscope probes and current clamps are included. User-created probes may be saved for later use.
More information on Custom probes in PicoScope oscilloscope software >>
PicoLog® software
PicoScope 6000E Series oscilloscopes are also supported by the PicoLog data logging software, allowing you to view and record signals on multiple units in one capture.
PicoLog allows sample rates of up to 1 kS/s per channel, and is ideal for long-term observation of general parameters, such as voltage or current levels, on several channels at the same time, whereas the PicoScope software is more suitable for waveshape or harmonic analysis.
You can also use PicoLog to view data from your oscilloscope alongside a data logger or other device. For example, you could measure voltage and current with your PicoScope and plot both against temperature using a TC-08 thermocouple data logger, or humidity with a DrDAQ multipurpose data logger and suitable sensor.
PicoLog software is available for Windows, macOS and Linux, including Raspberry Pi OS.
Total cost of ownership (TCO), environmental benefits and portability
Total cost of ownership of a PicoScope 6000E is lower than traditional benchtop instruments for several reasons:
- Low power consumption—just 60W—saves hundreds of dollars throughout the lifetime of the product compared to benchtop instruments. It's kinder to the environment too, with lower CO2 emissions.
- Everything is included in the purchase price: serial protocol decoders, math channels and mask limit testing. No expensive optional upgrades or annual license fees.
- Free updates: new features and capabilities are provided throughout the lifetime of the product as we develop and release them.
- The PicoScope 6000E Series are highly portable and are very suited to home-working where desk space might be limited.
PicoSDK® – write your own apps
Our free PicoSDK software development kit allows you to write your own software and includes drivers for Windows, macOS and Linux. Example code supplied on our GitHub organization page shows how to interface to third-party software packages such as National Instruments LabVIEW and MathWorks MATLAB.
Among other features, the drivers support data streaming, a mode that captures continuous gap-free data directly to your PC or host computer at rates of over 300 MS/s, so you are not limited by the size of your scope’s capture memory. Sampling rates in streaming mode are subject to PC specifications and application loading.
There is also an active community of PicoScope users who share both code and whole applications on our Test and Measurement Forum and the PicoApps section of the website. The Frequency Response Analyzer shown here is a popular application on the forum.
PicoScope 6000E SDK documentation >>
More information on PicoSDK >>
