Manual: Initial revision

[pulseview.git] / manual / analysis.txt

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+== Data Analysis
+
+Once you have acquired some measurement data, it's time to have a look and see what
+insights you can gain from it. Usually, the first step is to look at the data as a
+whole, achieved by clicking the _Zoom to Fit_ button:
+
+image::pv_analysis.png[]
+
+<1> Zoom-to-Fit button
+<2> Zoom in/zoom out buttons
+<3> Cursors
+<4> Time scale (used to set up and show time markers, see below)
+
+If you have located an area of interest (maybe with the help of decoders, more about
+that later), you can zoom in on it using the _zoom in_/_zoom out_ buttons, using the
+scroll wheel of your mouse or the pinch/expand gestures on your touch panel.
+
+[NOTE]
+When a data capture is ongoing, the Zoom-to-Fit button stays active if you click it,
+meaning that PulseView automatically fits all data to the views until either the
+capture is finished or the Zoom-to-Fit button is clicked again.
+
+=== Cursors and Time Markers
+
+Just looking at the signal data however is usually not sufficient. A lot of times,
+you'll want to make sure that timings are honored and the bit times are like what
+you'd expect. To do so, you'll want to use cursors and time markers.
+
+In the picture above, you can enable the cursor by clicking on the cursor button.
+You can move both of its boundaries around by clicking on the blue flags in the
+time scale area. The area between the two boundary lines shows the time distance
+and its inverse (i.e. the frequency). If you can't see it, just zoom in until it
+shows. You can also move both boundaries at the same time by dragging the label
+where this information is shown.
+
+image::pv_cursors_markers.png[]
+
+<1> Cursors button, showing enabled state
+<2> Cursor
+<3> Time Marker
+
+Time markers are static markers that you can create wherever you like on the
+time scale - just double-click on it and it'll create one for you where your
+mouse cursor is at the time. You can click on its label and you'll have the
+option to change its name.
+
+[NOTE]
+For timing comparison purposes, you can also enable a vertical marker line that
+follows your mouse cursor: _Settings_ -> _Views_ -> _Highlight mouse cursor_
+
+[NOTE]
+There is also a special kind of time marker that appears for each time the data
+acquisition device has triggered. It cannot be moved and appears as a vertical
+dashed line.
+
+=== Special-Purpose Decoders
+
+There are some decoders available that analyze the data instead of decoding it.
+You can make use of them to examine various properties of the signals that are
+of interest to you.
+
+Their names are:
+
+* Counter - counts pulses and/or groups of pulses (i.e. words)
+* Guess bitrate - guesses the bitrate when using a serial protocol
+* Jitter - determines the jitter (variance) of a signal
+* Timing - shows the time passing between the chosen signal edges
+