User Interface

[rk:thumb src="user-interface/mainwindow.png"]

Toolbar

The toolbar at the top contains often used buttons to control the software and the oscilloscope:

File

The first toolbar contains import and export functionality for the settings and sampledata.

• Open: Loads the settings of the oscilloscope from a configuration file that was saved earlier.
• Save: Saves the current oscilloscope settings into the last configuration file.
• Save as...: Saves the current oscilloscope settings into a user specified configuration file.
• Print: Prints the scope screen.
• Export...: Saves the scope screen or the sample data into a user specified file.

Oscilloscope

The second toolbar contains oscilloscope controls.

• Start/Stop: Starts or stops the oscilloscope. This can be used to hold the currently displayed graphs. After triggering once in "Single" trigger mode, the software automatically stops the oscilloscope.

View

The third toolbar contains control buttons for the scope screen.

• Digital phosphor: With activated digital phosphor, the graphs will slowly fade out instead of instantly disappear when the graph is redrawn.
• Zoom: This enables the zoomed scope below the main scope. The magnified area can be specified using the markers in the main scope.

Sidebar

The sidebar contains various docking windows to control the oscilloscope. The available docking windows are:

Horizontal

The "Horizontal" docking window contains settings to control the samplerate and the way the data is displayed.

• Timebase: The time between two horizontal divs on the scope screen for voltage graphs. This also controls the samplerate of the oscilloscope automatically.
• Frequencybase: The frequency between two horizontal divs on the scope screen for spectrum graphs.
• Format: The way the graphs are drawn on the scope screen. Y - T is the normal mode with time/frequency on the horizontal axis. X - Y uses channel 1 for the X-Axis and channel 2 for the Y-Axis.

Trigger

The "Trigger" docking window contains settings to control the trigger event and mode.

• Mode: "Normal" mode triggers every time the trigger event occurs. "Auto" mode triggers automatically when it doesn't get a trigger event. "Single" mode is like "Normal" mode but stops after triggering once, so you have to start the scope again (Via the "Start" button in the toolbar).
• Source: The source channel that the scope searches for a trigger event.
• Slope: The slope the scope triggers to.

Voltage

The "Voltage" docking window contains settings for each voltage input channel of the oscilloscope.

• CH1/CH2/Math: Those are the available channels, they can be enabled/disabled using the checkboxes before the names. The settings next to the name control only this specific channel.
• Gain: The first combo box sets the gain for the channel. The given value is the voltage between two vertical divs on the scope screen.
• Coupling: The second combo box controls the input coupling for this channel. "AC" filters out the constant component of the input, "DC" doesn't filter anything and "GND" filters everything giving a horizontal line at zero volts.

Spectrum

The "Spectrum" docking window contains settings to control the spectrum graphs for the voltage input channels.

• CH1/CH2/Math: The channels already seen in the "Voltage" docking window. Here the checkboxes enable/disable the spectrum graphs for them.
• Magnitude: The combo box next to the channel names sets the magnitude for the spectrum graphs. The given value is the power difference in dB between two vertical divs on the scope screen.

Scope

The scope screen displays the waveforms and provides sliders for various oscilloscope settings. The sliders can be moved by dragging them with the left mouse button. By default they can be moved in steps of one subdiv. Pressing Alt while moving a slider ignores the steps and makes it possible to move the sliders to arbitrary positions.

Offset sliders

The offset sliders at the left side set the vertical 0 V/dB position of the graphs on the screen.

Pretrigger slider

The pretrigger slider above the scope screen controls the horizontal position of the trigger point. It allows to show the signal before the trigger event occured.

Trigger level sliders

The trigger level sliders at the right side control the voltage at which a trigger event will be generated.

Marker sliders

The marker sliders below the scope screen are used for measuring time/frequency and set the magnified part of the waveforms when the zoomed screen is shown.

• Added: 11.11.2010 by oliver