DAQARTA REVISION HISTORY:
Version 2.21
Released 12-28-2006.
Version 2.20
Released 8-1-2002.
Version 2.10
Released 8-1-2001.
- New separate Mic Cal and
Spkr Cal, plus
Save option, allow calibration of mics or other
transducers from a single reference unit. Supports
probe tubes and general transfer functions.
- TXT2CAL Text-to-Calibration file
utility now allows selection of kHz
or Hertz for frequency entries.
- Bug Fix: TXT2CAL was not properly
saving DC or highest frequency.
- SHIFT-Pg keys now provide a quicker way
than using the menu control to shift
the Y-log Full-Scale Reference.
Either method now has resolution that
matches the current label step spacing.
- Added 9 more-sensitive Y-log ranges,
now 21 total, down to as little as 6 dB
full scale. Used with FS Ref control
or SHIFT-Pg keys, allows magnified
views of any portion of trace.
- SHIFT-HOME and SHIFT-END now support
Y-log mode, including both range and
FS Ref, with separate retention of
settings for each Cal state.
- SHIFT-ALT-HOME now sets the current
trace magnification (or Y-log range and
FS Ref) to be used when SHIFT-HOME is
hit, allowing simple flipping between
two preset trace magnifications.
- Bug Fix: FFT32 Y-log null values (no
energy at a given spectrum line) now
appear properly at bottom of trace,
up to -325 dB if needed. Previously,
nulls showed as only -90 dB, even on
ranges that went lower.
- Bug Fix: FFT32 spectral averages gave
values that were 70% high if real and
imaginary components were exactly
equal.
- Bug Fix: OutTx text header now
properly shows the name of any active
calibration file.
Version 2.00a
Released 4-11-2001.
- Serious Bug Fix: Use of new (v2.00)
Y-axis Calibration
options could cause system lock-up.
- Bug Fix: PSD could
give erroneous results at samples rates under 1 kHz.
- Bug Fix: FFT32 of
averaged waveform
could produce erroneous values for
least-significant digits of
cursor readouts or
text file output.
- Bug Fix: If a requested file was not
found by the File Access
system, the error message included a prompt to 'Press any
key to continue...', but the message persisted even after
the key was pressed.
Version 2.00
Released 3-1-2001.
- Supports STIM3A
Dynamic stimulus generation.
- For unregistered users, free-trial
prompt appears after 30 sessions,
replacing Auto-Initialization Key Macro
and blocking STIM3A load unless DEMO
driver is in use.
- Amplitude Distribution Histogram and
Post-Stimulus Time Histogram options
added to Averager.
- Y-axis Calibration menu
Allows Tilt
correction for Pink noise sources or
Step responses.
- Calibration option allows microphone
response correction and absolute SPL
readout.
- Full-scale Y-axis reference can be
set from +200 to -200 dB in 20 dB
steps, instead of fixed 0 dB.
- DDisk recording Memory option allows
extended system memory to be used for
quick recording starts, since no file
save prompt until the recording ends.
Does not require DDISK13A.DRV even for
non-DMA boards, and can save files to
floppy disks.
- DDISK13A.DRV
replaced older DDISK13.DRV to provide support for drives
up to 8.4 GBytes, plus built-in compatibility tests. Only
needed for non-DMA boards.
- Bug Fix: AvAdd and
AvSub did not work
in RTime mode, caused lock-up.
- Bug Fix: Scrolling Averager Sweeps
request below current sweep count while
average was running caused strange menu
and averager behavior.
- Bug Fix: With Norm trigger mode in
RTime, infrequent triggers caused RTime
mode to exit with an overrun message.
- Bug Fix: Starting DDisk while drive
powered down (eg. laptop) caused
lock-up.
- Bug Fix: If DDisk recording ended
during Paused display mode, unPause
attempt could cause erroneous 'Live'
status or possible lock-up.
- Bug Fix: Pause during DDisk recording
with non-DMA board could cause RTime
exit with overrun message.
