Author Topic: DSO That allows for on-device renaming of screenshots for creating manuals  (Read 2735 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline jeremybh1Topic starter

  • Contributor
  • Posts: 17
  • Country: au
In my part time business servicing vintage computers, I have boards that are time consuming in diagnosing faults.  I would like to create reference screenshots of IC201 Pin 1 when computer idling at a common screen e.g BASIC prompt.  My inspiration comes from a 'made in France' PDF for the Vectrex gaming unit, which shows expected traces and the delay/voltage division settings.  This was helpful in recent repair. 

My problem is how on earth can I keep track of screenshots on the device? 
Current workaround is a small phone sitting next to the scope screen where I type IC201 MOS 6522 Pin 7 and take a photo.
I figured this was laughable to someone.  If you're chuckling be sure to reply to suggest a model of scope that would suit my needs of imprinting details on scope screenshots. 
 

Offline tautech

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 29810
  • Country: nz
  • Taupaki Technologies Ltd. Siglent Distributor NZ.
    • Taupaki Technologies Ltd.
Would the ability to name/label traces be sufficient ?
Avid Rabid Hobbyist.
Some stuff seen @ Siglent HQ cannot be shared.
 
The following users thanked this post: RichardS

Offline beanflying

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 7375
  • Country: au
  • Toys so very many Toys.
Not hard to do on the Micsig range as they have a save menu on the scope screen as well as the quicksave button. Quicksave just gets time stamped and stored on the device, from the menu it runs a full touchscreen keyboard as standard so call it what you like there or you can go into the file menu later and change the quicksaves if needed. Pen drive is also available if that is useful.
Coffee, Food, R/C and electronics nerd in no particular order. Also CNC wannabe, 3D printer and Laser Cutter Junkie and just don't mention my TEA addiction....
 

Offline csuhi17

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 351
  • Country: hu
These are cheaper

The DSO1511E+ and OWON HDS200 series also include this function. But ZEWEII also includes this function, as far as I know.
Fnirsi oscilloscope = waste&regret
 

Online Aldo22

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1268
  • Country: ch
These are cheaper

The DSO1511E+ and OWON HDS200 series also include this function. But ZEWEII also includes this function, as far as I know. 

The DSO1511E/G is also a Zeeweei! It is the smaller 1-channel version of the DSO2512G. :-+

I do not quite understand what jeremybh1 wants.
On my Zeeweii, I would either just take screenshots (Copy via USB to PC) or connect the VA output via adapter to the Laptop and take the screenshots and do the labeling comfortably there.

More expensive oscilloscopes can certainly do that as well.
I do not know how much jeremybh1 would like to pay for it.
 

Online abeyer

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 435
  • Country: us
In my opinion you're better off pushing the management/labeling to the computer side, since you'll eventually be assembling the document there anyway.

I'd probably set up a scope with a good remote/web ui to display on the computer, and then take the captures directly there, rather than on the scope, where you can label them and immediately include them in your document authoring system.
 
The following users thanked this post: 807

Offline tautech

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 29810
  • Country: nz
  • Taupaki Technologies Ltd. Siglent Distributor NZ.
    • Taupaki Technologies Ltd.
In my opinion you're better off pushing the management/labeling to the computer side, since you'll eventually be assembling the document there anyway.

I'd probably set up a scope with a good remote/web ui to display on the computer, and then take the captures directly there, rather than on the scope, where you can label them and immediately include them in your document authoring system.
Yep, DSO's with a webserver make this easy especially when able to capture screenshots remotely and have them automatically end in your Downloads folder where when opened in a basic utility like Paint, image texts and/or notes can easy be added to imagery and then saved in a format that best suits needs.

Any of the Siglent X, X-E and A series DSO's can do this and the better models can specify remote folders for storage of screenshots from the scopes file management menu.

I'll echo Aldo22's comment the OP should give us some guidance to his budget so to get best advice to models than can fill his needs.
Avid Rabid Hobbyist.
Some stuff seen @ Siglent HQ cannot be shared.
 
The following users thanked this post: 807

Offline jeremybh1Topic starter

  • Contributor
  • Posts: 17
  • Country: au
AHHHH there's the penny drop moment. I didn't know scopes had WebUIs or web servers! 
Haven't even heard of someone featuring this in a scope review.  Ever!
Will start looking into Siglent now
I still want to label the screenshot at point of capture though - I have hundreds of screenshots and don't want them jumbled up
« Last Edit: October 10, 2023, 06:41:11 am by jeremybh1 »
 

Offline jeremybh1Topic starter

  • Contributor
  • Posts: 17
  • Country: au
I care about money sure but wasn't specifying a budget becuase I've found it's best to be open minded about cost and save for something good.
 

