Install the WaveForms 3 software, if you haven't already. See Installer Details for more information.
Connect your board to your PC using the USB connector and the supplied USB cable.
Start the WaveForms application from the Start Menu > All Programs > Digilent > WaveForms 3 > WaveForms.
The application starts and connects to your board.
The status bar of the WaveForms main window displays the device name and serial number, as shown below.
Only one application can be connected to one board at a time. If you get the message “The selected device is being used by another application” check the taskbar for other applications in use.
If the application is not working as expected, try starting the WaveForms application from the MS Windows Start Menu > All Programs > Digilent > WaveForms 3 > WaveForms Safe Mode or the WaveForms application with “clear” parameter.
See the device specific troubleshooting:
The WaveForm's main window Welcome tab (shown above) has buttons for each instrument: Scope (Oscilloscope), Wavegen (Waveform Generator), Supplies, Meters, Logic (Logic Analyzer), Patterns (Pattern Generator), Static I/O (Static Digital Input/Output), Network (Network Analyzer), Spectrum (Spectrum Analyzer), and Script instruments. The instruments can also be opened from the Welcome tab “+” (add) menu.
An instrument's button is disabled when the selected device or configuration does not support it.
The Settings menu contains the Options, the Device Manager, and Trigger PC.
The Workspace's Open, Save, and Save as buttons allow the user to load or save WaveForms 3 workspaces.
When an instrument is closed, its state is saved and loaded when reopened. The New button creates a new workspace, which can be used to close the instruments that are currently open while also forgetting the last instrument configurations.
The workspace refers to any open instruments and their current state. The workspace can be loaded and saved with the Open and Save/Save as buttons in the WaveForm's Welcome tab.
The workspace can be saved in one of the following modes selected by the save filter:
The workspace files are associated with WaveForms. When you open a workspace (double-click on a *.dwf3work file) and WaveForms is running, it will be opened with the last used application instance. Otherwise, if WaveForms is not currently running, it will open with a new application instance.
The project refers to an instrument and its current state. The project can be loaded and saved with the Open and Save buttons in each instrument.
The project files are associated with WaveForms. When you open a project (double-click on a *.dwf3scope, *.dwf3wavegen, *dwf3logic, ... file) and WaveForms is running, it will be opened with the last used application instance. Otherwise, if WaveForms is not currently running, it will open with a new application instance.
The Options window allows you to select various display and configuration preferences.
To open the Options window, select the Settings / Options menu from the WaveForms window.
The Device Manager allows you to select the device and configuration to use with the WaveForms application.
To open the Device Manager, select the Settings / Device Manager menu or click on the window's status bar device button from the WaveForms window.
Devices list: Select the device you want to use. The Demo device allows you to explore WaveForms' capabilities without a physical device being connected to the PC.
Configurations: Select the configuration you want to use for the selected device. The configurations have different device buffer-memory distributions for the instruments and other capabilities, such as digital input standards.
Calibrate list: The Calibrate button opens the Calibration window.
The Device Calibration window allows you to calibrate (fine-tune) a device's analog components, such as the read-voltage levels of the Oscilloscope or Voltmeters, the output level of the Waveform Generator or Adjustable Power Supplies of the Electronics Explorer board, or the Oscilloscope and Waveform Generator of the Analog Discovery device.
Start the Device Calibration window from the WaveForms main window Settings / Device Manager.
The following window will open. The items in the calibration list depend on the selected device type.
The menu strips of the instrument windows generally have:
The mouse operations for lists are as follows:
left mouse click: selects an element.
shift and left mouse click: selects an element range.
control and left mouse click: adds an element to the selection list.
mouse move with pressed left button on row header: moves the selected elements.| select |
select |
move |
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The center of the plot is marked with grid lines. Each vertical and horizontal line constitutes a major division. For linear scales these are laid out in a 10x10 division pattern. The tick marks on the sides between major divisions are called minor divisions. For logarithmic scales major ticks are shown for each decay value and minor ticks for 2,3,4... points.
The plot sides allow scaling adjustment; with a left-button mouse drag the offset/position is changed, and with a right-button, mouse wheel, or left-button + Alt key press, the range is changed. The Ctrl key speeds up and Shift slows down the respective operation.
Each plot has a button in the top-right corner which opens a drop-down menu (or mouse right-click) containing options for:
The HotTrack allows you to take measurements by moving the mouse cursor. It has the appearance of a vertical cursor and it displays values such as amplitudes, periods or frequencies where it intersects with the waveforms present in the view. This can be enabled and disabled with the toggle button in the top-right corner or by double-clicking on the plot. Clicking on the plot locks or unlocks the hottrack to its current position.
The Cursors are used to measure waveform data. They can be used to indicate certain properties of the waveform, such as bandwidth or channel limits. Using delta cursors, you can make measurements for power change with frequency or time. These can be added by pressing the X button in the plot bottom left corner. The Y cursors in the Scope main time plot can be added by pressing the Y button in the top right corner. The first cursor is by default added as a normal cursor, the following ones are added as delta of the first cursor, displaying the difference. The cursors position can be modified by a mouse drag, keyboard arrow keys, or adjustment control in the cursor's drop-down menu. Mouse button middle click removes the cursor. The cursors can be selected with the channel number shortcut, pressing 1, 2,..
The Cursor view enabled in the instrument's View menu shows the position and measurements in a table. The cursor's drop-down menu and table contain adjustment controls for the reference cursor selection, position, delta value relative to reference cursor, and remove button. For horizontal cursors, the position is expressed in horizontal axis units while the vertical value is shown in intersection with each waveform.
