Chapter 6 - WaveForm window

Contents

The WaveForm window displays the trace data as timing diagrams and graphs. This window can also display data imported from a digital storage oscilloscope.

The Toolbar’s button views the WaveForm window if it is hidden. The "Window > WaveForm" menu item also views the WaveForm window.


Window areas

 
Window areas
 

 
Toolbar area

 The local toolbar buttons are...

  Edits the WaveForm window options. The selected options are unique to each WaveForm window copy.
Toggle link-marker mode. When link-marker mode is first enabled, the distance between the active marker pair is fixed. Moving either marker also moves the other marker. The markers keep the same distance until link-marker mode is disabled.
Toggle zoom-peek mode. When active, a "magnifying glass" area follows the mouse movement and the mouse-wheel changes the zoom-peek level rather than the main window's zoom level. Right-clicking exits the zoom-peek mode. The Escape key also exits the zoom-peek mode. Left-clicking the mouse exits the zoom-peek mode plus scrolls to the center of the peek window.
  Select the active mouse mode. This defines the behavior when the left and right mouse buttons are clicked in the data area. The following mouse modes are supported in the WaveForm window...
   
  • Move marker pair #1. Click the left mouse button to move the first marker in the active pair. Click the right mouse button to move the second marker in the active pair.
  • Move marker pair #2.
  • Move marker pair #3.
  • Drag-trigger mode (only available when the Simple, Series, or TimeBetween TriggerForms are active). Define a trigger pattern by dragging a box around the trace data with the left mouse button. Click the right mouse button to quickly return to the active marker pair mouse mode. This mouse mode is only available when the Simple, Series, or TimeBetween TriggerForms are active. See the Drag-trigger section later for details.
  • Mouse zoom mode. Click and drag the left mouse button on the trace data to zoom in on the selected area. The left and rigdisplaysht edges of the drag-area define the new zoom level. Click the right mouse button to quickly return to the active marker pair mouse mode.
  • Drag-scroll mode. The click and drag the left mouse button on the trace data to scroll the data up, down, left, or right. Click the right mouse button to quickly return to the active marker pair mouse mode.
  The window can zoom around the following anchor points...
   
  • Zoom mode: around screen center
  • Zoom mode: around Trigger
  • Zoom mode: around marker #1
  • Zoom mode: around marker #2
  • Zoom mode: around marker #3
  • Zoom mode: around marker #4
  • Zoom mode: around marker #5
  • Zoom mode: around marker #6
  Zooms in one time per division so more detail is visible.
  Zooms out one time per division so more data is visible.
  Zooms so that all data is in the window.
  Goes to the previous zoom setting. A history of the past 10 zooms are saved.
  The available quick-edit actions are...
  • Custom zoom level: The zoom buttons and keystrokes use a 1-2-5 sequence when changing the time per division. The "Edit custom zoom level" action allows you to enter a non-standard time per division. For example, 1.5 seconds per division instead of 1 second. See the Zoom Level dialog topic (below) for details.
  • Toggle link markers: Links the marker pairs at a fixed distance.
  • Reset all line heights: Resets the lines to the default height.
  • Delete all lines: Blanks all lines so that no channels or scope data is displayed.
  • View all channel groups: Blanks the window then inserts a line for each channel group.
  • Collapse all lines: All expanded lines are collapsed.
  • Expand all lines: All lines are expanded to show this component signals.
  • Edit all lines...: Similar to clicking on a line's setup button except the changes affect all lines. Useful for changing all lines to the same base, channel group, or color.
  • Edit all data views...: Displays trace data on all lines, reference data, or several combinations of these two including the exclusive-or comparison.
  Inserts a new line above the selected line. Click once on the setup buttons to select a line.
  Deletes the selected line. Click once on the setup buttons to select a line.
 
Marker area
The marker area contains the measurements between the moveable data markers...


Using markers


 

Setup area
The setup area contains a button for each line in the window. The setup buttons are used to configure each waveform line in the window.

If a setup button is blank, then line is empty and no data is displayed on the line. A blank setup button is always displayed at the bottom of the setup area. This allows you to quickly add more lines to the window without using the toolbar button.

