ADC-216 resolution problem in Picoscope

Forum for discussing PicoScope (version 5)
Post Reply
vlk
User
User
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:27 am
Location: Manchester

ADC-216 resolution problem in Picoscope

Post by vlk »

Hello,

Any idea how to save signal waveforms (signal peak-to-peak amplitude <1 V) in txt format with 16-bit resolution using 16-bit ADC-216 Picoscope?

The waveforms look always with 1 mV step after saving in txt format. It means that I have only a 10-bit resolution scope for 0-1 V scale.

Thanks.

Sarah

Post by Sarah »

Hi

Thank you for your post.

When you save the files, and save them to text, do you have the ADC-216 plugged in? If not, the software may think that it is a different unit by default and therefore use a lower resolution.

Best Regards

vlk
User
User
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:27 am
Location: Manchester

Post by vlk »

Hi,

Thank you for your reply.

I used to save files in txt format as soon as recorded. Then I try always to open them in Excel or Origin when ADC-216 plugg-in and power on.

But if waveform amplitude is <1 mV, all cells in mV column are filled by 0.

Any idea how to get decimal places in mV signals?

Thanks.

Sarah

Post by Sarah »

Hi

Thank you for your post.

I believe this may be a limitation of the save to text function. I will file a software report on it and get our softwre engineers to look into it and see if they can improve the way that this works.

Best Regards

vlk
User
User
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:27 am
Location: Manchester

Post by vlk »

It's a pity to hear about a limitation of the save to text function.

I looked again into ADC-216 specifications. It is written that ADC-216 has 16 bit resolution at voltage range +/-10mV - +/-20V.

So, this information is very misleading as it claims 16 bit resolution for whole scope ranges. But actually it is true only for +/-20 V signals.

Is any hope that software engineers can solve that problem in the nearest future (1-2 months or 1-2 years)?

Cheers,
:?



[quote="Sarah"]Hi

Thank you for your post.

I believe this may be a limitation of the save to text function. I will file a software report on it and get our softwre engineers to look into it and see if they can improve the way that this works.

Best Regards[/quote]

Sarah

Post by Sarah »

Hi

Thank you for your post.

The resolution is true over all ranges when using Picoscope or Picolog. Likewise these save fine when saving as plw or psd files. I believe it is only the save to text function that has this limitation and I have bought this to the attantion of our software department.

They will work to find a solution to this as quickly as possible, unfortunately I do not know how long this will take.

Hope this helps

Best Regards

Nao

Custom Ranges

Post by Nao »

I encountered this resolution problem. But for the time being, I manage to get data without 1 mV step by using Custom Ranges.
But the unit seems micro V...

If you are using +-1 V range, you can set as follows:
in Custom Ranges,
-1 -1
1 1

I don't know why, the data to be saved seems to be ok.
But I hope Pico can solve this problem shortly. :o

Nao

Custom Ranges (Erratum)

Post by Nao »

in Custom Ranges,
-1 -1
1 1

in Custom Ranges,
-1000 -1000
1000 1000

Sorry for this. :wink:

Sarah

Post by Sarah »

Hi

Thank you for your post.

We have already corrected this problem and you should find that version 5.12.7 works fine. You can download this from:

http://www.picotech.com/software

Hope this helps

Best Regards

vlk
User
User
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2005 11:27 am
Location: Manchester

problem is still there

Post by vlk »

Hi,

I do not know about 5.12.7 vesion, but when I have tried new 5.12.8 version, I found that problem with saving data at high microvolts resolution was still there.

I can only save data in microVolts via Edit-Save as Text and than Paste in to Excel, Origin or Notepad. But it works only with one computer Shuttle X, other one could not save data with microvolt resolution.

Regards,

:)

Sarah

Post by Sarah »

Hi

Thank you for your post.

You might like to try 5.13.1 as this is the latest which we have just put on our website. I know that the save to text function was altered a while back to improve the resolution so you might find that this version helps.

Let me know how you get on.

Best Regards

Post Reply