Signal Express 2011: reproducible bugs, hangs, crashes, or unexpected behaviors

[OKors]

Since I've had a chance to fully experience Signal Express 2011 on our "lab PC" with real-world test applications I've discovered a few reproducible issues.

I'll post these and all future issues here; and I encourage anyone else who experiences unexpected behaviors, bugs, hangs etc should post in this thread as well. During NI Week had an opportunity to speak one-on-one with a few members of the Development Team. A lot of great feedback was exchanged but one thing that was expressed was the value of having consolidated threads like this one and the "Improvement Ideas" thread. It really helps them get an understanding of user needs and facilitate priorities.

Don't let your frustrations go unheard. The Dev Team really does read these comments and they take our suggestions very seriously.

---

Next Available File Name, Per Iteration:

This seems like a really useless function but with this option selected in the Save to ASCII step SigEx creates a single txt file per data point.
Example: I recently took 20 seconds of data at 1KHz with this option (accidentally) selected. At the end of my acquisition I was left with 20,000 .txt files in my project folder, each containing a single sample point worth of data. Deleting 20,000 files locked my PC up causing me to hard restart.

---

Scalar XY Plots break when opening an existing .seproj file.

When launching SigEx, then opening an existing .seproj file which contains xy plotted graphs, the graphs will not display any "live" data. The fix is to turn the xy graph into a different display type; i.e.. right-click, View As... gauge. Then right-click, View As... change back to scalar xy graph. Graph will now show live data

---

 Abnormal display when viewing raw signals as scope or sweep chart

When viewing raw signals (from DAQmx Acquire step) in a waveform chart and choosing  Scope or Sweep Chart as the update mode, only a small portion of the full graph is used. Its as if there's an invisible cutoff point in the graph. The data will sweep within this small portion, but it never scrolls across the whole graph.

This is only detectable in Scope or Sweep Chart mode. Strip Chart is unaffected.

---

Cursors do not follow zoomed-in signal in Scope Chart mode

This has been addressed in an earlier post and it's determined to be a definite bug. Just figured I'd consolidate it in this list.

I'll post more as issues become discovered.

[Drew_H]

Thank you for this.  I'll try to reproduce all of these issues and make sure to bring them to the developers' attention.  It's especially helpful to us that you listed the steps necessary to reproduce and workaround(s) you've already discovered.

[Drew_H]

Hi OKors,

I wanted to give you an update on these issues.  I was able to replicate the Per Iteration, Scalar XY Plots, and Scope/Sweep  behaviors, and checked on the status of the cursor in Scope Chart mode.

Next Available File Name, Per Iteration

CAR #298421

Although this behavior isn't necessarily a bug, I do see how creation of an extraordinarily large number of files could be a problem if there is no warning, especially if done in error and deletion of so many files crashes the computer.  A CAR has been filed on changing the help file to specify "per iteration" in the Save to ASCII/LVM entry to help clear this up.

Scalar XY Plots break when opening an existing .seproj file

CAR #313498

Definitely not intended behavior.  I filed a CAR on this issue with R&D and also provided them with your workaround of changing the graph type to something else and back again.

Cursors do not follow zoomed-in signal in Scope Chart mode

CAR #299257

This issue is currently being evaluated by R&D, but unfortunately I do not have a timeline on when this will be fixed.  I can tell you that they have been looking into it and all that it entails (see below).

Abnormal display when viewing raw signals as scope or sweep chart

CAR #299257

R&D believes that this issue with the Waveform Graph in scope/sweep modes is related to the underlying cause of the cursor behavior in the Scope Chart that you brought to our attention previously, and hope that a fix to one will fix the other.  Thus, this now shares the same CAR #.

Thank you again for taking the time to put all of this together, and please let us know if you come across any other issues!

[kupa]

SignalExpress 2011 Cache Issues

I'm creating a User step in LabVIEW. When I build it, I add it to SignalExpress as "Run LabVIEW VI", Select this VI from built LLB and chose to run once. It works, but I made a mistake in the VI and I go back and fix it in the project, rebuild, then I open SignalExpress and add it again, run it and it still runs the first version with the mistake. I can see in the Step Setup that LLB was updated, some of the VIs in LLB have changed, but when I run the step, it always runs the first version that doesn't exist anymore. Relaunching SignalExpress and creating a new project has no effect. I guess, that it caches the code and subsequent reopening of the step with the same name doesn't have any effect, it still executes the code from the step when it was added for the first time. To confirm this, I deleted the files in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\National Instruments\Assistants and added the step again, this time the current version was executed.

I've already reported another issue with cache, when I installed SignalExpress Tektronix Edition 2.5.1 beside SignalExpress 2011 and Tektronix steps didn't appear in SignalExpress 2011, this article helped to fix it:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/DFACEDFC86979CD08625777A00662503

Alexey

[KHartley]

Alexey,

Thank you for alerting us to this I will go ahead and take the appropriate steps to try and reproduce what is occuring and will forward the issue on if needed.

