Wet Labs WETView 7.0 User’s Guide

WET Labs, Inc. P.O. Box 518 Philomath, OR 97370 Tel: 541-929-5650

fax: 541-929-5277

www.wetlabs.com

WETView 7.0

User’s Guide

WETView 7.0 User’s Guide (WETView) Revision F 9 February 2004

1. Introduction................................................................................... 1

2. System Requirements and Installation......................................... 1

2.1 Installing the Software ....................................................................................... 1

3. Quick Start.................................................................................... 1

4. Operation Overview...................................................................... 2

4.1 Controlling WETView....................................................................................... 2

4.2 How Data is Collected ....................................................................................... 2

4.3 Displaying Data ................................................................................................. 3

4.4 Rescaling Graphs ............................................................................................... 3

5. Collecting, Graphing, and Saving Data ........................................ 4

5.1 WETView Menus .............................................................................................. 4

5.2 Opening a Device............................................................................................... 5

5.3 Opening and Saving a Data File ........................................................................ 5

5.4 Collecting Data .................................................................................................. 6

5.5 Graphing Data.................................................................................................... 6

6. Configuration ................................................................................ 8

Appendix A—ac-9 Meter Files.......................................................... 11

ac-9 Configuration File................................................................................................. 11

ac-9 WETView Data Files............................................................................................ 11

ac-9 Raw Data............................................................................................................... 14

Appendix B—ac-s Meter Files .......................................................... 18

ac-s Configuration File ................................................................................................. 18

ac-s WETView Data Files ............................................................................................ 20

ac-s Raw Data ............................................................................................................... 22

WETView 7.0 User’s Guide (WETView) Revision F 9 February 2004 i

1. Introduction

WETView is a data acquisition and display program for acquiring and viewing the data produced by WET Labs absorption and attenuation instruments. It runs on IBM PC compatible computers. This document describes what is required to run WETView, how to install it and how to use it.

2. System Requirements and Installation

It is recommended you have at least a 90 Mhz Pentium with at least 16 Mb of memory. You will need about 3 Mb of disk space for the WETView program and related files. The speed of the processor limits how much real-time graphing can be accomplished without data loss. The size of memory limits the number of data points that can be plotted in one run. WETView requires Windows 95 or newer operating system.

The WETView CD contains five files: SETUP.EXE, Wethsx.001, Wethsx.002, *.dev and *.cal.

Once installed, the WETView directory contains the following files:

• setup.exe WETView installation executable

• uninst.dll File associated with uninstall utility

• uninst.exe The uninstall utility

• uninst.lrm File associated with uninstall utility

• Wethsx.001File associated with program file

• Wethsx.002File associated with program file

• WetView.exe WETView program

• WETVIEW.UIR WETView user interface resource file

• *.DEV Device configuration files (the actual name(s) of these files depend

upon the instrument(s) that you have purchased)

2.1 Installing the Software

1. Insert the CD.

2. Open the CD and double-click on the SETUP.EXE icon. SETUP will guide you through the rest of the installation process.

3. Copy the *.dev and *.cal files to the hard disk. WETView initially looks for the .dev file in the installation directory (default is c:\Program Files\wetlabs\wetview7).

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3. Quick Start

This section gives instructions for you to quickly get a single meter connected and displaying data. fter installing the software:

1. Connect the meter to an appropriate power supply.

2. Connect the data line to one of the communication ports on your computer.

3. Turn the meter power supply on.

4. Start the WETView program.

5. Open a device configuration file by pressing the ^O to Open button at the top of the

screen (or by typing control-O). A dialog box will appear, allowing you to select a file to open.

6. Select the COM port to which you attached the meter.

7. Press the F1 to Start button at the top of the screen.

8. After several seconds, stop the acquisition by pressing the F2 to Stop button.

9. Save the newly acquired data to a file. Name the file TMP.DAT.

10. Rescale the graph by selecting the All channels button in the lower right corner of

the screen. You can zoom in on one channel by press the colored button next to the channel’s name on the right-hand side of the screen.

