5244A power requirements.

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PicoCoder
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Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2015 4:13 pm

5244A power requirements.

Post by PicoCoder »

I want to run my 5244A in the field. I want to use a battery to power it.
Will it run off a 6 volt gel cell? The specs are a little vague about power
requirements. What is voltage and the tolerance on the power requirements?

Please don't say power it off your laptop PC. Most laptops do not provide
enough power from their USB port. Even when they do the PicoScope
uses a lot of power and kills the laptop battery pretty quickly.

One final complaint: I spent $1,800 and didn't get a suitable wall wart power
supply? That seems a trivial item that should be included.

Thanks,
Pete.

Martyn
Site Admin
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Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2011 8:15 am
Location: St. Neots

Re: 5244A power requirements.

Post by Martyn »

The four channel variant of the device requires a wall wart when operating with more than two channels active. The two channel variant can operate from USB ports, using the two headed cable if the ports are strictly limited to the USB specified 500mA, although many provide 1A or more.

The wall wart can be purchased as an option for the two channel devices if required, and is 5V 3A.

A battery that can match this would be sufficient to power the device.
Martyn
Technical Support Manager

PicoCoder
Newbie
Posts: 0
Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2015 4:13 pm

Re: 5244A power requirements.

Post by PicoCoder »

Thanks for getting back on this.

What I really want to know is what is the voltage tolerance on the 5 volt input.
Can I run it on 6 volts from a battery? If 6 volts it too much then can I use
1 diode drop of .6 volts and use the 5.4 volts to power the scope? If that
is too much can I use 2 diodes for a 1.2 volt drop and run the scope on
4.8 volts?

I want to be able to run the scope on battery without a UPS or any other
switching power supply. I want to operate in a low noise environment.

Thanks,
Pete.

Martyn
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 4491
Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2011 8:15 am
Location: St. Neots

Re: 5244A power requirements.

Post by Martyn »

The input voltage must be in the range 4.6 V to 5.5 V

At the lower end the device will indicate to the PC that it is under powered, but will still operate from the USB if sufficient power is available. At the upper end there is over voltage protection, which will trip if this is exceeded, so care needs to be taken that the voltage doesn't drift up under no load, for example when the unit is first starting up.

Please note that the device will take power from the USB bus, even if there is an external supply attached, particularly at power up when it enumerates on the USB bus, and detects what if external power is available.
Martyn
Technical Support Manager

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