
The Most Advanced Data Collection Software in Science Education
PASCO is pushing the limits of technology, so you can push your students to their potential. Working closely with educators, we continuously develop Capstone™, making improvements and enhancing the teaching features. Capstone is designed to handle large data sets, high-speed sampling, and customized preferences to fit the needs of your lab. A straightforward user interface is approachable for beginners, yet Capstone offers all the capabilities needed for even the most advanced users. Our generous site license allows students to install PASCO Capstone on their own computers so they may perform data analysis off campus.
Capstone has all the software tools you need for data collection and analysis.
Data Display Features
- Graph
- Table
- Digits
- Meters
- Oscilloscope
- FFTs
- Histogram
- Video Analysis
- Image Analysis
- Trials Table
- Circuits Emulator
Data Function Features
- Data Smoothing
- Data Modeling
- Recording Conditions
- Replay Data
- Blockly Programming
New Features for Capstone 2.0
Blockly Coding
Help Students Develop Computational Thinking Skills
Physics educators want more experimental control and programming access to all PASCO interfaces and sensors. Students need tools to develop creative programming and problem solving skills in science. Blockly coding has been built into Capstone 2, giving teachers and students the tools they need to develop these skills. Learn more »
With PASCO Capstone In Your Lab:
- Apply coding concepts to your labs
- Create new sampling conditions
- Create data-driven feedback loops
- Create whatever experiment you or your students can dream up!
Graph Pop-Up Tools
Now, whenever tools are activated, the most common actions will be easily accessible on the graph. The pop-up tools allow for easy access to tool features and options.

Circuits Emulation
Reinforce circuit concepts and tackle student misconceptions using circuit visualization. Combine real-world circuits with simulations, animation, and live measurements. Drag components from the components list, then rotate them and connect pieces together by drawing wires.
With the Circuits Emulation tool in Capstone 2, you can:
- Construct and modify circuits
- Show conventional current and electron flow animation
- Animate circuits with live sensor data
Drag components out from the components list. Rotate components and connect pieces together by drawing wires.

Trials Table - coming in a future update

You never take only one run in science. You take multiple runs and calculate averages. Next, you vary a parameter while holding the other constant; again, taking more runs and calculating averages. Most software data tables don't actually allow this to be done easily.
The Capstone Trials Table was created for how data is collected in the science lab and allows for the kind of analysis students need to perform.
- Organize your data to easily define physical relationships
- Track variables
- Average runs
- Plot derived values

Using the simple pendulum lab as an example, students will time a simple pendulum under various conditions. They will vary the mass, length, and starting angle. The Capstone Trials Table allows you to vary and keep track of experimental parameters between trials and runs taken in each trial. You can also keep track of statistics for averaged runs and experimental error.
Real-world Science
Scientists always take multiple runs and calculate averages. Next, they vary a parameter while holding the others constant; again, taking more runs and calculating averages. Most software data tables don’t support this and require data export and processing… until Capstone 2.
The Capstone Trials Table was created to reflect how data is collected in science labs. It supports the analysis students need to develop critical thinking skills and interpret the data.
With Capstone students can:
- Organize data to easily define variable relationships
- Track multiple variables
- Average runs within a trial group
- Plot derived values (such as an average of runs vs. a group parameter)
For example, in the Simple Pendulum lab, students time a pendulum under different conditions by varying the mass, length, and starting angle. The Capstone Trials Table allows you to manipulate variables and track experimental data between trials and runs. You can also keep track of statistics for averaged runs and experimental error.
Sensors
- Compatible with all PASCO sensors: Wireless, PASPORT, and ScienceWorkshop.
- Auto-ID sensors are recognized when they are plugged in or connected through Bluetooth®.
- Easily connect wireless sensors with proximity sorting and simple in-app pairing.
- Pre-configured photogate timer simplifies setup.
- Pre-configured photogate timer
- Quick-start sensor-based experiments get students collecting data.

