Data Stream – The highspeed Interface
We at DEWETRON are specialists in the world of measurement technology. No matter what you want to measure, we have the right solution for every application. But we are only so flexible because we take a variety of approaches, one of which is to implement as many interfaces as possible in our OXYGEN data acquisition software.
But today we do not want to talk about widely used interfaces such as CAN, Ethernet or EtherCAT, but about OXYGEN’s own Data Stream software interface. Learn what makes Data Stream so special and how to use Data Stream in the next paragraphs of this blog post.
The special features of Data Stream
DEWETRON offers a variety of options that allow you to integrate your instrument into a test bench or another third-party environment. This enables you to use almost any host of your system as a data sink or control instance. In the following list you will find a number of interfaces that DEWETRON supports:
Test bench interfaces
Probably the most widely used interface is the SCPI interface which works via Ethernet. SCPI is easy to implement and offers the largest number of control options such as channel configuration, loading a specific setup, start/stop of measurements and many more. But for high bandwidth applications SCPI proves to be too slow: SCPI typically transmits data in the ASCII format, which leads to performance losses. The Data Stream interface tries to solve this problem.
Data Stream is a DEWETRON proprietary software interface designed for high-speed, high-bandwidth data transmission. To increase the speed of data transfer, Data Stream transmits the measurement data in a binary format. This allows the measurement data to be sent with a time stamp using the full sampling rate. This results in speeds well above those of other interfaces. Depending on the sampling rate, you can transmit more than 100 channels. The only limiting factor is the bandwidth of the Ethernet network. Accordingly, despite all the improvements, the physical layer remains the classic Ethernet port. Data transfer also takes place via the standardized TCP/IP protocol family, so you do not have to worry about the compatibility of your interfaces.
The implementation of Data Stream
Data Stream is available as a software option with our in-house OXYGEN measurement software. During data acquisition, one can transmit both analog and processed values via the Data Stream plug-in. However, since the data is sent in binary code, a decoder must decode the data on the receiver side. Corresponding decoders are, for example, available for Python, C, C++ and LabVIEW. For more detailed information, please feel free to contact our Customer Care Center.
Data Stream is fully optimized for speed, therefore it is not possible to send control commands directly via this interface. However, the initialization and control of Data Stream works in a usual simple way, namely via SCPI. With a series of commands, you can thus initialize Data Stream, start it, stop it, specify a port and much more. In the following example, you can see how this setup with SCPI looks in practice.
Code example SCPI
If you want to learn more about SCPI control, you can download the corresponding Whitepaper from the link below. There you will also find more information about Data Stream such as the structure of individual data packages, code examples and much more.
Tip: You can also test the OXYGEN Data Stream plug-in without purchasing a license. However, you have to reset data stream after a limited time of five minutes.
DEWETRON’s measurement solutions
DEWETRON is a manufacturer of high-quality and modular measurement equipment. Our measurement systems are used in a wide range of measurement applications, including the aerospace, automotive and energy industries. You can learn about some of our most successful projects here.
Any measuring device is only as good as the software that runs on it. We have therefore taken up the challenge and developed the OXYGEN measurement software. OXYGEN offers you a wide range of different software packages and analysis options. You can find an overview of OXYGEN’s functionality here.
Do you want to learn even more about DEWETRON? Then visit us on the DEWETRON website. A variety of free content is available there, including whitepapers, video tutorials and also webinars. We are also regularly active on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