Each setup button can be sized to adjust the associated line's height. Move the mouse over a setup button's bottom edge. When the mouse cursor changes to the vertical resize icon, click and hold the mouse button. Drag the button height vertically and release the mouse button at the desired height.  

     
The overall width of the line setup area can be adjusted so that long channel group names are not truncated inside the setup buttons. Move the mouse over the setup area's resize bar. When the mouse cursor changes to the horizontal resize icon, click and hold the mouse button. Drag the area width horizontally and release the mouse button at the desired width.  

Click on the line setup buttons to select which data is displayed (trace, reference, or scope), what channel groups is display, the line color, and so forth...
 


 

Clicking a line's setup button displays the waveform setup dialog box...


Viewing trace data

 

 
  • Data
    • Blank line: an empty space is displayed.
    • Trace Data: shows logic analyzer Trace data.
    • Reference Data: shows logic analyzer Reference data.
    • Logic-Op Trace & Reference: creates a new waveform by combining the Trace and Reference data using either XOR, AND, NAND, OR, or NOR logic.
    • Scope Data: shows scope data. See the Scope data section later for details.
  • View
    • Timing diagram: displays the data as timing diagrams.
    • Graph values vs. time: graphs the channel group values on vertical axis while the horizontal axis represents time. The minimum value in the entire trace is at the bottom of the graph while the maximum is at the top.
    • Serial bus (diagram): this option is available if a serial bus is defined in the Sampling Tab. For example, the "I2C bus (diagram)" option is available if one or more I2C buses are defined in the Sampling Tab.
    • Serial bus (graph): this option is available if an appropriate serial bus is defined in the Sampling Tab. For example, the "I2C bus (graph)" option is available if one or more I2C buses are defined in the Sampling Tab. Only data values are graphed. Address, idle periods, and other protocol states are ignored. Complex protocol buses like CAN and LIN cannot be graphed.
  • Color: Choose the waveform line's color. The "more..." button allows you to define custom colors.
  • Base: Defines the numeric base for the group values displayed inside the combined parent waveform. If a symbol table is loaded into the selected channel group, the "Symbol" and "Symbol+offset" bases are also available. The group values are replaced by symbol matches where possible using this base.
  • Hide values inside waveform: The channel group values are not displayed inside the combined parent waveform when this option is checked.
  • Hide expanded parent line: The combined parent waveform is hidden if the line is expanded when this option is checked.
  • Data (Lower trace): Displays a second waveform beneath the first. This allows you to overlay  Trace and Reference data on a single line for comparison purposes (or vice versa).

  • Color (Lower trace): Defines the color of the lower layer waveform.
  • Channels: Select the channel group to display which was defined earlier in the Setup window. If you forgot to create a channel group, you can either return to the Setup window or click the "New channel group wizard..." button and define the group from the WaveForm window.
  • Apply changes: Copies the changes to the WaveForm setup but leaves the dialog box open. You can then single-click on a different setup button to configure a new line. Configuring several lines this way is faster than opening a closing the dialog box for each line.
  • Done: Copies the changes to the WaveForm setup and exits the dialog box.

The 9 "basic" colors automatically adjust to the pale or dark background colors. The software uses pale versions of these colors when a dark background is used. Likewise, the software uses dark versions when a pale background is used. This feature is very convenient if you open projects file from someone using a different background color.

However, custom colors do NOT adjust to pale or dark background colors. Opening a project file with custom colors may require the channel group colors to be adjusted. Alternatively, you can change your background color to something more compatible with the custom group colors.
 

Choosing the "Scope Data" display option changes the setup dialog's appearance...


