The Average I/O averages successive measurements and outputs the average of these
measurements.
The Average I/O object can work in two different modes: Running average (default)
and average-of-n.
Averaging is useful in situations when the signal of interest is periodic and (random) noise is present on top of it. By taking multiple measurements of the signal and averaging them, the signal to noise ratio will increase.
To control the behavior of the Average I/O, several properties are available. These can be accessed through a popup menu which is shown when the I/O is right clicked.
The Average count property determines how many measurements are averaged. Several standard values are available, as well as a user defined setting.
When the property Running average is switched on, the Average I/O will continuously replace a part of its memory by the newly arriving measurement, effectively "forgetting" the oldest measurement. When switched off, the Average I/O operates in average-of-n mode. The average will then automatically be cleared after n measurements.
When the Stop after count option is checked, the Average I/O will stop collecting data when Averaging count measurements have been collected.
When Only expand is set, the data size of the Average I/O gets higher when the source's data size grows, but does not shrink when the source's data does. This can be useful when averaging data of a source with varying data size.
The Average I/O can be manually cleared with the Clear action. The internal average count is reset when the Clear action is executed.
You can change the displayed name of an object by giving it an Alias. This can be handy when you are dealing with a lot of objects and have problems keeping them apart. You can for example give channel one of your instrument the alias "Battery", when it is measuring a battery voltage. To give an object an alias, use the item Alias ... in its menu. To remove an alias and revert to the original name of the object, set the alias to an empty string.
When multiple sources or I/O's are displayed in a graph or a meter, they can be distinguished from each other by their Color. Three different color settings are available for a source or an I/O.
To disconnect all sources from an I/O or Sink at once, use the Disconnect all sources action.
To disconnect one or more sinks from an I/O or Source, use the Disconnect sink(s) action. This will show a dialog that lists all connected sinks. Individual sinks can then be selected and disconnected from the object.
To disconnect all sinks from an I/O or source at once, use the Disconnect all sinks action.
When a new object is to be created, similar to an already existing object, with the same properties, the Clone action can be used. This will create an identical copy of the original object, with the exact same properties. Source(s) and sink(s) of the new object are not yet connected.
The Delete action deletes a source, I/O or sink. All connections of the object will be disconnected and then the object will be removed from the object tree. The source property of the objects that used this object as source will be cleared. The sink property of the objects that used this object as sink will be cleared. An axis in a graph that was connected to this object will be also deleted.
The Export data action allows to export the data of an object to a file. This is detailed described on the page about Exporting data.
The Load action allows to load the settings and data for an object from a TPS or TPO file. This is detailed described on the page about Loading into selected objects.
The Save as action allows to save the settings and data of one or more objects to a TPO file. When multiple objects are selected, the connections between the objects are saved as well. This is detailed described on the page about Saving objects to a TPO file.