Bug 1084

Summary: Unbalanced number of significant digits for displayed period and frequency in the zoom tool
Product: PulseView Reporter: Peter Mortensen <spamMayGoHere>
Component: MarkersAssignee: Nobody <nobody>
Status: CONFIRMED ---    
Severity: normal    
Priority: Normal    
Version: unreleased development snapshot   
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: All   
URL: http://pmortensen.eu/temp2/PulveView_BlueZoomThing_CANbusData_SignificantDigits.png
Attachments: Zoom tool in PulveView in action, showing period and frequency for the selected time range.

Description Peter Mortensen 2017-12-17 23:45:29 CET
Created attachment 358 [details]
Zoom tool in PulveView in action, showing period and frequency for the selected time range.

In PulveView's zoom tool (that shows a blue range when active) the number of significant digits, at least for 250 kbit/s CAN bus data sampled at 2.5 MHz (nominally exactly 16 samples per bit time), is 2 for the period (e.g. 15 µs) whereas the it is 6 for the frequency (e.g. 67.1214 kHz). This is for a particular zoom level - see the screenshot.

For bit timings, say for CAN bus, the periods (deviation from a multiple of the nominal 4 µs bit time) are more interesting than the frequency.

In this particular example with this particular sample rate, increasing it from 2 to 3 would be sufficient, but a more general solution should probably be chosen.

I realise it could be a matter of screen estate.


Possible solutions (not necessarily exclusive):

1. Use the same number of significant digits for the period as for the frequency

2. Make it user selectable to display period, frequency or both (and increase the number of significant digits for the period to the same as the frequency). This would also help with the problem of having to zoom in to see anything at all.

3. Make the minimum number of significant digits user settable for both period and frequency (or part of program configuration or preferences).

4. Increase the number of significant digits for the period if there is enough screen space for it (in the screenshot example there is plenty of space for it). Optional: Conversely, decrease the number of significant digits for the frequency if it will result in anything being shown.
Comment 1 Peter Mortensen 2017-12-17 23:57:43 CET
Sample data file: http://pmortensen.eu/temp2/1138.sr



Seen on Windows, PulveView version 0.4.0 release and 0.5.0 nightly (end of 2017-11, F9274B6).