Setting measurement for whole numbers only

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SgtCajun
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Setting measurement for whole numbers only

Post by SgtCajun »

How do I get the measurements in the software (V 6.10.16.2) to output without a decimal point? Our result outputs in microseconds and the software is taking the measurement out to a tenth of a second as opposed to my preferred whole microsecond.
I would prefer the result to be 182 vs 181.6.
I would prefer the result to be 182 vs 181.6.

Hitesh

Re: Setting measurement for whole numbers only

Post by Hitesh »

Hi SgtCajun,

The rulers use decimal places so I will ask the Development Team for their thoughts.

You can edit the boxes to snap the rulers to a specific time position on the screen.

Regards,

Martyn
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Re: Setting measurement for whole numbers only

Post by Martyn »

Would you be able to provide some more information on why you require numbers without decimals, these are just visual cues on the screen.
Martyn
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Mark_O
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Re: Setting measurement for whole numbers only

Post by Mark_O »

Martyn wrote:Would you be able to provide some more information on why you require numbers without decimals, these are just visual cues on the screen.
Martyn,

I'd be happy to provide some input of my own on the subject. If they're "just visual cues", then they're not very good ones. Why? Because all the decimal pointed data is just "noise". It imposes an additional cognitive burden when someone is glancing at the axes, and trying to get an overall feel for where events happen to be falling. If/when they want to know a specific time point (or interval), then the cursors come out, but the axial times stamps are only meant to provide "round number" time-stamps, and they do not.

In SgtCajun's example, we're looking at a time-line with 50, 100, 150, 200 usec markers. Only not so much, because every one is offset by 143 nano-secs! Why? What's the benefit of that? That just takes longer to visually scan and parse, then mentally translate into, "about 50, 100, etc. usecs". In other words, it adds unnecessary confusion.

Let me see if I can provide an appropriate analogy. It's like Mr. Spock, from the Star Trek series... "Captain, the time interval was 11.97853 seconds. Approximately." Kirk, "You mean about 12 seconds?" Spock, "I believe that is what I said." :mrgreen:

- Mark

Martyn
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Re: Setting measurement for whole numbers only

Post by Martyn »

When you drag the time cursors would you expect it to jump whole number to whole number, or would you expect a smooth movement to identify an exact point on the trace ?
Martyn
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Re: Setting measurement for whole numbers only

Post by Mark_O »

Martyn wrote:When you drag the time cursors would you expect it to jump whole number to whole number, or would you expect a smooth movement to identify an exact point on the trace ?
I would never expect time cursors to jump (be quantized), but always move smoothly to identify exact points on the trace. The only limitation there is the current display level (pixel accurate). The same applies to amplitude cursors.

And the readouts for those cursor times to be represented in their display boxes with a resolution (number of significant digits) that was commensurate with the measurement accuracy. I.e., higher (more digits) on the time axis than the amplitude axis.

[E.g., showing voltage values with many digits doesn't make much sense, when their absolute accuracy is never better than 1%. Though the deltas (relative values), could be significantly more precise than the absolute accuracy of each reading. Limited by the per-bit quantization of the ADC, which is quite small on many PicoScopes, and refined further by ERES.]

- Mark

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Re: Setting measurement for whole numbers only

Post by Mark_O »

I just went back and looked again, and noticed SgtCajun's comment below his screen shot:

"I would prefer the result to be 182 vs 181.6."

I.e., he seems to be asking for rounding of display times in the cursor readout boxes. I missed that on first reading. Which is a lot different than labeling on the axes.

Personally, this makes no sense to me in a general sense. There is plenty of accuracy in the time domain, and if the time is 181.6 usec, then that's what PicoScope should show. Making this a general change would definitely upset most users. Saying, "I'd like to see a whole # of microseconds (or what ever units)", when that is not reality, is not the way to go on a measuring instrument. So making it an option-setting would be required.

For those users wanting to see less accuracy than what is both available and correct, Pico could have a Cursor Display Rounding option, which let one select the number of significant digits. Here, picking 3 would give the Sgt the 182 he's looking for. Picking 2, would display 180 usec. I doubt this is something I myself would ever find a use for*, but different users have different needs. If a lot of folks found this useful, then it wouldn't be hard to implement. (More effort to implement the user-adjustable Option setting in a dialog box than to actually perform the rounding operations.)

My apologies for commenting off on a slightly different tangent, initially. And any confusion that may have created.

- Mark

[*partly because this then creates a broad band on the time axis where dragging the cursor would result in NO change to the cursor box readout value.]

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