Feature Requests

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Steve0
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Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2023 2:29 pm

Feature Requests

Post by Steve0 »

Hello,

I've got a couple of features that I think would be very useful.

Would it be possible to use Math Channels as variables in other Math Channels? I guess they would have to be calculated in the order that you add the channels. It would be really handy. For instance, I can measure the water temperature and volume flow rate. From the water temperature I can calculate the density and from the density and volume flow rate I can calculate the mass flow rate. It would be good to do this in Picolog in stages as it really help reduce the workload after data capture.

Also, I'm loving the average and derivative functions. Would it be possible to add a std deviation function. Something like stddev(channel , time) where time is the amount of time in seconds to calculate the standard deviation over.

Cheers
Steve

Steve0
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Re: Feature Requests

Post by Steve0 »

I've thought of another one that would be useful.

Could there be a way of re-transmitting the received data to something like influx db. I realise that you might want it to be a bit more generic, but having the data go to a time based database would be amazing.

I wonder if this can be achieved with the API?

G-son
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Re: Feature Requests

Post by G-son »

I don't use picolog, just the picoscope software so there may be differences in how this works, but I fail to see the point in using the output from one or more math channels to base another math channel on.

Make one single math channel to do all the math you want based on the raw input data, and you're good to go. In effect something basically made up as [Density calculations for data from channel A]*[Flow calculations for data from channel B]=mass flow rate to produce one single math channel doing all the work to show mass flow rate. If you also want to show the density and flow separately you also make the individual math channels for those too, of course.

Steve0
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Re: Feature Requests

Post by Steve0 »

Hi G-Son,
I think the main reason to do it separately is if you need the calculated variable in more than one calculation.

For example, when I run a cooling test I like to see the flow and return temperatures, and the difference between them, this difference is then used with the mass flow rate to calculate cooling duty. So I want visibility of all these variables to ensure my tests are running smoothly.
I could have a calculation for each, but two things strike me as important. 1. Simple calculations are much easier to read and understand, also the input box is not very long, so a long equation is very hard to read. 2. My inner programmer is screaming to me 'Dont Repeat Yourself'

G-son
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Re: Feature Requests

Post by G-son »

I do see your points. The situation isn't quite ideal.
About the short input box, I believe you can write the formula anywhere and copy-paste it (or copy-paste it from the box to anywhere else with more room), if that helps seeing everything going on at once.

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