AK73X
DataLogger(only for model with DATA LOGGER)
AK73X for Sound Level Meter
is a program for loading the data from the memory of meter or collecting
real time data from meter which is connected with a PC or notebook. One may
process these data with graphic or text style interface. The program is very
easy to use via the graphic user interface. The users do not have to search the
function within a lot of menus. The major functions are all in the main window
and they are indicated with large icons.
System Required:
Windows 95/98/XP/Vista/Windows
7 or Windows NT 4.0 or above.
Minimum Hardware Required:
PC or NoteBook with Pentium
90MHz or higher
32 MB RAM ;
At least 15 MB byte hard disk
space available to install TestLink software.
Recommended display resolution 800X600 with High Color(16 bit).
File | Oepn- Retrieve
files from the disk.
Save - Save the active window(when
the caption bar is highlighted) data to the disk.
Print - Print the data of the acitve window(graph or list).
Printer
Setup - Select printer.
File |
Exit: Terminates TestLink program.
View |
Control Panel:
By opening the Panel
Window, the user can control meter via the button in this window.
View |
Real-Time Graph:
Open Real-Time Graph display to graph the present data.
Real Time Data | Run -
Start collecting real time data .
Stop - Stop collecting real time data .
DataLogger:
By opening the DataLogger Window, the user can load recorded data of meter to PC in this window.
Output To Graph - Graphing tabular data .
1.I had connected Sound Level Meter to PC
serial port and turned meter power on, but it still show "NO CONNECTION".
Answer: It
could be that all serial port are
occupied by other application, close all other application . If it still don't
work. Restart your computer and run AK73X
again. When program start, it will search
automatically from COM1 to COM4 to check connected sound level meter. You can
check the connection status from main window like the figure below, for
example,the graph below means Com1, Com2 and Com4 are available to this PC and
sound level meter is connected to Com2. You can manually change to another COM
port when you find out that program can not find the correct COM port which
sound level meter is connected to.
2. How can I save the graph to a file
which can be used in EXCEL ?
Answer:
When you save a graph to a file ,
the default file format is "*.ghf" and you can select *.csv to save
files. CSV is an EXCEL file format.You can open it in EXCEL.
(note. If decimal separator is comma in
your country, this file format will be disabled, because .CSV file also use
comma to be data separator. for example 78,6 db will become 78db and 6 db in
EXCEL )
3.How to uninstall AK73X ?
Answer:Uninstall
AK73X by
launching the Add/Remove Programs applet out of the Control Panel, highlighting
the AK73X,
and clicking on the Add/Remove... push button, then it will remove the AK73X folder and files from your
computer.
4.Why loading data fail?
Answer: Usually,
when It may cause error when meter is recording and connects meter with PC at the same time.It is
recommended that disconnects the connection before recordingof. Or this may
happen by the slow respond from some of
the notebook PC system.
5.How to zoom the graph?
Answer:
Press the left mouse button and drag the cursor to select the new extents,then
release the mouse button.
6.When I setup the real time sampling with
a fast rate(eg. 0.1 sec), Some
of the sampling data might be
lost.
Answer:
THis might be caused by slow response time of the PC interface. For better
result, the user may close the panel window or select a slower rate.
7.How to print graph with statistic ?
Answer:
User can copy the graph and statistic to a editor(ex.MS Wrod) separately.
Click the 
button from the tool bar of
graph window to display the customization dialog.Click the Export button from
the bottom of the customization dialog.Export dialog will show up. From the
Export destination panel, select the Clipboard. Click the Export button from
the bottom right of the Export dialog, then the image has been copied to
clipboard. Paste this to the editor you are running. Click the 
to copy the statistic
to clipboard, then paste it to the editor.
8.In EXCEL when I open a file(*.txt or
*.csv) saved with AK73X , the format of time column is wrong.
Answer:This is because the time format in AK73X is hh:mm:ss:mss (hour:minute:second:millisecond),
and Excel can not recognize it, user can setup the time format to hh:mm:ss in
EXCEL, and EXCEL will discard the millisecond.
