Frequency Response Analyzer with Bode Plots

[mnni]

Hey again Aaron
regarding the frequency shift error
did a test using the awg function and found that there is no shift over the 46.xxx KHz

cheers Martin

[hexamer]

Hello Folks

First of all, Aeron, it's really great work. I am new to picoscope and FRA4scope software; I don't know how to use the FR4Scope, My main goal is to Analyze the Impedance; can you please guide me on how to do this and how to use the FRA4scope software.

Regards
Avi

Thank you for your interest and kind words, Avi. There are a few posts in this thread about using the FRA application for impedance analysis. Wim Huyghe has made a helper application that uses the CSV output of the FRA app. Here's a post about it: viewtopic.php?p=141096#p141096

Good luck, and remember there's plenty of people here that would be glad to help!

[hexamer]

RTFM....I reread the wiki and took the advice from earlier in the thread and using a simple RC filter it all worked. Npw to try it on the amp...

I also saw that Calibrate is on the list of features to add.

Thank you for sticking with it! I realize the information is kind of scattered. Picotech wrote a very helpful app note on basic usage (https://www.picotech.com/download/broch ... n-note.pdf) which I should probably link to the Wiki (https://bitbucket.org/hexamer/fra4picoscope/wiki/Home). I did recently update the information in settings which might also be useful if you need to dive in to more advanced use: https://bitbucket.org/hexamer/fra4picos ... umentation

There are plenty of people here ready to help if you have any more issues.

[avi.patel001]

Hello Folks

First of all, Aeron, it's really great work. I am new to picoscope and FRA4scope software; I don't know how to use the FR4Scope, My main goal is to Analyze the Impedance; can you please guide me on how to do this and how to use the FRA4scope software.

Regards
Avi

Thank you for your interest and kind words, Avi. There are a few posts in this thread about using the FRA application for impedance analysis. Wim Huyghe has made a helper application that uses the CSV output of the FRA app. Here's a post about it: viewtopic.php?p=141096#p141096

Good luck, and remember there's plenty of people here that would be glad to help!

Hello I have read that and installed that, I just downloaded your software and when I connect the picoscope with my laptop but in the FRA4Picoscope it says "no compatible picoscope device not found"

[Andreas_]

Hello Aaron,

do you plan to support (cheap) external function generators e.g. like the FY6800?
Would be nice to extend the frequency range to 60 MHz.

with best regards

Andreas

[hexamer]

Hello I have read that and installed that, I just downloaded your software and when I connect the picoscope with my laptop but in the FRA4Picoscope it says "no compatible picoscope device not found"

Hi Avi,

Couple of important questions here:

1) Did you also install the latest 32 bit Picotech SDK?
2) What PicoScope model are you using?

Thanks,

Aaron.

[avi.patel001]

Hello I have read that and installed that, I just downloaded your software and when I connect the picoscope with my laptop but in the FRA4Picoscope it says "no compatible picoscope device not found"

Hi Avi,

Couple of important questions here:

1) Did you also install the latest 32 bit Picotech SDK?
2) What PicoScope model are you using?

Thanks,

Aaron.

Hello Aaron

I have just installed the 32-bit Picotech SDK for my PicoScope 2208B. Again I have tried but it shows the same error.

Thanks
Avi

[Andreas_]

Hello I have read that and installed that, I just downloaded your software and when I connect the picoscope with my laptop but in the FRA4Picoscope it says "no compatible picoscope device not found"

This happens to me mostly when the PicoScope 6 software is still running and occupying the USB Port. (Sometimes only in the background only visible in the task-manager).

with best regards

Andreas

[avi.patel001]

So What is the method to use this software? What I have followed,
1) COnnect the USB of picoscope and open picoscope 6 software
2) open the Fra 4 picoscope software and go to file>connect the scope (When I select that option it says me no compatible picoscope device found)

Am I following the right method? or Am I missing something?

Thanks
Avi

[hexamer]

So What is the method to use this software? What I have followed,
1) COnnect the USB of picoscope and open picoscope 6 software
2) open the Fra 4 picoscope software and go to file>connect the scope (When I select that option it says me no compatible picoscope device found)

Am I following the right method? or Am I missing something?

Thanks
Avi

Avi,

You should not be opening the PicoScope 6 software. The FRA app is independent of the scope app. By opening the PicoScope 6 software, the scope is not accessible to the FRA App because only one application can access the scope at a time.

The FRA app uses the Picotech SDK, which is in the form of DLL files. It turns out that the PicoScope 6 software also provides these SDK files in its installation directories. So sometimes (though it's not advised) you don't have to install the SDK. The SDK version of these DLLs is preferred because it's what I test to.

Thanks,

Aaron.

