Date: 02/02/2009

Pico adds reference waveforms, and XY mode features to its scope software

PicoScope, the PC oscilloscope software from Pico Technology is added with new features of Reference Waveforms and XY Mode.

The Reference Waveforms feature allows displaying stored waveforms or math channels alongside live data. Reference waveform can be added by clicking a button and by selecting the channel to store. 8 waveforms of either reference or live can be built in each scope view, and any number of scope views can be opened.

The XY Mode feature allows to plot one or more input channels against another, or against a math channel or reference waveform. This can be used to display the I-V curve of a component, or to indicate the phase relationship between two periodic signals.

Another notable improvement is, a new trigger mode. "Rapid Mode" captures a sequence of triggered waveforms while freezing the display, and thus obtains the shortest possible dead time between captures to the extent of a microsecond, depending on the model of scope in use, user can easily scroll through the sequence using the buffer navigation buttons. This mode gives the best chance of finding a rare intermittent glitch, which you can be printed, measured or saved to disk.

Other significant feature is graphical Arbitrary Waveform Editor. This can be used to create, save, load and edit arbitrary waveforms for use with your PicoScope 2000 or 5000 Series scope; and support for Windows Vista 64-bit in addition to 32-bit XP and Vista.

Alan Tong, Managing Director of Pico Technology, explained: "You can download a free copy of PicoScope 6.2.1 on our website at labs.picotech.com. As always, we give free technical support and free updates to all our customers. Even if you don't have a Pico oscilloscope, you can still download the software and try it out."