I am having a lot of trouble with my PCS500 scope and I am now running out of ideas and patience.
When I first powered it on after purchasing, the fuse was dead. I replaced this with a 1.5A type.
Following this, it was very, very choosy about which power supply it would work with. I eventually found a basic 9V 1.5A supply which did work.
I was using it only a few days ago, and when I turned it off it seemed to be fine.
But when I started using it again yesterday, the ‘pclab200se’ software refused to detect the device, presenting me with the ‘check scope is turned on’ dialog. The LED turns on and remains on until the unit is powered off, but the software cannot find it. Much fiddling with the PC, printer port settings and other software configuration did not seem to help. I also noticed that the LED will come on while the PC is starting up, and remains on permanently - without running the scope software. I am sure this did not happen before.
I switched to a different PC and got mostly the same story - except occasionally the scope was detected, and after a few seconds of calibration the software would ‘hang’. When the scope is then powered off, the software complains of faulty LPT1 communications. Again, various attempts to reconfigure the PC’s parallel port did not help.
This second PC had the pclab2000se software installed for the first time, so WinDSO.ini is unlikely to be involved. I upgraded both PCs to use pclab2000se 3.03, which did not help.
I am considering returning the unit for inspection/repair. Can you please advise how I should go about this, and what repair costs/timescales are involved?
The scope is useful and effective when it works, but it appears not to be robust with respect to PC communications. :-/ I can’t figure out what is wrong.
Turnaround time: usually 2 weeks
Cost: Difficult to say. Depends on the problem. If unit is less than two years old, there is a possibility that unit is repaired under warranty conditions. Include proof of purchase to qualify. Shipping, handling, tax,… are not included in warranty.
Hi, i read the post and realized that my PCS500 has exactly the same problem, is it some way to get around it other than sending it for reparation? I’ve tried everything i can think of and it doesn’t work anyway
The other small problem is that i’ve modifyed it slightly (Had a idea that i wanted to syncronize it to the function generator… so i added a external clock input), of course that would obliterate any warranties, but would it also make it impossible to get it repaired?
And just to clarify, it has been working for more than a year after my modification
Hm. It was apparently a rather stupid problem, the LPT-cable was broken. The problem was that it was a bad connection on some of the data lines. The program managed to start the oscilloscope but then it crashed. I guess it was waiting for the oscilloscope to respond, but the broken cable prevented that.
However, a new cable fixed it. But the same problem could arise from anythin from a broken printer port on the computer to fried opto-couplers on the oscilloscope. So it’s a tricky one
