Newbie XY plotting and general questions

Support forum for MegunoLink
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Rod
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2019 12:55 am

Thu Jan 24, 2019 2:45 pm

Hello all,

I am in the process of evaluating this software to see if it will do what I need. My first impressions are very good but it might be a case where "strummin'" is easy but "pickin' and grinnin'" are a bit more.

I'm sorry I can't post my code right now but it's at about 700 lines and I think my questions can be answered without it.
I'd like to tell everyone a little about this project. It involves a stepper motor which moves in an arc and a detector that counts events. It's slow. The motor moves a dozen steps or so, stops for at least 100 ms, the counter counts, dumps to the pc and the process repeats. I want an XY plot that plots motor position on X and counts on Y.

I have read the forum and the documentation fairly thoroughly and can't find this information.

My first question: Can I have a floating point number (or at least a decimal number) on the X axis and an integer on the Y axis? I ask this because the system wants "Steppers Degrees" on X and counts on Y. Sometimes I have cheated other pieces of software and printed an integer as things like 2.34. Can't see how to do it here.

Second question: Can I autorange the Y axis but still set the bottom limit to zero? My counter seldom counts negative events.

Third question: Is there any way to clear the serial monitor, while it's gathering data, short of opening another?

Fourth question: Can I store a graphical plot and then recall it later? I would like this because sometimes a "good part" is scanned. I want to save that scan as a reference so that other parts can be compared.

Sorry to be so long winded. I look forward to hearing from someone with much more experience than me.

Thanks for reading.

Rod
philr
Posts: 446
Joined: Mon May 26, 2014 10:58 am

Mon Jan 28, 2019 4:35 am

Hi Rod, questions answered below

1 - yes you should be able to do this. Our arduino library for xyplot is overloaded with a limited to a number of types. This one should work for you.

float test = 0;
float meas = 0;
DataPlot.SendData(F("SeriesName"), test, meas);
meas = meas + 1;
test = test + 0.1;

2 - I think this is possible. Click on plot properties (little finger over menu button, 3 from left). It has configuration options for all the axes. Looks like it lets you set auto or manual for each axis limit.

3 - This is not possible with a standard monitor. If you use our message monitor it can be done. See this page for the raw command
https://www.megunolink.com/documentatio ... reference/

Our arduino library also allows you to do it.
Message MyMessage("MessageChannel");
MyMessage.Clear();
MyMessage.Send("Hi this is a message");

4 - Yes our plots have an export data option and allow you to load it back in. This is not huge flexible so you would want your xaxis to be logical when comparing.

Cheers
Phil
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