This is a guide on how to log data for more than 10000 samples, using the Roborun Utility.
This is an article following our article for logging data in high frequency, it can be found here:
https://roboteq.freshdesk.com/a/solutions/articles/70000129856
Sampling rate and limitations
When installing Roborun on any Windows machine, the default location for installing is C:\Program Files (x86)\Roboteq\Roborun Plus. This is in line, with every other professionally made Windows application and helps with the proper structuring of the files of Windows, as well as the protection of important files.
The installation within the program files, also introduces a limitation of the available logging samples via console, 10000 to be exact. When the sample number reaches that value, the text file that is created will have the data overwritten, beginning from the first values. The time before the samples reach that value is dependent on the sampling rate.
For example: When sending the # c_/?M 1_?M 2_?P 1_?P 2_?A 1_?A 2_# 1 command via console, we will be able to log data for 10 seconds as the sampling rate is set to 1ms. When we reach 10 seconds the first values that we captured will be overwritten.
How to overcome the limitation
To overcome this number of samples limitation, all we need to do is create a copy of Roborun to another non-protected location within our computer. The most common and practical location is the Desktop. Following, are the steps required.
- We go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Roboteq\Roborun Plus and copy the Roborun Plus folder.
- We create a folder on the Desktop, with a desired name, and paste the Roborun Plus folder inside.
- Within the Roborun Plus folder we just pasted, we must create a folder named logs.
- Finally, we need to run Roborun.exe from within the Roborun Plus file we pasted. You should automatically see 4 text files inside, calib, console, error, script. The logs from the console tab will be stored within console text file.
Example of logging data
Following our previous steps, let's try logging some data now from the console tab of Roborun and keep the log running for more than 10000 samples. We will use the # c_/?M 1_?M 2_?P 1_?P 2_?A 1_?A 2_# 1 command, that is set to capture data in 1ms intervals.
In order to be sure that the data we will log will be clear right before we start logging, we can open the console text file and delete whatever is currently written inside.
We then proceed to sending the ^RWD 0 to temporarily disable the watchdog timer, so we can conduct our tests, if we are required to send commands to the motors via Console. If it is not required we do not disable the watchdog timer and it is highly not recommended. The watchdog command can be found in the Roborun v2.1 Users Manual. This has to be done only once, and we need to remember to reenable it after we finish our tests.
We send # c_/?M 1_?M 2_?P 1_?P 2_A 1_?A 2_# 1,
Whenever we manage to capture the behavior we want we can press stop.
Our next step is to go to the Console text file we cleared previously and open it. Now inside we will find the logs we just captured.
We can see that we captured 38180 samples of data which translates to ~38 seconds. Our next action would be, to copy all the data present inside and utilize them according to the application we use to plot the data.
Remember to save the previous log and clear the console text file when you are capturing a new log. This way, you will be able to document each test.