PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide
Contents
1. PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscopes User s Guide PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved l PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide Contents UNE EE Su ee e WEE 1 Safety symbols cesceeseeseeseeseeeseeeeesseesseeseeesneeseeesseeseesseeeseenseeeeeseesseeraeeeseseceeseeeeeessesaee 2 Safety Warning ecceccescesceseetseeseteseeeeeeeeceseeseeseeneeseeeeeneceseeaeeaeeseesseneeneeesseeesaseseessenesseeneeseeees ZECCO NOt ce neiem a tote ais eee Sainte tess a Seca vaca a eaten e a a a EE AGE E B Licence He EE 6 Trad DEET les io eee sssessisds ic cecestbedens sccedceesiceis sac icacvebdeteracoicenvenageslansccdes cues beebsnsididecvaesdetessacdecsessousios T W airan ty Eege DEER EN 8 Company details csccesseesreeseeeseesseeneeeseeescenseenaeenseeeeessecseesseesseensessesseesseseseeneeeesesseeee 3 Product intormato hesse e eege E T seus R A gehen eeng 1 Minimum system requirement ssessesssseseerstserrerseesersesserseseeserserserneenersessereeseeseeneenenneenenes 2 Installation instructions essessssosessessssssessecseesesoseosecsecoscosecsecoecossoseosecsecoseosecsecoseoseoseesessee 3 Specifications cecer sE E E EEE EREA EE REKE EE E E AE REEE E EEEE ERASE Se 4 Technical FeterenGe E E E TEE vondecatabelsasnbeptenntess d Deeg ennea e aa ee edd Eed a a ae 2 Programming with the PicoScope 3000 Series ssssesesessesesessesers2. R h AnNnNNNNE NN Co bh O ort ng ort ort ort ort ort Ort i Q handle xtimes buffer_a buffer_b buffer_c buffer_d overflow time_units no_of_values This function is used to get values and times in block mode 107 after calling ps3000_run_block 261 Block mode 101only It will not return any valid times if the oscilloscope is in streaming model 13 Essential for ETS operation handle the handle to the required device times a pointer to the buffer for the times in time_units Each time is the interval between the trigger event and the corresponding sample Times before the trigger event are negative and times after the trigger event are positive buffer_a buffer_b buffer_c buffer_d pointers to the buffers that receive data from the specified channels A B C or D A pointer is unused if the oscilloscope is not collecting data from that channel If a pointer is NULL nothing will be written to it overflow a bit pattern indicating whether an overflow has occurred on a channel Bit 0 is the LSB Bit 0 gt channel A Bit 1 gt channel B Bit 2 gt channel C Bit 3 gt channel D time_units which can be one of PS3000_FS 0 femtoseconds PS3000_PS 1 picoseconds PS3000_NS 2 nanoseconds default PS3000_US 3 microseconds PS3000_MS 4 milliseconds or PS3000_S 5 seconds no_of_values the number of data points to return In streami
3. Technical reference 23 4 2 9 9 ps3000_set_ets long ps3000_set_ets short handle short mode short ets_cycles short ets_interleave This function is used to enable or disable ETS 1 equivalent time sampling and to set the ETS parameters Applicability ETS 1 applies only to the PicoScope 3204 3205 and 3206 variants handle the handle to the required device mode PS3000_ETS OFF 0 disables ETS PS3000_ETS_FAST 1 enables ETS and provides ets_cycles cycles of data which may contain data from previously returned cycles PS3000_ETS_SLOW 2 enables ETS and provides fresh data every ets_cycles cycles PS3000_ETS_SLOw takes longer to provide each data set but the data sets are more stable and unique ets_cycles specifies the number of cycles to store the computer can then select ets_interleave cycles to give the most uniform spread of samples et s_cycles should be between two and five times the value of et s_interleave ets_interleave specifies the number of ETS interleaves to use If the sample time is 20 ns and the interleave 10 the approximate time per sample will be 2 ns If ETS is enabled the effective sample time in picoseconds 0 if ETS is disabled or one of the parameters is out of range Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 24 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide 4 2 9 10 ps3000_set_trigger short ps30
4. 34 Agilent VEE 40 Aliasing 14 Analog bandwidth 8 API 16 B Bandwidth analog 8 Block mode 10 11 14 26 BNC connector 6 Buffer size 8 C C programming 38 C programming 39 Calibration 3 Callback 33 Channel 9 19 24 25 Closing a unit 37 Company information 5 Compatible streaming mode 12 Compliance 8 Contact details 5 D Data acquisition 13 Delphi programming 40 Device Manager 41 Dimensions 8 Driver 9 41 error codes 41 E Error codes 41 ETS 11 12 20 23 29 30 Excel macros 40 External trigger 6 8 10 15 24 25 F Fast streaming mode 14 Functions ps3000_close_unit 37 ps3000_flash_led 21 ps3000_get_streaming_last_values 32 ps3000_get_streaming_values 34 ps3000_get_streaming_values_no_aggregation 36 ps3000_get_timebase 20 ps3000_get_times_and_values 30 ps3000_get_unit_info 18 ps3000_get_values 29 ps3000_open_unit 16 ps3000_open_unit_async 16 ps3000_open_unit_progress 17 ps3000_overview_buffer_status 37 ps3000_ready 28 ps3000_run_block 26 ps3000_run_streaming 27 ps3000_run_streaming_ns 31 ps3000_set_channel 19 ps3000_set_ets 23 ps3000_set_siggen 21 ps3000_set_trigger 24 ps3000_set_trigger2 25 ps3000_stop 28 streaming data buffer callback 33 G Gain 9 H High precision scopes 13 High speed sampling 10 Inputs 8 L LED 21 Licence conditions 4 M Macros in Excel 40 Maximum input range 3 8 Maximum sampling rate 8 Memory in scope 10 Multi unit operation
5. All rights reserved PS3000044 2 16 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide 4 2 9 4 2 9 1 4 2 9 2 Functions The PicoScope 3000 Series API exports the following functions for you to use in your own applications ps3000_open_unit short ps3000_open_unit void This function opens a PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscope The driver can support up to four oscilloscopes Applicability All modes cco i 1 if the oscilloscope fails to open 0 if no oscilloscope is found gt 0 device handle if the device opened ps3000_open_unit_async short ps3000_open_unit_asynec void This function opens a PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscope without waiting for the operation to finish You can find out when it has finished by periodically calling ps3000 open unit progress 171 until that function returns a non zero value The driver can support up to four oscilloscopes Applicability All modes il bn EE 0 if there is a previous open operation in progress 1 if the call has successfully initiated an open operation PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved Technical reference 17 4 2 9 3 ps3000_open_unit_progress short ps3000_open_unit_progress short handle short progress_percent This function checks on the progress of ps3000 open_unit_async 161 All modes Use only with ps3000 open_unit_async e handle apointer to a loca
6. ps3000 lib Microsoft Visual C 32 bit applications The following files must be in the compilation directory ps3000 rch ps3000 h and the following file must be in the same directory as the executable ps3000 d11 The console example program is a generic windows application that is it does not use Borland AppExpert or Microsoft AppWizard To compile the program create a new project for an Application containing the following files ps3000con c and ps3000bc lib Borland 32 bit applications or ps3000 lib Microsoft Visual C 32 bit applications The following files must be in the compilation directory ps3000 h and the following file must be in the same directory as the executable ps3000 d11 PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved Technical reference 39 4 3 2 4 3 3 C The C example program shows how to use the fast streaming mode a in the driver with and without triggering wg and demonstrates the auto_stop feature It runs in console mode and requires a PicoScope 3224 or 3424 scope unit You will need to compile the following files that are supplied in the Examples ps3000 subdirectory of your PicoScope installation ps3000 h small ico streamingTests cpp streamingTests h streamingTests ico streamingTests rc streamingTestsResource h rename to resource h before compiling You will also need one of the following librari
7. 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved 2 6 2 7 2 8 Introduction 5 Trademarks Windows Excel and Visual Basic are registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the USA and other countries Delphi is a registered trademark of Borland Software Corporation Agilent VEE is a registered trademark of Agilent Technologies Inc LabView is a registered trademark of National Instruments Corporation Pico Technology Limited PicoLog and PicoScope are trademarks of Pico Technology Limited registered in the United Kingdom and other countries Warranty Pico Technology warrants upon delivery and for a period of 24 months unless otherwise stated from the date of delivery that the Goods will be free from defects in material and workmanship Pico Technology shall not be liable for a breach of the warranty if the defect has been caused by fair wear and tear wilful damage negligence abnormal working conditions or failure to follow Pico Technology s spoken or written advice on the storage installation commissioning use or maintenance of the Goods or if no advice has been given good trade practice or if the Customer alters or repairs such Goods without the written consent of Pico Technology Company details Address Pico Technology Limited The Mill House Cambridge Street St Neots Cambridgeshire PE19 1QB United Kingdom Phone 44 0 1480 396 395 Fax 44 0 1480 396 296 Em
8. Mill House Cambridge Street St Neots PE19 1QB United Kingdom Tel 44 0 1480 396 395 Fax 44 0 1480 396 296 Web www picotech com PS3000044 2 4 5 07 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved
9. User Guide 4 2 9 21 ps3000_get_streaming_values unsigned long ps3000_get_streaming_values short handle double start_time short pobuffer_a_max short pbuffer_a_min short pbuffer_b_max short pbuffer_b_min short pbuffer_c_max short pbuffer_c_min short pbuffer_d_max short pbuffer_d_min short overflow unsigned long triggerAt short triggered unsigned long no_of_values unsigned long noOfSamplesPerAggregate This function is used after the driver has finished collecting data in fast streaming mode we It allows you to retrieve data with different aggregation 3 ratios and thus zoom in to and out of any region of the data Before calling this function first capture some data in fast streaming mode stop fast streaming by calling ps3000_stop 28 then allocate sufficient buffer space to receive the requested data The function will store the data in your buffer with values in the range PS3000_MIN_VALUE to PS3000_MAX_VALUE The special value PS3000_LOST_DATA is stored in the buffer when data could not be collected because of a buffer overrun See Scaling 14 for more on data values Each sample of aggregated data is created by processing a block of raw samples The aggregated sample is stored as a pair of values the minimum and the maximum values of the block of raw samples Fast streaming 131 mode only PicoScope 3224 and 3424 variants only Not compatible w
10. a small 50 or 60 hertz signal in the oscilloscope window when you touch the probe tip with your finger Standard oscilloscope connectors PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscopes have standard oscilloscope connectors The input impedance is also standard so the x10 function on scope probes works correctly PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved Product information 7 Connector diagrams 3204 3205 3206 3224 3424 1 USB port 2 LED lights when the oscilloscope is sampling data 3 Power socket 12 V DC at 500 mA A Input channel A B Input channel B C Input channel C D Input channel D E External trigger input signal generator output The BNC connector labelled E on the 3204 5 6 models has two functions In normal use it is the external trigger input with an adjustable threshold Alternatively on some oscilloscopes it can also be used to output sine square and triangle waveforms which can be swept back and forth at a user defined frequency The integrated signal generator ue Can be controlled by the PicoScope software or by API calls The signal generator can also be used to compensate x10 scope probes when set to output a square wave Ground loops If you experience excessive noise or voltage offsets when using the PicoScope 3204 5 6 variants you may have a ground loop problem See Powering the 3204 5 6 421 for advice on overcoming
11. calls to ps3000 run_block 2 ps3000 reach ze pS3000 stop ze and ps3000 get values 29 See Using block mode Tor programming details Using block mode This is the general procedure for reading and displaying data in block mode 10 Open the oscilloscope using ps3000 open _unit 161 Select channel ranges and AC DC coupling using ps3000 set channel wo Using ps3000 set trigger 24 set the trigger if required Using ps3000 get timebase 21 select timebases until the required ns per sample is located If required set the signal generator frequency using ps3000_set_siggen al Start the oscilloscope running using ps3000_run_block 261 Wait until the oscilloscope says it is ready using ps3000 ready a Transfer the block of data from the oscilloscope using ps3000 get _values 291 or ps3000 get times and values ai Display the data 10 Repeat steps 6 to 9 11 Stop the oscilloscope using ps3000_stop 281 Seo Sey SS o ETS Equivalent Time Sampling ETS is a way of increasing the effective sampling rate when working with repetitive signals Itis controlled by the ps3000 set _trigger l2 and ps3000 sei ets 231 functions ETS works by capturing many instances of a repetitive waveform then combining them to produce a composite waveform that has a higher effective sampling rate than the individual instances The scope uses special circuitry to add a tiny variable delay a small fraction
12. compatible with ETS 111 triggering function has no effect in ETS mode handle the handle of the required device previous_buffer_overrun a pointer to a boolean indicating whether the overview buffers have overrun Any non zero value indicates a buffer overrun 0 if the function was successful 1 if the function failed due to an invalid handle 4 2 9 24 ps3000_close_unit short ps3000_close_unit short handle Shuts down a PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscope handle the handle returned by ps3000 open up oscilloscope being closed 0 if not 1 if a valid handle is passed Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 38 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide 4 3 4 3 1 Programming examples Your PicoScope installation includes programming examples in the following languages and development environments C There are two C example programs one is a simple GUI application and the other is a more comprehensive console mode program that demonstrates all of the facilities of the driver The GUI example program is a generic Windows application that is it does not use Borland AppExpert or Microsoft AppWizard To compile the program create a new project for an Application containing the following files from the Examples ps3000 subdirectory of your PicoScope installation ps3000 c ps3000 rc and ps3000bc lib Borland 32 bit applications or
13. less than the maximum it is possible to oversample Oversampling is taking more than one measurement during a time interval and returning an average If the signal contains a small amount of noise this technique can increase the effective vertical resolution of the oscilloscope by the amount given by the equation below Increase in resolution bits log oversample log 4 Applicability Available in block model 10 only Scaling The PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscopes have resolutions of 8 bits or 12 bits but the oscilloscope driver normalises all readings to 16 bits This enables it to take advantage of noise reduction from oversampling 14 when this is enabled The following table shows the relationship between the reading from the driver and the voltage of the signal PS3000_LOST_DATA 32 768 ee a buffer overrun in fast streamin mode IPS3000_MIN_VALUE 32 767 Negative full scale 0 H emvgs S O PS3000_MAX VALUE 32 767 Positive full scale PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved Technical reference 15 4 2 7 4 2 8 Signal generator The PicoScope 3204 5 6 PC Oscilloscopes have a built in signal generator which is set using ps3000_set_siggen 211 The output of the 3204 is a fixed frequency square wave while the 3205 and 3206 can produce a selection of accurate frequencies from 100 Hz to 1 MHz and the waveform can be set to sine square or triangle a
14. of a single sampling interval to each trigger event This shifts each capture slightly in time so that the samples occur at slightly different times relative to those in the previous capture The result is a much larger set of samples spaced by a small fraction of the original sampling interval The maximum effective sampling rates that can be achieved with this method are listed in the Specifications table Because of the high sensitivity of ETS mode to small time differences you must set up the trigger to provide a stable waveform that varies as little as possible from one capture to the next Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide 12 4 2 4 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 4 2 4 5 4 2 4 6 Available in block mode 101 only Available on the PicoScope 3204 3205 and 3206 variants As ETS will return random time intervals the ps3000 get times and values 30 function must be used The ps3000 get values a function will return FALSE 0 Not suitable for one shot non repetitive signals Using ETS mode This is the general procedure for reading and displaying data in ETS mode Open the oscilloscope using ps3000 open _unit 161 Select channel ranges and AC DC switches using ps3000 set channel we Using ps3000 set_trigger 241 set the trigger if required Set ETS mode using ps3000 set ets 2 Start the oscilloscope run
15. short buffer_b short buffer_c short buffer_d short overflow long no_of_values This function is used to get values in compatible streaming mode 13 after calling ps3000 run_streaming 271 or in block model 101 after calling ps3000 run _block 261 Compatible streaming model 12 and block mode 101 only Does nothing if ETS triggering is enabled Do not use in fast streaming mode 13 use ps3000 get streaming last values s2 instead handle the handle to the required device butter a buffer_b buffer_c buffer_d pointers to the buffers that receive data from the specified channels A B C or D A pointer is unused if the oscilloscope is not collecting data from that channel If a pointer is NULL nothing will be written to it overflow a bit pattern indicating whether an overflow has occurred on a channel Bit 0 is the least significant bit Bit 0 gt channel A Bit 1 gt channel B Bit 2 gt channel C Bit 3 gt channel D no_of_values the number of data points to return In streaming mode this is the maximum number of values to return The actual number of data values per channel returned which may be less than no_of_values if streaming FALSE if one of the parameters is out of range Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 30 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide 4 2 9 17 ps3000_get_times_and_values long ps3000_get_times_and_values