Workbook Format
- Basic displays include graph, table, digits, meter, bar meter, oscilloscope, text box, and picture.
- Create custom pages with embedded instructions, videos, and data display, so students can stay in flow with in-context instructional resources.
- Supports manual data entry and pasting data.
- Features layout displays with smart guidelines that snap new items into place.
- Create a journal with snapshots of pages or displays.
- Made a mistake or two? Just hit the Undo button and back up (for unlimited number of steps).

Data Analysis
- Draw predictions on graphs before taking data.
- Includes multiple y-axes and/or multiple plot areas.
- Perform Quick-Calcs on the graph axis to linearize data.
- Curve-fits report the uncertainties in the parameters.
- Multi-coordinate tool gives y-values wherever it intersects data.
- Made a mistake or two? Just hit the Undo button and back up.
Perform Analysis in The Lab or at Home
Our generous site license allows students to install PASCO Capstone on their own computers so they may perform data analysis off campus.

Advanced Features
Sensors & Signal Generators
- Sensor calibration wizard walks you through the calibration process.
- Create your own photogate timers.
- Choose from a range of frequencies.
- Control the output with calculations.
Data Collection Modes
- Strip chart mode
- FFT and oscilloscope
- Histogram
- Manual data collection: collect sensor data points with the click of a button.
- Automatic data collection
- Video mode displays velocity and acceleration vectors.
Other Features
- Exclude or delete selected data points from analysis
- Create models using the calculator
- Calculated columns in tables
- Error bars
- Weighted linear fit accounts for error bars
- Complex curve fits such as damped sine, Gaussian, sine series, and user-entered fits
- Smooth data directly on a graph with slider tool
- Calculations involving logic and filters
- Sync movies with sensor data



Student Journal
As students complete their lab assignment, they can capture aspects of their lab work in the student journal for future reference or assessment.
Modern User Interface (UI/UX)
Other software continues to rely on dialog boxes, whereas Capstone has incorporated more modern UI design elements, such as in-context options and display tools. We are constantly improving our user experience to eliminate stumbling blocks and improve the quality of student learning.
Administrative Control
Features can be turned on and off to minimize distractions during instruction. Educators can choose to give students access to all tools, or just to specific tools for that lesson.
Signal Generator
Capstone's signal generator controls include settings that accommodate the demands of advanced circuits labs. Users can manipulate:
- Waveforms: DC, sine, square, triangle, positive/negative ramp, positive square, positive up/down ramp
- Sweep: single, repeat, bi-directional
- Voltage offset
- Voltage and Current and Limit

Oscilloscope
Capstone provides a display that behaves like a digital oscilloscope and includes related tools. These enhancements differ from other software that uses the same graph display for slower and faster sampling rates:
- Trigger
- Single trace collection
- Sample rate tied to time axis scale
- Set trace offset

Graph Display Unique Features
- Multiple area selection for data analysis
- Exclude data points
- Mutli-y Coordinate tool
- Axis Quick-Calcs

Importing
- External data (.csv files) can be imported into Capstone and analyzed.
- Text, images, and videos can also be easily imported into the Capstone workbook.
- Data collected using SPARKvue can be opened in Capstone for more extensive analysis.
Exporting
- Export Capstone files into other applications as .txt or .csv files.
- New export wizard in Capstone 2 lets student choose which measurements and runs, eliminating data post-processing.
- Copy graphs and other displays into word processing or presentation software.
Video Analysis
- Study motion in two dimensions.
- Simultaneously start USB webcam and data collection.
- Display velocity and acceleration vectors.
- Auto-track objects to speed up data capture.
Video Analysis Highlights
- Magnifying glass identifies the exact center of the object for precision tracking
- Calibration ruler to get accurate data
- Easy angle measurements
- Move the origin of the axes
- Create annotations to capture student thinking, or explain important moments
- Change playback rate is especially useful for high-speed capture
- Automatic or custom frame advance
- Reposition any point to correct mistakes


More Video Analysis Features
- Track more than one object
- Generate x-y data for position, velocity, and acceleration
- Measure the radius of a circle
- Make linear measurements in frames or snapshots
- Set the number of frames that are advanced
- Object vectors help students visualize the velocity and acceleration on the object
- Frame-skipping enables high-speed video analysis

