4000 series and PicoLog

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PhilBromley
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4000 series and PicoLog

Post by PhilBromley »

Does Picotech have any plans to extend PicoLog to work with the 4000 series of oscilloscopes?

I was astonished to find that it doesn't work with them, as there is no mention of this that I can see. Indeed the website states:
our wide range of PC–based digital oscilloscopes give you all the functionality of traditional test equipment (digital storage oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer, meter and data logger)
I understand that there is a way to get Picoscope 6 to save its buffers using the alarms feature. Would it not be a good idea to package this in a user-friendly way to give the user a logging function?

At the very least I think that Picotech should make it clear in their advertising that some oscilloscopes do not work with PicoLog.

Regards,

Phil

ziko
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Re: 4000 series and PicoLog

Post by ziko »

Hi Phil,

We have extended the time bases for PicoScope 6 for longer captures, which is good for short term tests. Unfortunately there are not plans to add the 4000 or any of our news scopes to PicoLog.

I will forward your comments to the relevant people.
Regards
Ziko

Technical Specialist

Audioguy
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Re: 4000 series and PicoLog

Post by Audioguy »

I would love to be able to use my Picoscope 4262 with Picolog.

I assume I should not hold my breath? :)

Hitesh

Re: 4000 series and PicoLog

Post by Hitesh »

Hi Audioguy,

I believe the PicoScope 4000 series uses a slightly different driver model compared to the older PicoScope 2000 and 3000 series devices, so it would require rework of the PicoLog software, which is in maintenance mode.

The PicoScope 6 software will allow you to capture up to just under 14 hours of data in streaming mode with a maximum of 100MS shared between channels.

Another option would be to develop your own software application using the freely available Software Development Kit. If this of interest to you, please download the SDK from http://www.picotech.com/software.html .

We would also be happy to assist with SDK questions that you have - either post here or contact support@picotech.com

Regards,

simonis
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Re: 4000 series and PicoLog

Post by simonis »

Dear picotech team,
from the above statement I derive that integrating newer devices in picolog is not on the roadmap of your software development. I have two Picoscope-4226 and in one application I would love to use one to replace a very old single channel scope which is used for logging tasks.
Is it that (a) the priority for a picolog software integration would rise with more interested users, or (b) will the picolog support for oscilloscopes be stopped completely?
In case (a) please increment the counter not only by 1, since I am speaking also for a bunch of students (~100/year) who are using the logger in a practical physics exercise.... :)
In case (b): could you roughly explain how the plans concerning picolog are?

Hitesh

Re: 4000 series and PicoLog

Post by Hitesh »

Hi simonis,

Please could you e-mail support@picotech.com so that we can discuss your application further.

Many thanks,

alan
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Re: 4000 series and PicoLog

Post by alan »

Hi Simonis,

Can I ask what it is you need to do that can not be done from PicoScope (which can record millions of samples over many hours).

Thx
Alan

simonis
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Re: 4000 series and PicoLog

Post by simonis »

Hi Alan and Hitesh,

the measurement I referred to is a 24 hour warming up of an aluminum block from liquid nitrogen temperature to room temperature. The sensor is a self made NiCr-Ni thermocouple and the pure DC thermo-voltage is recorded every ten seconds.
We do this normally with a 2204 (8bit). I wonder if my 12bit 4226 oscilloscope produces a smoother curve. That is why I found out, that the 4000 are not supported by PicoLog.
The software supports already a large variety of instruments (including the 20bit TC-08), so I wonder why the 4000 are still not included.

Hitesh

Re: 4000 series and PicoLog

Post by Hitesh »

Hi Simonis,

Thank you for the information on your application.

For thermocouple data logging, the USB TC-08 would be more suitable as it also incorporates cold junction compensation:

https://www.picotech.com/data-logger/tc ... ata-logger

If you wish to use the PicoScope 4000 Series device, you could use the PicoScope 6 oscilloscope software to capture the data and write it to disk. As the data is captured into PC memory in streaming capture mode, we would recommend setting up the software to collect short captures of data (e.g. 500s/div = 5000 seconds = 1h 23mins 20s).

The software has an Alarms feature that would allow you to write the data to disk at the end of each capture - the file can also be timestamped. You would need to restart the capture on The following videos should help with this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a65_EsTpAEQ

The PicoScope 6 software also features custom probe settings allowing you to scale readings as well as a Maths Channels feature in order to perform certain calculations on the data:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmaUw2wU-OM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crQCiFhV1ws

I hope this helps.

simonis
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Re: 4000 series and PicoLog

Post by simonis »

Hi Hitesh,

thank you for your fast response.
The TC-08 is certainly a good choice for logging thermocouples - the 20bit ADC has the adequate resolution - I use already one in an other experiment.

The explanation about the alarm feature in the trigger mechanism of the PicoScope software is really helpful for me. I see that the versatility of PicoSocpe is richer than I knew. And the teaching videos on youtube are very helpful.

However since you do not refer to the original question about the support of the 4000 series in PicoLog I conclude that PicoLog will not include a 4000 in the near future. For me this is not a catastrophy - it is just a pity.
And maybe I shall come back to this question in a few years if you don't mind. :wink:

Hitesh

Re: 4000 series and PicoLog

Post by Hitesh »

Hi Simonis,

No problem :D I have submitted a feature request in relation to the PicoScope 6 software based on your request to our Development Team.

One reason for the PicoScope 4000 Series not being supported is the fact that it and other newer scopes use a slightly different way of calling API functions as can be seen from the Programmer's Guides so it would most likely take significant rework to accommodate these devices.

You can also create your own application using the SDK in order to capture data over long periods but it is advisable to write data to separate files over time to avoid potential loss of data.

Regards,

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