Viewing scope data

 
 
  • Data: Choosing the "Trace Data", "Reference Data", or "Logic-Op Trace & Reference" options switches back to the trace setup dialog box.
  • Probe: Select a channel from the active scope model to display. See Chapter 12 - Scope data for details on controlling an external scope with the GoLogic software.
  • Color: Choose the scope data's color.
  • Threshold line: A dashed line representing the threshold voltage can be displayed. This list defines what threshold voltage is used.
  • Custom volts edit box: Enabled only if the custom threshold line option is selected.
  • Show max voltage level: The largest voltage in the scope data is displayed at the upper left corner of the line.
  • Show min voltage level: The smallest voltage in the scope data is displayed at the lower left corner of the line.
  • Apply changes: Copies the changes to the WaveForm setup but leaves the dialog box open. You can then single-click on a different setup button to configure a new line. Configuring several lines this way is faster than opening a closing the dialog box for each line.
  • Done: Copies the changes to the WaveForm setup and exits the dialog box.

These options allow you to display a lower layer GoLogic trace waveform...

  • Lower trace (Data): Displays a trace timing diagram under the scope data unless "None" is selected...

  • Lower trace (Color): Defines the color of the lower layer waveform.
  • Lower trace (Base): Defines the numeric base for the lower layer trace waveform.
  • Lower trace (Channel group...): Select the GoLogic channel group to display as the lower trace waveform.

When the activity indicators are enabled via the "Data > Activity indicators" menu command, the setup area grows wider to accommodate the channel activity.

In this example, the combined "address" group was expanded to display the individual channel activity values. The combined activity value is displayed on the parent line. The "?" character indicates that the hexadecimal digit has at least one bit which is changing. Changing bits are indeterminate.

Finally, the setup buttons supports drag-n-drop to arrange the waveform lines.

Click and hold the left mouse button on a line’s setup button until the line is "lifted"...

Drag the line to the new location...
Release the mouse button to drop the line...
Hold down the Control key while dragging to copy the line instead of moving it.
 
Data area
The data area displays the trace, reference, and scope data. If all the waveform lines do not fit in the window, a vertical scroll bar is displayed which scrolls through the lines. If all the trace, reference, and scope data does not fit in the data area, a horizontal scroll bar is displayed which scrolls through the data...
 


 

  • Previous custom: scrolls to previous marker, previous bookmark, search backward.
  • Next transition: scrolls to the next transition in the visible waveforms.
  • Previous transition: scrolls to the previous transition in the visible waveforms.
  • Next custom: scrolls to next marker, next bookmark, search forward.
  • Custom scroll options: click this button to choose the active scroll option...

See Chapter 9 - Measurements for details on adding and using bookmarks in your project.

The marker token lines are convenient for quickly scrolling to a specific marker or bookmark. All markers and bookmarks are visible on the the scroll bar. Click the mouse on a marker token to scroll to that location...

The current view box is similar to a standard scroll bar's drag button. You can drag the view box left and right to scroll through the data. The left edge of the box represents the left edge of the visible window. Likewise, the right edge of the box represents the right edge of the visible window. Therefore, the view box grows wider and narrower as the zoom level changes. The view box never gets too narrow to be dragged, no matter how much the data is zoomed.
 

When the mouse mode is active, click the left and right mouse buttons in the data area to move the active marker pair and make timing measurements. See Chapter 9 - Measurements for tips on using the markers effectively.

When the mouse mode is active, click and drag the left mouse button in the data area to select the new zoom level.


Zooming

When the mouse mode is active, click and drag the left mouse button in the data area to scroll the waveforms up, down, left, or right.

Edit custom zoom level
 


Zooming

The "Edit custom zoom level" command in the toolbar area's Quick-action list displays this dialog box.

  • Time Per Division: Select the time per division or enter a custom values. Fraction times are allowed if needed.
  • Time Units: Select the time units for the time per division setup.
  • View all data: Clicking this button automatically sets the time per division to that all the open data fits in the WaveForm window.

 

 
Simple TriggerForm
When the Simple TriggerForm is active, the WaveForm window's trigger area is displayed next to the setup area...


WaveForm TriggerForms


 

This feature allows customers who mostly work in the WaveForm window to avoid switching back to the Setup window just to edit the Simple TriggerForm. The rules for the Simple TriggerForm are identical to those described earlier in Chapter 4 - Setup step three: triggering. The GoLogic triggers when a single event is detected.
 