Already have a license key?
You may use any valid license key with the trial downloads provided here to activate the full version of PASCO Capstone.
Windows® Computers
- File name: PASCO_Capstone-2.2.2.1.exe
- File size: 224.37 MB
- Version: 2.2.2
- Released: Jan 11th, 2021
- Full Release Notes
Mac® Computers
- File name: PASCOCapstone_Mac-2.2.2.1.dmg
- File size: 195.03 MB
- Version: 2.2.2
- Released: Jan 11th, 2021
- Full Release Notes
System Requirements
Windows
- Windows 7 sp1 or later
- Processor: Intel i3 1st Gen (or equivalent) or later
- RAM: 2GB (32-bit), 4GB (64-bit) or greater
- Disk Space: 394 MB
- Resolution: 1280 x 720 or higher
Mac
- Mac OS X v 10.12 or later
- Processor: Intel i3 1st Gen (or equivalent) or later
- RAM: 4 GB or greater
- Disk Space: 415 MB or greater
- Resolution: 1280 x 720 or higher
About The Free Trial
- This is a fully-functional 60-day free trial of PASCO Capstone software for Windows or Mac Computers.
- After the 60 day trial, a licensed version of PASCO Capstone will be required to continue.
Release Notes
Release Notes for PASCO Capstone v2.2.2
Capstone v2.2.2 is a hotfix release to fix some critical issues.
Resolved issues for v2.2.2
- This release fixes the issue where when you double click on an experiment file to open it in the app, it would try to run the installer and fail. It now opens the app and the experiment properly.
- The data for the Angle Measurement on the Polarimeter now goes the right direction. And the data will automatically be zeroed on power-up.
Release Notes for PASCO Capstone v2.2.1
Capstone v2.2.1 is a hotfix for MacOS only.
Resolved issue for 2.2.1:
Fixed an issue with the Mac installer where some user files may be deleted during the installation of Capstone.Rel
Release Notes for PASCO Capstone v2.2.0
Capstone v2.2.0 is a minor release and includes FREE upgrades for existing Capstone users.
New Features in 2.2.0:
- Support for the Smart Cart Motor
- Support for the Code Node Cart
- Support for the Wireless Polarimeter
- Capstone now adapts to high resolution screens for a better UI experience.
- Blockly can now be run without requiring a sensor to be connected.
- If code in Blockly is referencing a sensor that is not connected it will now warn the user when they try to execute the Blockly code.
- Blockly will now allow User Calculations, User-Entered Data Measurements and Video Analysis Measurements in the [value of ] block.
Resolved issue for 2.2.0
- The Mac release is once again notarized so installations will go smoothly once again.
- Fixed the dreaded hang at 55% during a file open.
- Fixed a crash on the Mac when choosing the Manual Entry tile.
- There was an issue with the Photogate Timing data being aligned properly. This issue has been fixed.
- The Display menu is no longer completely disabled when a workbook page is locked. Now only certain items in the menu are disabled when the page is locked.
- The Welcome screen tiles no longer prompt you to save the experiment when all you did was open the Hardware Setup to connect a sensor or something.
- Fixed an issue where sometimes a file that was opened and had a User Calculation in it could cause Capstone to become unresponsive.
- Fixed the issue on Mac where you couldn’t re-save an experiment that had Journal snapshots.
- Fixed a crash when running on the upcoming Big Sur MacOS when connecting to a wireless sensor.
- Blockly was ignoring the fact that the user had changed the Measurement name type to be displayed. It is now paying attention.
- Fixed a few minor issues with wireless sensor name qualification.
- The Wireless Accelerometer/Altimeter will now sample at 5kHz when the user selects that sample rate.
- When you had a large number of runs, the run selector in the Graph would just extend off the screen. It now creates a second column to continue displaying new runs.
- The Graph legend now adds a scroll bar when there are a large number of runs.
- Fixed a couple of crashes involving the Material Testing System.
- Fixed a display issue in Russian where some menu items were overlapping each other.
- Made a few fixes to our circuit emulation.
- The new Welcome screen now honors that page shape preference when it is changed.
- If you change the sampling mode such that it caused the sample rate maximum to be reduced (like with a sound, voltage sensor and others), the sample rate was not being changed in the Experiment Control bar. We squashed that bug good.
- Fixed the issue where when you select a sampling mode that allows a higher maximum sample rate (sound, voltage, etc.), the up arrow on the sample rate selector was still disabled.
- Changing the Time units on the X axis now properly changes the scale of all the plot areas in a multi-plot graph.
