Data Storage for Capture Function Block

The Storage tab (Figure 1) in the capture function block setup area determines how captured data will be stored.  First, select when to save the data from the dropdown list .  Vehicle Spy has 4 options for when to save data.

The first option is Manual Save.  Selecting this option sets Vehicle Spy to save data only when the user clicks the save icon for the function block or when save is called in a script function block.

The next method is Automatically save when complete.  This option instructs Vehicle Spy to save the data automatically when the function block finishes.  This is the default option for this setting.

Another choice is to Save when expression is true.  When this option is selected, an option for a save expression appears.  Click the Fx button to display the Expression Builder.  When the function block is finished and the entered expression is true, the data for the function block will be saved.  This type of capturing can be useful in situations where you only want to save the data if a condition is invalid.

The Storage File field is where the name of the file to be saved is entered .  The file will automatically be saved to the Data Directory of the currently "logged on" user. 

Figure 1: The capture function block Storage tab gives many options for saving.

Below the Storage File box a few check boxes can be found .  These check boxes tell Vehicle Spy how to save the data.  Table 1 describes each check box.

Option	Function
Append Time and Date to file name	Adds the date and time to the filename every time the file is saved.  This is very useful if the same function block is capturing multiple buffers because it keeps the file names unique.
Append App Signal to the file name	This option will add the value of a application signal to the filename.  This option is also used to keep file names unique.  The advantage of this is that the user can control what is appended.  The appended signal could keep track of test runs, for example.
Zip file	This option will use ZIP compression on the file after it is saved.  This keeps the size of the file small.  When using this option, Vehicle Spy will need a little more time to complete saving the file.
Save Signals	With the Save Signals checkbox checked, signal information will get saved with message information.  Un-checking this box will not save the signal information and make the captured file smaller.
Save As Binary File	Checking this option will save the capture file as a binary file instead of an ASCII type csv file.  The binary file will need to be converted with Vehicle Spy before it can be viewed.  The advantage of this option is that data saving is very fast and the files are smaller.  The disadvantage of this option is that signals are not saved with the data.

Table 1: Storage Options for How to Save Data

The last option to setup is a hotkey to save the data .  The hotkey can be a key on the keyboard or a joystick.  When the selected hotkey is activated, Vehicle Spy will save its data to the specified file.

Vehicle Spy Documentation - (C) Copyright 1997-2011 Intrepid Control Systems, Inc.

Last Update: Friday, July 23, 2010