Pico scope 4425a External power supply

[Mitchroberson]

I see on the back of the pico scope a port that says power 5v. Is that for an external power supply? I am wondering if it would benefit me for one of my laptops that has some issues with the USB and USB 2.0. it seems the scope is only discovered about half the time. I am using a Microsoft surface 3.0. so Pretty sure it does not support 3.0.
Worked great first 2-3 days of use. But today I have not been able to get it to even recognize the device. And was wondering about power requirements.
Also was wondering about battery drain any way. Especially when I am doing NVH testing and or some of the 4 probe tests. how much power it is pulling from the laptop.

[Steve Smith]

Hello Mitch, thank you for the post and sorry for the late reply

The 5 V optional power supply is there to support future BNC+ probes/accessories only

There should be no reason at present to utilize this support feature with our current range of BNC+ probes

Could I ask Mitch if you are experiencing issues with connectivity/recognition without BNC+ probes connected? (i.e., when connecting to the Surface 3.0, the scope has no BNC+ probes connected)

If so, the optional 5 V power supply will not help as this is purely for supporting the BNC+ probes and not for support during the handshake between the scope and the Surface 3.0

The “handshake” is completed using USB power only and your Surface 3.0 does include a USB 3.0 port https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/sur ... a5f373ea4d

Could you confirm you are connected by the Pico Blue USB cables? (Either the 1.8 m USB 2.0 or 3.1)

When the symptom next occurs (failure to recognize the scope) could you close the software (do not reopen) and send the trace file over to support@picotech.com reference this forum post?

How to obtain the trace file can be seen here https://drive.google.com/file/d/186II4J ... sp=sharing

You can identify the trace file from the incident described above using the time and date stamp alongside the file.

Regarding USB power consumption during operation.

4 x NVH probes will draw 0 A via the USB as the accelerometer and mics are supported by the internal battery within your TA259 NVH interface.

The current consumption of our BNC+ accessories are well under the permissible current handling levels of USB 2.0 & 3.0 and therefore no 5 V support required

I know only too well the limitations of laptop batteries and luckily have a laptop that allows for battery “hot swapping”

The limitations are not solely due to the use of PicoScope, often a scan tool, camera, and logger may be active along with their associated App’s, all of which consume laptop resources and ultimately battery life (See here for a typical set-up during case study creation viewtopic.php?p=102191#p102191)

Remember you have the option of using an invertor to step up vehicle 12 V to mains voltage whereby you can then use your Surface 3.0 charger.

Please be aware that not all invertors are created equal and if you buy cheap, “electrical noise” may/will become an issue.

I have found that using an invertor to keep an already fully charged laptop charged (on the road) is better from a noise perspective than using an invertor to charge a discharged laptop (I hope that makes sense)

The following link may be of interest too viewtopic.php?p=102344#p102344

I hope this helps, take care…….Steve

[Mitchroberson]

so found that my USB port was not working correctly. So had to buy a new used laptop which works awesome now. So thanks for your reply.