Logging Real-Time Test Data with the Stimulus Profile Editor

Use stimulus profiles to log real-time test data to the host computer while a test executes on a target.

Before you begin, you should familiarize yourself with the Stimulus Profile Editor environment.
Logging test data enables you to easily review and save the responses of a unit under test (UUT) to specific scenarios. VeriStand saves logged data in the TDMS file format, which you can later view and analyze using the TDMS File Viewer workspace tool, other National Instruments software such as NI DIAdem, or Microsoft Excel. The Stimulus Profile Editor provides support for both triggered and segmented logging to help you manage large data sets and long test scenarios.
  1. Create a stimulus profile that calls a real-time sequence.
  2. Add a Start Logging step to the stimulus profile, before the Real-Time Sequence Call step.
    Note The step appears as Start Logging Configuration with a Channel Group substep.
  3. Click Start Logging Configuration in the stimulus profile code and use the Property Browser to configure the following properties.
    Property Description
    Configuration Name The name you want to use to start and stop logging.
    File Path The name and location for a resulting log file.
    Timestamp Filename Whether to append the start time of the logging operation to the name of the log file.
    Replace Existing File Whether to replace an existing file with the same filename. If you disable this property, the Stimulus Profile Editor appends any new log data to the existing file.
    This property performs a basic append, so you will need to use the channel data in the final file to determine where new data is appended.
    Note Consider adding a time channel to your log to easily identify breaks in data logging.
    Log Rate [Hz] The Stimulus Profile Editor logs data at the closest possible rate to this value without exceeding the rate at which the target produces data.
    Triggered Logging Configure trigger conditions to specify when data logging starts and stop. If you do not configure triggers, the Stimulus Profile Editor continuously logs all specified channel data beginning when the Start Logging step executes.
  4. Click the Channel Group step and configure the following properties.
    Property Description
    Channel Group Name The name of the channel group used in the TDMS file.
    Channels Adds channels or aliases to the channel group.
  5. If you want to log data in multiple channel groups, add additional Channel Group steps under Start Logging Configuration.
  6. Add a Stop Logging step after the Real-Time Sequence Call step, and set the Configuration Name to the name you specified in the Start Logging step.
  7. Save and run the stimulus profile.
The Stimulus Profile Editor logs data on channels using the triggers and file segmenting you specified.