Table Of Contents

Strip Chart ► Support ► Hardware Failure

When hardware fails then messages are written to the app-wide console inspector editor and that console will appear next to the failing strip chart. One such situation is shown below:

Causes Of Hardware Failure

Obviously if you disconnect the USB cable or unplug the power to the computer then you will encounter a catastrophic hardware failure. The list below itemizes some less obvious types of failure.

• If you collect millions of samples of data, try to export the data to a file, have limited RAM and continue data acquisition then there is a good chance you may overwhelm your computer and cause a hardware failure (USB buffer overrun). You will need to reset the acquisition to recover. It is recommended that you actually stop the data acquisition before exporting data or doing very large operations.

• There is a chance that if you run a very intensive application on your computer while acquiring data then that can cause a hardware failure. If your acquisition needs are critical then it is recommended that you run Strip Chart and no other application beyond those normally running (such as the Finder, etc.). Some scientist acquire data while listening to iTunes for example, that appears to work well but is not recommended.

Hardware Failure Recovery

If you are concerned about hardware failure then turn on the Backup. Even if you unplug your computer's power you should still be able to recover previously collected data. If your failure is of a permanent type, for example if you apply wall outlet power to the DAQ device and it burns out, then you will need to replace the component in question. But at least your data should be intact if you turn on the backup. At the minimum, you should save the document the strip chart is on once in a while and then archive that document.