DAC Playback Scope Application
Signatec’s DAC Playback Scope Application software is installed as part of the standard signal generator software installation. The DAC Playback Scope Application is used to control one or more Signatec signal generator boards with a virtual oscilloscope application that allows the operator to view or edit all DAC board hardware settings as well as playback and display signal data.
When the DAC Playback Scope Application starts, it will automatically connect to all local signal generator boards. Note that when the application starts up the DAC hardware is not accessed. This allows the Playback Scope Application to run without directly affecting any DAC operation that may be in progress with other software.
If no physical signal generator devices are detected in the system, then a single ‘virtual’ signal generator device will be used. A virtual device is an imaginary device that is not connected to any real hardware. It’s implemented mainly as a software debugging tool, but also serves to show what the software can do when the hardware is present.
The Playback Scope Application uses an MDI interface so each managed signal generator device will have its own window.
The Playback Scope Application has the ability to connect to signal generator devices that reside on remote, non-local systems. The Playback Scope Application software uses local TCP/IP services to connect to the remote DAC server. With the exception of a few small user-interface differences, controlling remote DAC devices isn’t any different from controlling normal, local DAC devices. In order to work with a remote DAC device, two pieces of software must be used: the client and the server. The client software is the Playback Scope Application and the server software is the Signatec Service Manage; which must be installed, along with the normal signal generator software, on the server system (where the DAC hardware resides).
The Playback Scope Application may be used to modify any of the various hardware settings that affect how the signal generator behaves. These settings are distributed over the tabbed view at the bottom of the main device form.
The main interface is divided into two resizable panels. The top panel is the ‘Scope’ panel and is used to display DAC signal data, playback snapshots, and previously saved signal data files. The Scope panel is capable of simultaneously displaying multiple data channels. The bottom panel contains the ‘Settings’ and ‘Playback’ tabes and is a tabbed view with various views that control the various DAC hardware settings and playback operations. Certain tabs are only displayed if the underlying DAC device supports those features.