Offline tautech

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 29810
  • Country: nz
  • Taupaki Technologies Ltd. Siglent Distributor NZ.
    • Taupaki Technologies Ltd.
I care about money sure but wasn't specifying a budget because I've found it's best to be open minded about cost and save for something good.
Shall we take a step back and also discuss what else you need from a scope too ?

You also might like a feature that can save screenshots to remote drives over LAN.
Avid Rabid Hobbyist.
Some stuff seen @ Siglent HQ cannot be shared.
 

Offline jeremybh1Topic starter

  • Contributor
  • Posts: 17
  • Country: au
Re: DSO That allows for on-device renaming of screenshots for creating manuals
« Reply #10 on: October 10, 2023, 06:42:44 am »
More concerned about being able to label the screenshot as an imprint
I'm not taking record of 2 things, it's 100 pins on an IC so if I can ensure things are labelled up front then no mixups:D
Any modern DSO has every feature I want, so it's more about doing the capture well. 
 

Offline tautech

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 29810
  • Country: nz
  • Taupaki Technologies Ltd. Siglent Distributor NZ.
    • Taupaki Technologies Ltd.
Re: DSO That allows for on-device renaming of screenshots for creating manuals
« Reply #11 on: October 10, 2023, 07:22:02 am »
More concerned about being able to label the screenshot as an imprint
I'm not taking record of 2 things, it's 100 pins on an IC so if I can ensure things are labelled up front then no mixups:D
Any modern DSO has every feature I want, so it's more about doing the capture well.
Okay a screenshot for you.
This doesn't have the ability to directly enter text onto the display other than with trace labels from within the scopes UI which in this case was done with the inbuilt QWERTY virtual keyboard using the touch display as I didn't have a USB keyboard handy.
With the file manager we can also rename screenshots if/as required.
Avid Rabid Hobbyist.
Some stuff seen @ Siglent HQ cannot be shared.
 

Online David Hess

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 17427
  • Country: us
  • DavidH
Re: DSO That allows for on-device renaming of screenshots for creating manuals
« Reply #12 on: October 10, 2023, 09:20:51 am »
Proper documentation was a major reason for the readout on the Tektronix 7000 series oscilloscopes, and they even included a plug-in which allowed entering custom text.  When taking photographs, they could even automatically index them.  These days manufacturers think it is more important that their logo be included in the screenshot.

For modern devices, I have to rely on customizing the filename which is a step back from 40 years ago.
 

Offline tautech

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 29810
  • Country: nz
  • Taupaki Technologies Ltd. Siglent Distributor NZ.
    • Taupaki Technologies Ltd.
Re: DSO That allows for on-device renaming of screenshots for creating manuals
« Reply #13 on: October 10, 2023, 09:34:49 am »
And if we must save ink.
Avid Rabid Hobbyist.
Some stuff seen @ Siglent HQ cannot be shared.
 

Offline EEVblog

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 39026
  • Country: au
    • EEVblog
Re: DSO That allows for on-device renaming of screenshots for creating manuals
« Reply #14 on: October 10, 2023, 09:46:55 am »
AHHHH there's the penny drop moment. I didn't know scopes had WebUIs or web servers! 
Haven't even heard of someone featuring this in a scope review.  Ever!

I show it on my DHO800 review here:
https://youtu.be/S8jrpCoZyx8?t=3089

Just use your favourite screen shot tool and change the file name.
« Last Edit: October 10, 2023, 10:02:50 am by EEVblog »
 

Offline Hexley

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 209
  • Country: us
Re: DSO That allows for on-device renaming of screenshots for creating manuals
« Reply #15 on: October 10, 2023, 03:19:45 pm »
More concerned about being able to label the screenshot as an imprint
I'm not taking record of 2 things, it's 100 pins on an IC so if I can ensure things are labelled up front then no mixups:D
Any modern DSO has every feature I want, so it's more about doing the capture well.
The Keysight (Agilent) 3000X series has pretty good annotation capability. Here is an example from a DSO-X 3024A scope, where a few lines of text have been added on screen to memorialize the test conditions. BTW, the text was entered using an external keyboard connected to the scope via USB. Quite convenient.
 

Online Fungus

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 17518
  • Country: 00
Re: DSO That allows for on-device renaming of screenshots for creating manuals
« Reply #16 on: October 11, 2023, 03:04:44 am »
AHHHH there's the penny drop moment. I didn't know scopes had WebUIs or web servers! 
Haven't even heard of someone featuring this in a scope review.  Ever!
Will start looking into Siglent now

It's not just Siglent...
 

