XITRON XT2640 - Configuring Data Logging Timing; Configuring Data Logging Record Contents

XT2640OperatingManual 13July2016 Page127of187
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Abinaryfileisnominally3xsmallerthantheequivalentASCIIfilesomoredatacanbewrittenintothemaximum
alloweddatalogfilesizeof4Gbytes.
Abinaryfiletypicallyhasa3:1fasterwritingspeedthantheequivalentASCIIfile,allowingshorterintervalstobe
usedwhenloggingtoaslowerdrive.
Althoughthebinaryfileislimitedto4Gbytesinlength,theresultingASCIIfilemaynotbelimitedtothisifitis
savedinthesuppliedapplicationtoadrivewhichdoesnotusetheFAT32format(mostcomputerharddrivesuse
NTFSorlaterformatswhichdonothavethis4Gbytelimitation).
TheFILENAMEbuttonallowsyoutosetthenameofthefilewhichwillbewritten.
Onlyfilenamesusingthe8.3formareallowed.
Theextensionisautomaticallyprovided(either.CSVor.BINdependingontheFORMATsetting).
Thefollowingfilenamesmaynotbeused–
VHLIMIT.CSV
AHLIMIT.CSV
CUSTOM.CSV
TheHEADERbuttonallowsyoutoselectifthefilewillstartwithaheaderrecordornot(thisisonlyavailablefortheASCIIFORMAT
setting).
Ifaheaderissettobeincluded,thenthefirstfilerecordwillcontainatextualdescriptionofeachcolumnofdata.
Recommendation:
Itisrecommendedtoalwaysincludeaheader.Inthismannerifthefileisinspectedatsomelaterdateitisnot
necessarytorememberwhateachdatacolumncorrespondsto.
TheAPPENDFILEbuttonallowsyoutoselectwhatwillhappenifthespecifiedfilealreadyexistsonthedrivewhendataloggingis
started(orthedriveissubsequentlyinsertedafterstartingit).
Recommendation:
APPENDshouldonlybeselectedwhenitisdefinitelyknownthattheexistingdatahasthesameformat.Ifsetto
appendtoanexistingfilethentheexistingcontentsofthefilemaynotbeofthecorrectformattoallowthefileto
beopenedonacomputeraftercompletingthedatalog.
23.7.2 CONFIGURINGDATALOGGINGTIMING
ThisisperformedbyusingthebuttonsintheTIMINGArea.
TheSTARTDELAYbuttonallowsyoutoselectifactualdataloggingistostartafteradelayhasexpiredfollowingpressingtheSTART
button.
InthedataentryscreensforSTARTDELAYtherearefourentries,oneforeachunitofdays,hours,minutesandseconds.
Thescreenalwaysstartswiththedaysdataselected;youcanjumptoanyofthefourentriesdirectlybypressingthe
respectiveentryarea.
Youcanenteranumericbetween0and99intoanyofthefourentries.Theactualtimeusedisthetotaltimecreatedby
combiningallfourentrieswiththeirrespectiveunits.
WhentheENTbuttonispressedtheselectedentryareaautomaticallychangestonextentrytotheright,unlesstheseconds
entryisselectedwhentheactionissameaspressingtheoverallRETURNbutton.
PressingtheRETURNbuttonreturnstotheDataLoggingConfigureScreenandsavestheconfiguredtime,whereas
pressingtheCANCELbuttonreturnstotheDataLoggingConfigureScreenwithoutsavinganychangeddata.
TheRUNTIMEbuttonallowsyoutoselectifdataloggingistorununtilmanuallystopped(MANUAL)ortorunforaspecificperiodof
time.IfsettorunforaspecifictimethentheentryofthattimefollowsthesameprocedureassettingtheSTARTDELAY(above).
TheINTERVALbuttonallowsyoutosetthedatalogginginterval.Theentryoftheintervalfollowsthesameprocedureasthatforthe
STARTDELAYandtheRUNTIME(above),butusesadifferentsetoffourentries(hours,minutes,seconds,and1/100
th
seconds).If
anintervaltimeof0isenteredthen0.002secondsisused.
23.7.3 CONFIGURINGDATALOGGINGRECORDCONTENTS
ThisisperformedbyusingthebuttonsintheDATAarea.
TheTIMESTAMPbuttonallowsyoutoselectifeachrecordistocontainthetimeofdayanddateinformation,ornot.
Thefirstdataofeveryrecordisalwaystherecordnumberwhichcontinuouslyincrements.
Ifenabled,thetimeofdayistheseconddataofeveryrecordandinASCIIformatitisformattedastheprevalenttime
formatsettingfortheXT2640(i.e.12or24hourformat).
Ifenabled,thedateisthethirddataofeveryrecordandinASCIIformatitisformattedastheprevalentdateformatsetting
fortheXT2640(i.e.DD:MM:YYYYorMM:DD:YYYY).
Recommendation:
Itisrecommendedtoalwaysselectthatatimestampwillbeincluded,otherwiseyouwillhavenorecordofwhen
adatalogfilewasactuallygenerated.
TheSELECTDATAbuttonallowsyoutoselecteachofthe16dataselectionswhichwillbelogged.Thelowerhalfofthebutton
showshowmanydataintotal(includingtherecordnumberandanytimestampinformation)willbegeneratedbythepresent
selectionsfortheSELECTDATAandTIMESTAMPsettings.FortheASCIIformat,eachdataistypically12bytesofstorage,otherwise
eachdataisexactly4bytesofstorage.