| Test menus |
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If you have a number of standard tests that you carry out regularly, you can add a menu to select the settings for these tests by name. You can also use this facility to add a menu of example files that show what particular signals look like.
To add a test menu, it is necessary to create a test menu file. The facility to create this file is not built into PicoScope, it is necessary to use a text editor like Notepad, or a word processor.
When the selected language is English, PicoScope looks for a test file called TEST044.INI. For other languages, replace the 044 with the telephone dialling code for the required language (eg 049 for German). The test file is in the standard Windows.INI file format.
Simple example
A very simple file looks like this:
| [General]
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| Menu=Examples
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| Path=c:
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| [Examples]
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| Noise=noise.psd
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| Distortion=distort.psd
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The Menu line in the [General] section specifies that a sub-menu labelled Examples should be placed on the PicoScope main menu.
The [Examples] section says what options should appear in the Examples sub-menu. When a menu option is selected, the specified .psd or .pss file is loaded. For example, if you select Distortion, the computer will load a file called distort.psd from the specified test directory (in this case, C:).
Multilayer menus
If no filename is specified, PicoScope creates a sub-menu for the option. The following example contains two sub-menus:
| [Examples]
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| Amplifier=
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| CD player=
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| [Amplifier]
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| Noise=noise.psd
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| Distortion=distort.psd
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| [CD player]
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| White Noise=white.psd
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| PSU noise=psu.psd
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Documentation
You can associate each menu option with either a document of some sort, or with a topic in a help file. PicoScope will display the specified help topic or document if you click on the Test button on the help menu. If AutoShow is set to Yes, it will also display the information as soon as the test menu option is selected.
The following example shows how to do this:
| [General]
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| Menu=Examples
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| Path=c:
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| AutoShow=Yes
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| Help=exam044.hlp
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| [Examples]
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| Noise=noise.psd,10000
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| PSU Noise=psunoise.psd,20000,psu.hlp
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| Distortion=distort.psd,notepad.exe distort.txt
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A numeric item after the filename indicates that PicoScope should display a help topic: any other item is treated as a command line.
In the above example, when the Noise menu option is selected, PicoScope will load noise.psd, then it will display topic 10000 from the default help file (c:\exam044.hlp).
When the PSU noise menu option is selected, PicoScope will load psunoise.psd, then it will display topic 20000 from the specified help file (c:\psu.hlp).
When the Distortion example is selected, PicoScope will load distort.psd, then it will run notepad.exe to display distort.txt.
In Windows 95, you can specify 'start distort.txt' and it will then start the correct program for a .txt file.