[avi.patel001]

Oh, Thank you so much, Aeron, for the help; I am very beginner at the picoscope. I have just tried to use a signal generator, so I connect it, but I don't know how to set it up. When I select the "built-in" option, it says "Signal Generator plugin not configured." When I select the "External" option, it asks for plugin name in dll form, Instrument ID, Initialization. Can you please guide me so I can use AWG from FR4PicoScope?

Thanks
Avi

[avi.patel001]

So What is the method to use this software? What I have followed,
1) COnnect the USB of picoscope and open picoscope 6 software
2) open the Fra 4 picoscope software and go to file>connect the scope (When I select that option it says me no compatible picoscope device found)

Am I following the right method? or Am I missing something?

Thanks
Avi

Avi,

You should not be opening the PicoScope 6 software. The FRA app is independent of the scope app. By opening the PicoScope 6 software, the scope is not accessible to the FRA App because only one application can access the scope at a time.

The FRA app uses the Picotech SDK, which is in the form of DLL files. It turns out that the PicoScope 6 software also provides these SDK files in its installation directories. So sometimes (though it's not advised) you don't have to install the SDK. The SDK version of these DLLs is preferred because it's what I test to.

Thanks,

Aaron.

Oh, Thank you so much, Aeron, for the help; I am very beginner at the picoscope. I have just tried to use a signal generator, so I connect it, but I don't know how to set it up. When I select the "built-in" option, it says "Signal Generator plugin not configured." When I select the "External" option, it asks for plugin name in dll form, Instrument ID, Initialization. Can you please guide me so I can use AWG from FR4PicoScope?

Thanks
Avi

[hexamer]

Oh, Thank you so much, Aeron, for the help; I am very beginner at the picoscope. I have just tried to use a signal generator, so I connect it, but I don't know how to set it up. When I select the "built-in" option, it says "Signal Generator plugin not configured." When I select the "External" option, it asks for plugin name in dll form, Instrument ID, Initialization. Can you please guide me so I can use AWG from FR4PicoScope?

Thanks
Avi

Avi,

You should not need to configure for an external signal generator and it's unlikely you were able to do so. The default configuration will use the PicoScope's internal signal generator.

If your having issues, this post from Wim provides some good advice and illustrations : viewtopic.php?p=141096#p141096

The picotech app note is also a good resource: https://www.picotech.com/download/broch ... n-note.pdf

Thanks,

Aaron

[mransaw]

Hello!

I am trying to use PicoScope5443D with the latest version FRA4PicoScope 0.6.2b.msi. I have two problems though.

1) There is a fatal error saying
"ps5000aSetChannel( 16384, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0 );Fatal error: Failed to disable channel: 290
Status: 5443D S/N: GX150/0121 successfully initialized."

2) When I try to set start frequency to be 100.0 it outputs the following error:
"Start frequency must be >= inf Hz
Error: Invalid inputs."
which confuses me.

Thanks in advance.

I am getting the same message using FRA4PicoScope 0.7.0b with a PicoScope 4824.
"Start frequency must be >= inf Hz
Error: Invalid inputs."

The 32-bit PicoScope SDK (10.7.18.140) is installed. When FRA4PicoScope first starts up it says
"Status: 4824 S/N: FZ013/155 successfully initialized."

If I click Connect Signal Generator and select Built-in, it says
"Signal generator plugin not configured."

Can anyone help to troubleshoot this?

Thank you,
Miles

[hexamer]

I am getting the same message using FRA4PicoScope 0.7.0b with a PicoScope 4824.
"Start frequency must be >= inf Hz
Error: Invalid inputs."

The 32-bit PicoScope SDK (10.7.18.140) is installed. When FRA4PicoScope first starts up it says
"Status: 4824 S/N: FZ013/155 successfully initialized."

If I click Connect Signal Generator and select Built-in, it says
"Signal generator plugin not configured."

Can anyone help to troubleshoot this?

Thank you,
Miles

Miles,

I would be happy to help here, just would like to know some more details. Are you using the low noise mode (default) or noise reject mode? While you're getting back to me, I'll see if I can deduce what's going on here.

EDIT 11/16/2020: It seems the most likely cause for this would be that the ps4000aGetTimebase function is returning a 0 for maxSamples, causing a divide by 0. But the current source code is not setup to diagnose this specific possibility. To confirm this, I'd need to build a special version for you and ask you to turn on the API tracing diagnostics. Would you be willing to help me out?

Also, the message "Signal generator plugin not configured." is actually expected - though maybe not so intuitive. What it's trying to tell you is that you tried to connect an external signal generator (i.e. not the one in the PicoScope) and were not successful. To correctly setup an external signal generator you have to supply a DLL and parameters. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume you don't really want to setup an external signal generator. The default configuration of the app is to use the PicoScope's internal signal generator, which is what a vast majority of people will want to to (at least initially).

Thanks,

Aaron.