Zoom and pan with mouse scroll wheel

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mkl
Newbie
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Joined: Mon Nov 03, 2014 12:04 pm

Zoom and pan with mouse scroll wheel

Post by mkl »

Dear Picoscope,

I searched the configuration menus, manual and tried some combinations but there doesn't seem to be a quick zoom & pan with mouse wheel feature in Picoscope 6. It's a bit annoying to click the small toolbar button, select a rectangular area and then adjust the area in zoom overview window. It's especially annyoing that there isn't horizontal zoom button because the general zoom applies to voltage axis and the 8-bit samples turn to ugly "stairs". 99% of time i'd like to zoom in on time axis only and leave the amplitude as it is.

Many application have buttons like this, maybe you can add these keys to Picoscope also:
Ctrl + Wheel = Horizontal Zoom
Wheel = Horizontal pan

Some applications handle mouse wheel differently depending on the cursor position. E.g. when cursor is on time axis the scrolling pans time, when cursors is on voltage axis, scrolling offsets channel. Cursors should also change when it's on active area.

Actually, when i already started complaining, then channel offsetting is also bit clumsy. If scale is let's say 0-5V then offset adjustment should step on 0.5V, 1V, 1.5V... or 0.1V, 0.2V, 0.3V.... Today offset changes by milli/micro volts and it's quite hard to lock it to the position where it displays nice rounded numbers. This applies to time axis also.

One thing more: would be nice to put text labels on channels - then waveforms can be understood later when copy-pasting the images to report file.

Otherwise I'm very happy with PicoScope :)

Hitesh

Re: Zoom and pan with mouse scroll wheel

Post by Hitesh »

Hi mkl,

Thank you for your suggestions which have been passed onto our Development Team via our Bug/New Feature reporting system.

Regarding horizontal zoom, there are three ways to do this:

1. Click on one of the + or - zoom buttons, then move the mouse cursor to just under the time axis. The magnifying glass icon for the cursor will change to show two small arrows pointing left and right; you can then left-click adjust the zoom level.

2. Click on one of the + or - zoom buttons, then move the mouse cursor over the trace. Press the CTRL key and the cursor will change as above; left-click to change the zoom level.

3. Use the zoom factor in the toolbar e.g. change to x2 or x5 or x10 to zoom in.

Best wishes,
Last edited by Hitesh on Thu Nov 06, 2014 10:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Update for horizontal zoom

mkl
Newbie
Posts: 0
Joined: Mon Nov 03, 2014 12:04 pm

Re: Zoom and pan with mouse scroll wheel

Post by mkl »

Hello Hitesh,

Thanks for good tips. I also found that when selecting "Zoom []" button (box on magnifying glass) and pressing CTRL then it also selects zoomable area on time axis only.

Anyway, quick pan&zoom feature would still be welcome. Even the (better) desk oscilloscopes have dedicated horizontal zoom&pan knobs which makes life easier. I'm glad if you can implement it someday.

rocket777
Newbie
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Joined: Fri Jul 03, 2015 7:08 pm

Re: Zoom and pan with mouse scroll wheel

Post by rocket777 »

I too expected something to happen when using the wheel while just pointing to the display.

I would also like to see the scroll amount when used on a control, e.g. horizontal zoom, be only 1 unit. I'm seeing 4 units, even though I have set the mouse control panel value to 1.

BTW, I use a (free) tool called x-mouse button control which has a setting to NOT require clicking in a control in order for the wheel to activate that control. Then I can simply hover over a control and twirl the wheel, without left clicking first. This makes using the wheel much better than trying to click on the tiny up/down controls.

Martyn
Site Admin
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Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2011 8:15 am
Location: St. Neots

Re: Zoom and pan with mouse scroll wheel

Post by Martyn »

We are currently looking at, and working on, features to support touchscreens and to better utilise mouse controls. So look out for these in future releases.
Martyn
Technical Support Manager

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