11. Open the data file you have just created by selecting File/Open .DAT file... from the

File menu. Choose the file named TMP.DAT.

12. View the data in the file by pressing the “F1 to Start” button at the top of the screen.

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4. Operation Overview

WETView acquires data from WET Labs’ ac meters and displays collected data. WETView can perform these tasks simultaneously or independently.

4.1 Controlling WETView

You may use a mouse or keyboard commands to control WETView. The assigned function keys are:

Start acquiring data

^O (control-O) Opens a device for data acquisition.

To operate controls on the screen using the keyboard, select the control by tabbing until the desired control is highlighted, then change its value. The method for changing a control’s value depends on the type of control:

• For a text or numeric field, type the desired value.

• For a radio button, type a space to toggle its value.

• For a button, type Return to activate the button.

Most dialog boxes have an OK and a Cancel button. The function key F1 will select OK and the Esc key will cancel the dialog.

Stop acquiring data

Bring up Graph Options dialog

Bring up Binning Options dialog

Move data on graph to the left (or down)

Move data on graph to the right (or up)

Zoom graph in

Zoom graph out

4.2 How Data is Collected

As data is collected, it is averaged into bins. The average of each bin is stored and can be written to a file after the acquisition is complete. The number of samples per bin is set by the user via the Options/Channels/Binning… menu item. Once the data has been averaged into bins, those bins can be further averaged into bins of bins for plotting.

Regardless of which channels are being displayed, all data acquired from an instrument is stored and can be saved to a data file.

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4.3 Displaying Data

Data can be read directly from an instrument and displayed in real time, or it can be read from a previously stored data file. You may configure the X and Y ranges for graphs and select which traces are to be plotted. Collected data may be averaged into bins for display. Thus, you can average acquired data into bins of 4 samples each, and then display bins of 12 samples each by selecting a collection bin size of 4 and a display bin size of 3.

4.4 Rescaling Graphs

When data is displayed in a graph, you can rescale the graph’s bounds to zoom in on a single channel by clicking on the small button associated with the channel's label (on the right side of the screen). Clicking on the All channels button will rescale the graph so that all displayed channels will be shown.

In the lower right corner of the screen are four buttons for navigating around a displayed graph. You can zoom in (magnify) a graph, or zoom out.

You can also move the bounds on the graph to shift the viewed data to the right or left on the current graph (for strip charts, these move the graph up and down).

You can change other characteristics of a graph by selecting Options/Graph (or, equivalently, the Graph/Options menu item).

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5. Collecting, Graphing, and Saving Data

5.1 WETView Menus

New

Open Device

Open .DAT File

Save as

Configure

Quit

Absorption vs. Depth

Absorption vs. Time

Time Strip Chart

Absorption vs. Temperature

Spectrograph (Scatter plot)

Spectrograph (bar chart)

Open Graph...

Clears the current graph and disconnects from the current instrument.

Chooses which type of device to collect data from. Opens a previously saved data file for display. Saves the most recently acquired data into a data file. Allows you to edit the configuration for an instrument, including the calibration constants. Quits the WETView program.

Selects the vertical graph of absorption versus depth. Selects the vertical graph of absorption versus time.

Selects the horizontal strip chart for display (absorption vs. time).

Selects the vertical graph of absorption versus temperature.

Selects the scatter plot of absorption/attenuation vs. wavelength.

Selects the spectrum display of absorption/attenuation vs. wavelength.

Opens a graph file for viewing.

Save Graph...

Print Graph...

Options...(F3)

Saves the current graph to a file.

Prints the current graph to a printer.

Allows you to configure the scaling of graphical output.

Graph…

Allows you to configure the scaling of graphical output.

Channels/ Binning...

Allows you to set the bin size for sampling and the traces to display.

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