[KHartley]

Alexey,

I'm not seeing the issue that you are describing. I am able to build a Source Distribution in LabVIEW that generates a sine wave and view it in Signal Express. I created a project and opened the vi to display in the plot area. I save the project and close Signal Express because I can't rebuild the Source Distribution while the project is open. Then I go back into LabVIEW change the wave to a triangle wave. Rebuild the Source Distribution. And reopen the Signal Express project and I see the change.

Attached is a screen shot of the vi I used. If this issue is still happening for your I could take a look at your code and try it on my computer. 

[OKors]

We've recently acquired a new laptop and Compact Daq chassis so I'm starting to use parts of Signal Express I've never used before. Here's what's going on:

Using a cDAQ 9172 and NI-9237 module to scale a full bridge load cell.

When entering values in the Create Bridge Scale settings, the settings do not always apply after clicking OK to close the window. Rather I've had to go back into the Configure Scale... window and re-apply my settings. The values usually save after this second attempt but for the unknowing user they would likely go about their buisness with a transcuder scaled to whatever the default values were.

Steps taken:

• Select "Force (Bridge)" from Add Step> Acquire Signal> DAQmx Acquire> Analog Input> Force...
• Select the appropriate channels from the 9237 module
• Enter 10v as a Vex value
• Click "Configure Scale..."
• For my purposes I had a 50lb load cell with a 2.008mV/V sensitivity. So I entered 2.008 as the Electrical Second Value, and 50 as the Physical Second Value. Leaving everything else default.
• Click OK to exit and return to the Setup screen
• Click Configure Scale once again to open the Create Bridge Scale settings again.
• it's at this point all the settings are back to their default values of 2 and 100 (Electrical Second and  Physical Second values).
• Reenter the values again and click OK and they'll usually save the second time around.

This is on a Dell Core i7 Latitude running Win7 and Signal Express 2011.

I also notice this happens with the Pressure (Bridge) settings as well.

[OKors]

This may not be a bug but I figured I'd post it anyway because it's unusual behaviour and I scratched my head for a brief moment over it.

It appears you cannot add a waveform signal to a graph displaying a scalar dbl signal and get expected results.

I'm acquiring a load signal and passing it through an Amplitudes and Levels step.

I've selected the DC (dbl) channel and dropped it into a graph for view as a time-history Scope Chart.

Now I want to view my min/max's so I add a Statistics step to the setup and leave the default waveform channel as the Input channel.
Drag the min/max values into the graph and take data.
The min/max values "follow" the DC load signal. They do not hold at the min or max values as expected.

This occurs when the waveform data is selected as an input channel to the Statistics Step.

Scratched my head for a minute then changed the input signal to the Amplitudes and Level's DC signal and the Min/Max graphs hold at the appropriate levels.

Pictures worth a thousand words so see the attached screenshots for a better visual.
The first one is graphing dc load and waveform min/max
The second is graphing dc load and the min/max from the dc step.  

[OKors]

Come to think of it...
It appears you cannot view waveform min/max data AT ALL; let alone on the same graph as the originating waveform signal itself.

If I drag the same Load signal (raw waveform data) into the graph and view it as a waveform chart (omitting the A&L step entirely), then add a Statistics step, it automatically turns the min/max into "dbl" signals. If I try to drag the new min/max dbl signals onto the waveform chart created above it splits the graphs into seperate charts for me. It will not allow me to view the waveform data, and the min/max together in the same chart.  

[OKors]

I've found another highly reproducible bug which is a total show stopper for the unsuspecting victim.

Turns out if you create a SigEx project complete with data view charts, xy graphs and numerical displays. Then go back and rearrange the channel order within the DAQmx Acquire Channel settings. The rearranging of channel orders "breaks" the association between the channel name and the data signal.
It appears that all its doing is rearranging the name but leaving the signal (or visa versa... hard to tell what's actually going on).

What's most concerning is once you've rearranged a few channels then go back and view the graphs or numerical displays in the data view, the signals which show up in the graph or numerical display is from another channel.

The only way to reassociate the channel name to the signal is to close the project and open it up again.

Hopefully these screenshots will aid in a more visual understanding of what's going on but this is serious guys!
I had a bit of an embarrassing moment when my Engineer who made a trip up from Division wanted his signal order to be mixed around and when I ran the test my data view graphs were all hosed up.

[OKors]

... and one more attachment

[OKors]

I should also add. Although this is in the 2011 thread, this is Signal Express 2012 I'm working with.

[gmart]

Do you see this behavior in 2011? Can you provide steps to reproduce this behavior without having to have your configuration?

[OKors]

We dont have 2011 running on any of our PC's anymore (they've all been updated to 2012), I do however, recall this behavior cropping up at one point before we updated. At the time I was troubleshooting another tech's test setup, I rearranged some channels, the signals got mixed up, which confused me even further, so I shutdown Signal Express and rebuilt the project file from scratch. No issues beyond that; but I didnt rearrange the channels after that either.  

So although I cannot test this behavior on 2011 anymore, I do recall it being an issue once, I just didnt bother to flesh it out at the time. .

Here are my steps taken to recreate the issue.

