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Picoscope 2000 series best practices regarding grounding concerns for Arduino/Pi MCU/MPU based development
Picoscope 2000 series best practices regarding grounding concerns for Arduino/Pi MCU/MPU based development
I recently bought 2205A for hobbyist use case primarily developing motor and sensor based application in RC cars and Drones. So, No HF and no high voltage range is involved (less than 30v). I like picoscope because of the ease of use in relatively small workspace with almost full feature set for a typical low volt electronic system development driven by MCU/MPU. Now, what is problematic is I want to use it with my workstation which has docking station with 4 screen setup and other important peripherals which means the workstation is earth grounded as well. I want to dedicate one screen for picoscope and other for programming IDEs.
Here are my few scenarios where I need know best practices:
1. When Raspberry PI/Arduino are running on their power supply which is also connected to the same power strip as the workstation.
2. When Raspberry Pi/Arduino are running on external PSU (such as SIGLENT SPD1305X) and all the motor drivers with peripherals are connected, and I am basically either analyzing PWM or serial busses signals.
I am thinking of using USBHub with its own power supply plus USB isolator as well but this may effect data throughput. The reason is I want to protect workstation and all the peripheral on the docking station at all cost in the event of any short. I understand the floating ground concerns explained in the manual as to use laptop with batteries but this will defeat the purpose why I bought picoscope in the first place.
Here are my few scenarios where I need know best practices:
1. When Raspberry PI/Arduino are running on their power supply which is also connected to the same power strip as the workstation.
2. When Raspberry Pi/Arduino are running on external PSU (such as SIGLENT SPD1305X) and all the motor drivers with peripherals are connected, and I am basically either analyzing PWM or serial busses signals.
I am thinking of using USBHub with its own power supply plus USB isolator as well but this may effect data throughput. The reason is I want to protect workstation and all the peripheral on the docking station at all cost in the event of any short. I understand the floating ground concerns explained in the manual as to use laptop with batteries but this will defeat the purpose why I bought picoscope in the first place.
Re: Picoscope 2000 series best practices regarding grounding concerns for Arduino/Pi MCU/MPU based development
make sure your alligator clips are always connected to the GND of your projects.
If you want to make other measurements (e.g. pwm over dual H-Bridge) then use a differential probe.
https://aliexpress.com/item/33043904302.html
Benno
If you want to make other measurements (e.g. pwm over dual H-Bridge) then use a differential probe.
https://aliexpress.com/item/33043904302.html
Benno
Re: Picoscope 2000 series best practices regarding grounding concerns for Arduino/Pi MCU/MPU based development
@bennog : how about this one (T3100x100 ) http://www.hantek.com/products/detail/74 to work with H-Bridges (typically L298N I assume). Also, Have you used USB isolator (galvanic isolation host) such as this one https://www.conrad.com/p/cesys-c028149- ... or-1165503 with picoscope. I am interested in buying high quality isolation there is too much at stake with my workstation. What is your opinion about using picoscope 3000D where MSO version has separate external DC supply would that completely isolate the workstation and its peripherals?
Re: Picoscope 2000 series best practices regarding grounding concerns for Arduino/Pi MCU/MPU based development
That probe has also a common ground clip so will destroy your scope and pc if you connect the clip to something else than the GND of your application.
A USB isolator won't help because the ground clips of all the scope inputs are connected together and you can make a short trough your scope and destroy your scope if you put the aligator clip of input A to GND and the aligator clip of input B to the 12V or to the output of your H-Bridge.
An option could be not to use the aligator clips and put your scope GND to the GND of your DUT (device under test) and only use the tip of your probe. Then all your measurements are referenced to ground and you will have some or a lot extra noise on the signal.
If you want to know the signal of the H bridge output you can put channel A to one side and channel B to the other side and in picoscope software substract A and B and you have a differential measurement.
P.S. the USB isolator wont work, it does not support USB2-high speed. and the power is probably not enough to power a picoscope.
Benno
A USB isolator won't help because the ground clips of all the scope inputs are connected together and you can make a short trough your scope and destroy your scope if you put the aligator clip of input A to GND and the aligator clip of input B to the 12V or to the output of your H-Bridge.
An option could be not to use the aligator clips and put your scope GND to the GND of your DUT (device under test) and only use the tip of your probe. Then all your measurements are referenced to ground and you will have some or a lot extra noise on the signal.
If you want to know the signal of the H bridge output you can put channel A to one side and channel B to the other side and in picoscope software substract A and B and you have a differential measurement.
P.S. the USB isolator wont work, it does not support USB2-high speed. and the power is probably not enough to power a picoscope.
Benno