- Bug Fix: Following link from Help
Index and ESCaping back to index did
not restore the ability to move through
the index by hitting desired letter.
- Bug Fix: Trigger Cycle control now
works properly in Free-Run RTime mode.
Also now works down to settings less
than Npoints to allow Overlap control.
- Bug Fix: Memory Array of trace saved
during exponential waveform averaging
now shows proper screen offset no matter
how few sweeps had elapsed.
- Bug Fix: Erroneous Y-log
spectrum of wave average
with 16-bit FFT mode. (Bug introduced in v1.18.)
- Bug Fix: Virtual Source could produce
overscale values under some conditions,
causing high spiky noise floor with
16-bit FFT mode.
- Bug Fix: Disk cache was not being
properly disabled when requested,
unless it was already empty.
- Bug Fix: Reading files saved with
Windo active could cause apparent 6 dB
drop in live signal level after file
exit.
- Bug Fix: Copying parameters to the
Memo line was not working with CTRL-2
through CTRL-5, only CTRL-1.
Version 1.18
Released 1-5-2000.
- Bug Fix: After a trace was saved to
Memory from a
DskRd file and later
recalled, CTRL-B Trace Info display
erroneously showed info for the current
board, instead of the board actually
used for acquisition. When that trace
was unPaused to go back to the DskRd
file, Trace Info continued to show the
current board. Various problems with
status report after different DskRd and
Memory combinations also fixed.
- Bug Fix: Memory Array of mixed FFT
average and instantaneous traces had
problems after viewing average traces:
Later attempt to view instantaneous
traces showed them all apparently the
same.
- Bug Fix: Changing from a long menu
like Sgram Color to a shorter one like
Board was not properly restoring the
overwritten X-axis units label.
- First 4 lines of DQA.CFG must always
use same pre-defined sequence. A line
inserted in that area could formerly
have resulted in it being mistaken for
a palette file.
Now, palette files are
tested for validity, and start-up is
aborted with an explanation if invalid.
- Bug Fix: Toggling various options like
RTime,
FFT,
Xpand, or
N points caused
displayed submenus (such as
STIM3 page
menus) to jump up to a higher menu
level.
- Bug Fix: Alternate menu pages
(such as STIM3 Misc menu) were
not properly restoring internal status upon exit.
Afterward, only STIM3 DAC pages A and C were accessible.
- Bug Fix: Toggling N points during
X-log display caused multiple and/or
"ghost" cursors on trace.
- Bug Fix: After viewing a Memory Array
the Live trace was not restored
properly under some conditions of data
format and trace mode.
Version 1.17b
Released 10-25-99.
- Bug Fix: Bug fix in Version 1.17a to
block Memory Array of mixed
FFT and
waveform averages was erroneously
blocking other arrays.
- Bug Fix: Using B: parameter on
STIM3.GEN line in
DQA.CFG could cause
corruption of ADC driver or other code.
(Always OK on INIT line.)
- Bug Fix: Default message shown with
WaitS delay was blank. Now properly
defaults to existing comment text if
no WaitS message is requested.
Version 1.17a
Released 10-12-99.
Version 1.17
Released 10-5-99.
- File and trace times are
now maintained to 1 second accuracy. (DOS only stores file
time-stamps in even seconds.)
- Bug Fix: Real Time Clock and DOS time were being
corrupted on Quit, due
to a bug in the DOS time-set function. (To prevent data
corruption, Daqarta turns off the system timer interrupts
during operation, so the system time needs to be reset
from the Real Time Clock.) The DOS bug workaround used
here was previously used for file times... those should be
OK.
Version 1.16
Released 6-17-99.
- Triangle Wave option added to
Virtual Source control menu.
- DEMO driver now has Wave option to
allow Sine, Square, and Triangle as
well as Ramp signals.
- Bug Fix: If cursors have been toggled
off with ViewC, they now no longer
reappear when file or
memory traces are
viewed.
