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Post by givusaclue on May 19, 2022 21:46:18 GMT 1
As above
i think my pico 3424 scope may have partially died
when trying to measure battery voltage it only reads 8v. Should’ve read 12.9v by my meter
I’ve swapped leads, probes, channels, pico 6 & 7, not yet swapped laptop, but will in the morning.
anyone else had a problem like this?
if so have you had it successfully repaired or do they just want to sell you a new one?
tbh. Not sure I’d invest in another new one considering the amount of use it gets (this is the second one)
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Post by valhalla on May 19, 2022 21:53:58 GMT 1
Not heard of this before. You might be better-off getting a secondhand Pico if you are not using it much, or maybe one of the cheap, handheld units like wightdiag posted on his toys-page a few months ago. I bought one of those myself, and TBF it does the bulk of what you need for most jobs, at a fraction of the price.
If you get really stuck, I might be able to part myself from my spare Pico 4-ch scope. It doesn't do much, now that I have the better handheld for remote work.
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Post by wightdiag on May 19, 2022 22:48:37 GMT 1
I think Pico do a fixed rate repair from memory, I'd drop them a line. But it does sound odd it would be on both channels.
if you want a quick, cheap n cheerful solution I have a 2 channel 2204A you can have for £50 !
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Post by givusaclue on May 19, 2022 22:57:28 GMT 1
I have got a virtually unused snap on vantage scope that will do for most jobs, think I’ll give them a call tomorrow.
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Post by givusaclue on May 19, 2022 23:03:17 GMT 1
I have most of the add on toys that go with it so probably ought to make sure I have one, there’s a s/hand one for sale in brum at mo, may talk to them yet
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Post by givusaclue on May 24, 2022 22:22:16 GMT 1
so
sent it off yesterday morning to pico to ee what can be done
borrwed an identical unit(3424) off a mate last night on way home, plugged it on today & what do you know, just the feckin' same reading, so downloaded pico 6 again & re-installed it, no different swapped leads etc, still the same
WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?
never had this trouble before, go into pico diagnostics (not the full programme) click compresion test, enable pressure readings for wps500 & set, 4 cyl. connect leads to battery, click start, after a few seconds it says battery voltage too low @7.73v aaaaaaaaaarrrrgh!
click pico 7 go onto live reading 2 second frame 20v dc connect leads to battery via dolphin clips first & then back probes afterwards still the same, try tandem leads channel a & b, no difference.
there must be a default setting that's changed as i've done this literally hundreds of times & never had a problem before
i'll be on the phone to technical support tomorrow morning to tell them i doubt there's anthing wrong mith my scope, fecked if i know what's changed though
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remmington
Apprentice
Owns Spark Eroder
Posts: 4,971
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Post by remmington on May 25, 2022 7:35:02 GMT 1
so sent it off yesterday morning to pico to ee what can be done borrwed an identical unit(3424) off a mate last night on way home, plugged it on today & what do you know, just the feckin' same reading, so downloaded pico 6 again & re-installed it, no different swapped leads etc, still the same WHAT AM I DOING WRONG? never had this trouble before, go into pico diagnostics (not the full programme) click compresion test, enable pressure readings for wps500 & set, 4 cyl. connect leads to battery, click start, after a few seconds it says battery voltage too low @7.73v aaaaaaaaaarrrrgh! click pico 7 go onto live reading 2 second frame 20v dc connect leads to battery via dolphin clips first & then back probes afterwards still the same, try tandem leads channel a & b, no difference. there must be a default setting that's changed as i've done this literally hundreds of times & never had a problem before i'll be on the phone to technical support tomorrow morning to tell them i doubt there's anthing wrong mith my scope, fecked if i know what's changed though Quick reply: If the only thing you have not swapped - is the test cables. And you are getting volt drop. NO1 step is to test cables with a multimeter - to see if you have any resistance in them - causing the volt drop. Maybe power thru the test leads with load (bulb on the end). My bets are on physical damage to leads or BNC plugs/sockets. If you just stick the software on "auto" it should over ride any settings you have changed. Sorry I did not reply to your PM last night with any detail mate (got a lot on my plate at the moment!). |
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Post by wightdiag on May 25, 2022 9:28:14 GMT 1
I think you have swapped test leads, but if not measure the voltage at the BNC end to rule that in/out. Then if your scope is referenced to ground (not floating like the 4225) I would suspect either the Laptop putting 5v on the USB ground, the usb cable being in upside down, or no ground on the cable
As you have changed 6-7 I would doubt it is the software set up
I I think a call to Pico would be your best bet - Steve loves a challenge !
