Documentation of DracalView: Our free data visualization and logging software
You will find on this page the multiple functionalities of DracalView, our free data logger software. The following documentation is based on version 3.0.0. Also available: a short video tutorial to get started with DracalView.
1) Sources Tab
Also available: a short video tutorial to see the Source Tab in action.
1.1) Overview
[1] Connected sensors.
You can have as many as you whish. In this example, there are four, namely E00004, E00001, E16973 and E16972.
[2] Sensor unique serial number followed by its product name.
[3] Available channels from a sensor.
A channel is a unique measurement data stream. It can be real or virtual.
Real channels are direct output of physical measurements. Virtual channels are computed values based on real channels. Humidex is an example of virtual channel.
[4] Minimum and maximum value encountered so far for a channel.
You can reset these values (see point [5]).
[5] Reset the minimum and maximum values encountered so far. Affects the values displayed in point [4].
[6] Measurement units.
Measurement units can be modified in the Configuration tab.
[7] Name you want to use for a channel.
[8] Channels you want to see in the Big View tab.
[9] Channels you want to see in the Graph View tab.
[10]Check/uncheck all.
[11]Indication of the presence of calibration points on calibratable instruments. See section 1.2) of the present documentation for more information about calibration management.
[12]General information about the sensor.
1.2) Calibration Management
Also available: a short video tutorial to see the calibration feature in action.
Important Note: Dracal sensors featuring both the VCP and CAL options can only be calibrated with versions 3.2.0 of the DracalView software and newer. However, once calibrated, these instruments will return their correctly calibrated values with any software version from 2.1.17 and later.
[1] Buttons to manage calibration points.
Here, the buttons are grayed out as the USB-DXC100 product is not calibratable (does not have the suffix "-CAL" in its product name).
The same is true for the virtual channels of the calibratable products. The choice or not to display the calibration buttons is made in the tab Configuration (see section 5 point [9]).
[2] Buttons to manage calibration points, on a calibratable channel. This one is not grayed out.
[3] Calibration point management window.
[4] Option to enable or disable calibration, applying only to data generated by DracalView.
It is important to note that even if this box is checked, the calibration points remain stored inside the sensor.
Thus, for users wishing to access their data with our command line tool dracal-usb-get, it is important to note that the calibration will not be disabled in dracal-usb-get.
[5] Indicator of the presence of calibration points.
The presence of green arrows indicates that calibration points are recorded and that the calibration is activated.
Red arrows indicate that calibration points are recorded but the calibration is disabled.
No arrows indicate that no calibration points are recorded.
See the documentation of dracal-usb-cal to calibrate your sensors from terminal with our command line tool.
1.3) Sources Tab: MATH Channels
Also available: a short video tutorial to see the Math channels in action.
[1] Mathematical channels.
[2] Edit the formula.
Refer to a sensor channel in a formula using the form [SourceId] (ex. [E00001:00]).
[3] Click on "Edit" to define the channel's unit and to edit the formula.
[4] Get started with examples and tips.
2) Logging Tab
Also available: a short video tutorial to see the Logging Tab in action.
[1] Select data to log.
[2] Configure the logging file format.
[3] Define the timestamps format.
[4] Decide how to detect errors in the file.
[5] Decide what to do if the file in [6] already exists.
You can decide to overwrite it, but can also append the new data in the existing file.
[6] Choose/create the destination file.
[7] Decide the data recording frequency.
[8] Include a comment in the header of the recording file.
If you decide to append several subsequent recordings in the same file, this option is useful to specify what differs between the different recordings.
[9] Start/stop logging.
[10]Click on View file to see real-time file writing.
3) Big View Tab
Also available: a short video tutorial to see the Big ViewTab in action.
[1] Displaying data channels under their alias name as defined by the user in the Sources tab.
Channels to display are selected in the Sources tab in the Big View (Sources point [8]) column.
Go to the Configuration tab (points [10] and [11]) to decide if the units and/or the aliases should be displayed or not.
4) Graph View tab
Also available: a short video tutorial to see the Graph ViewTab in action.
[1] Click once to edit the graph name.
[2] The legend.
Channels to be viewed are selected in the Sources tab in the Graph (Sources point [9]) column.
Data channels are identified with their alias name as defined by the user in the Sources tab.
Change the legend position in point 5 below.
[3] Click once on the line to edit its color and style.
[4] Click once to edit the axes name.
[5] Change the position of the legend.
[6] Check this box to view the all the available data up to current time.
Uncheck it to zoom in or out.
Tip: To zoom in the x-axis direction only, uncheck this box and check the Auto-scate Y axis box (point [6]).
[7] Check this box to fix set the y scale such that all you curves can be visualized simultaneously.
Uncheck it to zoom in.
Tip: To zoom in in the y-axis direction only, uncheck this box and check the Auto-scate X axis box (point [5]).
[8] Use a logarithmic scale in the Y axis.
[9] Set your sample interval. Minimum is 100 ms.
This value should be greater or equal to the sensor sampling loop (Configuration point [5])
[10]Total available display time.
Display follows a first in first out rule: the oldest data points are the ones to disappear.
To visualize your data on a longer time period, you can either increase the sample interval (point [9]), or use a logging file (Logging tab) to export the data in a graphing software.
[11]Pause data display.
Pausing then unpausing does not generate a gap in the graph. The data starts to be displayed again directly after each other.
Note: Pausing on this tab does not affect data logging in the Logging tab.
[12]Clear the graph.
[13]Save graph to file (many format available).
[14] Select Low line quality to decrease by half the memory needed to generate the graph.
5) Configuration Tab
Also available: a short video tutorial to see the ConfigurationTab in action.
[1] Change the units for each type of measurement.
[2] Support previous humidity compensation formula for older products.
[3] When unchecked (default), heat index virtual channels validate if the temperature and humidity measurements (on which the heat index formula is based on) are in their accuracy range to returns a correct value. If not, heat index channels output "out of range".
Check this box to always have an heat index calculated value, even when outside its accuracy operating range.
[4] Similar to point [3] above, applied to virtual humidex channels.
[5] Minimum time given to DracalView to complete one update every sensor data. For the use of a large quantity of sensors, a higher value can be imposed to ensure a complete update of all data. In case all sensors could not be polled within the allocated period, the displayed value will be identical to the last recorded value.
[6] Number of displayed digits.
[7] Sea level configuration.
[8] Decide if aliases should be displayed in Big View tab.
[9] Decide if units calibration management buttons should be displayed in Sources tab.
[10]Decide if units should be displayed in Big View tab.
[11]Check this box if, when you minimize DracalView window, you only want to see the access icon in your system tray, and do not in your toolbar.
[12]Personalize your DracalView window. In this documentation, white has been imposed as the color of the windows (gray being the default option).