There
are two vertical line (CURSOR A and CURSOR B)in the graph. There are time and
value display on top and right side of each cursor. You can move mouse cursor over cursor A or B
and click to drag cursor to move left or right. Right below cursor A and
B is a slider. You can also click and drag slider to move cursor A or B. Below
the slider is the statistic, it displays start time, sampling rate, data
number,maximum and minimum of the graph. The statistic also displays the
maximum, minimum and average between cursor A and B and these data will update
automatically when cursor A or B is moving.
Tool Bar
- Display or hide
Statistic1.
- Display or hide
Statistic2.
- Normal cursor.
- When selected, the mouse cursor will
become a cross sign when moving to the graph, click on the graph to mark a
cross sign on the graph.
-When selected, the mouse cursor will
become a "I" sign when moving to the graph, click on the graph to
annotate.
-Delete
annotation and cross sign.
-Graph
Customization
note:You can double click the graph to call the
customization dialog. In customizationn dialog, it is allowed to customize your
graph style.
- Copy the statistic to clipboard,
Zoom In:
You can choose a rectangle area on the graph to zoom in for
detail.
1. Press the left mouse button and
drag the cursor to select the new extents.
2. Release the mouse button.
Undo
the Zoom
-Click this button to zoom out.
When you have Sound
Level DATA LOGGER meter
connected to PC and select "DataLogger" from main menu or click 
from tool bar to load recoreded data
from the meter and there will be a progress indicator to show the loading
progress.if error occurs, just
click "DataLogger" again.
After the data was loaded, the left hand side will
show how many data sets were loaded and detail infomation for each data set
(start data, start time, recording rate and record numbers).
for examples:
It will transfer
first data set to grah and tabule on the right hand side every time after you
load recorded data from the Sound Level Meter and you can click at any data set to change the set for
graph.
On the right hand
side is the waveform graph and statistic of the data set you choose. In
reference to graph, see Graph .
Tutorial -
Quick Start to Use AK73X
1.Recording real time data in waveform.
1.Power on the Sound Level
Meter first and connect it to a PC
RS-232 serial port wit the cable(SE-300),
2.Start AK73X program.
3.If the connection is
successful the panel will display the same value as the Sound Level Meter. If
fail to connect the meter with PC, it will display "No Connection" on
the panel window in AK73X.
4.Select sampling rate
from Real-Time Graph window
note:If PC speed is slow ,
select sampling rate above 0.2 second. And if it is going to sample a large
amount data(more than 5000), at least 64 mega bytes ram is recommended to keep
PC running in good performance working well.
5.When the
connection is successful , click 
to start recording real time
data and there will be a waveform on the Real Time Graph Window.
5.Click 
to start recording .
2.How to save the recorded real time data to a file ?
1.Click the graph window
you want to save and the graph window
will become active , then
choose File | Save from main menu or click 
from the tool bar .
2. There will be a save dialog window for you to choose the file name
and file type to save.There are three types of file name you can choose, binary
file(*.ghf), text file(*.txt) and EXCEL format file(*.csv). The *.ghf file use
much fewer disk space to save the data than the other two file format, but it
can only be used in AK73X. Text file can be opened by AK73X and any other word
processor program like word, notepad etc. EXCEL format file can be opened
by AK73X and Microsoft EXCEL.
(note. If decimal separator is comma in your country, this file format
will be disabled, because .CSV file also use comma to be data separator. for
example 78,6 db will become 78db and 6 db in EXCEL )
3.How to load the recorded data from the memory of Sound Level Meter and
save it to a file ?
(Only for the model with Data Logger)
1. Power on the Sound Level Meter.
2. Press the REC button of the meter to start recording data .
3. After a while, press REC button again to stop recording data.
4. Connect the Sound Level Meter to PC
5. Start AK73X program.
6. Choose Data Logger from main menu or click 
from tool bar.
7.In reference to Data Logger , see DataLogger