PicoScope 2204a and 2000/2000a drivers

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a_tamalonis
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PicoScope 2204a and 2000/2000a drivers

Post by a_tamalonis »

I am attempting to use the PicoScope 2204a with LabView. I have downloaded and installed PicoScope6, the PicoScope SDK, and the 2000 and 2000a LabView drivers and examples from Github. The 2000 drivers seem very dated, however they are able to connect to the device. The 2000a drivers return Error 5003 (at ps2000aOpenUnit), PICO_NOT_FOUND:No Pico Technologies device could be found. This error pops up even on a reboot, so it is not related to the device being controlled by another connection.

The error seems to come from the dll call ps2000a.dll:ps2000aOpenUnit. The ps2000.dll:ps2000_open_unit call from the 2000 series drivers works fine to open a connection to the device. There are other problems with the 2000 series examples, but at least they connect to the device. Neither the 2000 or 2000a programming guides seem to offer any insight into this issue.

Does anyone have any advice? Is there any reason to use the 2000a drivers over the 2000 drivers? I am using the x64 versions of everything, running Windows 10, LabView 2018. My short term need is to acquire a waveform of both channels simultaneously every ~6 seconds or so. Thank you.

Martyn
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Re: PicoScope 2204a and 2000/2000a drivers

Post by Martyn »

For the 2204a you need to be using the 2000 drivers and LabVIEW examples which is why they connect, the 2000a drivers and examples are for later models in the range.

If you have specific issues with the examples then please let us know, or email support@picotech.com for direct assistance from the team
Martyn
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a_tamalonis
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Re: PicoScope 2204a and 2000/2000a drivers

Post by a_tamalonis »

Thank you, that was very helpful.

The 2000 drivers seem to work well if there is a signal to trigger on, but if I disconnect the signal and reconnect it, there can be a very long delay before the operation times out and operation resumes. I bodged in my own timeout to work with my application for now, specifically in the PicoScope2000AcquireFastStream.vi I added another case to the OR block that is True if i>25. This doesn't work for all applications, but disconnecting and reconnecting the BNC cable would see this loop reach into the hundreds or thousands when my typical operation i_max=2.

Block Acquire might be better for what I'm doing, but this works enough to get me through my immediate needs. Thanks again.

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