- Bug Fix: Prior Window mode is now
properly restored after viewing memory
trace or array.
- Bug Fix: High-resolution FFT32 option
is now properly
re-enabled after viewing memory array.
- Bug Fix: Strange Window names appeared
in title line when FFT32 memory or file
traces were viewed with FFT32 off.
- Bug Fix: Loading certain FFT average
memory array files caused a CPU
register display indicating a
divide error.
- Bug Fix: After viewing memory array
files of 1024 point
averages,
unPause
sometimes caused program lock-up.
- Bug Fix: After viewing memory array
files, toggling ALT-M off now properly
restores the trace present before
viewing the array.
Version 1.15
Released 5-22-99.
- New Sgram Width control in
DskRd menu
facilitates adjustment of Overlap to
get desired spectrogram expansion with
DskRd file data.
- New Help section on Attenuator Drivers.
- New Help Glossary section on
dB (decibels).
- Bug Fix: File access system is now
able to display root directory.
- Bug Fix: Units ,
U-RMS , and
XCurs keys
are now disabled during Help mode, to
prevent conflicts.
- Bug Fix: When Memory Array is toggled
while upper Help is active, next Help
access no longer goes to lower area.
- Bug Fix: Hitting MemRd while upper
Help is active now exits Help instead
of switching to lower area, which was
covering MemRd ID prompt.
Version 1.14
Released 2-20-99.
- Full Year 2000 compliance with most
BIOSes, even if the BIOS does not
update the century properly. (Y2Kure
driver also released to make any BIOS
fully compliant.)
- Supports all monochrome VGA monitors.
(Those reporting EGA mono status were
formerly rejected as being MDA.)
- Network Incompatibility topic added to
Help system, including instructions
for dual-boot batch files.
- Bug Fix: Enhanced IncNm file name
auto-increment (added in v1.13) was
moving from 009 to 019, 029, etc.
- Bug Fix: Scrolling Speed Factor up
when reading DDisk files did not
properly increase apparent speed.
- Bug Fix: File time auto-increment for
PC/XT (or AT with dead Real-Time Clock)
now properly handles date increments,
including leap years to 2099.
Version 1.13a
Released 11-19-98
Version 1.13
Released 11-15-98
- New OutSc option outputs screen image
to bitmap (.BMP) file.
- Improved IncNm file name auto-increment
now allows active digits in main file
name, not just extension. Also works
with .PAL palette files.
- Readout Units for
DDisk and
DskRd now
allow Samples as well as Bytes,
Seconds, and H:M:S formats.
- DQA.CFG file now allows underscore to
start continued lines for long
parameters or comments.
- The Pause key no longer clears the
WaitP state during DDisk recording,
since when Pause is used during DDisk,
it does not stop recording, only
display.
- Improved handling of infrequent Norm
triggers in RTime mode.
- Improved handling of Key Macros with
DDisk operation. Now allows automatic
Preset file end to skip macro commands
and break out of Loop macros intended
only for DDisk.
- Application note on sound-triggered
sequences added, taking advantage of
improved RTime Norm triggering, DDisk,
and Key Macros.
- Non-Daqarta .WAV files are now properly
handled by DskRd when they hold 16-bit
data but erroneously end on an odd
byte.
- BUG FIX: Fast CPUs could read the
DMA pointer so rapidly that it
interfered with DMA operation at high
transfer rates. Seen on 200 Mhz CPU
in RTime mode with 16-bit ADC and dual
16-bit STIM3 DACs active at high sample
rates on SB16 CT417x board using
dual 8-bit DMAs (for a total of 6
transfers per sample). Pointer is now
read less frequently.
- BUG FIX: Large negative trigger delays
no longer result in transient bursts
of apparent bad data on keystrokes in
Sequential mode.
Only affected trace display, not actual data.
- BUG FIX: Toggling Number of points no
longer results in cursor "ghosts" when
Grid has been toggled off.