The docking window's functionality gives you flexible organization of docking windows within the parent window.
The windows can be dragged by their top border. When dragging is above the margins of the parent window, it will indicate the drop region. If you release the mouse, the child window will be docked to the corresponding margin. If you position a child window above another child window with same parent, it can dock in tabular mode. Releasing a window outside of drop regions makes the window float.
The Export dialog lets you save the data or screenshot. The data can be saved as CSV (comma separated values) or TXT (tab delimited values). By checking the save options, the following information will also be saved:
The screenshot image can be saved in various image formats.
The script editor uses JavaScript language to create custom Math channels in Scope, custom waveform patterns in WaveGen, and Meter channel functions. These expect mathematical functions which will be called and applied to each sample of the input value (data or X).
The specific objects and variables available in each of these can be found under the Insert menu Locals group. Beside these the standard script elements are the following:
The custom measurements in Scope expect a more complex script, where the value in the last line is the result. You may need to implement a loop to process the acquisition data.
For further information see Script Code.
The Logging tool allows you to save data on each acquisition or to execute custom script code. This is available in the Scope and the Logic instruments.
| Expression | Output |
| d | the day as a number without a leading zero (1 to 31). |
| dd | the day as a number with a leading zero (01 to 31). |
| ddd | the abbreviated localized day name (e.g., 'Mon' to 'Sun'). Uses the system locale to localize the name. |
| dddd | the long localized day name (e.g., 'Monday' to 'Sunday'). Uses the system locale to localize the name. |
| M | the month as a number without a leading zero (1-12). |
| MM | the month as a number with a leading zero (01-12). |
| MMM | the abbreviated localized month name (e.g., 'Jan' to 'Dec'). Uses the system locale to localize the name. |
| MMMM | the long localized month name (e.g., 'January' to 'December'). Uses the system locale to localize the name. |
| yy | the year as a two digit number (00-99). |
| yyyy | the year as a four digit number. |
| h | the hour without a leading zero (0 to 23 or 1 to 12 if AM/PM display). |
| hh | the hour with a leading zero (00 to 23 or 01 to 12 if AM/PM display). |
| H | the hour without a leading zero (0 to 23, even with AM/PM display). |
| HH | the hour with a leading zero (00 to 23, even with AM/PM display). |
| m | the minute without a leading zero (0 to 59). |
| mm | the minute with a leading zero (00 to 59). |
| s | the second without a leading zero (0 to 59). |
| ss | the second with a leading zero (00 to 59). |
| z | the milliseconds without leading zeroes (0 to 999). |
| zzz | the milliseconds with leading zeroes (000 to 999). |
| AP or A | use AM/PM display. A/AP will be replaced by either “AM” or “PM”. |
| ap or a | use am/pm display. a/ap will be replaced by either “am” or “pm”. |
| t | the timezone (for example “CEST”). |
The active instruments (Oscilloscope, Wavegen, Logic, and Patterns) step through states while acquiring or generating a signal.
From each of these instruments, multiple instances can be opened at a time, however, only one instance can be active. When more instruments of the same type are opened, the last used instance (after pressing Run or Stop) controls the device. The others display a Busy status.
The following diagram illustrates the states of the Arbitrary Waveform Generator and Digital Pattern Generator.
The Repeat cycle can be configured to include or exclude Trigger.
If any setting (frequency, duty, signal type, etc.) is modified from any state, it goes right to the Config state. If the instrument was running, it will be started again.
The trigger event is the rising edge of the trigger signal. The Electronics Explorer board has four trigger input pins. They are used by the Oscilloscope, Arbitrary Waveform Generators, Logic Analyzer, and Digital Pattern Generator instruments. The instruments output a trigger signal as long as they are in Run state.
Any of these instruments can be triggered by any of the trigger signals coming from external pins or the other instruments.
The Waveform Generator channels can function as independent instruments, having their own controller, or in synchronized mode when the selected channels are controlled by one state controller.
The input instruments (Oscilloscope and Logic) have a trigger detector based on their input channels.
The Trigger PC event is generated by pressing the button under the main window device menu. On the Electronics Explorer board, this trigger event is generated when the board switch is turned to the on position as well.
The None trigger mode configuration in the instruments means that acquisition or generation doesn't wait for a trigger, it starts immediately.
The Auto trigger mode for input instruments means that if the trigger condition doesn't appear in approximately two seconds, acquisition is started automatically.
In multiple acquisition mode, when the instruments switch to Auto trigger, subsequent acquisitions are made without waiting for timeout as long as a trigger event does not occur and the configuration is not changed. When a new trigger event occurs or the configuration is changed, the current acquisition is finished and the next one waits for the trigger. It is also the best mode to use if you are looking at many signals and do not want to set the trigger each time.
The Mac OS® X application is packaged in an Apple Disk Image file, like: digilent.waveforms_3.0.0.dmg. To install the application, copy it from the image to the Applications folder.
For Linux®, the application is available in DEB and RPM packages for 32 and 64-bit systems. The required Digilent Adept Runtime must be installed separately.
The installers for Microsoft Windows®, like digilent.waveforms_v3.0.0.exe, has the following command line arguments:
The following are the command line arguments for the WaveForms application:
For projects, the instrument is opened and project loaded:
In order for these options to work, the path where the application is installed has to be selected in the command line.