Agilent MSO8104a resolution

[jonelmer]

I am trying to acquire thousands of waveforms from an Agilent MSO8104a using the driver examples provided. Currently I am acquiring continuous waveform data from the scope over lan, but the data I am getting is limited to 8 bit resolution which simply is not enough to capture the waveforms I am collecting. The waveforms range in amplitude from ~-10mV to ~-5V and I have used a DC offset to utilise the maximum range of the ADC, however when I capture a wavefrom on the scope manually I get far superior resolution in both time and voltage.

Is there a way I can increse the resoltion that LabVIEW is retrieving from the scope?

[crossrulz · Accepted solution]

Careful, scope displays can play tricks on you.  If you dig through the specs of the scope enough you will find that the ADC in the scope is 8-bit.  You can get 12-bit equivalent with averaging turned on, but that is only good for periodic waveforms.

[jonelmer]

It seems strange then that the scope appears to save waveforms at a higher resolution, when the waveforms I am working with are non-uniform.