16. the buffer pointed to by pbuf fer_a_min and the maximum value in the buffer pointed to by pbuffer_a_max the number of values written to each buffer or 0 if a parameter was out of range Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 36 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide 4 2 9 22 ps3000_get_streaming_values_no_aggregation unsigned long ps3000_get_streaming_values_no_aggregation o h n DC mm mmm CO D ort uble Ort Ort ort OEL Ort handle xstart_time pbuffer_a pbuffer_b pbuffer_c pbuffer_d overflow Signed long triggerAt ort trigger unsigned long no_of_values This function retrieves raw streaming data from the driver s data store after fast streaming ue has stopped Before calling the function capture some data using fast streaming stop streaming using ps3000_stop z8 and then allocate sufficient buffer space to receive the requested data The function will store the data in your buffer with values in the range PS3000_MIN_VALUE to PS3000_MAX_VALUE The special value PS3000_LOST_DATA is stored in the buffer when data could not be collected because of a buffer overrun See Scaling 14 for more details of data values Fast streaming 13 mode only PicoScope 3224 and 3424 variants only Not compatible with ETS 7 triggering has no effect in ETS mode handle the handle of the required device star
17. the general safety information below before using your oscilloscope for the first time Safety protection built in to equipment may cease to function if the equipment is used incorrectly This could cause damage to your computer or lead to injury to yourself and others Maximum input range PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscopes are designed to measure voltages in the range 20 V to 20 V Inputs are protected to 100 V 30 V for external trigger Contact with voltages outside the protection range may cause permanent damage to the unit Mains voltages Pico Technology products are not designed for use with mains voltages To measure mains use a differential isolating probe specifically designed for a high source voltage Safety grounding PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscopes connect direct to the ground of a computer through the interconnecting cable provided to minimise interference As with most oscilloscopes avoid connecting the ground input to any potential other than ground If in doubt use a meter to check that there is no significant AC or DC voltage between the ground input of the oscilloscope and the point to which you intend to connect it Failure to check may cause damage to your computer or lead to injury to yourself and others You should not rely on the product to provide a protective safety earth Repairs The oscilloscope contains no user serviceable parts Repair or calibration of the oscilloscope requires special
18. time in milliseconds over which the ADC will collect data If a trigger is set it is the amount of time the ADC takes to collect a block of data after a trigger event calculated as sample interval x number of points required Note The actual time may differ from computer to computer depending on how fast the computer can respond to I O requests fee 0 if one of the parameters is out of range otherwise 1 PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved Technical reference 27 4 2 9 13 ps3000_run_streaming short ps3000_run_streaming short handle short sample_interval_ms long max_samples short windowed This function tells the oscilloscope to start collecting data in compatible streaming mode we If this function is called when a trigger has been enabled the trigger settings will be ignored le the handle to the required device sample_interval_ms the time interval in milliseconds between data points This can be no shorter than 1 ms max_samples the maximum number of samples that the driver is to store This can be no greater than 60 000 It is the caller s responsibility to retrieve data before the oldest values are overwritten windowed if this is 0 only the values taken since the last call to ps3000 get values zs are returned If this is 1 the number of values requested by ps3000 get valuest zg are returned even if they have already bee
19. to 60 seconds are possible There are two streaming modes e Compatible streaming mode Ju Works with all scope variants e Fast streaming mode 13 Works with 3224 and 3424 variants Block mode In block mode the computer prompts a PicoScope 3000 series PC Oscilloscope to collect a block of data into its internal memory When the oscilloscope has collected the whole block it will signal that it is ready and then transfer the whole block to the computer s memory through the USB port The maximum number of values depends upon the size of the oscilloscope s memory A PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscope can sample at a number of different rates These rates correspond to the maximum sampling rate divided by 1 2 4 8 and so on There is a separate memory buffer for each channel When a channel is unused its memory can be borrowed by the enabled channels On the faster models one input can be routed to two circuits in the oscilloscope thereby doubling the effective sampling rate of a single channel These features are handled transparently by the driver PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved Technical reference 11 4 2 4 2 4 2 4 3 The driver normally performs a number of setup operations before collecting each block of data This can take up to 50 milliseconds If it is necessary to collect data with the minimum time interval between blocks avoid calling setup functions between
20. 00_set_trigger short short short short short short handle source threshold direction delay auto_trigger_ms This function is used to enable or disable triggering and its parameters Applicability Triggering is available in block model 101 and fast streaming model 131 handle the handle to the required device source specifies where to look for a trigger Use PS3000_CHANNEL_A 0 PS3000_CHANN PS3000_CHANNEL_C 2 PS3000_CHANN PS3000_EXTE RNAL 4 Of PS3000_NONI EL ee EL E 5 B The number of channels available will depend on the scope variant threshold the threshold for the trigger event This is scaled in 16 bit ADC counts at the currently selected range If an external trigger is enabled the range is fixed at 20V direction USe PS3000_RISING 0 OF PS3000_FALLI delay specifies the delay as a percentage of the requested number of data points between the trigger event and the start of the block It should be in the range 100 to 100 Thus 0 means that the trigger event is at the first data value in the block and 50 means that it is in the middle of the block If you wish to specify the delay as a floating point value use ps3000 set trigger2 zs instead auto_trigger_ms the delay in milliseconds after which the oscilloscope will collect samples if no trigger event occurs If this is set to zero the oscilloscope will wait for a tri
21. 15 PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved Index 47 N Normal mode 12 O One shot signal 11 Opening aunit 16 17 Operating environment 8 Oscilloscope probe 6 Outputs 8 Overload protection 8 Oversampling 14 Overview buffer 37 P PC connection 8 Pico Technical Support 5 41 PicoLog software 9 41 picopp inf 9 picopp sys 9 PicoScope 3000 Series 3 4 6 15 41 PicoScope software 6 9 41 Power supply 8 Pre trigger 10 Programming C 38 C 39 Dephi 40 Visual Basic 39 R Repair 3 Resolution vertical 8 14 S Safety symbols 2 warning 3 Sampling rate 8 11 Scope probe 6 Signal generator 6 8 10 11 15 21 Software error codes 41 Specifications 8 Square wave 6 Stopping sampling 28 Streaming mode 10 compatible 12 13 fast 13 14 normal 12 windowed 12 Sweep 15 System requirements 6 T Technical support 5 41 Test equipment 3 Threshold voltage 10 Time interval 11 14 Timebase 20 26 Trademarks 5 Triggering 10 11 24 25 trigger bandwidth 8 U USB 6 hub 15 port 41 V Vertical resolution 8 14 Visual Basic programming 39 Voltage ranges 8 W Warranty 5 Windowed mode 12 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 48 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved Pico Technology Ltd The
22. C FALSE AC range a code between 1 and 10 See the table below 0 if unsuccessful or if one or more of the arguments are out of range 1 if successful Pt _es3000_zomy 20 mv Nor available on all variants Not available on all variants PS3000_100MV PS3000_200MV 200 mV Code Enumeration Range gt S WEE O ps3000_500Mv_ nnen Jo ooo psso00 1v v G Ps3000_2v eV 5 V O S Se SSS pss000_sv EN P53000_10V CF Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 20 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide 4 2 9 6 ps3000_get_timebase short ps3000_get_timebase short handle short timebase long no_of_samples long time_interval short time_units short oversample long max_samples This function discovers which timebases are available on the oscilloscope You should set up the channels using ps3000 set channel ve and if required ETS mode using ps3000 set ets 23 first Applicability All modes handle the handle of the required device timebase acode between 0 and the maximum timebase dependent on variant Timebase 0 is the fastest timebase timebase 1 is twice the time per sample of timebase 0 timebase 2 is four times etc no_of_samples the number of samples required This value is used to calculate the most suitable time unit to use time_interval a pointer to the time interval in nanoseconds between readings at t
