{"id":30947,"date":"2024-09-11T14:36:29","date_gmt":"2024-09-11T21:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/?p=30947"},"modified":"2024-09-17T12:45:47","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T19:45:47","slug":"dasylab-and-analog-discovery-a-new-option-for-code-free-data-acquisition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/dasylab-and-analog-discovery-a-new-option-for-code-free-data-acquisition\/","title":{"rendered":"DASYLab and Analog Discovery: A New Option for Code-Free Data Acquisition"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re excited to relaunch DASYLab, a powerful software tool for data acquisition and analysis with new rent-to-own licensing options. DASYLab provides a simple graphical dataflow-oriented approach to acquiring and processing data and includes a large suite of configurable modules that can be chained together to form complex tasks. It could, for example, use an external device to acquire data from a sensor, pass that data through an FFT, analyze the FFT results to look for notable spikes, then display results and even send remote alerts, all represented through a worksheet of only a few simple blocks.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Alongside this relaunch we\u2019re introducing beta support for Digilent Analog Discovery devices. While, today, DASYLab is typically paired with Measurement Computing data acquisition (DAQ) devices, we believe its ability to simplify your measurement tasks can be equally useful for owners of an Analog Discovery by providing a suite of configurable modules to manage data processing and data flow after acquisition, including FFTs, filters, through to using that data for subsequent control of external systems or messaging and alerts.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For a sense of the performance that you can expect out of this system, we\u2019ve successfully run continuous measurements with minimal loss of data in the 10s of kilohertz range. At the time of writing, support for Analog Discovery devices consists of an Analog In (AI) Record module, which uses WaveForms SDK under the hood to repeatedly pull data out of the Analog Discovery and send it off to other modules in the DASYLab worksheet for processing. Sample rates don\u2019t have an arbitrary limit applied, but while data can be sampled at the full specified rate of the device, choosing a sample rate that is too high may result in dropped samples. More on this later, when we briefly discuss the Measurement Setup view.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In this post, we\u2019ll walk you through the basics of connecting your Digilent hardware to DASYLab and performing a simple measurement.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Getting Started with DASYLab and an Analog Discovery<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

To begin, make sure you have the latest version of DASYLab installed. You can download a free trial from DASYLab\u00ae – Digilent Reference<\/a>. You can find installation instructions in the Quick Start Guide: <\/span>https:\/\/files.digilent.com\/manuals\/QS-DASYLab-MCCDRV.pdf<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Install Beta Analog Discovery Support<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

To let DASYLab talk to your Analog Discovery, you will need two additional pieces of software alongside your DASYLab installation:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First, because DASYLab relies on WaveForms SDK to communicate with these devices, you\u2019ll need the latest version of WaveForms installed (3.23.4 or newer). You can download it from the My Products section of our site, here: <\/span>https:\/\/cloud.digilent.com\/myproducts\/waveform?pc=1&tab=2<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Second, the Configurator package for beta Analog Discovery support in DASYLab is available for download from our GitHub, here: digilent.1.0.0.42.en.dlp<\/a><\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

With the configurator package downloaded, double-click on it to fire up the Configurator tool, a separate application installed alongside DASYLab, which is used to manage addon packages.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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When prompted whether to allow the package to make changes to your system, and on whether to import the package, select Yes to continue.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Configurator initially opens onto a Registration tab. If you\u2019ve already purchased a license, you can enter the registration key that you would have received via email (typically within 24 hours of your purchase) into the \u201cSerial Number\u201d field here. Otherwise, you can skip this step and open the Packages tab \u2013 you can always get started with a 30-day trial and come back to add your license key later.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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To install Digilent support, navigate to the Packages tab, open the Digilent dropdown in the list of available packages, and check the box to enable Digilent support. Click OK to save your changes.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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To verify that Digilent support is now enabled, fire up DASYLab proper.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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If Digilent support was installed properly, under the Inputs\/Outputs folder in the Modules pane, you should see a Digilent folder with an AI Record module listed, and the message \u201cdigilent.dly loaded.\u201d should appear in the log.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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If you have interest in seeing how the configurator package works, check out the sources in its GitHub repository, here: waveforms-dasylab-module (GitHub)<\/a>. You can also check out our guide on creating your own DASYLab modules with Python scripts, here: <\/span>[add link when its done]<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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A Simple Example: Measuring Voltage with an Analog Discovery<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

For this example, I used an Analog Discovery 3 controlled by DASYLab to measure a 10 Hz sine wave generated by a second Analog Discovery 3\u2019s AWG outputs, controlled by WaveForms software. The second AD3 isn\u2019t required \u2013 you can and should use whatever signal source you have available or want to measure. Make sure to connect your device\/s to your computer using the appropriate cables. To set up a simple measurement, follow the instructions below, which are also demonstrated in a short video clip.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Configure Your Analog Discovery:\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Connect the desired voltage source to one of the Analog Discovery\u2019s analog input channels. Here you can see my setup, with two AD3s stacked on top of each other, with one device\u2019s AWG channel 1 looped back to the other\u2019s Scope channel 1:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n