The Autonerdz Community Forums - Pico at a distance...

Jim_Wilson Super Nerd Picogroup Offline nothing to say Posts: 929	Pico at a distance... Jun 14^th, 2008 at 10:48am Well, I got mine yesterday... But I don't want to have to drag my laptop around. Part of the problem is that that would disconnect me from the network from which all shop operations center around. I found this USB extender... http://www.amazon.com/Cables-Go-Super-Booster-Extender/dp/tech-data/B000CRKA56/r... What do you guys think?
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Jim_Wilson Super Nerd Picogroup Offline nothing to say Posts: 929	Re: Pico at a distance... Reply #1 - Jun 14^th, 2008 at 11:00am Another possibility... Just how long can the scope cables be?
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Mick

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Re: Pico at a distance...
Reply #2 - Jun 14^th, 2008 at 11:07am

Jim

Congratulations I cant wait to see your first captures, that's so exciting. Grin

I dont have to take my Pico on the road often but I would suggest you have your laptop at the ready as you will once in a while take it on a road trip. Wink

Tom will have to give you the green light on the extended usb cable but I cant see it being any problem except the routing to the hub.

What do you think you will use the Pico for the most?

Mick

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Tom Roberts

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Re: Pico at a distance...
Reply #3 - Jun 14^th, 2008 at 11:14am

Jim,

That looks like a USB 1.1 device so would not be suitable.

I have achieved 60+ feet with a series of USB 2.0 active repeaters. Somewhat buggy getting them up and running but stable once you do. It's been a while since I used them but I remember noting about a 10% reduction in data transfer speed.

I'm sure there are better ways now but I have not tried anything else for this.

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Jim_Wilson

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Re: Pico at a distance...
Reply #4 - Jun 14^th, 2008 at 12:10pm

Tom,

I'm thinking then of two 16 ft active repeaters... That would be enough. I could string that overhead to the two bays I use and the porters wouldn't have anything to trip over.

When you say a reduction in transfer speed, are you speaking in terms of no lost data but just longer to get to the PC? That wouldn't be a problem.

Thanks

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Re: Pico at a distance...
Reply #5 - Jun 14^th, 2008 at 12:30pm

Mick wrote on Jun 14^th, 2008 at 11:07am:

Jim

Congratulations I cant wait to see your first captures, that's so exciting. Grin

I dont have to take my Pico on the road often but I would suggest you have your laptop at the ready as you will once in a while take it on a road trip. Wink

Tom will have to give you the green light on the extended usb cable but I cant see it being any problem except the routing to the hub.

What do you think you will use the Pico for the most?

Mick

Hi Mick,

Anything that needs to go on a road test and I would use my Fluke. As it is now, I can count on one hand the times in the last few years where I needed a scope on a road test.

There are some problems (such as intermittent 3800 ignition issues) that are actually cheaper to just narrow the possibilities down with a quick check and sell the customer two parts. To narrow it down further would take more $$ in diagnostic fees than to just replace both parts. And I'm done donating my time to subsidize vehicle ownership

Quote:

What do you think you will use the Pico for the most?

Good question. Mostly just for documenting different case studies. Its been a while since I had access to a decent ignition scope, so I'll probably start scoping problems that I've already nailed down.

It looks like Pico waveforms are becoming the defacto standard for case study documentation.

I no longer have to worry about bad pay checks, so I can slow down when I want to.

If I can ever get back some of the energy I used to have, I have a long list of projects that would be interesting. It took me almost a year to put a new battery in my Harley and then a couple months more to actually take it out again. A short ride, but maybe in another month or so I'll take it out like I used to.

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Carl Grotti LSD Guide Picogroup Offline Deceased Posts: 1,501	Re: Pico at a distance... Reply #6 - Jun 14^th, 2008 at 12:45pm Quote: Anything that needs to go on a road test and I would use my Fluke. As it is now, I can count on one hand the times in the last few years where I needed a scope on a road test. Same here, Jim. I rarely see the need, so it seems to be a moot point.
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Carl Grotti LSD Guide Picogroup Offline Deceased Posts: 1,501	Re: Pico at a distance... Reply #7 - Jun 14^th, 2008 at 1:27pm I hope you don't mind if I quote you again. Quote: I no longer have to worry about bad pay checks, so I can slow down when I want to. Good for you. I've stumbled into the same situation. Once that FR pressure goes to the curb, we can relax a little. I'll bet we were both tired of it.
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Tom Roberts

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Re: Pico at a distance...
Reply #8 - Jun 14^th, 2008 at 2:00pm

Quote:

When you say a reduction in transfer speed, are you speaking in terms of no lost data but just longer to get to the PC?

