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Automotive SENT SPC Decoding for Oscilloscopes

10 November 2023 - Pico Technology, a provider of PC-based oscilloscopes and data acquisition solutions, is pleased to announce the addition of the SENT SPC Protocol Decoder to the PicoScope 7 toolset. The new decoder enhances the automotive testing capabilities of the widely acclaimed PicoScope range of oscilloscopes. SENT (“Single Edge Nibble Transmission”) and the superset SENT SPC (“Short PWM Code”) protocols are widely used in automotive applications.

SENT SPC allows a single master microcontroller to manage up to four slave sensors on a single bus, which reduces costs when compared to the original one-to-one SENT specification. It introduces a new element in the SENT frame definition, called the Master Trigger Pulse (“MTP”). Each sensor on the bus is programmed with a unique MTP length. The controller can interrogate each sensor with its MTP. The SENT frame returned by the sensor is the same format as the original SENT (continuously broadcast) structure.

The PicoScope SENT SPC decoder meets the growing demands of automotive engineers and technicians to debug and validate the operational performance of their automotive designs. The decoder builds on proven PicoScope 7 capabilities, such as its user-friendly and intuitive interface, allowing automotive professionals to quickly identify and resolve communication issues within electronic control systems. The new decoder is fully compatible with all real-time PicoScopes, from the 2000 through to the high-performance 6000E Series instruments, enabling users to integrate this valuable tool into their existing setups without the need for additional hardware.

Mr. Trevor Smith, Product Manager at Pico Technology, expressed his excitement about this latest decoder: "The automotive industry has adopted successive serial communications standards including CAN, CAN FD, CAN XL, CAN J1939, FlexRay, and LIN. Meeting our customers’ evolving needs is our top priority and we support every one of those standards in PicoScope 7. Our addition of the SENT SPC decoder reaffirms this commitment to delivering innovative solutions that empower engineers and technicians to tackle the challenges posed by modern vehicles' complex electronic systems."

The SENT SPC Protocol Decoder has been available since PicoScope 7 Early Access release version 7.1.8 and is available to download free of charge from Pico Technology's website.

www.picotech.com/

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