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Post by chippie on May 25, 2022 16:38:40 GMT 1
Have you tried removing and reinstalling the software? Or trying the picoscope on another pc?
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Post by valhalla on May 25, 2022 22:59:01 GMT 1
Have you tried removing and reinstalling the software? Or trying the picoscope on another pc? I think Steve has done all of that - but what strikes me is that this is so weird, it has got to be something that is not of his doing....
I'm not sure if rhyds can offer any more help on this, as the one thing that seems most logical is that the Pico softwares are no longer correctly using the information coming off the units that Steve has tried - I understand a spare does the same thing as before, from the above, and therefore this does not point to an electrical issue as far as the USB connector.
Updating or removing/replacing the Pico software/s will not necessarily replace the software drivers on the PC that is being used, and therefore if they have corrupted in some sort of way, for whatever obscure reason, then reinstalling Windoze will not necessarily improve matters. Only fully-flushing all the Pico drivers off the hard-drive, using a dual-boot into another operating system, or using another PC, would obviate that as a possible cause of malfunction.
What do you reckon, Rhyds?
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Post by rhyds on May 25, 2022 23:21:12 GMT 1
Its difficult for me to suggest anything as I've never used a picoscope, however I can speak in general
I doubt the USB cable has been put in the wrong way, as all USB connectors aside from USB-C are "keyed" and can't go in upside down, and USB-C is designed to be unidirectional do it doesn't matter if that connector is the other way round.
A cable fault is possible, and its always worth trying a spare just in case.
Software wise, depending how the picoscope drivers work it is possible that windows update has updated the drivers and screwed everything up. Generally what I do if the drivers have been updated incorrectly is to download the drivers from either the manufacturer's site (Pico in this case) or from the chipset maker's site (hard to find, but can be done using the PCI Vendor IDs in Device manager) and then manually updating the driver from Device Manager by manually selecting it. I've never bothered with booting in to Linux to do it, unless something was deeply wrong with the windows install, however at that point I generally rebuild the unit anyway.
So, in conclusion I would
1) Try both another USB cable as well as new test leads
2) If you do suspect power issues with your laptop, try it on battery power only in case there is interference from the power supply somehow
3) Manually reinstall the pico drivers, you might have to ask support how to do this.
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Post by valhalla on May 25, 2022 23:45:01 GMT 1
So, in conclusion I would 1) Try both another USB cable as well as new test leads 2) If you do suspect power issues with your laptop, try it on battery power only in case there is interference from the power supply somehow 3) Manually reinstall the pico drivers, you might have to ask support how to do this. I hadn't considered point 2), but you might just have figured the problem there! As the USB lead is a USB_A to USB_B bespoke Pico item (I'm not sure why; it looks like every other sort of lead with A-to-B connectors), it might be worth swapping it for another proper Pico lead. I have one spare, but if your mate can spare his, then it would be worth just trying that for a few minutes.
However, I have found that these older Pico's do seem to have problems if the PC interface cable has spurious voltages induced from a dodgy USB port on a PC. To a lesser degree, it's the reason why I used to do all my sensitive measures on battery-only power. It could be the PC USB port is grounding to something it shouldn't inside the PC.
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Post by givusaclue on May 30, 2022 18:02:46 GMT 1
scope on way back, should arrive tomorrow, they suggested a new usb cable which they are providing foc, no fault found, no charge, not even return carriage
a big thumbs up to pico for customer service, we'll see how it works when it lands
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Post by chippie on May 30, 2022 18:18:22 GMT 1
That’s great customer service……👍👍
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Post by wightdiag on May 30, 2022 20:41:35 GMT 1
Now that is customer service !  |
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