Products > Test Equipment

Picoscope- yay or nay?

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RoGeorge:
OK, my bad for recommending something not possible, sorry.

Later Edit:
Googled out of curiosity (I don't have an M1 Mac) and found this:
https://blogs.vmware.com/teamfusion/2021/09/fusion-for-m1-public-tech-preview-now-available.html
Looks like it might be a chance for VMware to run, though not clear to me if it does x86 emulation or not.  Anyway, says free to try/use until the end of 2022.

2N3055:

--- Quote from: David Aurora on May 08, 2022, 04:47:10 am ---
--- Quote from: pigrew on May 08, 2022, 12:35:47 am ---The PicoScope 6 GUI works pretty well for me on Windows, so yay. That said, their software API  (PicoSDK) feels like it's straight out of the 90s and was a fair pain to use.

The scopes are great for portable debugging (e.g., automotive tech), and to some extent automated testing. However, I still like the physical knobs of a bench oscilloscope.

The only other comparable product I've used is the Digilent Analog Discovery 2. The PicoScope has better hardware, but the AD2's GUI is more comfortable to use.

--- End quote ---

Yeah I'm real tempted to try the AD2 instead, it seems a whole lot more professional overall

--- End quote ---

AD2 has more features built in software... But it is not more professional.
Picoscopes have proper scope front ends and construction and are used professionally by many thousands of professionals in industry.

AD2 is educational tool, it doesn't even have BNC connectors built in, you have to buy a breakout board.
Also it has only 2 input attenuation ranges. It has 16K SMps buffer which is very small that limits what it can do.
OTOH, it has 14 bit ADC/DACs and nice integration between the tools.
It is very useful tool nevertheless, if limitations don't bother you.
Fact that signals are connected to pin row connector might even be advantage if you want to integrate it into some "contraption" where you need more permanent connection, can assure signal levels are in optimum range and such..

I own Digital Discovery and use it all the time when I need pattern generation and logic analyser capability at the same time, for instance.. Unique tool for that. From specs:
Algorithmic pattern generator (no buffers used)
Counter and custom bus outputs
ROM logic for implementing user-defined Boolean functions and State Machines
Cross-triggering between Logic Analyzer, Pattern Generator, or external trigger

But limited too. To interface it to anything other than 3.3V logic you need to make voltage translators for instance...  So useful but far from pro grade logic analyser/pattern gen with all kinds of interface options etc.

I would call Picoscope (both products and company) VERY professional. What they specify works as promised and better (longevity of support and products that last for decades). If you call them they WILL tell you up straight that MAC software is limited and that in order to use Pico you need to use Windows. You may not like it but they will tell you the truth. In 20 years of being their customer they never, ever, were anything but honest about what they products can and what they cannot do.
I call that professional above all.

David Aurora:

--- Quote from: bdunham7 on May 08, 2022, 05:25:38 am ---
--- Quote from: David Aurora on May 08, 2022, 04:46:22 am ---Nope, not even close buddy. Pulling clean traces off a curve tracer is a piece of cake, I do it all the time with a standalone curve tracer I already had as well as various octopus testers I've had/made over the years. The issue isn't that it isn't displaying correctly or something, the issue is that XY mode is greyed out on Macs, and the Windows version doesn't work on modern Macs in apps like Parallels. None of this stuff is mentioned on their compatibility page, so unless you do a deep dive before purchase you find out the hard way.

--- End quote ---

OK, I've not tried this with that specific device.  If the Tek 576 doesn't use blanking or for whatever reason the capture works well without any Z-axis input and the record length and speed is manageable--as in it works with most other DSOs--then your Picoscope may do just fine with an actual Windows PC.  Perhaps it is sloppy or worse of them to claim Mac compatibility, but they're probably still trying to recover from the Motorola to Intel switch.  But you don't need a 'deep dive' to realize this is a possibility--there's a LOT of stuff out there the just doesn't work with Macs.  If you absolutely insist on not polluting your existence with the presence of Wintel, then the Analog Discovery might be for you--it does work on Mac, at least on a MacBook Pro old enough to have actual Type A USB ports--so it should at least work on your Mac Mini.  Not sure about M1 yet, probably still emulation.


--- Quote --- It should have been a no brainer.

--- End quote ---

Well, IMO, it is!  :)

--- End quote ---

Huh? They haven't caught up with the switch that happened 15 years ago? Are you joking?

Yes, correct, there's a lot of stuff that doesn't work with Macs, you nailed it. Except for the fact that I bought it based on a claim that it works on Mac, hence the deep dive through their forum to find the zillions of complaints about bugs and compatibility issues. But sure, go off.

bdunham7:

--- Quote from: David Aurora on May 08, 2022, 09:26:39 am ---Huh? They haven't caught up with the switch that happened 15 years ago? Are you joking?

--- End quote ---

Sadly, I'm not.  Does their interface look like 2022 or 2002?  I don't know whether their software actually did work with PowerPC Macs, but if it did, throwing away and redoing the whole package for a very small segment of their market probably wasn't a priority.  I recently sold my G4, which was still in demand just because there still is software out there that people want to run that didn't get redone (or redone properly) for the Intel Macs.


--- Quote ---Yes, correct, there's a lot of stuff that doesn't work with Macs, you nailed it. Except for the fact that I bought it based on a claim that it works on Mac, hence the deep dive through their forum to find the zillions of complaints about bugs and compatibility issues. But sure, go off.

--- End quote ---

Well I really am trying to be helpful, not just grind your gears.  But I'm telling you what I think and that is that you need a Windows machine.  I've needed to maintain hardware and software compatibility with lots of things over the years and I've learned that the only truly reliable way to do that is to keep native machines around.  Virtual machines and cross-platform software are great when they work and are supported, but sometimes they just don't work properly, or if they do they require a lot of work to set up and then they are 'fragile', as in you can never update the software or the machine at all--the computer has to be dedicated and locked down.

So yeah, shame on Picoscope for their marketing wankers listing them as Mac compatible.  But you should know better than to believe them.  :)

You mentioned that it was easy to digitize the traces from a curve tracer--how were you doing that before?  Is that workable with the 576?  I saw this video on a method that looks quite useful, but there's not so much explanation as to exactly how and he has part of the screen blocked off so you can't see some information.





David Aurora:
Update- sent the piece of shit back and got an Analog Discovery 2. Absolutely no comparison software wise, it works as expected first go. No weird hidden features or mislabelled functions etc, you can jump straight from a real workbench onto it without wanting to launch it into the sun. Having probes on an exposed breakout board kind of sucks, but with that said this probably won't get used as a plain oscilloscope often anyway so I can live with that.

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