Offline KungFuJosh

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 3163
  • Country: us
  • TEAS is real.
Re: DSO That allows for on-device renaming of screenshots for creating manuals
« Reply #17 on: October 11, 2023, 03:51:19 am »
AHHHH there's the penny drop moment. I didn't know scopes had WebUIs or web servers! 
Haven't even heard of someone featuring this in a scope review.  Ever!
Will start looking into Siglent now
I still want to label the screenshot at point of capture though - I have hundreds of screenshots and don't want them jumbled up

I love the Siglent SDS2000XP series scopes. That's what I'm using now. I use the web console all the time. You can make the scope view full screen, and then capture. I did a quick demo of that here (it's a slow signal, but it's practically real-time when comparing to the scope):


On an older review when I still had the SDS1104X-E, I made this demo review, with the web console showing around 5:46:
https://youtu.be/HI7DGjgl2tw?feature=shared&t=346


It works exceptionally well, and lightyears ahead of and faster than other brands that I tried (especially Rigol, which I found painfully slow at the time).

When doing screenshots, it asks you what to save the file as. Really simple.
"Right now I’m having amnesia and déjà vu at the same time. I think I’ve forgotten this before." - Steven Wright
 
The following users thanked this post: Performa01, tautech

Online Fungus

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 17518
  • Country: 00
Re: DSO That allows for on-device renaming of screenshots for creating manuals
« Reply #18 on: October 11, 2023, 04:20:51 am »
It works exceptionally well, and lightyears ahead of and faster than other brands that I tried (especially Rigol, which I found painfully slow at the time).

The new Rigols have perfected it.
 

Offline adam4521

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 88
  • Country: gb
Re: DSO That allows for on-device renaming of screenshots for creating manuals
« Reply #19 on: October 11, 2023, 06:55:59 am »
I might be off message, but having done this recently I don’t think the original method used by the OP is unreasonable. If you are literally taking dozens of photos, the last thing I want to be doing after moving the probe to the next pin is faffing around with file names. So, USB stick, pencil and paper with the numbers down the side, and sort out the story-telling later. One idea though, if the oscilloscope has a RTC and that is shown on every capture, then you could put a physical clock or watch in camera view when taking the photos. Or just use the time stamps of the photos as your key between the two.

Edit: I misread OP. Yes, you don’t want to be taking actual camera photos of the scope screen these days. In the scenario I was describing, I was correlating photos of the development PCB and the probing with screen captures on the oscilloscope.
« Last Edit: October 11, 2023, 07:06:40 am by adam4521 »
 

Offline tautech

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 29810
  • Country: nz
  • Taupaki Technologies Ltd. Siglent Distributor NZ.
    • Taupaki Technologies Ltd.
Re: DSO That allows for on-device renaming of screenshots for creating manuals
« Reply #20 on: October 11, 2023, 07:15:18 am »
Although with a scope webserver you can capture screenshots directly to the PC where you are probably doing your documentation anyway and have all the tools available to edit filenames and add text.
Add to that full webserver control of the scope and use of the PC keyboard and mouse to help with on scope editing too.

One just needs work out what works best for them.
Avid Rabid Hobbyist.
Some stuff seen @ Siglent HQ cannot be shared.
 

Offline tautech

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 29810
  • Country: nz
  • Taupaki Technologies Ltd. Siglent Distributor NZ.
    • Taupaki Technologies Ltd.
Re: DSO That allows for on-device renaming of screenshots for creating manuals
« Reply #21 on: October 11, 2023, 07:18:20 am »
One idea though, if the oscilloscope has a RTC and that is shown on every capture, then you could put a physical clock or watch in camera view when taking the photos. Or just use the time stamps of the photos as your key between the two.
OTOH you might not want/need OSD timestamps for documentation and some DSO's allow this info to be hidden in screenshots.
Avid Rabid Hobbyist.
Some stuff seen @ Siglent HQ cannot be shared.
 

Offline csuhi17

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 351
  • Country: hu
Re: DSO That allows for on-device renaming of screenshots for creating manuals
« Reply #22 on: October 11, 2023, 08:24:39 am »
Is the creation date of the image file not suitable for identification? which can be seen from the file manager?
Fnirsi oscilloscope = waste&regret
 

Offline tautech

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 29810
  • Country: nz
  • Taupaki Technologies Ltd. Siglent Distributor NZ.
    • Taupaki Technologies Ltd.
Re: DSO That allows for on-device renaming of screenshots for creating manuals
« Reply #23 on: October 11, 2023, 08:58:47 am »
Is the creation date of the image file not suitable for identification? which can be seen from the file manager?
Typically yes although many cheaper DSO's don't even timestamp USB captures.
Avid Rabid Hobbyist.
Some stuff seen @ Siglent HQ cannot be shared.
 
The following users thanked this post: csuhi17

Online David Hess

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 17427
  • Country: us
  • DavidH
Re: DSO That allows for on-device renaming of screenshots for creating manuals
« Reply #24 on: October 11, 2023, 02:14:14 pm »
Is the creation date of the image file not suitable for identification? which can be seen from the file manager?

They are, if they do not get separated from the image itself.  It is nice to have an indelible identification as part of the image so there can be no confusion.
 


Share me

Digg  Facebook  SlashDot  Delicious  Technorati  Twitter  Google  Yahoo
Smf