Standalone measuring

Versions of the WiFiScope WS6 - 1000XM with option L are capable of performing standalone measurements. The instrument needs to be connected via LAN or WiFi mode, the Power/Mode button must switched on.

The instruments can be setup to perform a specific measurement and then started. They will then perform the measurements and store the measurements on an internal solid state disk. Then no longer a connection with a computer is required to perform the measurements. As long as the instrument is powered, it will perform measurements. When the power is interrupted, the instrument will be powered from its own battery and continue measuring. When the battery is empty, the instrument will stop. When power comes back, the instrument will start up again and will resume measuring.

Using the Multi Channel oscilloscope software, the status of the instruments can be monitored via LAN or WiFi, measurements can be downloaded and events can be generated when the instrument has performed a measurement. When the network connection is interrupted, the instrument remains measuring and storing the measurements internally. When the network connection is restored, monitoring will take place again and notifications of new messages will be sent.

To use the instrument as standalone instrument and monitor it using the Multi Channel oscilloscope software, 4 steps are required:

• Setup the instrument for the specific measurements it has to perform
• Switch the instrument to standalone mode
• Start measuring on the standalone instrument
• Monitor the instrument using the Multi Channel oscilloscope software

To setup an instrument for standalone measuring, first connect it to a computer running the Multi Channel oscilloscope software, via LAN or WiFi. Setup the instrument to perform your measurement, e.g. by loading a previously saved .TPS file from disk.

Then right-click the instrument in the Object Tree and select Standalone→Upload standalone setfile from the popup menu.

This will upload the current measurement settings of the instrument to a setting file inside the instrument, for standalone use.

Now the instrument can be set in standalone mode, by right-clicking the instrument in the Object Tree and selecting Standalone → Set in standalone mode from the popup menu. The instrument is now switched to standalone mode and no longer directly controlled by the Multi Channel oscilloscope software. It is removed from the Oscilloscopes section in the Object Tree.

A new section Standalone instruments is added to the Object Tree, to which the instrument is now added.

Right-clicking the standalone instrument in the Object Tree and selecting Show settings window will open the settings window for the standalone instrument.

Placing a check in the Measuring checkbox will start measurements on the standalone scope. When a measurement is performed, the measured data will be automatically stored to the internal storage space in the instrument itself. The Measurements list in the settings window will show all measurements, with date and time stamp and instrument serial number. This storage can hold 10000 measurements or 30 GByte of data, whichever limit is reached first. When this number is exceeded and a new measurement is performed, the oldest measurement will be removed and the new one stored. The instrument can generate a notification when a measurement is performed.

The Multi Channel oscilloscope software can monitor one or more standalone measuring instruments. These instruments are listed in the Object Tree, with their name, alias and status.

When more standalone instruments are being monitored, they are all listed with their respective status symbols. One instrument can be made active instrument, by clicking it once in the Object Tree. This instrument is shown in blue.

The following status symbols are being used:

• The standalone instrument is initializing
• Measurements performed, 2 unviewed measurements
• The standalone instrument is measuring
• The standalone instrument is not measuring
• The standalone instrument is not connected

The Standalone Instruments section title shows a status summary of all instruments. In the image above, there are 20004 unviewed measurements, there are two instruments measuring and one instrument is not measuring.

Right-clicking a standalone instrument in the list will show a popup menu, from which the standalone instrument settings window can be opened, various settings can be changed and the instrument web interface can be opened.

When one or more standalone instruments are available on the network, but not listed in the software yet, they can be added via the Manage instruments window. To open the window, select menu Instruments → Manage instruments.

To add a standalone instrument to the monitored list, locate the instrument and click it once to select it (becomes blue). Next click the To Standalone mode button to add the instrument.

Using the To instrument mode button, a selected standalone instrument can be switched to normal instrument, no longer measuring standalone.

To view measurement performed by the standalone instrument, a toolbar is available in the main window:

Using the buttons on the toolbar, it is possible to navigate through the stored measurements and view them. The toolbar acts on the active standalone instrument, the one shown in blue in the list. A demo instrument similar to the actual instrument will be created in the software, to show the measurement results.

The following buttons are available:

• view the first measurement
• view the previous measurement
• view the next measurement
• view the last measurement
• clear the current measurement view (the measurement itself is not deleted)
• show the settings window with the list of all measurements

Depending on the selected Measurements download mode the measurement is copied from the instrument or moved from the instrument.

In the settings window, a measurement can be viewed by double-clicking it.

Placing a check in the Advanced checkbox will show all advanced settings in the settings window.

Additional settings become visible, which are usually only set once.

Measurements

Monitoring enabled

Mode

Measuring

Name

Host

Password

Measurements path

Measurements full path

Measurements download mode

Delete

State

Alias

Event actions

For each standalone instrument it is possible to generate events when something in the state of the instrument changes. These state changes include that a measurement is performed, that a measurement is downloaded, that the instrument was disconnected, or reconnected, etc. Possible events that can be generated are showing a Windows message, generating a sound, sending an e-mail, add an entry in a log file etc.

