The new Application Programming Interface (API) lets you go beyond the features of the PicoScope 6 software to build your own high-speed data acquisition applications based on the PicoScope 5000 scopes. Using the high-speed streaming mode built in to the driver, you can log data at up to 6 million samples per second directly to disk, or you can use block mode to capture data within the scope at the full 1 GS/s rate. You can also control the scope’s built-in Arbitrary Waveform Generator and set up advanced triggering modes such as pulse-width and interval triggers.
The API functions are exported in standard C format, which is recognised by most programming languages including C, C++, Visual Basic, Delphi and LabView. Programming examples are provided for all these languages, and the whole package can be downloaded free of charge from the Pico website as part of the PicoScope 6 software.
Alan Tong, Managing Director of Pico Technology, said “Our PicoScope 5000 series scopes are already leading the PC Oscilloscope market, but we want to take them further. By releasing this API, we are giving our customers the ability to build their own custom software based on our products.”