23. ail Technical Support support picotech com Sales sales picotech com Web site www picotech com Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 6 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide 3 Product information 3 1 Minimum system requirements To ensure that your PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscope operates correctly you must have a computer with the minimum system requirements to run Windows or the following whichever is the higher specification Microsoft Windows XP SP2 or Vista USB 1 1 compliant port minimum USB 2 0 compliant port recommended Must be connected direct to the port or a powered USB hub Will not work on a passive hub 3 2 Installation instructions Important Do not connect your PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscope to the PC until you have installed the software Procedure Follow the instructions in the Installation Guide included with your product package Connect your PC Oscilloscope to the PC using the USB cable supplied There is no need for an additional power supply as the unit obtains its power from the USB port Checking the installation Once you have installed the software and connected the PC Oscilloscope to the PC start the PicoScope or PicoLog software The software should now display any signal connected to the scope inputs If you are using the PicoScope software and have a probe connected to your oscilloscope you should see
24. cilloscope using standard C function calls 16 A typical program for capturing data consists of the following steps Open ithe scope unit Set up the input channels with the required voltage ranges a and coupling mode a Set up triggering 101 Set up ETS 111 if required Start capturing data See Sampling modes 10 where programming is discussed in more detail Wait until the scope unit is ready Copy data to a buffer Stop capturing data Close the scope unit Numerous sample programs og are installed with your PicoScope software These show how to use the functions of the driver software in each of the modes available Voltage ranges It is possible to set the gain for each channel with the ps3000_set_channel 19 function This will give an input voltage range between 20 mV for the 3224 and 3424 or 100 mV for the 3204 5 6 and 20V The external trigger on the 3204 5 6 variants has a fixed input range of 20 V AC DC coupling Using the ps3000 set _channel 19 function each channel can be set to either AC or DC coupling When AC coupling is used any DC component of the signal is filtered out Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 10 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide 4 2 3 4 2 4 4 2 4 1 Triggering PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscopes can either start collecting data immediately or be programmed to wait for a trigger event to occ
25. e is similar to Visual Basic The functions which return a TRUE FALSE value return 0 for FALSE and1 for TRUE whereas Visual Basic expects 65 535 for TRUE Check for gt 0 rather than TRUE Agilent VEE The example function ps3000 vee is in the Examples ps3000 subdirectory of your PicoScope installation It uses procedures that are defined in ps3000 vh It was tested using Agilent VEE version 5 LabView The PS3000 vi example in the Examples ps3000 subdirectory of your PicoScope installation shows how to access the driver functions using LabVIEW It was tested using version 6 1 of LabVIEW for Windows To use the example copy these files to your LabVIEW directory PS3000 vi open_unit vi set_channel vi setup_data_collection vi Signal_generator vi You will also need this file from the installation directory Ps3000 dll PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved 5 1 5 2 Troubleshooting 41 Troubleshooting Software error codes Consult this section if your are a PicoScope or PicoLog user If you are writing your own program refer to the driver error codes 1 section Error code Meaning S O 1 More than 4 PicoScope 3000 Series oscilloscopes are opened on one machine using PicoLog It is not possible to use more than 4 oscilloscopes with PicoLog 2 The driver cannot allocate enough of the computer s memory to operate the oscillosco
26. er channel but the user must ensure that the ps3000_get_values 29 function is called frequently enough to avoid buffer overrun See Using compatible streaming model 131 for programming details PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved Technical reference 13 Works with all PicoScope 3000 Series scope units Does not support triggering 101 The ps3000 get times and _values s0 function will always return FALSE 0 in streaming mode 4 2 4 7 Using compatible streaming mode This is the general procedure for reading and displaying data in compatible streaming mode Open the oscilloscope using ps3000 open_unit ui Select channel ranges and AC DC switches using ps3000 set channel 191 Start the oscilloscope running using ps3000_run_streaming er Transfer the block of data from the oscilloscope using ps3000 get values 29 Display the data Repeat steps 4 and 5 as necessary Stop the oscilloscope using ps3000_stop 28 ddl O O 4 2 4 8 Fast streaming mode Fast streaming mode is an advanced streaming model 121 that can transfer data at speeds of a million samples per second or more depending on the computer s performance This makes it suitable for high speed data acquisition allowing you to capture very long data sets limited only by the computer s memory Fast streaming mode also provides data aggregation which allows your application to zoom in and
27. es depending on whether you are using Borland or Microsoft C ps3000 1ib Microsoft Visual C 32 bit applications ps3000bc 1ib Borland 32 bit applications or Ensure that the program directory contains a copy of ps3000 d11 from the PicoScope installation directory A Visual Studio 2005 VC8 project file fast streaming vcproj is provided Visual Basic The Examples ps3000 subdirectory of your PicoScope installation contains the following files ps3000 vbp project file a ps3000 bas procedure prototypes ps3000 frm form and program Note The functions which return a TRUE FALSE value return 0 for FALSE and 1 for TRUE whereas Visual Basic expects 65 535 for TRUE Check for gt 0 rather than TRUE Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 A0 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide 4 3 4 4 3 5 4 3 6 4 3 7 Delphi The program ps3000 dpr in the Examples ps3000 subdirectory of your PicoScope installation demonstrates how to operate PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscopes The file ps3000 inc contains procedure prototypes that you can include in your own programs Other required files are ps300fm res ps300fm dfm and ps3000fm pas This has been tested with Delphi versions 3 Excel 1 Load the spreadsheet ps3000 x1s 2 Select Tools Macro 3 Select GetData 4 Select Run Note The Excel macro languag
28. gger indefinitely 0 if one of the parameters is out of range otherwise 1 PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved Technical reference 25 4 2 9 11 ps3000_set_trigger2 short ps3000_set_trigger2 short handle short source short threshold short direction float delay short auto_trigger_ms This function is used to enable or disable triggering and its parameters It has the same behaviour as ps3000 set trigger a except that the delay parameter is a floating point value Applicability Triggering is available in block model 10 and fast streaming mode 131 only handle the handle of the required device source specifies where to look for a trigger Use PS3000_CHANNEL_A 0 PS3000_CHANNEL_B 1 PS3000_CHANNEL_C 2 PS3000_CHANNEL_D 3 PS3000_EXTERNAL 4 Of PS3000_NONE 5 Channels C D and External are not available on all models threshold the threshold for the trigger event This is scaled in 16 bit ADC counts at the currently selected range If an external trigger is enabled the range is fixed at 20V direction US PS3000_RISING 0 or PS3000_FALLI 1 delay specifies the delay as a percentage of the requested number of data points between the trigger event and the start of the block It should be in the range 100 to 100 Thus 0 means that the trigger event is at the first data value i
29. gnal being sampled contains high frequencies Note To avoid sampling errors the maximum input frequency must be less than half the sampling rate Buffer size The size of the oscilloscope buffer memory measured in samples In block mode the buffer memory is used by the oscilloscope to store data temporarily This allows the oscilloscope to sample data independently of the speed at which it can transfer data to the computer Device Manager Device Manager is a Windows program that displays the current hardware configuration of your computer Right click on My Computer choose Properties then click the Hardware tab and the Device Manager button Driver A program that controls a piece of hardware The driver for the PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscopes is supplied in the form of a 32 bit Windows DLL ps3000 d11 This is used by the PicoScope and PicoLog software and by user designed applications to control the oscilloscopes ETS Equivalent Time Sampling ETS constructs a picture of a repetitive signal by accumulating information over many similar wave cycles This means the oscilloscope can capture fast repeating signals that have a higher frequency than the maximum sampling rate Note ETS should not be used for one shot or non repetitive signals Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 44 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide External trigger This is the BNC socke
30. he selected timebase If a null pointer is passed nothing will be written here time_units a pointer to the most suitable units that the results should be measured in This value should also be passed when calling ps3000 get times and values 201 If a null pointer is passed nothing will be written here oversample the amount of oversample required An oversample of 4 would quadruple the time interval and quarter the maximum samples At the same time it would increase the effective resolution by one bit See Oversampling 14 for more details max_samples a pointer to the maximum samples available The maximum samples may vary depending on the number of channels enabled the timebase chosen and the oversample selected If this pointer is null nothing will be written here oo 1 if all parameters are in range otherwise 0 PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved Technical reference 21 4 2 9 7 ps3000_flash_led short ps3000_flash_led short handle Flashes the LED on the front of the oscilloscope three times and returns within one second All modes handle the handle of the PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscope 1 if a valid handle is passed 4 2 9 8 ps3000_set_siggen long ps3000_set_siggen handle wave_type start_frequency stop_frequency increment short short long long float short short short dwe ll_time repeat dua
