Pico

PicoScope® 3000 Series

PC Oscilloscopes & Mixed Signal Oscilloscopes

Power, portability and performance

PicoScope 3000 Series USB-powered PC oscilloscopes are small, light, and portable and can easily slip into a laptop bag while offering a range of high-performance specifications.

These oscilloscopes offer 2 or 4 analog channels and a built-in function / arbitrary waveform generator. MSO models add 16 digital channels. Key performance specifications:

200 MHz analog bandwidth
1 GS/s real-time sampling
512 MS buffer memory
100,000 waveforms per second
16 channel logic analyzer (MSO models)
Decode over 30 serial protocols as standard
Arbitrary waveform generator
USB 3.0 connected and powered
Serial decoding and mask testing as standard
Windows, Linux and Mac software

Supported by the advanced PicoScope software, these devices offer an ideal, cost-effective package for many applications, including embedded systems design, research, test, education, service, and repair.

High bandwidth and sampling rate

Despite a compact size and low cost, there is no compromise on performance with bandwidths up to 200 MHz. This bandwidth is matched by a real-time sampling rate of up to 1 GS/s, allowing detailed display of high frequencies. For repetitive signals, the maximum effective sampling rate can be boosted to 10 GS/s by using Equivalent Time Sampling (ETS) mode.

Other oscilloscopes have high maximum sampling rates, but without deep memory they cannot sustain these rates on long timebases. The PicoScope 3000 Series offers memory depths up to 512 million samples, more than any other oscilloscope in this price range, which enables the PicoScope 3406D MSO to sample at 1 GS/s all the way down to 50 ms/ div (500 ms total capture time).

Managing all this data calls for some powerful tools. There’s a set of zoom buttons, plus an overview window that lets you zoom and reposition the display by simply dragging with the mouse or touchscreen. Zoom factors of several million are possible. Other tools such as the waveform buffer, mask limit test, serial decode and hardware acceleration work with the deep memory making the PicoScope 3000 series some of the most powerful oscilloscopes on the market.

Mixed-signal capability / logic analyzer

The PicoScope 3000D Series Mixed-Signal Oscilloscopes include 16 digital inputs so that you can view digital and analog signals simultaneously.

The digital inputs can be displayed individually or in named groups with binary, decimal or hexadecimal values shown in a bus-style display. A separate logic threshold from –5 V to +5 V can be defined for each 8-bit input port. The digital trigger can be activated by any bit pattern combined with an optional transition on any input. Advanced logic triggers can be set on either the analog or digital input channels, or both to enable complex mixed-signal triggering.

The digital inputs bring extra power to the serial decoding options. You can decode serial data on all analog and digital channels simultaneously, giving you up to 20 channels of data. You can for example decode multiple SPI, I²C, CAN bus, LIN bus and FlexRay signals all at the same time!

Serial bus decoding and protocol analysis

PicoScope can decode 1-Wire, ARINC 429, CAN & CAN FD, CAN XL, DALI, DCC, DMX512, Ethernet 10Base-T and 100Base-TX, FlexRay, I²C, I²S, I3C, LIN, PS/2, Manchester, MIL-STD-1553, MODBUS, SENT, SPI, Parallel Bus, PMBus, Quadrature, SBS Data, SENT Fast/Slow, SMBus, SPI MISO/MOSI, SPI SDIO, UART (RS-232 / RS-422 / RS-485), and USB 1.1 protocol data as standard, with more protocols in development and available in the future with free-of-charge software upgrades.

Graph format shows the decoded data (in hex, binary, decimal, or ASCII) in a data bus timing format, beneath the waveform on a common time axis, with error frames marked in red. These frames can be zoomed in to investigate noise or signal integrity issues.

Table format shows a list of the decoded frames, including the data and all flags and identifiers. You can set up filtering conditions to display only the frames you are interested in or search for frames with specified properties. The statistics option reveals more detail about the physical layer such as frame times and voltage levels. PicoScope can also import a spreadsheet to decode the data into user-defined text strings.

Arbitrary waveform and function generator

All PicoScope 3000D units have a built-in function generator (sine, square, triangle, DC level, white noise, PRBS etc.) on the front panel. PicoScope 3000D MSO models have the connector on the rear panel.

As well as basic controls to set level, offset and frequency, more advanced controls allow you to sweep over a range of frequencies. Combined with the spectrum peak hold option this makes a powerful tool for testing amplifier and filter responses.

Trigger tools allow one or more cycles of a waveform to be output when various conditions are met such as the scope triggering or a mask limit test failing.

A 14 bit 80 MS/s arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) is also included. AWG waveforms can be created or edited using the built-in AWG editor, imported from oscilloscope traces, or loaded from a spreadsheet.

FFT spectrum analyzer

The spectrum view plots amplitude against frequency and is ideal for finding noise, crosstalk or distortion in signals. The spectrum analyzer in PicoScope is of the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) type which, unlike a traditional swept spectrum analyzer, can display the spectrum of a single, non-repeating waveform.

