How do I force Picoscope to use streaming mode?

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Ben321
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How do I force Picoscope to use streaming mode?

Post by Ben321 »

I want to force Picoscope 6 software to use streaming mode, rather than block mode, so I can record the signal stream to a file (for later analysis in other software). I can't find any "Activate USB Streaming Mode" option in the software's settings. It seems to always use block mode, no matter what, as the saved waveform always has breaks between blocks of the signal. There's a very sharp edge where it's easy to see that some of the waveform was lost between blocks, which is proof that it's operating in block mode, rather than streaming mode.

I'm using the Picoscope 6 software with my 2204A Picoscope hardware. My current settings are 200ms/div and 1million samples per block. And this itself seems to indicate block mode is in use, because it is even allowing me to set block size. A stream has no block size. It is just a constant stream of signal samples passed from the Picoscope to the computer over the USB cable. When USB Streaming Mode is active, I assume that the buttons to set the block size will be grayed out, indicating that block mode is not active.

Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

bennog
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Re: How do I force Picoscope to use streaming mode?

Post by bennog »

try setting timebase to 1 or 10 sec / division. (or longer depending how long you want the trace to be)
ans max samples to 100Ms

Then you get a single trace for 10 or 100 sec without gaps.

Between traces are always gaps. So you can only use a single trace.

Otherwise use the SDK for streaming mode alt higher rates than the PS software allows you to set.

Benno

Ben321
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Re: How do I force Picoscope to use streaming mode?

Post by Ben321 »

bennog wrote:try setting timebase to 1 or 10 sec / division. (or longer depending how long you want the trace to be)
ans max samples to 100Ms

Then you get a single trace for 10 or 100 sec without gaps.

Between traces are always gaps. So you can only use a single trace.

Otherwise use the SDK for streaming mode alt higher rates than the PS software allows you to set.

Benno

Thanks for the info. Too bad Picoscope6 doesn't have a "recording mode" where it would work like soundcard software, where you just hit a "record" button, and it runs full USB-streaming continuously at the max-samplerate of whatever scope you have connected, and just records everything until you hit the "stop" button.

bennog
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Re: How do I force Picoscope to use streaming mode?

Post by bennog »

Ben321 wrote: Thanks for the info. Too bad Picoscope6 doesn't have a "recording mode" where it would work like soundcard software, where you just hit a "record" button, and it runs full USB-streaming continuously at the max-samplerate of whatever scope you have connected, and just records everything until you hit the "stop" button.
But it have this mode limit to 100MS (depending on the scope type)
I use this mode often to stream 100MS in memory.
What sampling speed do you want to get (how many samples / sec and how many channels ?)

Benno

Martyn
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Re: How do I force Picoscope to use streaming mode?

Post by Martyn »

Writing an application using the SDK would be the easiest way to achieve this.
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bennog
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Re: How do I force Picoscope to use streaming mode?

Post by bennog »

Martyn wrote:Writing an application using the SDK would be the easiest way to achieve this.
Problem with this is you can not use any of the beautiful features of the PicoScope software, because you can not save the data as .psdata file.
So decoding the data e.g. CAN or RS232 or any other protocol will not work anymore.

Maby allow save as .psdata when there is a picoscope connected (as proof you own a picoscope device)
This also allows for higher streaming rates and still analyze the data with the PS6 software.

Benno

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