Suitable for zoom in continuous mode?

Hello there,

I do embedded SW development, an I usually use a scope to check the output of my system while I am developing.

I have been using a Tektronix 4034 scope, where I let the scope in run (untriggered, continuously running) mode (1sec time divisions, 10 seconds total time) and, whenever I see something interesting / wrong / suspicious in the output, I will pause the acquisition and zoom into the wanted area. It's nearly the only feature I need: lots of memory! The current scope has 10 Mpts memory, 5GS/s a and bandwidth of 250 MHz I think.

The problem is that the scope is not 'mine', it's from another division. I would like to buy something but I won't get the budget to buy anything that's 3000 or 4000€, so I'm looking at something more affordable and more suitable to my use-case.

I don't know how the Picoscopes work. Since they are PC based, I thought that maybe they would be better suited for my needs, as maybe the PC takes over the memory? Let's say I need something where I can see 10s. of data on the screen and then be able to pause the acquisition and zoom-in to see 1ms (so, going from 10 1s/division to 10 100us divisions on a 'regular' scope). A bandwidth of 70 or 100 MHz should fully suffice, maybe even less. What would be you advise?

Oh, voltage wise, it's all very normal. I don't use any high voltage stuff, and my inputs are mostly in the 100 mV to 5 V span. I have both analog and digital data, analog being the one I use more.

Thanks a lot! I hope you can orientate my purchase a bit, as I think that these picoscopes are very interesting. Hope I can use them for my use case!

Patrick

Hi Patrick,

The PicoScope 6 software will allow you to capture data using a 1s/div timebase (collecting data in streaming mode) and zoom in on the display while data is being collected or post-capture.

In this mode of data collection, data is collected into PC memory and can then be saved to file post-capture.

Unfortunately we do not have a 'pause' feature in acquisition although this is something that I will feed through to our Development Team as a feature request.

You may wish to look at the PicoScope 3000 Series oscilloscopes as we have Oscilloscopes with analogue channels and Mixed Signal Oscilloscopes with analogue and digital channels:

https://www.picotech.com/oscilloscope/3000/usb3-oscilloscope-logic-analyzer

Regards,

Hello,

Thanks a lot for the clarification. I think the 3403D should have everything I need plus a bit more to future proof. Do you see any problems with that choice and my described use case?

I have one more question regarding my use-case: what would be the difference between using a 2206A or a 3403D? The differences in the numbers are clear, but if I would strictly use a maximum of 2 channels in continuous (streaming) mode, what would be the difference? Seems that, in this scenario, the memory of the scope is not that important.

I think that suitable settings for me would be 1s/division, 2MS/s and enable the streaming mode for the 1s/division. I am mistaken, for would both the 2206A and 3403D support this?

Last but not least, the Samples settings in the Tool bar, how is to be read? In streaming mode and 10MS set, is that 10MS for the whole screen (10MS in 10s, so actually 1MS/s) or is 10MS/s?

Thanks a lot!

Hi Patrick,

Other than the 4 channels, relatively deeper memory and the USB 3.0 connection, the other advantage of the PicoScope 3403D is that it has an external trigger input.

In PicoScope 6 the maximum streaming rate is 10MS/s but you will probably get about 9.6MS/s due to the sampling intervals that are possible with the devices. If you are using the Software Development Kit, then it is possible to achieve faster sampling rates in streaming mode (up to 125MS/s shared between channels).

You can collect data with the desired settings with both devices using the PicoScope 6 software.

The number of samples setting refers to the number of samples across the screen so 10MS with 1s/div should give you 1MS/s - PicoScope 6 will calculate the actual number of samples that can be collected based on the timebase selected.

Hope this helps.

Hitesh wrote:Other than the 4 channels, relatively deeper memory and the USB 3.0 connection, the other advantage of the PicoScope 3403D is that it has an external trigger input.

Right. But worth noting that the Ext Trig goes away on the 3403D MSO version.

And the "relatively deeper memory" is irrelevant in continuous Streaming mode.

So for the specific use-case that Patrick has cited, the 2206A would work just as well for him. With greater constraints later, if his needs expanded.

- Mark

Or worth looking at PicoAssured with the original 2206/2208 which have the Ext Trig, or older 3000 series models, all at discounted prices.