31. ified over the range 20 C to 30 C Timebase The timebase controls the time interval that the width of the scope display represents If you select Timebase is time per division in the Preferences dialog box it works like a traditional bench top scope There are ten divisions across the screen so the total time interval is ten times the timebase Trigger bandwidth The maximum frequency at which the trigger circuit will reliably generate a trigger event USB 1 1 Universal Serial Bus Full Speed This is a standard port that enables you to connect external devices to PCs A typical USB 1 1 port supports a data transfer rate of 12 megabits per second and is much faster than a serial port USB 2 0 Universal Serial Bus High Speed This is a standard port that enables you to connect external devices to PCs A typical USB 2 0 port supports a data transfer rate 40 times faster than USB 1 1 and all USB 2 0 ports are backwards compatible with USB 1 1 Vertical resolution A value in bits indicating the degree of precision with which the oscilloscope can convert input voltages to digital values Oversampling 141 can improve the effective resolution Voltage range The range of input voltages that the oscilloscope will measure in a given mode Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 46 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide Index A AC DC coupling 9 19 Accuracy 8 Aggregation 13 31
32. ised test equipment and must be performed by Pico Technology FCC notice This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class A digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference when the equipment is operated in a commercial environment This equipment generates uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and if not installed and used in accordance with the instruction manual may cause harmful interference to radio communications Operation of this equipment in a residential area is likely to cause harmful interference in which case the user will be required to correct the interference at his or her own expense For safety and maintenance information see the safety warning Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide 2 4 2 5 CE notice The PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscopes meet the intent of the EMC directive 89 336 EEC and have been designed to EN61326 1 1997 Class A Emissions and Immunity standard PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscopes also meet the intent of the Low Voltage Directive and have been designed to meet the BS EN 61010 1 2001 IEC 61010 1 2001 safety requirements for electrical equipment control and laboratory use standard Licence conditions The material contained in this release is licensed not so
33. ith EIS 1 triggering function has no effect in ETS mode PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved Technical reference 35 handle the handle of the required device start_time the time in nanoseconds relative to the trigger point of the first data sample required pbuffer_a_max pbuffer_a_min pointers to two buffers into which the function will write the maximum and minimum aggregated sample values from channel A pbuffer_b_max pbuffer_b_min pbuffer_c_max pbuffer_c_min pbuffer_d_max pbuffer_d_min as the two parameters above but for channels B C and D overflow a pointer to where the function will write a bit field indicating whether the voltage on each of the input channels has overflowed Bit 0 gt Channel A Bit 1 gt Channel B Bit 2 gt Channel C Bit 3 gt Channel D triggerAt a pointer to where the function will write an index into the buffers The index is the number of the sample at the trigger reference point Valid only when triggered iS TRUE triggered a pointer to a boolean indicating that a trigger has occurred and triggerAt Is valid no_of_values the number of values required noOfSamplesPerAggregate the number of samples that the driver should combine to form each aggregated value pair The pair consists of the maximum and minimum values of all the samples that were aggregated For channel A the minimum value is stored in
34. ith the PicoScope software you can use PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscopes as oscilloscopes and spectrum analysers and with the PicoLog software you can use them as data loggers Alternatively using the API functions e you can develop your own programs to collect and analyse data from the oscilloscope A typical PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscope is supplied with the following items USB cable for use with USB 1 1 and 2 0 ports Software and Reference CD Installation Guide Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 2 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide 2 Introduction 2 1 Safety symbols Symbol 1 Warning Triangle This symbol indicates that a safety hazard exists on the indicated connections if correct precautions are not taken Read all safety documentation associated with the product before using it Symbol 2 Equipotential This symbol indicates that the outer shells of the indicated BNC connectors are all at the same potential shorted together You must therefore take necessary precautions to avoid applying a potential across the return connections of the indicated BNC terminals as this may cause a large current to flow resulting in damage to the product and or connected equipment PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved 2 2 2 3 Introduction 3 Safety warning We strongly recommend that you read
35. l_slope This function is used to enable or disable the signal generator 1s and sweep functions Sweep mode 1 The sig functions are not available if the oscilloscope is in streaming ha nal generator is available only on the PicoScope 3204 5 6 PC Oscilloscope variants See remarks below and specifications s for more information Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 22 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide handle the handle of the required device wave_type the type of wave Choose PS3000_SQUARE 0 PS3000_TRIANGLE 1 Or PS3000_SINE 2 This argument has no effect if used with the PicoScope 3204 variant start_frequency the required frequency in the range 0 lt freq lt 1 MHz to start the sweep or the frequency generated in a non sweep mode 0 switches the signal generator off stop_frequency the required stop frequency of the sweep in the range 0 lt freq lt 1 MHz but not necessarily greater than start_frequency If the start and stop frequencies are the same the signal generator will be run with a constant frequency This argument has no effect if used with the PicoScope 3204 variant or if run in streaming mode 121 increment the size of the steps to increment or decrement the frequency by in a sweep mode This must always be positive the start and stop frequencies will determine whether to increment or decrement This
36. ld Pico Technology Limited grants a licence to the person who installs this software subject to the conditions listed below Access The licensee agrees to allow access to this software only to persons who have been informed of these conditions and agree to abide by them Usage The software in this release is for use only with Pico products or with data collected using Pico products Copyright Pico Technology Limited claims the copyright of and retains the rights to all material software documents etc contained in this release You may copy and distribute the entire release in its original state but must not copy individual items within the release other than for backup purposes Liability Pico Technology and its agents shall not be liable for any loss damage or injury howsoever caused related to the use of Pico Technology equipment or software unless excluded by statute Fitness for purpose Because no two applications are the same Pico Technology cannot guarantee that its equipment or software is suitable for a given application It is your responsibility therefore to ensure that the product is suitable for your application Mission critical applications This software is intended for use on a computer that may be running other software products For this reason one of the conditions of the licence is that it excludes usage in mission critical applications for example life support systems PS3000044 2 Copyright
37. line an enumerated type specifying what information is required from he driver he length of the string written to the character string buffer string by the function If one of the parameters is out of range or a null pointer is passed for string zero will be returned ine i Stringreturned Example ___ Ze oe TE used by the oscilloscope driver IT CG type of USB connection that 1 1 or 2 0 is being used to connect the oscilloscope to the computer attached oscilloscope _INFO AND SERI Series PC Oscilloscope that is attached to the computer the oscilloscope pram heee Ps oscilloscope D _ERROR_COD One of the Error codes 1 PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved Technical reference 19 4 2 9 5 ps3000_set_channel short ps3000_set_channel short handle short channel short enabled short d short range Specifies if a channel is to be enabled the AC DC coupling mode and the input range Applicability All modes handle the handle to the required device channel an enumerated type Use PS3000_CHANNEL_A 0 PS3000_CHANNEL_B 1 PS3000_CHANNEL_C 2 or PS3000_CHANNEL_D 3 Channels C and D are not available on all models enabled specifies if the channel is active TRUE active FALSI inactive dc specifies the AC DC coupling mode TRUE D
