Picoscope PC Oscilloscopes

Pico Technology has been designing and manufacturing an entire line of PC oscilloscopes called
PicoScopes since 1991. They certainly make one of the highest quality usb oscilloscopes on the
market today. But its not just the hardware that sets them apart its the software. A PC
oscilloscope without a solid user interface is practically worthless. Well take a look at the
software package at the heart of these excellent o-scopes. First, lets take a look at each
Picoscope series and determine which is right for your application.

PicoScope 2000 Series

These are Pico Technologies entry level pc oscilloscopes ranging in price from $200 to $1000.
These are best for low-frequency signals and come standard with all typical benchtop
oscilloscope features. With advances in hardware many new features are now available, but more
about that later.
2000 Series oscilloscopes are available in single and dual channel models. Because these are
connected via USB, there are no other required power supplies to operate these oscilloscopes.
This provides PC oscilloscopes an advantage when space is a premium and portability is
necessary.
Even though these are entry level oscilloscopes there are a few models that provide mixed signal
inputs. This means you get the 2 standard analog inputs but also sixteen digital input channels.
Now you can see analog and digital signals at the same time.

PicoScope 3000 Series

The 3000 series of pc oscilloscopes step up the performance and are extremely cost effective at
replacing your benchtop oscilloscope. Available in 2 channel and 4 channel, these units offer 8
bits of resolution and boast 3% accuracy. There are several different models of 3000 series oscopes each offering more memory, higher sampling rates, and higher bandwidth. As these specs
increase so does the price tag, so trade them with your budget.
Like the 2000 series, mixed-series oscilloscopes (MSOs) are also available in the 3000 series.
They have the same 2 channel analog input and 16 digital inputs. One added feature of the 3425
is a differential input that allows you to measure signals that are not referenced to ground.

PicoScope 4000 Series

The 4000 series pc scopes are designed to meeting a professional engineers everyday
requirements. Excellent for everyday use, field-service, IR&D, or scientific use these scopes cost
around ~$1200.

PicoScope 5000 Series

This series offers higher speeds and higher resolutions. But what is neat about this is the speed
and accuracy are variable. If you can sacrifice some speed, you can pick up several bits of
accuracy. If you dont need the accuracy you can pick up many more megasamples of speed. The
resolution ranges from eight to sixteen bits and the speed ranges from 62.5 MS/s to 1 GS/s. Big
ranges but the flexibility can be nice in a pinch.
Now that you know a little about the PicoScope oscilloscopes lets talk about the warranty. Each
an every o-scope comes with a 5-year warranty. That can be essential to making sure you have a
reliable piece of test equipment for years to come.

PC Oscilloscope Comparison Table

PC Oscilloscope
PicoScope 2100 Series
PicoScope 2204
PicoScope 2205

Channels
1
2
2
2
PicoScope 2205 MSO
16 Digital
PicoScope 2206
2
PicoScope 2207
2
PicoScope 2208
2
PicoScope 3204A
2
PicoScope 3205A
2
MSO
16 Digital
PicoScope 3207A
2
PicoScope 3207B
2
PicoScope 3404A
4
PicoScope 3404B
4
PicoScope 3405A
4
PicoScope 3405B
4
PicoScope 3406B
4
PicoScope 3406B
4
PicoScope 4424
4
PicoScope 4262
2
PicoScope 5242A
2
PicoScope 5242B
2
PicoScope 5442A
4
PicoScope 5442B
4
PicoScope 5243B
2
PicoScope 5443A
4

Bandwidth
25 MHz
10 MHz
25 MHz

Sampling
100 MS/s
100 MS/s
200 MS/s

Resolution
8 bits
8 bits
8 bits

25 MHz

200 MS/s 8 bits

16 kS

$574

50 MHz
100 MHz
200 MHz
60 MHz

500 MS/s
1 GS/s
1 GS/s
500 MS/s

24 kS
32 kS
40 kS
4 MS

$621
$738
$918
$610

100 MHz

500 MS/s 8 bits

16 MS

$1,302

250 MHz
250 MHz
60 MHz
60 MHz
100 MHz
100 MHz
200 MHz
200 MHz
20 MHz
5 MHz
60 MHz
60 MHz
60 MHz
60 MHz
100 MHz
100 MHz

1 GS/s
1 GS/s
1 GS/s
1 GS/s
1 GS/s
1 GS/s
1 GS/s
1 GS/s
80 MS/s
10 MS/s
1 GS/s
1 GS/s
1 GS/s
1 GS/s
1 GS/s
1 GS/s

256 MS
512 MS
4 MS
8 MS
16 MS
32 MS
64 MS
128 MS
32 MS
16 MS
16 MS
32 MS
16 MS
32 MS
64 MS
64 MS

$1,554
$1,554
$995
$1,148
$1,378
$1,608
$1,695
$1,907
$1,318
$1,236
$1,072
$1,225
$1,455
$1,554
$1,532
$1,776

8 bits
8 bits
8 bits
8 bits

8 bits
8 bits
8 bits
8 bits
8 bits
8 bits
8 bits
8 bits
12 bits
16 bits
8-16 bits
8-16 bits
8-16 bits
8-16 bits
8-16 bits
8-16 bits

Buffer Memory Price

24 kS
$206
8 kS
$262
16 kS
$411

PC Oscilloscope
PicoScope 5444A
PicoScope 5444B
PicoScope 6402B
PicoScope 6404B

Channels
4
4
4
4

Bandwidth
200 MHz
200 MHz
250 MHz
500 MHz

Sampling
1 GS/s
1 GS/s
1.25 GS/s
1.25 GS/s

Resolution
8-16 bits
8-16 bits
12 bits
12 bits

Buffer Memory Price

256 MS
$2,190
512 MS
$2,402
256 MS
$4,115
1 GS
$7,414

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others to review.