PicoScope 2104: diyer's perfect solution

Here's my first impression on PicoScope, a USB Windows based oscilloscope by PicoTechnology (U.K.). I ordered the hand-held entry-level model (2104) from Newark.com. This scope is a compact (essentially a bulky probe with USB leads) and economical (~$200) solution, perfect for DIYers.

This is it. The body of the probe houses all the essential data-acquisition electronics, and any post-processing and the waveform display are performed on PC. The scope only requires a USB 2.0 connection as it is USB-bus powered.


The spec:

• Vertical Resolution: 8bits
• Analog Bandwidth: 10 MHz
• Maximum Sampling Rate: 50 MS/s real-time
• Time Base: 10 ns/div to 50 s/div
• Buffer Size: 8k samples
• Probe: 1M Ohm, 20 pF, AC/DC coupling
• Voltage Ranges: ±100 mV to ±20 V in 1, 2, 5 V steps
• Accuracy: 3% (voltage) and 100 ppm (time)
• Connected and powered by USB
• 5 year warranty

 Nothing earth shattering as expected from its price point.

Packaging: The scope came in a plain box,

which contains a scope storage bag and an intro-to-picoscope poster:

The scope is obviously in the bag along with Quick Start Guide, Software and Reference CD-ROM, and a bag of accessories.

The contents of the accessory bag:

The PicoScope Software installed smoothly on my PC and has been running hiccup free so far (Windows 7, Intel Core2Duo 3GHz, 4 GB memory). Here's a screen shot:

I find that the user interface is pretty straight forward and self-explanatory (that is, if you've used scopes in the past) based on my brief experience.

The body of the scope has 1 lighted button, which brings the start/stop control to the user's fingertip. Also, the button illuminates green (running) or red (not running) to indicate the scope's status:

As seen in the picture above, the probe tip is also lit, which helps tremendously to locate test points, IC legs, etc.