38. lling 12 2 mV resolution 1 MQ impedance Voltage ranges 100 mV to 20 V in 8 ranges 20 mV to 20 V in 10 ranges 50 ppm time 50 ppm time Operating environment Temperature range 0 C to 70 C 25 C for quoted accuracy 0 C to 70 C 20 C to 30 C for quoted accuracy 25 to 75 RH 25 to 75 RH External trigger PC connection USB 2 0 Compatible with USB 1 1 Power supply From USB port 4 6 to 5 25 V 500 mA From USB port External power supply is not required CE standard 4 FCC Part 15 3 1 1 BNC shared with external trigger Fixed frequency 1 kHz 5 V square wave 600 output impedance 2 1 BNC shared with external trigger Variable frequency 100 Hz to 1 MHz 5 V square wave 1 V sine wave and triangle functions Repeat sweep function Dual slope function 600 output impedance PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved 4 1 4 2 4 2 1 4 2 2 Technical reference 9 Technical reference Driver The Windows XP Vista 32 bit driver picopp sys is installed under the control of an information file picopp inf Once you have installed the PicoScope and PicoLog software Windows will automatically install the driver when you plug in the PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscope for the first time Programming with the PicoScope 3000 Series The ps3000 d11 library in your PicoScope installation directory allows you to program a PicoScope 3000 Series os
39. must be a frequency in the range 0 1 Hz lt increment lt stop_frequency start_frequency This is not used in a non sweep mode This argument has no effect if used with the PicoScope 3204 variant dwell_time the time in milliseconds to wait before increasing the frequency by increment in a sweep mode This is unused in a non sweep mode This argument has no effect if used with the PicoScope 3204 variant repeat if TRUE restarts the sweep when the stop_frequency Is reached if FALSE continues indefinitely at stop_frequency when itis reached This argument has no effect if used with the PicoScope 3204 variant dual_slope if repeat is TRUE this specifies what to do at the stop_frequency TRUE will sweep back towards the start_frequency FALSE will restart the sweep from start_frequency This argument has no effect if used with the PicoScope 3204 variant The actual frequency or start frequency in hertz that is generated 0 if one of the parameters is not in range Remarks The PicoScope 3204 variant has a simple 1 kHz square wave signal generator for scope probe calibration With this variant therefore only two arguments of this function have any effect To switch the square wave on use a valid handle and set start_frequency toa non zero value To switch the square wave off use a valid handle and set start_frequency to 0 PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved
40. n read by ps3000_ get _values 291 1 if streaming has been enabled correctly 0 if a problem occurred or a value was out of range Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 28 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide 4 2 9 14 ps3000_ready short ps3000_ready short handle This function checks to see if the oscilloscope has finished the last data collection operation Block mode 101only Does nothing if the oscilloscope is in streaming 12 le the handle to the required device 1 if ready The oscilloscope has collected a complete block of data or the auto trigger timeout has been reached 0 if not ready An invalid handle is passed or the oscilloscope is in streaming mode or the scope is still collecting data in block mode 1 if device not attached The endpoint transfer fails indicating that the unit may well have been unplugged 4 2 9 15 ps3000_stop short ps3000_stop short handle Call this function to stop the oscilloscope sampling data If this function is called before a trigger event occurs the oscilloscope may not contain valid data All modes handle the handle to the required device 0 if an invalid handle is passed 1 otherwise PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved Technical reference 29 4 2 9 16 ps3000_get_values long ps3000_get_values short handle short buffer_a
41. n the block and 50 means that it is in the middle of the block If you wish to specify the delay as an integer use ps3000 set trigger 2 instead auto_trigger_ms the delay in milliseconds after which the oscilloscope will collect samples if no trigger event occurs If this is set to zero the oscilloscope will wait for a trigger indefinitely oe 0 if one of the parameters is out of range otherwise 1 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 26 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide 4 2 9 12 ps3000_run_block short ps3000_run_block short handle long no_of_samples short timebase short oversample long time_indisposed_ms This function tells the oscilloscope to start collecting data in block model 111 Applicability Block mode 101 only handle the handle to the required device no_of_samples the number of samples to return timebase a code between 0 and the maximum timebase available consult the driver header file Timebase 0 gives the maximum sample rate available timebase 1 selects a sample rate half as fast timebase 2 is half as fast again and so on For the maximum sample rate see the specifications s Note that the number of channels enabled may affect the availability of the fastest timebases oversample the oversampling factor a number between 1 and 256 See Oversampling 141 for details time_indisposed_ms a pointer to the approximate
42. nd swept back and forth in frequency These options are selected under software control Works with PicoScope 3204 3205 and 3206 oscilloscopes The signal generator output and external trigger input share the same connector so these two functions cannot be used independently It is possible however to use the output from the signal generator as a trigger Combining oscilloscopes It is possible to collect data using up to four PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscopes at the same time Each oscilloscope must be connected to a separate USB port If a USB hub is used it must be a powered hub The ps3000 open_unit e function returns a handle to an oscilloscope All the other functions require this handle for oscilloscope identification For example to collect data from two oscilloscopes at the same time handlel ps3000_open_unit handle2 ps3000_open_unit ps3000_set_channel handlel set up unit 1 ps3000_run_block handlel ps3000_set_channel handle2 e set up unit 2 ps3000_run_block handle2 ready FALSE while not ready ready ps3000_ready handlel ready amp ps3000_ready handle2 ps3000_get_values handlel ps3000_get_values handle2 Note 1 It is not possible to synchronise the collection of data between oscilloscopes that are being used in combination Note 2 PicoLog includes the ability to combine data from up to four oscilloscopes Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited
43. ng mode this is the maximum number of values to return The actual number of data values per channel returned which may be less than no_of_values if streaming 0 if one or more of the parameters are out of range or if the times will overflow with the time_units requested Use ps3000_ get timebase 20 ito acquire the most suitable time_units PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved Technical reference 31 4 2 9 18 ps3000_run_streaming_ns short ps3000_run_streaming_ns short handle unsigned long sample_interval PS3000_TIME UNITS time_units unsigned long max_samples short auto_stop unsigned long noOfSamplesPerAggregate unsigned long overview_buffer_size This function tells the scope unit to start collecting data in fast streaming mode 131 The function returns immediately without waiting for data to be captured After calling this function you should next call ps3000 get streaming last_values 22 to copy the data to your application s buffer Fast streaming o mode only PicoScope 3224 and 3424 variants only handle the handle to the required device sample_interval the time interval in time_units between data points time_units the units in which sample_interval is measured max_samples the maximum number of samples that the driver should store from each channel Your computer must have enough physical memory f
44. ning using ps3000_run_block 26 Wait until the oscilloscope says it is ready using ps3000 ready a Transfer the block of data from the oscilloscope using ps3000 get times and values ai 8 Display the data Repeat steps 6 to 8 as necessary 10 Stop the oscilloscope using ps3000_stop oe Streaming modes The streaming modes are alternatives to block mode vg that can capture data without gaps between blocks There are two streaming modes Compatible streaming model 121 Fast streaming model 13 Compatible streaming mode Compatible streaming mode is a basic streaming model 121 that works with all scope units at speeds from one sample per minute to a few thousand samples per second The oscilloscope s driver transfers data to a computer program using either normal or windowed mode In normal mode any data collected since the last data transfer operation is returned in its entirety Normal mode is useful if the computer program requires fresh data on every transfer In windowed mode a fixed number of samples is returned where the oldest samples may have already been returned before Windowed mode is useful when the program requires a constant time period of data Once the oscilloscope is collecting data in streaming mode any setup changes for example changing a channel range or AC DC setting in the PicoScope software application will cause a restart of the data stream The driver can buffer up to 32K samples of data p