- BUG FIX: Starting DDisk now forces
Pause mode if wildcard
file access
displays a list of matching files, to
prevent problems with some ADC boards.
- BUG FIX: Single-sweep option in RTime
mode with STIM3 active was not updating
trace properly.
- BUG FIX: While in RTime spectrogram
mode, setting too high a sample rate on
non-DMA boards caused an overrun that
was not properly handled under some
conditions and caused system lock-up.
- Cosmetic: Trigger menu
level bar always
shown with 0 level for Pulse
and Extern
trigger modes. Was shown with Intern
level (inappropriate for these modes),
and only when slope changed.
- BUG FIX: Following a DskRd operation,
the Preset Size option was ignored on
subsequent DDisk write operations.
- BUG FIX: When DDisk is active, the
Readout Units control is now left
enabled and the Cache control is
properly disabled.
- BUG FIX: The context-sensitive Help
link for the WaitP option was missing.
- BUG FIX: When switching to spectrogram
mode with infrequent Norm triggers in
RTime mode, a
TRIGGER WAIT condition
provoked erroneous or missing axis
values.
- BUG FIX: WaitS was producing erroneous
(very long) delays when set below about
10 msec with CTRL-SHIFT-W.
- BUG FIX: Negative Trigger Slope option
was erroneously disabled by DskRd and
not restored afterward. Trigger Source
is now disabled and re-enabled instead.
- BUG FIX: When viewing a spectrogram of
a DskRd file with non-zero Overlap
setting, toggling Trig/Free gave X-axis
time calibration for opposite mode.
Version 1.12c
Released 7-9-98
- Initial prompt message added.
Version 1.12b
Released 7-4-98
- Better detection of certain invalid DQA.CFG parameter
formats (missing colon, no parameter after colon).
- BUG FIX: Parameters on STIM3.GEN line in DQA.CFG were
improperly handled by STIM3 in certain situations.
Version 1.12
Released 6-23-98
Version 1.11
Released 5-18-98
- BUG FIX: At some high X-axis Xpands,
time axis values had wrong scaling.
- eXpand on Cursors now gives
Alert if
cursors were too close, but eXpands as
much as possible and shows cursors in
their proper positions.
- BUG FIX: Cursor positions were being
forced to low portion of FFT axis when
changing from 1024 to 256 points.
- Changes to support 16-bit ADC data over
8-bit DMA channels on some sound cards.
- Support to allow board drivers to reset
cursor readout averager on changes,
such as sound card synthesizer
settings.
- Cursor averager reset is now done
automatically for more main operations,
such as changes to sample rate and
Virtual Source. SHIFT-Up/Dn may be
used to override this for tests with
Virtual Source.
- BUG FIX: Cursor readout averager
showed erroneous (full scale) values
when Readout Avg traces elapsed between
trace cursor actions.
- BUG FIX: With fast systems and/or slow
sample rates or small number of points,
last sample of trace was sometimes bad.
- BUG FIX: Some boards showed 1-sample
discrepancy in trigger point between
RTime and Sequential modes when using
Internal Trigger Source.
Version 1.10a
Released 4-11-98
- BUG FIX: Corrected changes in v1.10 that prevented
operation on 8088 and 286 systems.
- BUG FIX: Trigger Delay point on trace
is now properly updated when sample rate
is changed.
- BUG FIX: Interlock added to prevent changes to
sample rate while Paused
in Spectrogram mode,
since X-axis requires active sampling for time
calibration.
Version 1.10
Released 3-28-98.
Version 1.09b
Released 3-7-98.
- BUG FIX: When a Memory Array
included averages of differing total sweeps, the trace
sizes were improperly scaled.
Version 1.09a
Released 1-16-98.
- MINOR BUG FIX: When a Help page
showed a link on the top line and the screen was scrolled
up one line to a page that had no links, a "phantom" link
appeared at the top of the new screen.
- LPTX driver released, allows data
acquisition and stimulus generation via a standard LPT
printer port, using simple hardware you can build yourself.
