Logger Pro for Macintosh and Windows Release Notes rev November 3, 2000

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1 Logger Pro for Macintosh and Windows Release Notes rev November 3, 2000 CONTENTS: What s New in Version What s Changed in Version What s Improved in Version What s Fixed in Version Windows Only Macintosh Only Known issues Windows Only Macintosh Only Windows and Macintosh What Changed from Version 2.1 to Version WHAT'S NEW IN VERSION 2.1.1: Floating Cursor - The coordinates of the cursor are now displayed in the lower right portion of the status bar. When the mouse is not in a graph window, this part of the status bar appears blank. Delta Function - When the cursor is used to click and drag between two points on a graph, the Dx and Dy between those two points is displayed. The dragdeltas are displayed in the lower right portion of the status bar. When the mouse is not in a graph window, this part of the status bar appears blank. Strip Chart Mode - A graph window will now automatically behave as a strip chart, scrolling along with data collection whenever the graph window is scaled to less than the total collection duration. This works for both collection and replay. Method: a. Set up a collection for a "long" time (e.g. 30 seconds) b. Open a second graph window. Change this graph window's x-max to a smaller value, e.g. 5 seconds. c. Click on collect. The second graph window will shift, stripchart-like, to keep up with collection. Note: After you have setup this mode in a graph window, the x-axis minimum value will automatically reset itself to 0 whenever you click Collect again. Strikethrough Feature - Strikethrough Rows and Restore Rows are now options under the Edit menu. Strikethrough Rows will "disable" all selected rows (those points won't be drawn or used in any way). Restore Rows will restore all selected rows. Note: One odd effect is that since strikethrough rows aren't easily selected, a user may have to "select all" from the edit menu (or the top left corner of the data table) to get rows restored. Large Fonts and Thick Lines option - Many teachers project the computer screen for their classes and have mentioned that the small fonts and thin lines are difficult to see. Check boxes for "Thick Graph Lines" and "Large Graph Labels" are available on the Graph behavior preferences page from the File/Preferences menu. Rename Data Run - Now you can give a distinctive name to a run. Data collection runs may now be renamed from the Data/Rename menu. LabPro Remote Data Retrieval - It is now possible to retrieve data stored in LabPro that was previously retrieved on another computer. We also now

2 support the retrieval of time-graph data that was collected with a calculator/labpro combination. New Formulas for Calculated Columns - Initial( <expression> ) Displays the value of <expression> for the first row of data and for all rows of data. This can be used to create an automatic offset so that a column of data is offset relative to its starting value. For example, "Dist"-Initial("Dist") will generate a column of data where position is relative to the starting position instead of absolute. - Sum( <expression> ) Displays the value of the sum of <expression> for all rows up to and including the current row. Often used to keep a running count of heat pulses in temperature experiments. - SmoothDerivative( <expression> ) SmoothDerivative averages all data pairs within the window resulting in a smoother final value for noisy data. A side-effect of this is that individual events are spread over the entire window in a smooth hump instead of a sharp peak. For example, a cart colliding with another cart will have only a single data point representing the collision but the change in velocity will appear as a smooth hill rather than peak. Formula: For an N point derivative, take (N-1)/2 pairs of numbers, around the current point and calculate the simple derivative (Data(Tx) - Data(T-x)) / (Tx - T-x) and weight the result by X, so for a 7 point derivative the pairs and weights would be +/- 3 points (weighted * 3), +/- 2 points (weighted * 2), +/-1 point (weighted * 1), sum the terms and divide by the sum. - SmoothSecondDerivative( <expression> ) SmoothSecondDerivative will calculate a second derivative directly from the source data so that change in the data will create change in the first and second derivatives that move in sync with each other. The technique used is to fit an N order polynomial to the data and take the derivative of that function. Note: You may use the Smooth( <expression> ) to adjust analog data to match the spreading-out effects of the derivative functions. Reverse Direction - a new "Reverse Direction" button now appears in Sensor Properties to easily allow the changing of the sign on Force sensor and Motion Detector data. Blocked/UnBlocked Status - The Photogate sensor Blocked/Unblocked status is now displayed in the status bar. Zero Button Automatically Appears - In Rotary Motion sensor setup, the Zero button will now automatically appear next to the Collect button whenever, in Sensor Properties/Details tab, the 'Zero@Start' entry is "0" (off). When 'Zero@Start' is "1" (on), the position resets to 0 at the end of each data collection and the Zero button does not appear. In the prior release, the Zero button appeared even when the sensor was being reset by the 'Zero@Start' flag. Print Screen - The whole Logger Pro screen may now be printed with the menu 'File/Print Screen' or by pressing Ctrl-P. EEPROM Restore Feature Now you can reset Autoid probes yourself instead of having to send them back to Vernier. If you need to use this feature, contact Technical Support.