45. ope spectrum analyser and meter display Signal generator This is a feature of some oscilloscopes which allows a signal to be generated without an external input device being present The signal generator output is the BNC socket marked E on the oscilloscope If you connect a BNC cable between this and one of the channel inputs you can send a signal into one of the channels On some units the signal generator can generate a simple TTL square wave while on others it can generate a sine square or triangle wave that can be swept back and forth Consult the specifications 8 for further details Note The signal generator output is physically the same as the external trigger input so these two functions cannot be used at the same time It is possible however to use the output from the signal generator as a trigger Streaming mode A sampling mode in which the oscilloscope samples data and returns it to the computer in an unbroken stream This mode allows the capture of data sets whose size is not limited by the size of the scope s memory buffer at sampling rates up to a few million samples per second PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved Glossary 45 Temperature range The minimum and maximum temperatures between which the oscilloscope is guaranteed to meet its specifications The 3204 5 6 PC Oscilloscopes are specified at a nominal temperature of 25 C and the 3224 3424 are spec
46. or this many samples multiplied by the number of channels in use multiplied by the number of bytes per sample auto_stop a boolean to indicate whether streaming should stop automatically when max_samples is reached Set to any non zero value for TRUE noOfSamplesPerAggregate the number of incoming samples that the driver will merge together or aggregate see aggregation a to create each value pair passed to the application The value must be between 1 and max_samples overview_buffer_size the size of the overview buffers temporary buffers used by the driver to store data before passing it to your application You can check for overview buffer overruns using the ps3000 overview _buffer_status s71 function and adjust the overview buffer size if necessary We recommend using an initial value of 15 000 samples 1 if streaming has been enabled correctly 0 if a problem occurred or a value was out of range Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 32 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide 4 2 9 19 ps3000_get_streaming_last_values short ps3000_get_streaming_last_values short handle GetOverviewBuffersMaxMin lpGetOverviewBuffersMaxMin This function is used to collect the next block of values while fast streaming 13 is running You must have called ps3000 run_streaming_ns 31 beforehand to set up fast streaming Fast streaming o mode only PicoScope 3224 and 3424
47. out of the data with the minimum of effort Works with triggering 101 Works with the high resolution PicoScope 3000 Series 3224 and 3424 units See Using fast streaming model 141 for programming details Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 14 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide 4 2 4 9 4 2 5 4 2 6 Using fast streaming mode This is the general procedure for reading and displaying data in fast streaming mode 13 Open the oscilloscope using ps3000 open _unit 16 Select channel ranges and AC DC switches using ps3000 set channel 191 Set the trigger using ps3000 set _trigger 241 Start the oscilloscope running using ps3000 run streaming _ns 3 Get a block of data from the oscilloscope using ps3000 get streaming last values 32 Display or process the data If required check for overview buffer overruns by calling ps3000 overview buffer_status 371 Repeat steps 5 to 7 as necessary or until auto_stop iS TRUE Stop fast streaming using ps3000_ stop 22 10 Retrieve any part of the data at any time scale by calling ps3000 get streaming values 34 11 If you require raw data retrieve it by calling s3000 get streaming values no aggregation 3s 12 Repeat steps 10 to 11 as necessary 13 Close the oscilloscope by calling ps3000 close_unit 371 oe OLEO N o mm Oversampling When the oscilloscope is operating at sampling rates
48. pe Consult the system requirements e section for more information A PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscope could not be found on your machine Make sure the software is installed before the oscilloscope is plugged into the USB socket and restart your computer There is a problem with the oscilloscope itself These problems could arise from configuration settings being corrupted or a firmware or hardware error The operating system is not recent enough to support the PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscope Consult the system requirements e section for more information Driver error codes This description of the driver error codes is aimed at those people who intend to write their own programs for use with the driver If the PicoScope or PicoLog software reports an error refer to the Troubleshooting section Code Name Description ss SSS O he oscilloscope is functioning correctly IPS3000_MAX_ UNI ENED Attempts have been made to open more han PS3000_MAX_UNITS PS3000_MEM_ FAIL Not enough memory could be allocated on he host machine PS3000_NOT_FOUND An oscilloscope could not be found PS3000_FW_FAIL Unable to download firmware ommands from the PC PS3000_CONFIG_FAIL he configuration information in the oscilloscope has become corrupt or is missing he operating system is not Windows XP or ista H Ee DING he oscilloscope is not responding to Copyrigh
49. rseseressesesensesereesenerseseseneee 1 Voltage FANES EENS 2 AC DC coupling BASE KEII III LERN OL EIAI EE hee 3 Triggering ee O II OPAO SINIO IN LONE OSIN AI O IN LAE O IN OAT O SILIS ATN 4 Sampling e ETS 5 Oversampling NASIEN SIEI IIRS SIEA IIIA VIEI EE eEt UI 7 Signal generator ENEE 8 Combining OSCIIIOSCOPES esesesesesesesseseeesetstetseseseseeeesesssseeesesesssesesecsssseeeesesessseeesssssseesessseseaes SEupetiete geed sand stn soled cava EA dnd ERNEIEREN TAIA 3 Programming examples s sesessesersssesererseseserseseresseseseeseserseseneneesesensesesersesereseeneseneeseseneeneseeees 38 TE negate AG A A a A a 38 e EE 38 BV isuiall E TE 38 4 Delphi ENEE 38 BECO E 38 DEI 38 T Lab VOTE 38 5 Troubleshooting EE 41 1 Software error codesr EE 41 S ITEN EE 41 3 Powering the 3204 3205 and 3206 EENEG 42 6 Glossary E 43 JET 46 PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved Welcome 1 1 Welcome The PicoScope 3000 Series of PC Oscilloscopes from Pico Technology is a range of high specification real time measuring instruments that connect to the USB port of your computer The oscilloscopes obtain their power supply through the USB cable so they do not need an additional power supply and are therefore highly portable The 3000 Series consists of two ranges General purpose range PicoScope 3204 3205 and 3206 variants High precision range PicoScope 3224 and 3424 variants W
50. t 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 42 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide 5 3 Powering the 3204 3205 and 3206 The PicoScope 3204 3205 and 3206 PC Oscilloscopes are normally powered from the USB port of the computer If the computer and the equipment under test labelled EUT in the diagram below are both referenced to the same ground a ground loop may be created This may degrade the DC accuracy and noise performance when measuring small signals Typically a ground loop is created when the oscilloscope is connected to a mains powered computer and is used to measure a signal on another mains powered device In this case the ground loop is created through mains earth as illustrated below Mains earth The majority of laptop power supplies chargers are floating and have no ground reference If however connecting your grounded laptop power supply causes noise offset problems you can either use the oscilloscope with the laptop running on its batteries or power the oscilloscope using the supplied mains adaptor If necessary you should plug the mains adaptor into the socket on the back of the oscilloscope near the USB socket It can be safely connected and disconnected during operation without risk of damage to the oscilloscope PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved Glossary 43 6 Glossary AC DC switch To switch from AC co
51. t marked E on the PicoScope 3204 5 6 PC Oscilloscopes It can be used to start a data collection run but cannot be used to record data As it shares the same connector as the signal generator output these two functions cannot be used at the same time It is possible however to use the output from the signal generator as a trigger Maximum sampling rate A figure indicating the maximum number of samples the oscilloscope can acquire per second Maximum sample rates are usually given in MS s megasamples per second or GS s gigasamples per second The higher the sampling rate of the oscilloscope the more accurate the representation of the high frequency details in a fast signal Oversampling Oversampling is taking more than one measurement during a time interval and returning an average If the signal contains a small amount of noise this technique can increase the effective vertical resolution of the oscilloscope PC Oscilloscope The instrument formed by connecting a PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscope to a computer running the PicoScope software application PicoLog software This is a software product that accompanies all our oscilloscopes It turns your PC into a data logger and chart recorder PicoScope 3000 Series An oscilloscope range comprising the PicoScope 3204 3205 3206 3224 and 3424 PC Oscilloscopes PicoScope software This is a software product that accompanies all our oscilloscopes It turns your PC into an oscillosc
