Hi,
I'm relatively new to using Pico products but have used a different USB 'scope in the past. Now I'm doing some work with a 3424 'scope and have run into an issue. It might be an issue of my own making but if anyone has any ideas they'd be appreciated.
I'm working on a project where the PicoScope will be in a fairly hazardous position so we'd like to operate it remotely. We will have access to a wired LAN type connection between the test area and the control area. One way we could do this would be to leave a laptop with the PicoScope and use Remote Desktop (or similar software) from another computer to operate the first laptop to drive the PicoScope.
Another option is to use a USB device server (sometimes called USB over LAN extender, or various other names). I bought one of these (a Rextron NCNU-H04) and tried it; it behaved a bit strangely but worked fine. However when I tried it on the laptops that we'll actually be using, it didn't work. The PicoScope comes up as USB Device 0CE9, which appears to be a reference to Pico Technology being the manufacturer. I can connect to it but when I start PicoScope 6 the computer crashes, blue screen.
The only difference I can find between the machines that work and those that don't is that the ones that work are 32-bit, all the 64-bit machines crash*. * - I did once get a 64-bit machine working, but don't know how; in that case it listed it as PicoScope 3000 from the very start, I could connect to it, run PicoScope 6, etc. without problems but when I tried moving machines (and back again) it failed again.
A 32-bit machine generally behaves oddly, listing the PicoScope as USB Device 0CE9. But when I start the software it disconnects from USB Device 0CE9 and then lists PicoScope 3000 as available. I connect to that and it works fine.
Is there a difference between the 32-bit and 64-bit drivers that could be causing this?
I've left out lots of details, because otherwise this would be a really long post! But if anyone has any questions I'll do my best to answer them and any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks for reading this,
I've discovered that the problem appears to be related to the PicoScope 3424 hardware appearing to disconnect and then re-connect to the USB port of the computer / device server when the PicoScope 6 software is started. At this point the 64-bit machines crash but the 32-bit machines treat this as one device being removed and another becoming available (not connecting automatically though).
I think I read somewhere that PicoScope 6 does this in order to read the firmware from the PicoScope hardware? Is there any way of preventing this?
I have a very bad work around that I may not be able to use. This involves connecting (over network and device server) with a 32-bit machine, starting and stopping the PicoScope 6 software, then disconnecting the 32-bit machine and connecting the 64-bit machine that I want to use. If I do this without cycling the power of the device server or disconnecting the PicoScope 3424 hardware from the device server, then it seems to keep the port associated with a PicoScope 3000 device, rather than going back to Device 0CE9.
I don't think I can actually use this work-around, due to the nature of the project we may need to cycle power, which would mess this up.
Any suggestions?
Hi, I tried posting a bit more information earlier but appear to have failed at that. But if it re-appears then please forgive me if I repeat myself.
Some of the problem appears to come form the way the PicoScope system disconnects the hardware from the USB (as far as the USB host is concerned) for a brief moment when the software starts for the first time after the hardware is connected. I think I read somewhere this is so that the firmware or settings can be read by the PC software?
I have found a sort of work-around to my issue. I don't think I'll be able to use it in our application but if I explain it then maybe someone will realise what is going on.
- Connect PicoScope 'scope to USB device server
- Using 32-bit PC connect to USB device server
- Using 32-bit PC connect to USB device 0CE9 on device server
- On 32-bit PC start PicoScope 6 software
- this causes the USB device 0CE9 to disappear
- PicoScope 3000 appears in list of devices on device server
- On 32-bit PC close PicoScope 6 software
DO NOT disconnect PicoScope 'scope from USB device or power down USB device server
- Using 64-bit PC connect to USB device server
- this now lists PicoScope 3000 as available
- 64-bit PC can now connect to PicoScope 3000 via USB device server and PicoScope software can be started, runs fine, etc..
I don't think I can use this because we will probably have to cycle power at times that we won't be able to access the necessary bits.
Does anyone know a way to stop or bypass the connect / disconnect behaviour?
Or if anyone knows how to stop the 64-bit PCs crashing when the 0CE9 device disappears then that would be a better solution. maybe.