DartDisk tm Direct-to-disk Recorder User Guide Version 3.
This document is provided for the sole purpose of operating the DartDisk system. No part of this document may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored by any means, electronic or mechanical. It is prohibited to alter, modify, or adapt the software or documentation, including translating, decompiling, disassembling, or creating derivative works. This document contains proprietary information which is protected by copyright. All rights are reserved.
LICENSE AGREEMENT THIS IS A LEGAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN ENGINEERING DESIGN AND THE BUYER. BY OPERATING THIS SOFTWARE, THE BUYER ACCEPTS THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. 1. Engineering Design (the "Vendor") grants to the Buyer a non-exclusive license to operate the provided software (the "Software") on ONE computer system at a time. The Software may NOT reside simultaneously on more than one computing machine. 2. The Software is the exclusive property of the Vendor.
Table of Contents 1. Overview............................................................................ 1 2. Installation......................................................................... 2 3. Operation........................................................................... 3 4. Acquisition ........................................................................ 4 5. Playback ............................................................................ 6 6.
1. Overview DartDisktm provides direct-to-disk data acquisition and playback using the Dart PCMCIA analog I/O card from Engineering Design. Program capabilities include: • Recording and playback of 1 or 2 channels at up to 50 kHz sample rate • 16-bit resolution on acquisition and playback • Built-in anti-alias filter on acquisition and playback • Programmable input gain up to 22.
DartDisk User Guide DartDisk does not require SIGNAL in order to operate - it can be installed on any Windows 95/98/2000/XP computer for stand-alone data acquisition. For technical specifications on the Dart card, see the SIGNAL for Notebooks User Guide, available from Engineering Design. 2. Installation To install DartDisk, perform these steps in the following order: 1. Install the Dart system driver and Dart card. 2. Install the DartDisk software.
DartDisk User Guide DartDisk User Guide The DartDisk User Guide (this document) is installed as a PDF (Portable Document Format) file in the \docs directory under the SIGNAL root directory (normally c:\Program Files\Engineering Design\Signal 4.0). PDF files require the Acrobat Reader program from Adobe Corporation for viewing. If not already installed, this program is available for free download at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html.
DartDisk User Guide 4. Acquisition Performing Acquisition To perform an acquisition, select I/O | Acquire on the DartDisk menu. DartDisk displays the Acquisition parameter screen, which allows the user to configure the acquisition. DartDisk then displays the Acquisition summary screen, which summarizes acquisition parameters and allows the user to initiate the acquisition.
DartDisk User Guide No. channels can be set to 1 or 2. Maximum sample rate is unaffected by the number of channels selected. Filename specifies the destination sound file. If the filename does not include a full path (drive letter and directory), files are stored in the directory containing DartDisk. Embedded spaces are allowed in the filename. DartDisk will append the ".wav" extension to Wave files if not included.
DartDisk User Guide Acquisition Summary Screen After closing the acquisition parameter screen, DartDisk displays a summary of the acquisition parameters, showing the actual sample rate, the name of the channel 1 destination file, the destination file size, and other information. DartDisk does not check for sufficient disk space before acquiring, so be sure the required space is available on the disk. Acquisition will begin when the user clicks OK. 5.
DartDisk User Guide Playback Parameter Screen The Playback parameters screen allows the user to specify the file to be played, triggering mode and optional alarm sounds. Other parameters such as duration, sample rate and number of channels are predetermined by the sound file. The playback file may be a 1- or 2-channel SIGNAL or Wave file. Wave files must be stored in uncompressed 16-bit coding (0 offset, ±32768 range), which is the "PCM" or "type 1" standard Wave file format.
DartDisk User Guide Playback Summary Screen After closing the playback parameter screen, DartDisk displays a summary of the playback parameters, showing the duration, sample rate, number of channels and source file name. Playback will begin when the user clicks OK. 6.
DartDisk User Guide Like a VU meter, the display is oriented towards headroom, the parameter of greatest concern to the recording engineer. Headroom is the dB difference between peak signal level and the overload level of the A/D converter. Overload level is the converter's maximum positive code, e.g., +2047 and +32767 for 12-bit and 16-bit converters, respectively. When headroom decreases to 0, the input signal will be distorted in the A/D. Headroom is also reported numerically.
DartDisk User Guide and here is the meter during an overload condition represented by a red bar: Final Meter Display After recording, the meter reports total headroom, which is the worst-case (minimum) headroom of the signal during the entire recording. In this way, the operator can always tell if the A/D has overloaded at any point during the recording without continuously monitoring the display. The total headroom value is reflected in both the numerical readout and bar display. 7.
DartDisk User Guide driver. If I/O | Reset doesn't solve the problem, follow the troubleshooting steps in "I/O Board Not Recognized or Not Responding". User Guide Select Help | User Guide to display the DartDisk User Guide (this document). About DartDisk Help | About DartDisk reports the DartDisk program version and creation date. 8. Command Line Mode DartDisk can be executed directly from the DOS command line, by including all necessary parameters with the DartDisk command.