The WaveForm window's trigger area can be resized to suit your needs. Drag the resize bar left to hide the trigger area. Drag the resize bar right to view the active triggers. Right-click on the resize bar to restore the trigger area to its default width...
 

Defining the trigger event is similar to the Setup window's Triggering tab. However, the WaveForm window also allows channel groups with two or more channels to be expanded into the component waveforms. When this is done, individual trigger buttons are provided for each channel. The button allows you to choose the "x" character, a logic-high, or a logic-low...


 

In the above example, the ambiguous "?" character is displayed in the combined trigger value because one or more "anything" characters exist in the digit. A logic-high was chosen for one bit while the other three bits on the character are "x". See the "Ambiguous trigger values" section in Chapter 4 - Setup step three: triggering for details.
 
Series TriggerForm
When the Series TriggerForm is active, the WaveForm window's trigger area is displayed next to the setup area...
 


 

This feature allows customers who mostly work in the WaveForm window to avoid switching back to the Setup window just to edit the Series TriggerForm. The rules for the Series TriggerForm are identical to those described earlier in Chapter 4 - Setup step three: triggering. The GoLogic triggers when a series of patterns is detected.
 
TimeBetween TriggerForm
When the TimeBetween TriggerForm is active, the WaveForm window's trigger area is displayed next to the setup area...
 


 

This feature allows customers who mostly work in the WaveForm window to avoid switching back to the Setup window just to edit the TimeBetween TriggerForm. The rules for the TimeBetween TriggerForm are identical to those described earlier in Chapter 4 - Setup step three: triggering. The GoLogic triggers when the time between two events matches the selected criteria.
 
Drag-trigger
When the Simple, Series, or TimeBetween TriggerForm is active and the mouse mode is selected, click and drag the left mouse button in the data area to add bits to the a trigger value. Drag a selection box around the data you want to use as a trigger and release the mouse. The trace data inside the box defines the trigger pattern.
Serial bus display
 
When trace data is is captured from a serial bus supported by the GoLogic, the raw signals can be viewed in the WaveForm window. To view the serial bus in converted form, click on a setup button...


Select the serial bus type from the "View" drop-down list...

 

   

Once a serial bus is selected, the dialog box automatically changes to serial bus display mode... 

 

Note: A serial bus is only listed in the WaveForm window's "View" drop-down list if one or more serial buses are defined in the Sampling Tab.




Showing serial
bus data


  • View: Choose "Timing diagram" or "Graph values vs. time" option to switch back to the normal waveform dialog box. Otherwise, choose the desired serial bus to display.
  • Bus: Select the serial bus to display on the line. The serial buses are defined in the Setup window's Sampling Tab.
  • "Colors...": Click this button to define the protocol field colors. This button is identical to the "Colors..." button in the Setup window's Sampling Tab.
  • Line color: Choose the waveform line's color. The "more..." button allows you to define custom colors.
  • Base: Defines the numeric base for each bus value. If the serial bus has a protocol, this option only affects data values. Address, command, CRC, checksum, and other bus fields are always displayed in hexadecimal.
After the serial bus is selected and the "Done" button is clicked, the WaveForm window displays the converted serial bus on the line. If no serial data is displayed, either capture a trace or go back to the Sampling Tab and click the "Re-convert trace" button...


If you need to display a custom protocol for serial bus values, use the GoLogic Plugin Development Kit (PDK) freely available on the NCI web site. The GoLogic software passes the converted serial bus values to your plugin which you can process as needed. See the PDK documentation for more details
 
Window options
Click the local toolbar button to customize each WaveForm window’s behavior...


