TracerDAQ

TracerDAQ contains several applications to acquire or generate data from your data acquistion system:

Strip Chart with data logging functionality
Oscilloscope
Function Generator
Rate Generator

Strip Chart

Use the Strip Chart to acquire and log data from up to eight analog input, temperature input, digital input, or event counter channels

To run the Strip Chart, highlight it on the application list, and then click the Run button.

The Strip Chart window opens, as shown below.

Configuring the Strip Chart

Once the Strip Chart window is open, you need to select the hardware, channel(s), and data range used as the data source.

From the File menu, select New.... The DAQ Hardware Settings dialog opens.
From the first row of the DAQ Device column, select the your USB1208-FS device from the list-box.

The drop-down list shows the device ID and device name for all boards that are configured by InstaCal. When you select a device, the first channel and range supported by the device appear in the DAQ Channel and DAQ Range/Mode columns.
Right-mouse click on the first column, and select AutoFill All from the popup menu. This automatically configures the DAQ Device, DAQ Channel and DAQ Range/Mode for the remaining channels on the dialog.
Click on the OK button to save the settings
From the Edit menu, select Scan Rate/Trigger Settings ... to get the following dialog box.

You can change the Scan Rate and Acquire data for settings so that the scan runs for the desired time and at the desired rate. Then click on the OK button to save the settings and close the dialog.
From the Edit menu, you may also select Channel Settings, as shown below, to configure the style of the strip chart display.

Running the Strip Chart

The DAQ controls consist of the conventional Run, Pause, and Stop buttons to control data acquisition

Sets the value per major horizontal division. Click the up/down arrows to change the value. Use the mouse wheel to roll the timebase up or down. Hold the shift key to change the timebase by factors of ten. The Auto mode adjusts the timebase to continually display all data points.

Clicking on the Scale Mode hotspot sequences through three scaling modes.

Fixed scales the data to the upper and lower limits set for the lane.
Auto calculates a scale that best fits the data
NonOverlapped evenly scales all channels such that they do not overlap.

Saving Strip Chart data to a file

There are two ways to save data that you acquire on the strip chart:

Automatically log data to a history file (*.sch) as it is acquired on the strip chart
Manually save data to a history file (*.sch) using the Save or Save As menu options. You can save data as a history file (*.sch) or as an ASCII text file (*.csv or *.txt).

The strip chart history file (*.sch) is a binary file. The Excel text file, comma-separated-value (*.csv), can be imported into Excel. Below is an exerpt from a .csv file.

Header Size:  8
Version:  2
Sampling Interval:  0.01
Sampling Rate:  100
Sample Count:  3000
Device Serial Number:  0
Culture Info:  en-US
Sample Number,Data/Time,CHANNEL0,CHANNEL1,CHANNEL2,CHANNEL3,Events
1,08/30/2012 02:54:35.406 PM, 2.5556, 0.0012, 0.0012, 0.0012, DAQ Start
2,08/30/2012 02:54:35.416 PM, 2.5604, 0.0012, 0.0037, 0.0037
3,08/30/2012 02:54:35.426 PM, 2.5556, 0.0012, 0.0037, 0.0037
4,08/30/2012 02:54:35.436 PM, 2.5482, 0.0012, 0.0037, 0.0037
5,08/30/2012 02:54:35.446 PM, 2.5458, 0.0012, 0.0012, 0.0037
6,08/30/2012 02:54:35.456 PM, 2.5556, 0.0012, 0.0037, 0.0037
7,08/30/2012 02:54:35.466 PM, 2.5604, 0.0012, 0.0012, 0.0037
8,08/30/2012 02:54:35.476 PM, 2.5580, 0.0012, 0.0012, 0.0012
9,08/30/2012 02:54:35.486 PM, 2.5482, 0.0012, 0.0037, 0.0012

Maintained by John Loomis, last updated 30 August 2012