Revision History - v7.60

Daqarta v7.60.01 - 18 July 2014

Added new Distorted Input/Output Waveform or Spectrum topic to Troubleshooting section. Includes Overdriven (Clipped) Input and "Special Effects" on Output (reverb, equalization, etc) subtopics.

Added new Sound Card Special Effects and MIDI topic about adding reverberation to enhance the "dry" sound of the default Microsoft GS Wavetable synthesizer, especially when used for DaqMusiq performances.

Bug Fix: Utilities folder Documents - Daqarta - Utility with Remote Control files was missing from default Daqarta installation, only present in custom installation.

Daqarta v7.60 - 20 June 2014

New LCR Meter macro mini-app also measures ESR, DF, and Q. No external circuitry is needed, just a passive test fixture (which can be as simple as clip leads). Only a single known resistance value is needed for calibration, typically a 1K resistor measured with a DMM of the desired accuracy.

New HMS Timer / Stopwatch / Alarm macro mini-app offers 3 modes: Stopwatch, alarm at a specified time of day, or alarm after a specified duration. The macro listing demonstrates how to wait for key entry, use time functions, display a time countdown, and create a simple audible alarm. It also shows how to get user data from a Field instead of the more elaborate Custom Controls dialog used in many of the other macro mini-apps.

New WAV_to_16bit macro mini-app converts 8, 20, 24, or 32 bit .WAV files to 16 bits, allowing easy analysis with Daqarta. Also demonstrates how to use Macro Arrays, including advanced File Operations as well as Math Operations, plus File Path and Name macros

Use of Gen Sync trigger mode with the Generator at a Spectral Line Lock frequency (any multiple of the sample rate / 1024) now triggers on the same sample-exact waveform for every update. Output waveforms appear to be "frozen" except for the small flashing update square at upper right. (Formerly, this setting insured triggering only on the same phase, not the same sample.)

Noise Bands now allow creation of equalized noise that has specified acoustic band shape via correction for speaker response. New Band Shape - Taps control can select a response Mirror Curve that has been loaded as a Weighting Curve (.CRV) Files in the Spectrum Curves dialog. Also supports arbitrary-shape spectra by combining Mirror Curve with the desired-shape curve, using new Curve_Sum macro.

The output Volume/dB Slider Dialog (F9 key) can now be moved independently of any underlying main dialog. Formerly, it always remained over any main dialog, making it difficult to coordinate adjustments between output volume and input levels (for example) since it covered the Input Controls dialog.

DC Pulse Output Circuits topic includes schematics and printed circuit layouts for Simple and Wide Range DC Pulse Converters that can be used with the Crank and Cam Sensor Simulator to drive an ECU/ECM that requires DC pulses (most 3-wire sensor types). The same circuits can also flash or modulate LEDs, or allow a sound card to produce constant DC or very low frequencies.

Auditory Phenomena section now includes Dither Demonstration topic with easy-to-use hands-on examples of audio dither, including screen shots.

New Avg#W=1 macro option starts a Waveform Average from either waveform or Spectrum mode. (Equivalent to ALT+\ accelerator key.)

Event Wait macros now include WaitKey="a" to halt macro execution until the 'a' key is hit (or any displayable key of your choice, including space). Especially useful for debugging macro loops, where you can insert a Msg line to show relevant variables, followed by WaitKey.

Macro Arrays Buf0-Buf7 can now save and load Weighting Curve (.CRV) Files for use by the Spectrum Curves dialog, using new Buf0="<SaveCRV" option.

Macro Array File Operations now include Buf0?W to read loaded WAV file data width (8, 16, 24, or 32 bits), as well as Buf0?w to read bit resolution (8,16,20,24,32 bits). Buf0?R reads the sample rate of a loaded .WAV or .DQA file.

Buf0-7 macro String Storage may now read individual characters from the 8 possible that are stored at each array index. For example, IF.Buf0?5[123]="A" will be true if character 5 (the 6th character, since they are numbered 0-7) of Buf0 element [123] is an 'A'. If the string was copied from a user-entered Field, the macro can take different actions depending on (say) the type of part or test series entered.