Window options


 
  • MouseWheel: defines the behavior of the mouse wheel...
    • Zoom in/out: zooms the window.
    • Horizontal scroll: scrolls the window horizontally
    • Vertical scroll: scrolls the window vertically
  • Snap: makes measuring time between edges must easier.
    • Nearest edge on screen: the markers snap to the nearest edge for all visible waveforms. Two snap-indicators lines are drawn in this mode. One indicator is near the mouse to show the snap destination. The second indicator is drawn on the line which has the nearest edge.
    • Nearest edge under the mouse: the markers snap to the nearest edge under the mouse. One snap-indicator is drawn in this mode.
    • Nothing: the markers are placed at the pixel under the mouse. The time position for any pixel depends on the scroll position and zoom level. So placing a marker exactly on a trace data feature can be difficult when snapping is off.
  • Scrolling Mode
    • Scroll with other windows: scroll command in this window affect other data windows not scrolling independently.
    • Scroll independently: scroll commands in this window affect only this window.
  • Hide marker lines when printing: Check this option to prevent the marker lines from obscuring trace and scope data in a printout.
  • Show entire time stamp resolution: Normally, time measurements choose the best units (ps, ns, us, ms, etc) and only two digits past the decimal are displayed. This option forces all significant digits past the decimal to be displayed.
  • Values
    • Hide value area: hides the statistical value area.
    • Show waveform value: shows each waveform's binary value at the active marker.
    • Show transition count: shows the total transitions between the active markers.
    • Show rising edge count: shows the total rising edges between the active markers.
    • Show falling edge count: shows the total falling edges between the active markers.
    • Show high-pulse count: shows the total high pulses between the active markers.
    • Show low-pulse count: shows the total low pulses between the active markers.
    • Show duty cycle: shows the ratio of high-to-low time between the active markers.
    • Show matching search count: shows the total search matches from the active SearchForm.
    • Show bookmark count: shows the total bookmarks between the active markers.
  • Show values for parent waveforms: the statistical values for the combined parent waveforms are displayed.
  • Show X divisions: Define the number of time divisions in the data area.
  • Above divisions
    • Nothing: the area is blank.
    • Time position: shows the time position above each division line.
    • Time to trigger: shows the distance to the trigger marker above each division line.
    • Sample number (trace only): shows the trace sample number above each division line. These numbers correlate to the samples in the Numeric window.
  • Show sample-position dots: When capturing Normal Timing or State Analysis data (ie - no time stamps), dots can be painted beneath each waveform to indicates where at each sample-point occurred. The dots make it easy to see how many samples are spanned by each waveform value.
  • Place the least significant bit topmost the first time a waveform is expanded: Normally, new waveforms are expanded with the most significant bit as topmost. This option changes the default so that new waveforms are expanded with the least significant bit as topmost.
  • Hide values inside all waveforms: No channel group values are displayed inside the waveforms.
  • Use lead set resistor code colors when expanding waveforms: Uncheck this option to use the line color for the expanded waveform lines. Normally, each channel's lead set color is used for expanded lines.
  • Separate each waveform with X extra pixels to aid readability: This places extra space between waveform lines.
  • Waveform line thickness (video): The line thickness used to paint the timing diagrams on screen can be adjusted. This is useful for large, higher resolution monitors. The "0 pt" option uses lines one pixel wide for the logic-high and logic-low states. The "1 pt" option uses lines one pixel wide for the logic-high states and two pixels wide for the logic-low states. The "2 pts" option uses lines one pixel wide for the logic-high states and three pixels wide for the logic-low states. The "3 pts" option uses lines two pixels wide for the logic-high states and four pixels wide for the logic-low states.
  • Waveform line thickness (print): The line thickness used to print the timing diagrams can be adjusted. This is useful for large-format, high resolution printers. The "1 pt" option uses lines two pixels wide for the logic-high states and four pixels wide for the logic-low states. The "2 pts" option uses lines four pixels wide for the logic-high states and eight pixels wide for the logic-low states. The "3 pts" option uses lines eight pixels wide for the logic-high states and sixteen pixels wide for the logic-low states.
 
Dual WaveForm windows
Check the "Window > Enable WaveForm #2" menu command to view a second WaveForm window. Uncheck this menu item to display only one WaveForm window.


Dual windows

Each WaveForm window has an independent zoom level and setup database. This allows each window to display different data and/or channels, or the same data and channels at different zoom levels. When you first activate the second WaveForm window, the new window uses the same setup and zoom level as the first window.

Likewise, each window can be configured to scroll independently or synchronously with the other data windows. Use the window options to change this option as needed.

 
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