Creating and connecting objects - Classroom

Besides measuring data with the TiePie engineering measuring instruments and displaying it like on a conventional scope, it is possible to do different kinds of processing on the measured data. Data can be combined with other measured data or with software generated data.

The objects that can be created, are divided into three groups:

Sources: these objects only have output(s) (like the channels of an instrument)
I/Os: these objects have input(s) and output(s)
Sinks: these objects only have input(s)

The objects are managed by the object tree.

Creating objects

You can create a new source, I/O or sink by right clicking on the root item in the object tree and selecting the object of your choice from the popup menu. In the figure below the "I/O's" item is clicked with right mouse button.

To demonstrate we will now create a two SoftGen sources and a Sum I/O object. We set the signal type of the second SoftGen source to "square".


Create an I/O		Set SoftGen to square signal

Connecting objects

With drag and drop, the different objects in the object tree can be connected to other objects. You can drag a source object on a sink object or I/O block. When the source is dropped it will connect the object it was dropped on.

In the example in the figure below, the two SoftGens that we have just created are dropped onto the Sum. The Sum displays it sources between braces.

→

Displaying data

The data of all sources, channels and outputs of I/O's can be displayed in different ways. Usually the data is displayed in a graph, but it is also possible to display the data as numerical values with a meter object.

Displaying data in a graph

To display data in a graph, the source object must be dragged from the object treeview onto a graph. The location where the source is dropped determines if the new scale is created at the left or right side of the graph. If a source if dropped in the left half of the graph, the new scale will be at the left. Otherwise the new scale will be at the right.

A source can also be dropped onto an allready existing axis if it has the same unit.

Displaying data in Yt mode

To display data in Yt mode the source has to be dropped into an Yt graph. Let's drop the Sum object we have just created onto a graph:

Displaying data in XY mode

To display data in XY mode the two sources for each XY-line have to be dropped into an XY graph. In the anmimation below, two SoftGens are used. SoftGen1 constains a sine wave of 10000 Hz (default). SoftGen2's frequency has been changed to 11000 Hz.

First the graph is set to XY mode by clicking on the XY button on the graph's toolbar. After that, SoftGen1 is dropped on the left half of the graph, resulting in a new scale at the left. A blinking bottom scale will be created, signalling that it needs a source. SoftGen2 is dropped on the bottom scale and XY plot of SoftGen1 versus SoftGen2 is shown.

Displaying data as numerical values with a meter

To display data in a Meter, we will first have to create one. Follow the procedure as with creating the other objects: right-click "Sinks" and choose "Meter". Now drag the Sum onto the Meter. The result can be seen below.