• Add a DAQmx Acquire> Analog Input> Custom Voltage with Excitation step (may work with other signal types but this is reproducible on my end).
• Add three or more channels to your task and assign them a custom scale; arbitrary slopes are fine for this exercise but preferably something with various large-enough offsets which you can quickly identify at a glance. For my setup I had a load cell with a large 400lb offset, and a couple displacement sensors with different offsets.
• Rename the channels in the DAQmx Acquire step to something you can identify with. Load, Displacement, Displacement 2, etc..
• Add an Amplitudes and Levels step and deselect Export RMS
• From the A&L step, drag a Load signal and Deflection signal into a Dataview graph and view it as Scalar XY (expand to view the legend for visual purposes)
• Add a display beneath the xy graph and drag another load signal into it: view it as Large Display
• Go back to DAQmx settings; click RUN to start acquiring data and notice the signals and the channel names (at this point it may be useful to change the preview window from chart to Table as shown in my first screenshot). Keep note of which values are associated to what channel name . Stop acquisition
• While still in the DAQmx Acquire step window, click "Details" in the channel Configuration pane to expand the panel.
• Highlight a channel and use the Up or Down arrow to reposition the channel in the list. Do this to all the channels so the whole list is reorganized.
  You'll notice in the preview pane at the top under "Channel" the channel names move as you change positions with the arrows (the values do not)
• Run some data again and notice the signal values relative to the channel name. If you put a load channel where a displacement signal used to be you should notice a high value with a channel name of "Displacement".
• Also, notice in the dataview tab, the signal values change while the names remain the same. You'll see this in the XY graph legend as well as the Numerical Display.

 Beyond that, you should be able to save the test, shutdown SigEx, open the saved project file and your reassigned channel order should match the names.

Please let me know what you discover and/or if these steps are not clear enough.

Thanks George.

[gmart]

I was able to see the problem with rearranging the DAQ signals but didn't get the scaling to work right to see the values not matching in the graphs (I was using simulated devices). What might be helpful is the MAX configuration and SE project. I created CAR 378576 to track the issue.

[OKors]

I have a cDAQ 9172 at my desk with a 9237 and some voltage modules. I used three channels from the 9237 and created some very arbitrary custom scales to each. No sensors are connected to the module but with the scaling as such you can see large signal differences between the open channels. The first load channel is seeing a -71lb offset, the second is Displacement which is at -22m inches, the third channel has an offset of -127.

Attached are the SE and MAX files based on my configuration.

The channels are in an unmodified order so when you open the project, run some data and take note of the initial signal values. Then rearrange the channels so that none of the channels are in their original locations.

You should see the lower displacement signal (-22m inches) appear on a load channel and one of the higher Load signals appear on the Displacement channel.

I've attached more screenshots so you can see the before and after signal order and the changes to the graphs after rearranging the channel locations

[Queen]

Hello, 

I recently started using signal express for tektronix 2.5.1 and when I use the run once and record while running, everytime I try to convert it to ASCII. The message converting to Acome pops up but never go away and the conversion never ends.  So I have to force it to close.  When I use record with run not run once I have no problem At all. 

[JasoNI]

Hello,

Do you think you could explain a bit more on how you are setting up your program? If you could reproduce the issue with the most basic program possible, and post your settings for that task, it would be helpful.

[Queen]

I got a new error now everytime I open a saved project. Please check the attachment!

[Queen]

Basically when I use the run once (option as shown in the picture) the whole thing freeze with the message (converting to ASCII) this only happen when I use run once and record while running

[Anjelica-W]

Although the original idea was to create a consolidated thread, I can assure you that each thread is monitored by an Applications Engineer and any reproducible behaviors will be documented. The best option to provide feedback to R&D or our Developers would be to post on the Idea Exchange, where other users can vote on suggestions also.

I would recommend using an additional step to log the data as shown below.

Add Step » Load/Save Signals » Analog Signals » Save to ASCII/LVM

Please see the following article for more additional information.

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/90c1e123127124b08625757000587a17?OpenDocument

If this does not work, I would recommend posting your question in a new thread, since it seems like you have a new issue. In addition to the error messages, basic information about your application and setup will allow us to fully troubleshoot your issue.

What is the goal of your application?

What hardware are you using?

Can you describe or provide a screenshot of your step setup in Signal Express?

[ARBaker]

This relates to the Sound and Vibration assistant add in. When trying to write to a universal file format, the record 1 default is to write the channel name. This record never seems to pull in the channel name. If multiple channels are contained within 1 universal file they all receive the same channel name when reopening the universal file in another application.

[david_i]

I am having a somewhat similar problem to the cache issue with Signal Express. I am running Labview and Signal Express 2012.

When I convert my Signal Express project into a VI using Tools->Generate Code ->Labview Diagram it generates fine.

I subsequently made changes to my Signal Express project and saved it. I then generated a new Labview Diagram from the project. When I then try to double-click on the Labview VI that was generated, it opens up the older version of the Signal Express project.

Can someone please tell me how to work around this issue?

[david_i]

It seems the only work around I found was to delete the cache and regenerate the code