3 Runs on A Read Only Hard Drive You can now install Logger Pro on a machine, set up permissions so that the drive is read only, and users can run Logger Pro on this machine without problems caused by needing to write to the drive. WHAT'S CHANGED IN VERSION 2.1.1: Menu changes: - File/Printing Options is the same as previous File/Page Setup. - File/Page Setup opens the Print Setup dialog for your printers. - File/Print Window is the same as previous File/Print. - File/Print Screen is a new function to print the entire screen. - Edit/Copy Graph is deleted and function combined with Edit/Copy. - Edit/Strikethrough Rows is a new function to ignore selected points. - Edit/Restore Rows is a new function to restore selected points. - Experiment/Averaging was deleted and replaced with oversampling in Data Collection. - Data/Rename Run is a new function to rename stored data runs. - Analyze/Automatic Curve Fit is the same as previous Analyze/Curve Fit. - Analyze/Manual Curve Fit is the same as previous Analyze/Manual Fit. - View/Autoscale Once scales graph to fit data only once. - View/Set Axes to Autoscale is the same as previous View/Autoscale. - Window/.../Chart Recorder function replaced with automatic Strip Chart mode. Startup.mbl - Logger Pro automatically loads an introductory experiment called "startup.mbl" whenever it is started. You may disable this feature by renaming "startup.mbl" in which case the previous voltage probe default experiment file is loaded. You may also make your own "startup.mbl" and customize it for your own environment. Choosing "File/New" loads a default starting configuration that power users might find more convenient as a starting place for building their own experiments. Radiation Events-with-entry mode Here is a summary of what was changed in radiation mode: - Pause/resume is now implemented. - The meter window is always blank while waiting for the first count after a keep (or the first count after hitting collect). - After an entered value is kept, the collection is paused and a Collection Paused dialog appears. Collection will not continue until the dialog is dismissed; this allows the user to take any time required to reconfigure lab equipment. The dialog's default button is called Continue. - The Collection Paused dialog now also has a Stop Collection button. If the latest entry is the last the user want for this experiment, it makes no sense to continue; clicking Stop Collect will allow the user to stop collection. Note: Clicking continue, and then clicking the Stop button, also works. - Keep is now disabled until a valid count is available. Clicking the Keep button before a value appears in the meter window will simply cause the computer to beep once. As soon as a valid count appears in the meter window, clicking Keep will work normally. Note: Stop is always enabled, so a user can always "bail out" of a collection. - Clicking Keep now launches a small dialog (rather than changing the Keep button into a modal mock-edit box) to prompt the user for input. This allows a keep to be cancelled, and it also makes the modal nature of the input process more obvious.