- The sample rate control is now disabled if a timing device is connected.
- Added the word Ambient to the Wireless Light Sensor. It now reads Wireless Ambient Light Sensor.
Release Notes for PASCO Capstone v2.1.1
Capstone v2.1.1 is a Windows only hotfix. This version fixes the problem introduced into v2.1.0 which caused the program to fail to run on Windows 7SP1 and Windows 8.1. If you are on Windows 10 or Mac, you do not need this new release.
Release Notes for PASCO Capstone v2.1.0
Capstone v2.1.0 is a minor release and includes FREE upgrades for existing Capstone users.
New Features in 2.1.0:
- The Blockly programming environment has been updated with new blocks that support the //code.Node.
- The new Wireless Sound Sensor is now fully supported.
- Wireless sensors are now qualified with the 6-digit sensor ID when more than one sensor or measurement
of the same name are connected. - Improved the Blockly code startup so it no longer needs an initial sleep block before getting data from a sensor using the [value of ] block.
- Added a progress dialog to data export for large amounts of data.
- When opening an SPKLAB in Capstone, the Blockly code is now opened in addition to the data.
- In the Circuits display, when dragging a new component from the palette, if you drop it too close to another component in the workspace, the new component no longer disappears, it is not just kicked off to the side so it can be moved into place.
Resolved issue for v2.1.0
- We have now fixed that nasty bug with the Smart Ballistic Cart Accessory when trying to set the launch position to zero. You can now set the position to zero and back the Smart Cart up on the track so it will now fire at the point you started at instead of firing immediately.
- We now set the default duty cycle to 50% on older Capstone experiment files that did not previously have that setting.
- The Show All x-axes setting was out of sync with the behavior, they now match up.
- Certain actions that were taken prior to clicking on one of the new entry tiles or a quick start file were not saved. The user is now prompted to save those changes before the new action is initiated.
- The Slope tool now handles unitless measurements properly when creating the resulting unit.
- If you saved an experiment with an FFT with the settings to both normalize and stack the data, then tried to open it again, Capstone would crash. We squashed that bug.
- In the Bar Meter, the measurement selector button would no longer display the selected measurement after switching between horizontal and vertical layout. This is now fixed.
- In the experiment control bar when setting the sample rate to long duration, after setting the rate to 12.00 h (hours) then next rate was 24.00 d (days). This has now been fixed to show 1.00 d.
- Fixed an issue where a Slope tool was not being saved if the run it was attached to was not shown on the graph.
- If you turned on the Count statistic in the graph, then switched from visual to tabular stats, then clicked Undo to return back to visual stats, the Count statistic was not shown. The Count now shows as a visual statistic now when you click that Undo.
- The Ballistic Cart tool no longer interferes with Blockly code.
- Fixed a crash when a wireless sensor was turned off while the Remote Logging Configuration dialog was open.
- In the Circuit Emulator, when an uncharged capacitor was added to circuit such that the capacitor was in a short circuit path, the circuit used to show electrons flowing. This bug has been fixed and short-circuited capacitors only show electron flow if they are charged first, then the electrons slow and stop. No electrons show if the capacitor starts with no charge.
- Fixed an issue with the tabular form of the stats where moving the stats box around could not be undone.
- Checking or unchecking a measurement or run in the Export Data Preview dialog would lockup Capstone if there was a large amount of data. This no longer occurs.
- In some cases, if you deleted a visual statistic, undoing would not restore the statistic. This has been fixed.
- Undoing the deletion of a run with a Coordinate or Delta tool now restores the tool properly connected to the data points.
- Deleting the last run did not delete the attached Coordinate tool. It now deletes it properly.
- If you moved the only Y axis to the right side of a graph, saved the experiment and reopened it, you would get a spurious new axis on the left side in addition to the valid axis on the right side. The spurious new axis now no longer appears.
- Fixed an issue where changing the Time unit on the X axis of a graph with multiple plot areas only changed one of the plot areas.
