Name: Pico Technology PicoScope 4224A (PQ288)
Brand: Pico Technology
Availability: InStock

Advanced Display

One of the biggest differences between using a PicoScope and a benchtop scope is the display.

The PicoScope 6 software can display up to 16 scope and spectrum views at once, making comparisons and analysis even clearer. The split-screen display can be customized to show whichever combination of waveforms you need, to display multiple channels or different variants of the same signal. Additionally, each waveform shown works with individual zoom, pan, and filter settings for ultimate flexibility. Alongside the facility to use monitors many times larger than a fixed scope display, these are further reasons to choose a USB oscilloscope.

The PicoScope software can be controlled by mouse, touchscreen or keyboard shortcuts.

100,000 waveforms per second

An important specification to understand when evaluating oscilloscope performance is the waveform update rate, which is expressed as waveforms per second. While the sample rate indicates how frequently the oscilloscope samples the input signal within one waveform, or cycle, the waveform capture rate refers to how quickly an oscilloscope acquires waveforms.

Oscilloscopes with high waveform capture rates provide better visual insight into signal behavior and dramatically increase the probability that the oscilloscope will quickly capture transient anomalies such as jitter, runt pulses and glitches – that you may not even know exist.

The PicoScope 4000A Series oscilloscopes use hardware acceleration to achieve up to 100,000 waveforms per second.

Oscilloscopes for a broad range of applications

Including:

Power supply start sequencing
7-channel audio systems
Multi-sensor systems
Multi-phase drives and controls
Predictive/preventive maintenance
Complex embedded system development
Power harmonics analysis
Vibration analysis and diagnostics
Long-duration waveform capture
Lubricant analysis
Acoustic emission analysis
Oil condition sensors
Machine monitoring
Motor condition monitoring overview and motor current signature analysis (MCSA)
Model-based voltage and current systems
Infrared thermography

All-inclusive

PicoScopes already include features such as serial decoding, mask limit testing, advanced math channels, segmented memory and a signal generator without additional costs.

Waveform buffer and navigator

Ever spotted a glitch on a waveform, but by the time you’ve stopped the scope it has gone? With PicoScope you no longer need to worry about missing glitches or other transient events. PicoScope can store the last ten thousand oscilloscope or spectrum waveforms in its circular waveform buffer.

The buffer navigator provides an efficient way of navigating and searching through waveforms, effectively letting you turn back time. Tools such as mask limit testing can also be used to scan through each waveform in the buffer looking for mask violations.

Digital triggering

The majority of digital oscilloscopes still use an analog trigger architecture based on comparators. This causes time and amplitude errors that cannot always be calibrated out and often limits the trigger sensitivity at high bandwidths.

In 1991 Pico pioneered the use of fully digital triggering using the actual digitized data. This technique reduces trigger errors and allows our oscilloscopes to trigger on the smallest signals, even at the full bandwidth. Trigger levels and hysteresis can be set with high precision and resolution.

The reduced rearm delay provided by digital triggering, together with segmented memory, allows the capture of events that happen in rapid sequence. On many of our products, rapid triggering can capture a new waveform every microsecond until the buffer is full.

Advanced triggers As well as the standard range of triggers found on most oscilloscopes, the PicoScope 4000A Series has a comprehensive set of advanced triggers built in to help you capture the data you need. These include pulse width, windowed, and dropout triggers to help you find and capture your signal quickly

Arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) and function generator

All models in the PicoScope 4000A Series have a built-in low-distortion, 80 MSa/s, 14-bit arbitrary waveform generator (AWG), which can be used to emulate missing sensor signals during product development, or to stress-test a design over the full intended operating range. Waveforms can be imported from data files or created and modified using the built-in graphical AWG editor.

A function generator is also included, with sine, square, and triangle waves up to 1 MHz, along with DC level, white noise, and many more standard waveforms. As well as level, offset and frequency controls, advanced options allow you to sweep over a range of frequencies. Combined with the spectrum peak hold option, this creates a powerful tool for testing amplifier and filter responses.

Download new features or write your own

The software development kit (SDK) allows you to write your own software and includes drivers for Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac (OS X) and Linux (including Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone).

Example code shows how to interface to third-party software packages such as Microsoft Excel, National Instruments LabVIEW and MathWorks MATLAB.

There is also an active community of PicoScope users who share code and applications on the Pico forum and PicoApps section of the picotech.com web site.

Example code, hosted on the Pico Technology GitHub pages, shows how to interface to third-party software packages such as Microsoft Excel, National Instruments LabVIEW and MathWorks MATLAB and programming languages including:

C
C++
C#
Visual Basic .NET The drivers support USB data streaming, a mode that captures gap-free continuous data over USB direct to the PC’s RAM or hard disk at rates of up to 156.25 MS/s for USB 3.0 devices. Capture size is limited only by available PC storage. Sampling rates in streaming mode are subject to PC specifications, product specifications and application loading.

Math channels and filters

On many oscilloscopes waveform math just means simple calculations such as A + B. With a PicoScope it means much, much more.

With PicoScope software you can select simple functions such as addition and inversion, or open the equation editor to create complex functions involving filters (lowpass, highpass, bandpass and bandstop filters), trigonometry, exponentials, logarithms, statistics, integrals and derivatives.

Waveform math also allows you to plot live signals alongside historic peak, averaged or filtered waveforms.

You can also use math channels to reveal new details in complex signals. An example would be to graph the changing duty cycle or frequency of your signal over time.