4 When a new sensor is added, a new line is only added to the active graph when the units are the same. The new real-time limit for LabPro is 250pts/sec. This means that at speeds above 250pts/sec the data is collected in LabPro for the entire experiment length before being returned to Logger Pro. Graph windows will display "Please Wait" if you are collecting data faster than this limit. Oversampling - The Averaging parameter for data collection has been renamed oversampling to better describe its functions. Oversampling means that for each point that is displayed in the table or graph, some number of points were collected by the hardware and averaged together. Oversampling can be chosen in the Sampling tab of the Data Collection dialog. A message explaining the amount (if any) of oversampling which can be applied to the current combination of probes and data rate has been added along with a number of oversampling options. WHAT'S IMPROVED IN VERSION 2.1.1: Heat Pulser Support - The heat pulser may be added to your experiment from the sensor setup dialog instead of having to use special experiments. The length of heat pulses is controlled from the Details tab of the Sensor Setup dialog. Network Default user profile implemented fully. It was previously only used to look for default Experiments & Calibrations directories, but now it loads all profile settings if needed. Data Collection's Sampling tab for Selected Events now has only the Time group box left active. This allows the user to select a unit of time. The Setup Interface process is improved and now suggests what remedies the user may take if the interface is not found. More menu items have hot keys now and it is possible to stop data collection with Cmd-<period> on the Macintosh. You may also use the Enter key to start and stop data collection on both Macintosh and PC. Events-with-Entry mode is improved. The user is visibly prompted by a customary dialog with OK and Cancel buttons after clicking on the Keep button. No other action is possible until the dialog is handled. It is now possible to collect data at speeds greater than 250pts/sec with mixed analog probe types, i.e. 0 to 5v probes and -10v to +10v probes. The default interface is now controllable. If you want to work at home without an interface and setup an experiment for a LabPro, go to the preferences menu, hardware tab, and from the popup menu labeled "Default Hardware" select "LabPro". The default setting is "Most Recent", which is the interface most recently connected to your computer. If no interface has ever been connected to your computer "Most Recent" defaults to LabPro. Motion Detectors connected to the ULI will now begin data collection much faster than before if Live Readouts is turned on. Improved error checking and robustness WHAT'S FIXED IN VERSION 2.1.1: The Apply buttons in the "Graph Options", "Histogram Options" and "FFT Options" dialogs are fixed. Scroll bars now appear in the "Histogram Options" and "FFT Options" dialogs when there are more than four columns of data.

5 Problems when changing calibrations for multiple sensors of the same type are fixed. Problems with adding sensors and the data column names getting mixed-up are fixed. Collecting data with a Rotary Motion sensor with a new column calculating a derivative no longer pauses indefinitely just before the end of the collection. The corruption of labels for data columns caused by adding a sensor to an experiment into which runs have been stored is fixed. The problem observed with trying to change calibrations in some curricular experiment files is resolved by recreating and replacing those experiments which are delivered with this revision. Problems with a battery-powered LabPro not being detected by Logger Pro are fixed. Turning off live readouts now really turns it off and protects data in LabPro. Note: If live readouts are turned off, remote data can be retrieved multiple times. Remote setup now works correctly with +-10V probes. Some experiments using Motion Detectors and Rotary Motion probes connected to a LabPro and created with Logger Pro 2.0 would not open correctly when opened with a ULI attached. This has been fixed. Now all experiments, including all those created with Logger Pro 2.0 will open on ULI or LabPro correctly, as long as the experiment file supports the hardware being used. The Heat Pulses column may now be deleted from the 'Data/Delete Column' menu without causing Logger Pro to shut down. WINDOWS ONLY: There are 4 new files: LoggerPro(2.1).exe LPSerial.dll Serial.dll Startup.mbl Windows USB Support - Macintosh USB support was available in version 2.0. Now Windows USB support has arrived. AutoID, all other text mode, real time, nonreal time, etc. all work. You no longer need LPWinUSB.dll. Active X Support - ActiveX support first introduced in Logger Pro 2.0 has been augmented. As before, you can embed Excel, Netscape, and other ActiveX enabled programs in a Logger Pro window. The interaction with Excel has been improved in this release so that all of the collected data is automatically sent to the spreadsheet each time collection or replay finishes. In addition, installers for two special ActiveX objects have been included in separate folders on the Logger Pro CD. These are Visualizer, developed at the Center For Science and Mathematics Teaching at Tufts University, and an embeddable Flash Player. Visualizer allows you to define and display vector quantities using data from Logger Pro. Flash Player allows you to embed Macromedia Flash content into a Logger Pro session. MACINTOSH ONLY: Installing on MacOS While the recommended minimum MacOS system version is still 7.6.1, you can now install Logger Pro on System 7.5 or later. Users doing so should be aware that AppleTalk and other system software components