Jim,

I meant just longer to get to the PC....BUT...

I just did some more testing with this to see if it still works and it doesn't really. It can handle it OK if I dial down the performance but falls down otherwise. We lose communication with the ADC and crash.

The performance has been increased quite a bit since I used this last and it seems not to be viable now.

We can continue this discussion in a thread in the Picogroup area and see if we can sort out a way to accomplish this but the active repeaters I have here are not up to it. I even pulled one out so there were two sections instead of three and this didn't help.

It captures a few screens at full speed and then it's over.

So...back to the drawing board Roll Eyes

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Jim_Wilson

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Re: Pico at a distance...
Reply #9 - Jun 14^th, 2008 at 2:21pm

Quote:

I hope you don't mind if I quote you again.

Quote me anytime

Quote:

Good for you. I've stumbled into the same situation. Once that FR pressure goes to the curb, we can relax a little. I'll bet we were both tired of it.

I don't mind FR, as long as management keeps me busy.

No, my change is from something terrible. An insurance settlement. Not huge, but enough to take the pressure off. I would prefer to be broke and stressed out and have not lost my little one.

I am now starting to take the time to download snapshots, get waveforms, etc... I also don't work through lunch anymore unless I really want to (as opposed to NEED to)

I'm torn over the FR thing. It can work out so wonderfully and then the next week be the death of you.... It all depends on management, the work load, etc...

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Jim_Wilson

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Re: Pico at a distance...
Reply #10 - Jun 14^th, 2008 at 2:26pm

Quote:

We can continue this discussion in a thread in the Picogroup area and see if we can sort out a way to accomplish this but the active repeaters I have here are not up to it. I even pulled one out so there were two sections instead of three and this didn't help.

Thanks Tom

Maybe I'll have to buy a cheap PC to put on my cart... Sad

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Tom Roberts Autonerdz Administrator Picogroup Offline Autonerdz Founder Posts: 8,598 Olympia Washington USA Gender:	Re: Pico at a distance... Reply #11 - Jun 14^th, 2008 at 4:12pm That might be the best way to go, Jim. Looks like the other options are CAT 5/6 or optical extenders with sender and receiver boxes. I don't know of anyone that has used these with Pico. And they are not cheap http://www.gefen.com/kvm/product.jsp?prod_id=2648
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brandonb

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Re: Pico at a distance...
Reply #12 - Jun 14^th, 2008 at 4:58pm

wow jim,never thought you would get a pico, the difference between a pico and a fluke 190 is like night and day, fluke being at night cause you can only see 5 feet in front of you,........there is only a couple of things i didnt like about the pico.... i takes to long to load up for quick scope checks,dont try to use it until all popups are complete or it,ll lock up on first capture,....can only do voltage drop testing on one channel if use other channels will short out through scope, i shorted a 20 amp injector before i was aware of this(all grounds hooked together unlike flukes isolated grounds),....but it is so cool to capture a 20 minuite test drive and store the whole thing into the computer for later analysis and when doing so can blow up the screen to one spark event(thats power).............you,ll notice using a pico right off the bat how much you were missing with what you were using prior,.......... i still use my fluke 196 for 90% of every thing i do cause its quick,easy to use,but the other 10% would be a trigger happy ordeal,............have fun

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Jim_Wilson

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Re: Pico at a distance...
Reply #13 - Jun 14^th, 2008 at 5:07pm

Tom Roberts wrote on Jun 14^th, 2008 at 4:12pm:

That might be the best way to go, Jim. Looks like the other options are CAT 5/6 or optical extenders with sender and receiver boxes. I don't know of anyone that has used these with Pico. And they are not cheap Undecided

http://www.gefen.com/kvm/product.jsp?prod_id=2648

Wow... a couple hundred would work but ouch, $700 is a bit much

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Carl Grotti LSD Guide Picogroup Offline Deceased Posts: 1,501	Re: Pico at a distance... Reply #14 - Jun 14^th, 2008 at 6:55pm Quote: I would prefer to be broke and stressed out and have not lost my little one. Damn it Jim, now I'm speechless.
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