- The run symbol selector in the properties of a User Entered Data measurement was showing the same symbol in all the dropdown list items. It now properly shows the different symbols that can be selected.
- Fixed the default scaling of the graph when you select a measurement on an axis.
- Fixed the issue where you had to press the Cancel button first in the Calibration Tool before you could calibrate the Magnetic Field Sensor.
- The new Derivative Span setting in the Recording Conditions dialog was not being saved. It is now saved so when you open an experiment it is still set properly.
- Fixed an issue where cancelling out of a calibration could cause the sensor to be shown twice in the Hardware Setup panel.
- Fixed a crash that could occur by changing timing modes after taking a run of data.
Release Notes for PASCO Capstone v2.0.1.1
- This version of Capstone extends the trial period to 180 days.
Release Notes for PASCO Capstone v2.0.0.44
Capstone 2.0 is a major release and FREE upgrade for existing Capstone users. There major new features include;
- New Circuit display which enables students to simulate electrical circuits and model directly with modular circuits and connected voltage and current sensors.
- New Blockly programming environment has been integrated into Capstone. Custom blocks allow students to interact with all PASCO sensors and output devices such as the Signal Generator or a Smart Fan Accessory. Create text or numeric data in Blockly and display it on the screen.
- Updated graph analysis tools to streamline interaction and make data analysis easier.
- New startup view enabling students to quickly get started using Capstone. There are three startup views including the classic template view that can be changed through preferences.
Additional Improvements Include
- Remote logging delayed start until power button is pressed on wireless sensors
- Wireless Acceleration/Altimeter sensor also supports start and stop conditions during remote logging.
- Adjust the duty cycle for a square wave in the Signal Generator for the 850 and 550 interfaces.
- When a palette in the workbook is closed, there is now an ellipses button that can be clicked to reopen that palette.
- The following new hardware is now supported
- Wireless Diffraction Scanner
- Wireless AC/DC Module
- Wireless Sound Sensor
- Smart Ballistic Cart Accessory
- Smart Cart Vector Display
- Various Bug fixes
Release Notes for PASCO Capstone v1.13.4
This is a maintenance release of the PASCO Capstone software.
Resolved Issues for v1.13.4
- Fixed an issue where MacOS versions from HighSierra (v10.13) and earlier suddenly could no longer see any device connected via USB.
- Fixed an issue where a 550 could show up as a USB Link in the hardware setup panel.
- The application will no longer crash on MacOS Mojave when you try to access the onboard camera.
Capstone Software Licensing for Windows® and Mac® OS
Already have a license key? You may use any valid license key with the trial downloads provided here to activate the full version of PASCO Capstone. See the Downloads page for Windows and Mac installers.
Site License: College/University
U.S. Educator Price: $699This generous Site License includes rights to install PASCO Capstone on all computers in your college/university department; the one-time cost includes free updates. Download access will be provided after store checkout.
Site License: K-12
U.S. Educator Price: $299This generous Site License includes rights to install PASCO Capstone on all computers on your K-12 school campus; the one-time cost includes free updates. Download access will be provided after store checkout.
Single User License
U.S. Educator Price: $149The Single User License includes rights to install PASCO Capstone on a single computer for classroom demonstrations or individual activities. Download access will be provided after store checkout.
Already have a license key?
If you already have a license key (or were given one by your instructor) download the free trial version, install it and enter your license key. The license allows students to install a copy on their own computers.
Continuously Improved
Your one-time purchase of a license or download of PASCO Capstone Software includes free updates. Our software is continuously improved with additional features, streamlined processes, and support for our innovative new products. Much of that improvement comes directly from feedback provided by educators. If there is something you would like to see in the next version of Capstone, we want to hear from you, so please contact us!
Please contact Technical Support if you have any download or installation issues.