Right-clicking the Event action list, shows a popup menu with the following options:

Option	Description
Add	This adds a new event action to the list
Edit	This opens the event action settings window
Delete	This removes the event action

Right-clicking a specific event action and selecting Edit or double-clicking the event action will open the Event action settings window, in which the event action can be configured.

Depending on the selected trigger(s) and action, one or more of the following settings can be adjusted.

Name

The setting Name sets the name of the Event action.

Triggers

The setting Triggers defines what event in the standalone instrument will trigger an event. Multiple triggers can be selected. Available triggers are:

Trigger	Description
Measurement	activates when a measurement is performed
Downloaded	activates when a measurement is downloaded
Reconnected	activates when the instrument is reconnected to the network
Disconnected	activates when the instrument is disconnected from the network
Measuring started	activates when measuring is started
Measuring stopped	activates when measuring is stopped
Mode switched	activates when the Instrument / Standalone Instrument mode is switched
Measuring warning	activates when a measuring warning occurs
Measuring error	activates when a measuring error occurs
Measuring OK	activates when measuring is OK

Hold off time

To avoid that too many events are generated in a short time, a hold-off time can be set, in seconds, in which no new events will be generated. Once an event is generated, the hold-off timer will start running and during that time, no new event will be generated.

Hold off on unviewed

When the setting Hold off on unviewed is enabled, only one event will be generated when one or more new measurements are performed on the standalone instrument. Only when all measurements are viewed and a new measurement is performed, a new event will be generated.

Action

The setting Action defines what kind of event is generated after a trigger:

Action	Description
Sound	play a sound on the computer monitoring the standalone instrument
Message	show a Windows message on the computer monitoring the standalone instrument
Mail	send an e-mail to a specific address
Log to file	log an entry to a log file
Command	execute an external command

For the e-mail option it is required that an e-mail program is installed on the computer and that it is properly configured to send e-mails.

Sound file

The setting Sound file allows to select a sound file from the Windows sound system, to be played when the event is triggered.

This setting is only available when Action Sound is selected.

Subject

The setting Subject sets the subject of a Windows message or an e-mail that is sent when the event is triggered. Custom text can be entered, as well as one or more predefined variables, like e.g. Instrument name, Measurement name, Event, etc.

This setting is only available when Action Mail or Action Message is selected.

Message text

The setting Message text sets the message body of a Windows message or an e-mail that is sent when the event is triggered. Custom text can be entered, as well as one or more predefined variables, like e.g. Instrument name, Measurement name, Event, etc.

This setting is only available when Action Mail or Action Message is selected.

Address

The setting Address allows to set an e-mail address where a message will be sent to when the event is triggered.

This setting is only available when Action Mail is selected.

Attach file

The checkbox Attach file determines if the measurement that is downloaded is attached to the e-mail that will be sent.

This setting is only available when Action Mail is selected, in combination with Trigger Downloaded.

Filename

The setting Filename sets the file name of the log file where an entry is logged when the event is triggered. Custom text can be entered, as well as one or more predefined variables, like e.g. working directory, instrument name, etc.

This setting is only available when Action Log to file is selected.

Command

The setting Command sets the name of a Windows batch file that is to be executed when the event is triggered. Custom text can be entered, as well as one or more predefined variables, like e.g. Instrument name, Measurement name, Event, etc.

This setting is only available when Action Command is selected.

Working directory

The setting Working directory sets the working directory where a command must be executed, in case of an event. Custom text can be entered, as well as one or more predefined variables, like e.g. working directory, instrument name, etc.

This setting is only available when Action Command is selected.

Test

The button Test activates the event, to verify that all settings are correct.

One option to let the software do when a measurement is performed and downloaded, is to convert the measured data into a CSV file, for further processing. The Multi Channel oscilloscope software itself can be used for that, using command line parameters.

To do that, an event action Command is used, triggered when the measurement is downloaded. An example is given below:

• The name of the event is ConvertToCsv, as given by the user
• It is triggered by Downloaded
• The action to perform is a Command

The command that will be executed is:

"C:\Program Files\TiePie\MultiChannel\MultiChannel.exe" -console -d "{MeasurementLocalFilename}" -SaveScp "{InstrumentMeasurementsFullPath}{MeasurementName}.csv"

When a measurement needs to be converted to CSV but then also something else needs to be done, a batch file can be used:

The command used is:

"C:\Program Files\TiePie\MultiChannel\ConverToCsv.cmd" "{MeasurementLocalFilename}" "{InstrumentMeasurementsFullPath}{MeasurementName}.csv"

The content of the batch file ConvertToCsv.cmd is:

rem usage: ConverToCsv ‹filename to convert› ‹Result filename›

"C:\Program Files\TiePie\MultiChannel\MultiChannel.exe" -console -d %1  -SaveScp %2

rem test %ERRORLEVEL% to see if command executed without errors.

rem put here your own commands