Version History

Version 0.8.0 (beta)

New Features:

• Cursor/ruler and automatic measurements for FRA Plots
  • Two separate cursors can be positioned with click/drag and nudge to take arbitrary measurements
  • Delta frequency provided for measuring filter bandwidth
  • Automatic measurements for -3 dB, Gain margin, and Phase margin points
• Custom plot title and font size
• Added support for newest 6000E scopes: PS6405E, PS6425E, PS6406E, PS6426E
• Ability to run with partially installed Picotech SDK
• Allow installation to alternative location

Fixed bugs:

• Installer always lists 0.6.0.0 as the version installed (i.e. as shown in Windows 10 Apps and features)
• FRA data cannot be exported when FRA was partially executed
• Error checking of signal generator API for PS3000 family scope was incorrect
• Unable to connect PS5203 (affects all PS5000 family scopes)
• Optional DC power not handled properly for 4 channel PS5000D scopes (i.e. cannot run when DC power is not connected, though the scope supports this mode)
• Frequency shifts in AWG result in lower measurement purity when bandwidth is low
• Application crashes when any SDK DLL cannot be found (e.g. from a partially installed Picotech SDK)
• Prompt to open Demo scope doesn’t always come to foreground, making it appear like the application never launched
• Program can crash when trying to run FRA with an invalid channel. This can happen if a previous FRA was interrupted by removing DC Power and either channel C or D was selected
• Several issues with channel DC offsets
  • DC offset could not extend beyond minimum amongst all ranges
  • DC offset field was enabled for scopes that do not support DC offsets
  • Application did not range check DC offset parameter
• Incorrect DDS precision was being used for PS5000D scopes.
• Diagnostic Time Domain Plots were not being plotted correctly when number of collected samples was high
• Diagnostic Time Domain Plots would not be output if the FRA was interrupted
• Miscellaneous minor fixes

Miscellaneous:

• Update to PicoScope SDK Version 10.7.22.241

Version 0.7.3b

New Features:

• Add support for new PicoScope 6000E models (PS6824E, PS6424E, PS6804E, PS6404E, PS6403E)
• Add support for new PicoScope 4000A models (PS4x24A)
• Real time plotting - Plots the Gain and Phase while the FRA is running. Useful to detect if something went wrong before much time has elapsed.
• Plot data points that have been captured correctly, even if overall FRA fails
• Fixed resolution mode and choice between fixed/auto resolution for FlexRes scopes
• Add Demo scope so users can try out the application without a scope. To access, start the app with no scope connected. Requires CPU/Platform support of AVX2 instructions.
• Format text in log to draw attention to warnings and errors
• Add warning for USB3 scope connected to USB2 port

Fixed bugs:

• Signal generator routines were not using best precision possible
• Steps complete status was reporting incorrect value
• Fix error message: "Start frequency must be >= inf Hz"
• Custom plan mode was not compatible with descending sweep
• Noise reject vertical resolution field in Settings Dialog populated with random characters
• PS4824 was missing the +/- 50V range
• Miscellaneous minor fixes

Miscellaneous:

• Update to PicoScope SDK Version 10.7.20.192

Version 0.7.0b

New Features:

• Custom Plan mode - Define multiple FRA execution segments, each with a different frequency range, number of steps and stimulus amplitude/offset. Useful alternative to Adaptive Stimulus mode for SMPS measuremnts
• Modular interface for adding external signal generator support. This also enabled adding scopes like PS4444 that don't have a built-in signal generator. External Generator feature can also be accessed via FRA4PicoScope API
• Add support for new PicoScope 5000D models
• Ability to set a d.c. offset for the signal generator
• New diagnostic to trace calls to PicoScope SDK API
• Increase steps per decade limit to 5 digits

Fixed bugs:

• Unable to initialize PicoScope 2208B
• Incorrect minimum signal generator frequencies
• Workaround bugs related to using aggregation to get min/max
• Remove duplicate sample points
• ValidateSettings was checking adaptive stimulus settings when they weren't being used
• Connect scope dialog still shows disconnected scope
• Miscellaneous minor fixes including Coverity Bugs

Miscellaneous:

• Migrated to VS 2019, Boost 1.72.0
• Update to PicoScope SDK Version 10.6.13.97

Version 0.6b

• Added support for new PS2000B series scopes
  • To make this work you will need to have the PicoScope Application installed and the SDK removed.
• Added a UI for setting the configuration (no more need to hand edit the configuration files)
• Handle power mode changes on flexible power scopes
  • Allow operation without auxilliary DC power applied
• Added an API feature
  • Potentially useful to support other custom applications of FRA (e.g component impedance measurement)
  • Exposed via a DLL so it is accessible via multiple languages (e.g. C#, VBA, Python, etc)
  • Available as a separate feature in the installer
• Adaptive stimulus mode which is important for SMPS stability measurements
• New bandwidth based sampling for noise reject mode
• Added a log verbosity mechanism to control what messages get logged
• Improved the installer to allow for upgrade. No longer any need to remove prior version before installing the new one
• Detect and report invalid SDK/API version
• Fixed several bugs, most notably:
  • Fixed compatibility issues with PS3000D/MSO and PS6000 scopes
  • Fixed several issues with time domain diagnostic plots
  • Fixed issue where application window resizes on high DPI displays when the plot is drawn

Version 0.5b

• Added support for PS3000D[MSO], PS4000A, PS5000, and PS6000 family scopes. This code is currently untested.
  • This completes initial implementation of all compatible PicoScope models.
• Plotting enhancements
  • Independently plot gain and phase
  • Specify phase wrapping threshold
  • Phase unwrapping option
  • Store and recall plot settings
• Compute and plot gain and phase margins
  • Includes ability to control phase crossover point for gain margins
• Analysis efficiency enhancements
  • Initial range for input channel considers the signal generator amplitude
  • Option to traverse frequencies in descending order (sweepDescending)
• Switched to new Pico Technology installed API, version 10.6.10.22
• Fixed several bugs, most notably:
  • Fixed another issue with time domain diagnostic plots which prevented them from working on machines without PLplot build files.
  • Signal generator precision was being calculated incorrectly for PS3000 family scopes
  • Data capture timeout was not computed correctly for some scope families, preventing lower frequencies from being used.

Note: It seems that you currently may need to uninstall any preexisting version first before upgrading.

Version 0.4b

• Main Bode plot now uses nicer looking anti-aliased fonts and lines - updated to PLplot 5.11.x with Qt support
• Fixed critical bug affecting timebase calculation for PS2000 series scopes (includes PS2204A and PS2205A), and PS3000 series scopes; PS2204A is tested to work.
• Fixed situation where most recently used scope was not remembered for scopes without enumeration functions.
• Fixed issues preventing time domain diagnostic plots from working
• Channel attenuation settings are now processed
• Fixed numerous reports from Coverity Scan
• Various other minor bug fixes (see commit log for details)

Version 0.3b

• Adds support for scopes using driver families 2000, 3000, and 3000A. This code is currently untested.
• Fixed various bugs affecting the interface to previously supported but untested scopes

Version 0.2b

• Adds new features for custom plot axis scaling, ticks and grids. The user can single click the plot to change the plot axis settings, or zoom into a region by dragging the mouse.
• Implements application version handling for the settings file.
• Various bug fixes:
  • Better handling of errors in PLplot
  • Fixed minor bug in plot axes auto-scaling calculation
  • More comprehensive treatment of settings file dirty/open flags
  • Miscellaneous robustness improvements

Version 0.1b

Initial release