Alternate way to manage scope & digital trace windows

Alternate way to manage scope & digital trace windows, a forum discussion on Cleverscope Mixed Signal USB Oscilloscopes. Join us for more discussions on Alternate way to manage scope & digital trace windows on our Desired Features forum.

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lbarello

12 May 2006
Posts:

I would like to see alternate methods of viewing the data: having all those windows really clutters up the desktop. For example: having the ability to zoom into the main graph without changing the sample rate would eliminate the need for a tracking graph. I am thinking in terms of a classic delaying analog scope: The acquisition unit would sample & retain pre or post trigger samples per the setup. Then the window, zoomed, could slew back & forth.

Or, if the tracking graph could ""dock"" under (or over) the scope graph. Actually, now that I think about it, there really should be just two windows: Scope and digital. They should be dockable and you should be able to have multiple instances on the screen each with their own ""zoom"". Of course, then the auto adjust of sample rate, offset and gain would need to be exposed as knobs for the user to adjust.

It would also be nice to get rid of the basic signal information (again, perhaps a dockable window that can slide out of the way until you need it).
bartschroder

12 May 2006
Posts: 477

Hello, thanks for the input.
I am having a bit of difficulty understanding your requirement. First once you capture something (and say you have 2 frames, and the scope width is less than 20msec) the sample rate is fixed - usually at 10ns per sample. All you see with the scope graph is a view of it. After having captured it, you can zoom in/out on either graph as you desire. The underlying 10ns sample rate will not change. The scope works just like a TDS Tek scope - the scope graph sets the pre/post trigger view, including delay (you can have a positive delay on the trigger of upto 42 secs), and as you say - sets the gain and offset. These could be set by knobs as you say, but users I speak to liked the intuitive way the Tek TDS scopes worked.

The reason we have several windows (none other than the scope graph have to be used) is that we have many users who have multiple display screens, and while doing development they just stash the windows over to one side of one of the screens, and have the development environment running center stage.

A single window would be, in my view, a whole lot more clumsy than multiple windows, each with independant control - as they are now.

I agree that we could hide the information area - though you are the first to suggest it. We will look at a button for that!

Thanks for the suggestions.
lbarello

14 May 2006
Posts:

As I use the Cleverscope more, I am getting better at manipulating the screen to capture the information I desire. Although a bit dissapointed at first, as I become more familiar with the unit I am becoming happier and happier with my choice.

As you say, once captured, one can zoom around and analyse w/o the tracing graph. However, if one wants to scan down a trace that is updating, then the second window is needed. THe main window becomes the ""control knobs"" and the linked tracking graph the display. One cannot expand the main window to zoom in on a region of interest without messing with the original setup (or remember to save it). With the tracking graph I can pan and zoom without modifying the main display and thus the sample rate.
A concrete example: I am trying to capture 1/2 second of I2C data trying to find a bug. The data is very sparse. When the event happens, the screen stops updating (no more activity) and then I start scanning the trace (Typically the last transaction before things died). I need mega-zoom to do this. I don't want to re-scale the main screen, just zoom into the region of interest, scan through it, then return and try to capture the event again. At 100khz, the region of interest is much less than a pixel wide on the main display. Being able to achieve this with one window would open up real-estate on my screen.

Maybe you already have a solution for this that I have not discovered yet? Can I lock the sample rate & gain and then expand/contract the main window? Am I suppose to save the main setup (S1 or S2) and restore it when done scanning? Hmm, I think I just answered my own question. Now I am even happier with my choice :)

I too use multiple displays which are already full, so minimizing the impact of the Cleverscope on real estate is important to me (or spring for some 1600x1200 displays and a bigger bench). Having one main window that can have children windows either as independent windows, or MDI windows that are docked, or docked and hidden (slide aside) would allow me to focus on the data and then slide out windows for triggers/trace/etc. If needed I could undock the trigger window and place it elsewhere. I used functionality similar to this in Microsoft Visual Studio and it was very nice: Maximum space for code with information & breakpoint, etc. windows that slid out as needed.

That said, the current scheme does work well enough as I can hide/restore the control window and graphs as needed and it is pretty simple/easy to understand. Now that I know how to swap display setups I can get the windows down to a single visible window that pretty much has everything I need (for now).
bartschroder

14 May 2006
Posts: 477

Hello Ibarello,
You have given us an idea - we already have the lock display button to stop further changes to the display. We can make it so there is a lock acuisition button - click this and the acquirer setup gets locked for acquisition, but allows you to keep triggering while zooming/panning. Would this be a suitable way?
lbarello

15 May 2006
Posts:

I think so. I essentially do this by saving my "acquisition" settings in S1 then clicking on that whenever I wanted to capture another screen full. If I could pan & zoom and preserve my trigger & sample rate (e.g. lock) and then hit "single trace" when I wanted an update, that would very much satisfy my request. Then I could zoom into a particular region without messing with the trigger & sample rate. I could still use S1/S2 to swap between views of the data.
bartschroder

26 May 2006
Posts: 477

Ok, we will do this.
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