A full range of settings gives you control over the number of spectrum bands (FFT bins), window types, scaling (including log/log) and display modes (instantaneous, average, or peak-hold).

You can display multiple spectrum views alongside oscilloscope views of the same data. A comprehensive set of automatic frequency-domain measurements can be added to the display, including THD, THD+N, SNR, SINAD and IMD. A mask limit test can be applied to a spectrum and you can even use the AWG and spectrum mode together to perform swept scalar network analysis.

Signal integrity

Most oscilloscopes are built down to a price. PicoScopes are built up to a specification.

Careful front-end design and shielding reduces noise, crosstalk and harmonic distortion. Years of oscilloscope design experience can be seen in improved bandwidth flatness and low distortion.

We are proud of the dynamic performance of our products, and unlike most oscilloscope manufacturers publish our specifications in detail. The result is simple: when you probe a circuit, you can trust in the waveform you see on the screen.

USB connectivity

The USB connection not only allows high-speed data acquisition and transfer, but also makes printing, copying, saving, and emailing your data from the field quick and easy. USB powering removes the need to carry around a bulky external power supply, making the kit even more portable for the engineer on the move.

PicoScope 3000 Series oscilloscopes feature a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 connection, making the already-optimized process of data transfer and waveform update rates even faster. Further benefits of a USB 3.0 connection include faster saving of waveforms and faster gap-free continuous streaming of up to 125 MS/s when using the SDK, while the scope is still backward-compatible with older USB systems.

PicoScope 3000E Series

500 MHz 5 GS/s digital USB oscilloscope

PicoScope® 6000 Series

Ultra-deep-memory, high-performance oscilloscopes and MSOs

PicoScope 4000A Series

High-resolution deep-memory oscilloscopes

PicoScope 9400 Series

5 & 16 GHz Oscilloscopes

PicoScope® 5000 Series

Flexible Resolution Oscilloscopes

PicoScope® 4444

High-resolution differential USB oscilloscope

PicoScope® 9300 Series

USB Sampling Oscilloscopes

PicoScope® 4262

16-bit high-resolution oscilloscope

PicoScope® 2000 Series

USB Oscilloscopes & Mixed Signal Oscilloscopes

200 MHz USB 3.0 oscilloscopes with 16 channel logic analyzer

Advanced 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 a new waveform every microsecond until the buffer is full.The PicoScope 3000 series offers an industry-leading set of advanced triggers including pulse width, windowed and dropout. In addition logic triggering allows you to trigger the scope when any or all of the 16 digital inputs match a user-defined pattern.

Hardware Acceleration Engine (HAL3)

Some oscilloscopes struggle when you enable deep memory; the screen update rate slows and controls become unresponsive. The PicoScope 3000 Series avoids this limitation with use of a dedicated hardware acceleration engine inside the oscilloscope. Its massively parallel design effectively creates the waveform image to be displayed on the PC screen and allows the continuous capture and display to the screen of over 440 million samples every second. PicoScope oscilloscopes manage deep memory better than competing oscilloscopes, both PC-based and benchtop.

The PicoScope 3000 series is fitted with third-generation hardware acceleration (HAL3). This speeds up areas of oscilloscope operation such as allowing waveform update rates in excess of 100 000 waveforms per second and the segmented memory/rapid trigger modes. The hardware acceleration engine ensures that any concerns about the USB connection or PC processor performance being a bottleneck are eliminated.

100,000 waveforms per second

Persistence mode rapidly superimposes multiple waveforms on the same view, with more frequent or newer waveforms drawn in brighter colors than older ones. This emulates the phosphor display of a conventional analog scope and is useful for displaying and interpreting complex analog signals such as video waveforms and analog modulation signals.

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.

DeepMeasure™

One waveform, millions of measurements.

Measurement of waveform pulses and cycles is key to verification of the performance of electrical and electronic devices.

DeepMeasure delivers automatic measurements of important waveform parameters, such as pulse width, rise time and voltage. Up to a million cycles can be displayed with each triggered acquisition. Results can be easily sorted, analyzed and correlated with the waveform display.

Mask limit testing

Mask limit testing allows you to compare live signals against known good signals, and is designed for production and debugging environments. Simply capture a known good signal, draw a mask around it, and then attach the system under test. PicoScope will check for mask violations and perform pass/fail testing, capture intermittent glitches, and can show a failure count and other statistics in the Measurements window.

Actions

PicoScope can be programmed to execute actions when certain events occur.

The events that can trigger an alarm include mask limit fails, trigger events and buffers full.

The actions that PicoScope can execute include saving a file, playing a sound, executing a program or triggering the signal generator / AWG.

Actions, coupled with mask limit testing, help create a powerful and time saving waveform monitoring tool. Capture a known good signal, auto generate a mask around it and then use the alarms to automatically save any waveform (complete with a time/date stamp) that does not meet specification.

PC Oscilloscopes

Home | Products | Lab & Manufacturing Test | Electronics | PC Oscilloscopes

Kumpulan Abex Sdn Bhd