PC-based oscilloscopes perform a wide range of precision measurement tasks

Saelig Company now offers the PicoScope PS4000A Series of 20MHz USB 3.0-connected PC oscilloscopes offering two, four, or eight high-resolution analog channels. These portable scopes provide a compact footprint with BNC connectors that take all common probes and accessories. With a high vertical resolution of 12 bits, 20MHz bandwidth, 256MSa buffer memory, and a fast sampling rate of 80MS/s, the series has the advanced measurement power and functionality to give precision results. The series is unlike conventional oscilloscopes with 8-bit resolution and limited capture memory, or card-based digitisers that need an expensive mainframe. The 12 bits of hardware resolution extends to 16 bits using the Resolution Enhancement mode. These scopes incorporate a built-in Signal Generator/AWG and a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface that powers the instrument and produces 480Mbit/s communications to the host PC.

The scopes can analyse serial buses such as UART, I2C, SPI, CAN and LIN plus control and driver signals without requiring any extra software other than the complimentary PicoScope 6 package. The user interface with time, and frequency-domain waveform views offer automatic measurements of important waveform parameters for up to 1M waveform cycles with each triggered acquisition. The software has an SDK that provides users with direct programming control of the hardware for custom applications. These scopes also operate with the PicoLog 6 data logging software for lower-speed long-duration captures.

With the provided software, it is simple to view audio, vibration and power waveforms, ultrasonic, analyse the timing of complex systems, and offer a wide range of precision measurement tasks on multiple inputs simultaneously. The series suits a broad range of electrical, mechanical, audio, radar, Lidar, ultrasonic, NDT, and predictive maintenance systems, offering precise measurements and analysis of repetitive or single-shot long-duration waveforms.