Field strings may now be read or tested as numeric variables using any of the standard Daqarta number entry formats, including decimal, hexadecimal, exponential, scientific unit prefixes, "European" notation, or H:M:S time. This allows Fields to be used for numeric entry in macros.

Number entry includes AM/PM support for H:M:S time entry.

The Time macro now allows Time?S to obtain seconds since the most recent UTC midnight, or Time?s for seconds since local midnight.

String expressions can now display seconds values in H:M:S.nnn time format, such that if X = 12345.6789, Msg=X(T) will show it as 3:25:45.679 using the default of 3 decimal places. Use (T.0) to (T.9) to control the number of places.

Column spacing may now be specified when saving text files of 2 or 4 Macro Array buffers. For example, the S(20) in Buf0="<tD5S(20)" specifies that columns will start at 0 and 20 for a 2-buffer file, and 0, 20, 40, and 60 for a 4-buffer file.

New CalSaveRef macro can set reference level prior to invoking SaveCAL to save a Y-log Trace as a.CAL, .FRD, .CRV, or .LIM file, allowing automatic save of Mirror Curve files (for example) without a prompt, dialog, or manual reference entry.

When using Juxt Trace Memory Arrays, the label or number of the trace that is currently selected is now shown on the main Daqarta message line. This acts as a reminder that if you close the Juxt dialog while it is still showing a Juxt trace, you can't acquire new data until you return to the Juxt dialog and toggle its display off.

GlossyTracks.DQM MIDI DaqMusiq setup now allows easy setting of Seed, Time, Min/Max BPM, and Min/Max Note via new Field access.

Gibbs Phenomenon topic added to Help.

Macro Msg messages now allow full string expressions for the title bar such as Msg="<<Test Time: " + t.

Bug Fix: Trigger operation erroneously entered wait mode after several hours of continuous operation.

Bug Fix: Attempting to set the Generator Tone Freq to zero while in Gen Sync trigger mode, or toggling to this mode with Tone Freq set to zero, caused Daqarta to hang.

Bug Fix: Macros that set one Custom Controls state to another, such as Btn1=Btn2 caused Daqarta to hang.

Bug Fix: Unable to open .DQA files larger than 2^31 bytes. (Max .DQA or .WAV sizes limited to 2^32 due to Windows RIFF standard.)

Bug Fix: Unable to use Macro Array SAveWAV or SAveDQA file append operations to create .WAV or .DQA files larger than 2^31 bytes.

Bug Fix: Macro Array file load operations unable to load files larger than 2^31 bytes.

Bug Fix: Scroll display mode for Spectrogram of file data did not display at proper time position if the file was shorter than one screen.

Bug Fix: Mouse position macros Posn?X, Posn?Y, Posn?x, and Posn?y were not working after prior version change.

Bug Fix: Pink noise source could produce occasional spikes due to internal overflow.

Bug Fix: After loading a Weighting Curve File to the Spectrum Curves dialog, the right portion of the display could be temporarily corrupted until some other button was toggled that changed it (such as Pause, Spectrum, X-Axis, etc.).

Bug Fix: Starting a Waveform Average from Spectrum mode (ALT+\ accelerator key) could cause X axis of spectrum to use wrong eXpand settings.

Bug Fix: When saving text files of Macro Array data (Buf0-Buf7), the data separator command (Sn in Buf0="<tD5Sn", for example) was reversed: Sn actually set comma-separated and Sc set newline.

Bug Fix: String Expressions using the position (p) or fill (f) commands could move to the wrong target column in some cases.

Bug Fix: In an edit control that expected a value, entering a scientific prefix alone was accepted. For example, 'T' was accepted as '1T' (one Tera-unit = 1 * 10^12). Such prefix-only entries are now rejected.

Bug Fix: Macro line continuation didn't work properly with certain types of string expressions.