6 may conflict with Logger Pro, especially during serial data collection. If you do install Logger Pro on System 7.5, the free upgrade to is strongly recommended. 68k Version - An unsupported 68k Logger Pro installer is included on the CD in the 68K Install folder. The 68k version requires the host Macintosh to have 16MB of physical RAM and System 7.5 or later. A processor is recommended. If you wish to use this version of Logger Pro, please read the Read Me file in the 68K Install folder. KNOWN ISSUES: Windows Only: On some Windows machines, when pasting Logger Pro copied data in Excel, Paste Special... with Source As Text must be used. If the default Source as Unicode Text is used, what gets pasted into Excel is the first thing copied to the clipboard during this session of Windows and not your Logger Pro data. The first time you attach a LabPro using USB on Windows 2000 machines, you may see a dialog box titled Digital Signature Not Found. This is OK. Our USB drivers are installed correctly and will not harm your system; it s just that the process for obtaining a digital signature with Microsoft is not complete. Just click No on this dialog. You will not see it again. Macintosh Only: On some Macintosh machines, when attempting to open Logger Pro Help from within Logger Pro, the user will see a "Failed to launch Help" message. This is caused by an outdated Desktop Database. It can be fixed with a rebuild of the desktop database by restarting the Mac while holding down the Apple and Option keys. When collecting live data in rotary or radiation mode on a Macintosh, menu selections have been known to sometimes cause the computer to hang. For this reason, Live Readouts have been disabled for the Macintosh in these modes. If this problem occurs, it is recommended that you wait until data collection is stopped or finished in these modes before selecting menu items. When running on MacOS or earlier, serial data collection with a LabPro may be corrupted by a serial communications conflict with AppleTalk. If this occurs on your machine, you should turn off AppleTalk during data collection. Windows and Macintosh: A side effect of allowing Logger Pro to import old data (i.e. data previously retrieved on another computer or collected by a calculator) is that disconnecting LabPro during collection or live readouts or- updating the firmware will cause Logger Pro to think there is remote data in Logger Pro that needs to be retrieved upon startup. If this happens, it is safe to choose Ignore/Erase Data in LabPro from the LabPro Has Data dialog box. There are some combinations of data and non-linear functions that are difficult for Logger Pro to generate good automatic curve fits for. If you are experiencing problems getting the curve fit you think you should, try restricting the selected data to just the area of interest (so extraneous points won't affect the fit) or try using manual fit.

7 Remote data collection with a LabPro and a motion detector is only supported with the default calibration. Other digital probes (rotary, radiation and photogates) are currently not supported with remote collection. When adding a column from the curve fit dialog, the data points sometimes don't appear properly in the table. Simply double click on the column heading in the table, then choose OK from the modify dialog that comes up. This will force the data points to be recalculated. When adding a new formula column, there is a problem with nested functions like Derivative(Derivative("Distance")) during live data collection. When collecting live data, only a single derivative is calculated. To generate good second derivative data, don't nest the functions directly. Instead, add one column for the first derivative, then add another column (taking the derivative of the first column) for the second. Any combination of the following functions should not be nested: Derivative, Smooth, SmoothDerivative, SmoothSecondDerivative, Delta, Rate, Sum, and Initial. WHAT CHANGED FROM VERSION 2.1 TO VERSION 2.1.1: Data collection with photogates now allows collection of up to 1000 points/second instead of a maximum of 50 points/second. Live Meter display of a single calculated column based on data works. However, nested functions during live data collection still does not work correctly. You can get around this by creating multiple columns that nest the functions. For example, to get the second derivative, add one column for the first derivative, then add another column (taking the derivative of the first column) for the second. In Logger Pro 2.1, PASCO Motion Detectors were not detected, and this has been fixed in version Now, Motion Detectors will not be tested for by looking at echo values. We removed the feature that attempted to determine if user had the Motion Detector in the proper port. Tangent lines display properly now at the top of traces. ISE remote data collection no longer crashes Logger Pro. New EKG experiment files with strip charts. Live Readouts in the Meter Window work again. The Integral on a graph with a backwards x-axis now works. Problems with photogate timing have been fixed. The Macintosh memory scheme has been changed to avoid memory leaks. An unsupported Windows 3.1 Logger Pro installer is included on the CD in the Win31 folder. If you wish to use this version of Logger Pro, please read the Read Me file in the Win31 folder. Logger Pro updates are always available for free download from our web site at