52. t_time the time in nanoseconds of the first data sample required pbuffer_a pbuffer_b pbuffer_c pbuffer_d pointers to buffers into which the function will write the raw sample values from channels A B C and D overflow a pointer to where the function will write a bit field indicating whether the voltage on each of the input channels has overflowed Bit 0 gt Channel A Bit 1 gt Channel B Bit 2 gt Channel C Bit 3 gt Channel D triggerAt a pointer to where the function will write an index into the buffers The index is the number of the the sample at the trigger reference point Valid only when trigger iS TRUE trigger a pointer to a boolean indicating that a trigger has occurred and triggerAt is valid no_of_values the number of values required the number of values written to each buffer or 0 if a parameter was out of range PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved Technical reference 37 4 2 9 23 ps3000_overview_buffer_status short ps3000_overview_buffer_status short handle short previous_buffer_overrun This function indicates whether or not the overview buffers used by ps3000 run streaming pe a have overrun If an overrun occurs you can choose to increase the overview_buffer_size argument that you pass in the next call to 3000 run streaming pel a Fast streaming 1 mode only PicoScope 3224 and 3424 variants only Not
53. this Moving your PicoScope PC Oscilloscope to another USB port When you install the PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscope by plugging it into a USB port Windows associates the Pico driver a with that port If you later move the oscilloscope to a different USB port Windows will display the New Hardware Found Wizard again When this occurs simply follow the steps listed in the Installation Guide after the instruction Connect the PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscope to the PC As all the software you need is already installed on your computer there is no need to insert the Pico Software and Reference CD again Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 8 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide 3 3 Specifications fe ae Max sampling rate One channel in use 50 MS s 100 MS s 200 MS s 20 MS s 20 MS s Two channels in use 50 MS s 100 MS s 100 MS s 10 MS s 10 MS s 3 or 4 channels in use 5 MS s Repetitive signals 2 5 GS s 5 GS s 10 GS s Trigger bandwidth 50 MHz 100 MHz 150 MHz 10 MHz Buffer size samples per channel One channel in use 256 K 512K 1M 512K 512K Two channels in use 128 K 256 K 512K 256 K 256 K 3 or 4 channels in use 2 128 K channels 1 MQ impedance AC DC coupling 20 pF capacitance Outputs Signal generator Fixed Note 1 Variable Note 2 External trigger 1 BNC input shared with signal generator Variable trigger threshold 20 V Rising fa
54. tion in which the function will store the handle of the opened device 0 if no unit is found or the unit fails to open handle of device valid only if function returns TRUE progress_percent a pointer to an estimate of the progress towards opening the unit from 0 to 100 100 implies that the operation is complete 1 if the driver successfully opens the unit 0 if opening still in progress 1 if the unit failed to open or was not found Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 18 PicoScope 3000 Series User Guide 4 2 9 4 ps3000_get_unit_info short ps3000_get_unit_info short handle char string short string_length short line This function writes oscilloscope information to a character string If the oscilloscope fails to open only 1ine types 0 and 6 are available to explain why the last open unit call failed andle the handle to the device from which info is required If an invalid handle is passed the error code from the last unit that failed to open is returned string apointer to the character string buffer in the calling function here the unit information string selected with 1 ine will be stored If a null pointer is passed no information will be written string_length the length of the character string buffer If the string is not long enough to accept all of the information only the first string_length characters are returned
55. upling to DC coupling or vice versa select AC or DC from the control on the oscilloscope toolbar of the PicoScope software application The AC setting filters out any DC component of the input signal and is suitable for viewing small AC signals superimposed on a DC or slowly changing offset In this mode you can measure the peak to peak amplitude of an AC signal but not its absolute value Use the DC setting for measuring the absolute value of a signal Aggregation In fast streaming mode 131 the PicoScope 3000 driver can use a method called aggregation to reduce the amount of data your application needs to process This means that for every block of consecutive samples it stores only the minimum and maximum values You can set the number of samples in each block called the aggregation parameter when you call ps3000_run_streaming_ns 31 for real time capture and when you call ps3000_ get streaming values s to obtain post processed data Analog bandwidth The input frequency at which the measured signal amplitude is 3 decibels below its true value API Application Programming Interface A set of function calls that give programmers access to the PicoScope 3000 Series driver Block mode A sampling mode in which the computer prompts the oscilloscope to collect a block of data into its internal memory before stopping the oscilloscope and transferring the whole block into computer memory Choose this mode of operation when the input si
56. ur In both cases you need to use the ps3000 set_trigger 2 function A trigger event can occur when one of the signal or trigger input channels crosses a threshold voltage on either a rising or a falling edge Available in block mode 10 and fast streaming model 3 jonly Calls to the ps3000 set trigger 241 function have no effect in compatible streaming model 127 The external trigger input on the PicoScope 3204 3205 and 3206 scope units uses the same BNC connector as the signal generator output so these two functions cannot be used independently It is possible however to use the output from the signal generator as a trigger Sampling modes PicoScope 3000 Series PC Oscilloscopes can run in various sampling modes Block mode ic At the highest sampling rates the oscilloscope collects data much faster than a PC can read it To compensate for this the oscilloscope stores a block of data in an internal memory buffer delaying transfer to the PC until the required number of data points have been sampled Streaming modes 12 At all but the highest sampling rates these modes allow accurately timed data to be transferred back to the PC without gaps The computer instructs the oscilloscope to start collecting data The oscilloscope then transfers data back to the PC without storing it in its own memory so the size of the data set is limited only by the size of the PC s memory Sampling intervals from less than one microsecond
57. variants only Not compatible with ETS 111 triggering function has no effect in ETS mode handle the handle of the required device lpGetOverviewBuf fersMaxMin a pointer to the callback function a Ip your application that receives data from the streaming driver The actual number of data values returned per channel which may be less than max_samples if streaming where max_samplesisa parameter passed to ps3000 run streaming Del ai FALSE if one of the parameters is out of range PS3000044 2 Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved Technical reference 33 4 2 9 20 Callback function to copy data to buffer void my_get_overview_buffers short overviewBuffers short overflow unsigned long triggeredAt short triggered short auto_stop unsigned long nValues This is the callback function in your application that receives data from the driver in fast Streaming a mode You pass a pointer to this function to ps3000 get streaming last _values 21 which then calls it back when the data is ready Your callback function should do nothing more than copy the data to another buffer within your application To maintain the best application performance the function should return as quickly as possible without attempting to process or display the data The function name my_get_overview_buffers is just for illustration When you write this function you can give it an
58. y name you wish The PicoScope driver does not need to know your function s name as it refers to it only by the address that you pass to ps3000 get streaming last_values 221 For an example of a suitable callback function see the C sample code a included in your PicoScope installation Fast streaming o mode only PicoScope 3224 and 3424 variants only Not compatible with EIS triggering has no effect in ETS mode overviewBuffers a pointer to a location where ps3000 get streaming last_values 22 will store a pointer to its overview buffers that contain the sampled data The driver creates the overview buffers when you call ps3000 run streaming _ns 3 to start fast streaming overflow a bit field that indicates whether there has been a voltage overflow on any channel Bit 0 gt channel A Bit 1 gt channel B Bit 2 gt channel C Bit 3 gt channel D triggeredAt an index into the overview buffers indicating the sample at the trigger event Valid only when triggered iS TRUE triggered a boolean indicating whether a trigger event has occurred and triggeredAt is valid Any non zero value signifies TRUE auto stop a boolean indicating whether streaming data capture has automatically stopped Any non zero value signifies TRUE nValues the number of values in each overview buffer Copyright 2006 7 Pico Technology Limited All rights reserved PS3000044 2 34 PicoScope 3000 Series
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