Version 1.09
Released 11-18-97.
- BUG FIX: For ADC boards that use
the main system timer to control sampling (DEMO, DAS8JR,
LPTX, optional on DAS8X and DAS16X), Sequential operation
could occasionally be stalled by a key press during
Trigger Cycle mode.
- STIM3.GEN version 1.10 now has
Step Hz/N
option to allow easy setup of continuous tones in RTime mode,
with optional Step N locking
to spectral line frequencies.
Version 1.08
Released 10-22-97.
- BUG FIX: Some boards report all data in an inverted format,
which Daqarta corrects so that a true positive input
shows that way on the trace. The re-inversion now
properly handles maximum values so that they don't
"roll over" from bottom to top or vice-versa.
Affected boards include SB16, SB8, and THUNDER.
(For some reason, Creative Labs chose not to invert
the data for the SBPRO.) No laboratory-type boards
invert data.
- BUG FIX: The ZeroP auto-zero
option, which assumes that true zero is midway between the
positive and negative peaks of the waveform, now properly
handles large signal offsets without overflow.
Previously, signals whose midpoint was greater than half
of the full-scale value (in either direction) would clip
to the top or bottom of the trace.
- BUG FIX: ZeroP now works properly with
wave averages,
instead of defaulting to the ZeroA (average value)
handler. Note that this is only for display of the
averaged data... you can always toggle among any of the
Zero modes even after the average is completed, with no
effect on the stored data.
- BUG FIX: Trigger Source now always
shows the Pulse option
properly. Formerly, there was a problem after toggling
to RTime mode and back:
Since RTime doesn't support Pulse, it always forces
Intern mode while it is
active, and restores Pulse upon return to
Sequential (if Pulse was
active originally). Prior versions erroneously kept the
Intern text, although the mode was actually Pulse.
Version 1.07
Released 10-7-97.
- BUG FIX: When keyboard Caps Lock is active in text entry mode, the LED is
now active only in that mode. Was active only on exit from text mode.
- BUG FIX: Bringing up
Keyboard control menu (CTRL-K)
no longer causes long delay on fast CPUs.
Version 1.06
Released 9-29-97.
- BUG FIX: Certain operations with full-scale negative data on 8088 and V20
CPUs no longer produce errors.
- BUG FIX: CPU register display invoked by division errors in developer code
now restores screen text line properly afterward.
- BUG FIX: Slow (PC/XT) processors no longer require an extra keypress to
activate Avg,
JntAvg, or
Singl options.
- BUG FIX: Trigger Pulse option is now
properly maintained across Trig option
toggles, as well as Board toggles.
- Added support for 8-character Model names
for board drivers (was 7 max).
Version 1.05
Released 9-16-97.
- BUG FIX: Fast CPUs required more delay code than space allocated.
Replaced in-line I/O delays for triggered
RTime
DMA operation with calls to
single delay routine.
- BUG FIX: Under certain conditions it was possible to toggle
DskRd off while
Sgram
was still active, causing wrong screen colors.
- Greatly expanded README.TXT, now includes
complete step-by-step instructions for installation of a
shortcut icon under Windows 95, as well
as a discussion of PnP problems.
Version 1.04
Released 9-13-97.
- Cosmetics: Command-line parameter now gives an additional 0-9 seconds of
delay while showing initial logo, allowing for slow video mode changes on
some Energy Star monitors.
- Cosmetics: Fixed bug in pacer for logo return beam dissolve-to-text that
caused slow action on fast systems.
Version 1.03
Released 9-7-97.
- BUG FIX: GAP/OVL now properly displayed
after Sgram title redraw.
Version 1.02
Released 8-31-97.
- BUG FIX: AvAdd/AvSub options no longer
improperly locked out.
- BUG FIX: Remote Average option no longer
installs improperly. (Was corrupting averager mode changes.)
Version 1.01
Released 8-25-97.
Version 1.00
Initial release 8-14-97.
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