DartDisk User Guide A or P nchan duration srate gain filetype filename chanform bdmodel = acquisition or playback = number of channels = recording duration in seconds = sample rate in Hz = gain in dB = file format ("s" = SIGNAL, "w" = Wave) = filename or file prefix = [optional] file channel format ("s" = one file per channel, "m" = multi-channel file) = [optional] board model (44, 48 or 50) [default = 50] Note: other program options are fixed in command line mode.
DartDisk User Guide Calling DartDisk from DOS A DartDisk command can also be run from a DOS batch file. This avoids entering parameters manually into the parameter setup screen, to perform the same process repeatedly. Create a one-line .bat file containing the command line text, such as "dartdisk a 2 60 50000 10 s myfile" without the quotes. Then either 1) double-click on this file in Windows Explorer, or 2) open a DOS window (in the Start menu, click Programs | Accessories | Command Prompt) and type the .
DartDisk User Guide DartDisk Program Already Active or Terminated Abnormally DartDisk may issue the following message on startup. This can occur if another DartDisk program is running, or if a previous DartDisk process terminated abnormally and is running invisibly. To check for an invisible DartDisk, open Task Manager (Ctl-Alt-Del), search for dartdisk.exe, and terminate the process if present. Minimum and Maximum Duration Minimum acquisition and playback duration is 0.1 seconds.
DartDisk User Guide I/O Errors Acquisition and playback errors arise when the I/O board cannot convert data, or when DartDisk cannot cannot store or retrieve data from memory or the hard disk, at the requested sample rate. DartDisk will issue the following message. Possible causes include performing demanding processes in parallel with DartDisk, a slow CPU, or a slow hard disk. Remedies are to terminate other processes, defragment the hard disk, increase CPU or disk capabilities, or reduce sample rate.
DartDisk User Guide desktop workstation in the lab and in a notebook computer in the field. Contact Engineering Design for the currently recommended adapter. Examining DartDisk Output in Signal By default, DartDisk stores acquired sound files in the directory containing the DartDisk executable. If in doubt about the location of DartDisk output files, select Search | For Files and Folders on the Windows Start menu. 10.
DartDisk User Guide Noise (re max signal level) THD n/s -80 dB Input/output characteristics No. sample rates 8 Available sample rates 7350, 8820, 11025, 14700, 17640, 22050, 29400, 44100 Hz 8000, 9600, 12000, 16000, 19200, 24000, 32000, 48000 Hz 8333, 10000, 12500, 16667, 20000, 25000, 33333, 50000 Hz Absolute (damaging) signal level ± 2.5 Volts Maximum signal length Limited by physical disk size Digitizing resolution 16-bit = 96 dB Converter type Delta-sigma 64X Anti-alias filter Built-in tracking [44.
DartDisk User Guide figure shows the effect of a small overload, in which a 1.6-Volt signal is played through a Dart card with a full-scale output level of 1.55 Volts. Full-scale input and output levels vary somewhat between individual Dart cards. To avoid accidental overload, DartDisk assumes the same minimum full-scale level for all cards. Card variation produces input and output gain errors of < 1 dB.
DartDisk User Guide Low-Noise Operation Low-noise operation is important when acquiring low-level signals. The essential concept is signal-to-noise ratio (S/N or SNR), which is the dB ratio of the input signal to the effective input noise (EIN) of the Dart card. S/N should be maximized. When a signal's S/N falls below 50-60 dB (depending on source material), the noise component becomes audible to most human subjects.
DartDisk User Guide Subject Microphone Continous sound spectrogram in SIGNAL using STRIP Record sound file in DartDisk Edit and measure sound events in SIGNAL The above figure illustrates this process. Following is an overview of the steps involved. 1. Present the acoustic vocalization stream to the microphone or hydrophone. 2. Connect the microphone or hydrophone to the DartDisk input panel. 3. Use DartDisk to digitize and record the vocalization stream to one or more continuous sound files.
DartDisk User Guide 6. Use SIGNAL to measure and analyze the sound events. Events can also be saved on disk as individual sound files if desired. 7. SIGNAL can be programmed to perform many acoustic measurements automatically on an entire group of sound files. See the programming chapters in the SIGNAL User Guide 12.
DartDisk User Guide The wide screen and high-resolution spectrogram of the RTS can be used to locate events in sparse data sets. For example, the sparse sound file in the figure was displayed in 5-minute segments, in which the 3 events are clearly visible. With 3 seconds to draw or scroll a new screen, this allows sparse data sets to be analyzed at 100 times real-time. Once located, individual events can be zoomed for close examination.
DartDisk User Guide The RTS runs within SIGNAL, so sound segments can be transferred easily to SIGNAL buffers for immediate analysis, and measured sound parameters can be stored in the SIGNAL logfile. In the figure, the RTS has saved 6 events in SIGNAL buffers and 11 measurement records have been stored in the SIGNAL logfile. Events can also be stored as SIGNAL, Wave, or AIFF sound files for later analysis.
